Knut started up the machine and began feeding the offcuts into it, quickly resulting in a satisfying pile of chippings. The boys, told by Fredrik to keep their distance from both ends of the machine, did a great job of dragging ever larger branches across the clearing until everyone was laughing at them when they eventually tried to move an entire log between them, unsuccessfully.
Freya and Anders went along the water’s edge collecting rocks and placed them every metre or so to mark out a pathfrom the jetty, through the woods and through the clearing to the house. Then, once the boys were fed up with collecting wood, they joined in by collecting stones from around the clearing and filled in the gaps. After a few hours’ work, the clearing, although not green, was tidy with a clear pathway running across it. Everyone took bucketfuls and spadefuls of the wood chippings and spread them between the stones to cover the earth.
Ida came out of the house, her face spattered with paint flecks. ‘Fredrik! Can you give me a hand to collect some stuff from the boat?’
Fredrik handed over responsibility for Emil and Freddie to Rob, who was glad of an excuse to stop raking chippings and instead took the boys on a walk to the other end of the island to keep them busy.
‘What are you up to?’ Fredrik asked his sister as they made their way to Mats’ boat.
‘We can hardly expect all these people to work and not feed them,’ she said. ‘Besides, it’s a celebration weekend, so I thought once the work is out of the way, we could have a party here. The weather’s on our side and there’s more room than at the house.’
‘How are you going to cook for fourteen people here?’
‘We’re going to make a campfire,’ she said, grinning.
Fredrik groaned. ‘I wish I’d known that before we chipped every last piece of wood that’s not still attached to a tree.’
‘Oh, we’ll find some wood,’ said Ida, uncharacteristically optimistic.
Underneath the seats in the boat, Ida had stashed food, drink, and everything else they’d need.
‘Champagne?’ Fredrik said, holding up two bottles.
‘Absolutely. Can you put that in the water somewhere to chill?’
They carried everything back between them, and Ida marched around the side of the farmhouse and found the log pile that had been moved when the veranda was being worked on.
Olafur seemed to start a fire from nowhere as soon as he realised what Ida was trying to do, and then helped her to fetch logs, building up the fire until it was hot enough to cook on.
Mats went inside for the first time since they’d started work that morning and was stunned to see the progress that had been made. The two reception rooms had been freshly painted, and the floors had been cleaned. In the hallway, the first coat of primer made the wood appear as if it was intentionally uncoated, and instead had a trendy wash, rather than being unfinished.
‘I think this looks pretty good now,’ said Becca, appearing with a paintbrush in her hand. ‘I’m going to get some cheap muslin fabric to hang from the ceiling so that you can’t see the landing when you come in the front door, but I think once we hang the chandelier, it’s a nice enough entrance for now.’
‘I can’t believe what you’ve managed to do in one day,’ said Mats. ‘It’s incredible.’ The dark wood that had dominated the hallway had mostly disappeared, aside from the shiny wooden treads on the stairs, which did enough by themselves to stop it all from feeling too new.
‘We’re just about done,’ Lotta said, appearing from the lounge. Her hair was in its usual state of dishevelment, tied up with a scarf, which along with the denim dungarees she was wearing, Mats found ridiculously sexy.
‘You’ve got some paint on your nose,’ he said.
‘So have you.’ She tapped him on the nose with her paintbrush.
‘Hey!’
She grinned and ran outside. He ran after her, and she squealed when she saw, and raced off into the woods towards their cabin.
Mats followed, slowing his pace so that he wouldn’t catch her until she was outside the cabin. After the craziness of the morning, it would be nice to have a few moments to themselves.
As Lotta reached for the doorknob, he caught her around her waist and pulled her to him. She was laughing so hard that she collapsed into him. He lost his balance, and they ended up lying on their backs next to each other, panting.
‘I love you,’ he said, grinning at her.
‘I love you too,’ she said, laughing and leaning over to plant a kiss on his cheek.
‘Today has been amazing. Last week, I couldn’t see there was any other option but to give up and wait for my apartment to sell. And now, we’re starting a whole new business together.’
‘I hadn’t thought of it like that,’ said Lotta. ‘I guess we’re about to be restaurateurs.’
‘That certainly wasn’t part of the plan.’
