‘It makes me more certain of the decision now that I haveBrimfaxiback and intact, but I’m still not sure that running a tour boat is something I am cut out to do.’ He picked up his sandwich and took a big bite. For the first time, Astrid noticed that the end of one of his fingers was missing, just below where the nail would be.
‘Why do you say that? Your knowledge of these waters must be amazing.’ Astrid had finished her sandwich and moved on to the skyr.
‘I’ve spent years with three other men on this boat day in and day out. We were like family, but I’m out of practice mixing with new people.’
‘I hadn’t noticed.’
‘Thank you. That’s very kind of you, especially when you've been on the receiving end.’
She waved her spoon. ‘It’s fine. I’m not that great at stuff like that either. My sister has always found it so easy to talk to people and next to her, I feel as if everything I say is idiotic.’
‘It isn’t.’
‘Anyway, I only feel like that here. When I’m with Gudrun, I go back to being the older sister who everyone thinks is boring compared to her. She’s always the life and soul of the party.’ She had no animosity towards her sister at all. It was just a fact; it always had been, and she was glad that Gudrun had surrounded herself with people who loved her for it and that her open, welcoming personality had helped her land her dream job.
‘Maybe it’s always like that with family. In my family, I’m also the older boring one. My younger brother is working on a fishing boat for a big fishing company and has no worries that they are the kind of people putting traditional fishermen out of business.’
‘Leaving you to worry about the future of the family business?’
Leifur shrugged. ‘That is eldest child territory for sure. He doesn’t take any responsibility for anything.’
‘Gudrun is very responsible. In a lot of ways, I envy her because she’s so carefree with it.’
‘The day I saw you on the boat from my shore, you lookedcarefree then.’
Astrid smiled, remembering what she’d thought about Leifur then. How he’d been standing there, looking like the vision of a solid Viking. And now she knew him, she knew he was a lot less solid on the inside.
‘I have no reason not to be, especially now.’
‘Why now?’
‘Jonas has offered me a job with you for the whole summer.’ She waited for his reaction, already knowing he wasn’t good at presenting an expression that said anything different from what he was really thinking. If he wasn’t happy about her getting the job for a lot longer than she’d first thought, she’d know in the next couple of seconds.
‘That’s wonderful news,’ he said, smiling so that his eyes crinkled, telling her he meant it. ‘We’ll have a great summer, and it saves me having to get to know anyone else for a while.’
Astrid tried not to dwell on that being the overriding reason for him being pleased, preferring to think that he was glad it was her in particular.
‘Who’d have thought we’d end up working together when I saw you from my boat that first time,’ she said.
‘I know. It’s funny how things like that happen. I heard Siggi saying that he and Iris were in Hawaii at the same time last year and they think they were going to the same beach.’
‘My sister would think that was fate.’
‘You don’t believe in that?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen any evidence of it myself.’
‘Perhaps because you’re a scientific person, you don’t read anything into coincidences and things like that,’ he said.
‘Perhaps you have to believe in the idea of there being a person who you’re meant to be with as well.’ She held his gaze as she said it, which somehow gave more meaning to what she was saying. She felt brave, speaking like this toLeifur. Thoughts of it not being ideal to date someone you work with had fallen away since he’d brought her on this puffin trip and even thought as far as bringing lunch. It was almost like a date.
‘It seems unlikely that someone like me would find their soulmate by staying in the town where they grew up. You probably have to travel a little further to be in with a chance.’
‘Probably. Although my sister found hers in Reykjavik.’
‘I don’t know your sister very well, but maybe being more receptive to the idea of a soulmate makes them easier to find?’
‘I suppose that makes sense.’
