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Zoe appears beside Chase, watching the delivery guys gingerly place the package down. “Oh my god, is this the thing?”
I point at her. “You know nothing.”
“I know everything.”
“You know what?” Viktor asks, puzzled as he looks between us.
“Nothing,” Zoe and I sing-song together.
His suspicion deepens as everyone migrates into the living room. Clearly, unboxing my enormous mystery package has become much more interesting to our friends than unboxing our belongings. Rhys leans against the doorway behind Mila, who has folded her arms and is watching me with the suspicion.
The delivery guys lean the package carefully against the longest wall, make me sign their clipboard, and then walk out. My pulse starts thudding, because this was a much better idea when Viktor wasn’t standing five feet away waiting to see it.
“All right,” I say. “Nobody make this weird.”
“Excellent thing to say before revealing mystery art,” Chase says.
“Shut up, Walton.”
I slide my fingers beneath the edge of the protective wrapping and pull at the tape, then peel back the bubble wrapping.
Black and white appears first, then the outline of birch branches. A sweep of pale sky. Then us. Me and Viktor.
The room goes quiet.
Ebba caught the photo on her phone beneath the arch in Solvik, about half a second after Freja threw the first handful of flower confetti. I’m laughing with my flower crown crooked and my hand wrapped in ribbon with his hand, while Viktor isn’t looking at the camera at all. He’s looking at me. Petals hang frozen around us, falling like snow.
It’s my favorite photo of us. I’ve had it as the background on my studio computer for a while, but blown up this large, and framed simply in black, it looks less like something taken on a phone and more like a joyful moment in time someone managed to trap before it disappeared.
My smile stretches wide as I take it in, and I realize a moment later nobody has spoken. I look up to see them all staring at the photo, but my eyes find Viktor immediately. He hasn’t moved.
My confidence begins leaking out through the bottom of my feet.
“Okay,” I say slowly. “You’re being weird.”
His eyes finally lift to mine from the photo, and they’re glossy.
“Where did you get this?”
“Ebba sent it to me a few months ago,” I explain quietly. “I’ve had it on my computer at the studio as a screensaver, and I thought…” My fingers curl around my phone. “I wanted our home to have our wedding in it.”
Viktor looks back at the photograph, and for several seconds, his throat works without anything coming out.
Nia’s voice floats softly from my phone. “Oh, Heid.”
I glance down and realize she has the perfect view through my phone camera. My chest tightens as I glance back at Viktor, then at everyone else.
“Okay, can everyone stop having feelings? This was supposed to be a fun surprise!”
Carina laughs wetly behind me, and Reid wraps his arms around her. Viktor finally moves, but instead of going to the photograph, he comes straight to me.
“Oh no,” I murmur. “Please don’t make this worse.”
He takes my face gently between both hands.
“You wanted our home to have our wedding in it.”
The way he says it makes my throat close. “Yes.”
