Linn gave her mum a tired teenager-look and sighed.
“I know, I know, I will take it easy. But mum, what was that about Andreas before?”
Emelie sat down again, hiding her face in her hands.
“Oh, it’s so embarrassing, but I was certain he was the father. I meant you’ve been over there all the time going on about how nice and friendly he is and invited him over here. And he has been coming here coming up with excuses to show up all the time…”
Her voice broke. How could she have thought that about Linn? And about Andreas? Linn grabbed her hands, looking her into her eyes and softly shaking her head.
“Yes, I’ve spoken to Andreas, and I really like him. But how daft can you be? The reason why he is here all the time isyou. He is way too old for me and not one bit interested, because he is in love with you.”
Linn had said it with a wise grown up-voice, the voice of a future mother, not a teenage girl, but she still wasn’t able to understand what it was she was saying. It also didn’t matter how grown-up she sounded, she had no intention of discussing her love life with her anyway.
“Oh, never mind, I’ll deal with it later. So, what’s the plan? Are you telling already? Might be a bit early still, don’t you think?”
“I hadn’t planned on telling anyone else, but now I guess I will have to tell Andreas. And then I guess we will wait until after week 12.”
Emelie nodded and got up to clean up the broken Christmas mugs on the kitchen top and in the sink. Better get it cleaned up before Liv and Linnea came home. In the garden, Andreas had finished loading the plants onto his moped, and now it was completely filled with flowerpots. Small, hard leaves were sticking up from the brown ceramic pots. Poinsettias, Emelie thought to herself, and imagined the table at the market where he was going to be standing selling poinsettias, amaryllis, hyacinths and other Christmas decorations. She stood there a while, watching him carefully and tenderly wrapping the plants and securing everything on the platform. Linn was sitting behind her texting frenetically on her phone that was constantly beeping. She looked up at Emelie.
“Now Oskar has spoken to his parents, they handled it well, and they want us to come for dinner on Sunday. Can we do that?”
Emelie nodded and Linn got up and gave her a hug. She looked out the window.
“Ah, he’s still there. Great, then I’ll go over and tell him.
She heard the front door close and saw how Linn went over to Andreas. She could see him listening attentively and asking a couple of follow-up questions before opening his arms to her, giving Linn a giant hug and spinning around with her on her lawn. Then he put her down again and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She smiled. Andreas seemed to ask something else, and Linn shook her head, pointing towards the house and in Emelie’s direction. Emelie threw herself on the floor in front of the sink, the last thing she wanted was for him to see that she was spying on them. She looked at the clock. Liv and Linnea would be there any minute and the day after tomorrow the whole Christmas market committee would come over to try out the new mulled wine. The whole committee also meant Andreas. She was so ashamed her whole body was shaking. All she wanted to do was to disappear.
Chapter 23
It was Sunday and time to for the young couple and their parents to have dinner. Emelie was standing in the hallway looking at herself in the full-size mirror with the red frame and cutouts of green leaves and red berries in the corners. She had chosen a pair of cream-coloured culotte trousers and a white t-shirt. Simple, nothing too noticeable. She wore her blonde hair in a ponytail, and she realised that she needed to go to the hairdresser. She had to ask Birgitta or Christer where to find one of on the island. Emelie guessed that there was probably some middle-aged lady that had a hair salon in her basement. Wasn’t that the way it was in small places like this?”
She looked at the clock and shouted to Linn that it was time to leave, she didn’t want to be late the first time she met Oskar’s parents. She heard a faint answer coming from the tower room and then her daughter coming down the stairs.
“You look lovely, mum,” Linn said.
“You think? Is it nice enough for meeting your daughter’s in-laws?”
Linn waved her off.
“You have already met Anders, and Oskar’s mum is super nice,” she said, putting her winter jacket over her jeans and short top.
“Are his grandparents alive?”
“I don’t know about his maternal grandparents, but his paternal grandfather, the one who started the shop which Anders has taken over, is dead. I think his grandfather was called Anders as well, even though it sounds a bit unpractical” she said, laughing.
“And his wife?”
“She’s alive and lives on their top floor, but I have never met her. Come on now, let’s go!”
Twenty minutes later they were standing on the stairs to one of the biggest houses on Sardinön. The house had double porches, one on each side, and a large wooden deck in the back which was three stories high.
“Christ!” Emelie said, craning her neck in order to see all the way up to the roof.
The white carpentry work stretched all along the house and glistened in the autumn sun.
“But they don’t have a tower, and we do” Linn said, pushing the doorbell.
“They also have a doorbell that doesn’t playJingle bells,” Emelie said, and they both burst out laughing.
