Bright Midnight

I shrug. “Worth a shot, isn’t it? There are a ton of rooms upstairs, not to mention the old guest cottage out back. With a little fixing up, it could make nice accommodations for people. Total cottage-core hygge farmhouse chic. Look, I know travelers and backpackers. They want to discover a new place, not just because it’s free from crowds, but because posting pics that no one else is gives them bragging rights, and they want a total experience. It’s not enough to stay at a hotel these days, the place has to offer them something. Something they can document. Staying at a working farm does just that. The guests can help out, doing the fun chores I guess, and it gives them a sense of purpose and novelty while we get free labor.”

“Ah!” Lise says with an approving nod. “Now you’re speaking my language. They pay to stay here and they help out.”

“Exactly,” I say.

Tove looks me up and down. “And so, while Anders and Per are running the farm part of all of this, who is going to be running the hotel? Because it won’t be me. Or Lise. Or Astrid.”

I smile. “It’ll be me.”

I glance over at Anders, having felt his eyes burning on me. He looks surprised. And happy.

See, I told Anders I was with him till the end, but in the last two weeks we haven’t discussed the future beyond what to do with the farm and how to pay for shit. He hasn’t known just how committed I am to him, and, well, I guess I just told him.

“You’ll be running it?” Astrid says, brows raised. “So that means that you’re staying here? Like, for good?”

I nod. “I know. I’m not going anywhere. This feels like home to me already.” I look to Anders. “And my home is wherever he is.”

Lise lets out a soft, “aww.”

And Anders’ whole face lights right up, his smile breathtakingly beautiful, his eyes dancing for a moment before they turn serious.

He walks right across the room to me and grabs my face in his hands and leans down, placing a long, hot kiss on my lips.

“I love you,” he whispers roughly against my mouth, but before I can whisper the words back, he pulls up.

“Wow,” Astrid says, and I look around the table to see all his sisters staring at me with a mix of surprise and disgust, because ew, it’s their brother. Even Per looks caught off guard, his eyes wide. He may not know much English, but I have no doubt that he’s picked up on all this.

I’m here to stay.

“Okay then,” Anders says, clearing his throat, his cheeks tinged with pink. “So I guess it’s settled.”

“You might want to tell Uncle Per,” Astrid says, pointing her cider at him.

Anders gives her a dismissive wave. “He’ll be fine with it.”

“He’s not exactly Mr. Hospitality though,” Astrid says.

“Hei,” Per suddenly says. “I do know some English.”

We all look at him in surprise. Apparently, this is news to everyone.

Anders frowns at him for a moment before looking back to us. “Okay then. Well. Good. Uncle Per is secretly fluent in English, and now Shay is going to live here with me, running the Todalen Farmstay.”

I can’t help but grin up at him. “Sounds like a plan.”

He smiles down at me. “The best plan.”

“Skal then,” Astrid says, raising her cider. “To the new future of Shay and the Johansens.”

“To the new future,” we all say, raising our drinks.

“You’re brilliant, you know that?” Anders whispers to me, his voice thick with lust.

I manage a smile, though it falters as he pushes himself further inside me, my legs wrapping around his ass, holding him close. “That doesn’t sound like dirty talk to me.”

“No, but it’s true,” he says, kissing my neck.

I sigh and lean back into the bed, succumbing to him in every way.

After the Johansen emergency meeting, after my winning idea saved the day, we kept drinking and celebrating, moving the party outside to the picnic tables between the house and the fjord. Everyone was excited, in planning and brainstorming mode, taking a good look at the property and coming up with a million different ways that this could work. It felt good, knowing that my idea was absorbed so whole-heartedly by them all. The last thing I wanted was to suggest something that everyone was lukewarm to, but as the day turned to night, everything started to make more and more sense.

This was the future. This was our future. It was a way to keep the farm, to keep the home, while also providing a way for both Anders and I to carve out our own path. There was no legacy here to uphold, instead this was something new that the two of us could share and embark on together.

I already knew this was my future anyway, and even though I hadn’t told Anders until today, I had told everyone else in my life that I wasn’t coming back. I’ve made an effort these last few weeks to reach out to people more, to stop turning inward as I’m prone to do, just as Anders is prone to do. I’ve started texting Hannah on a daily basis, I emailed my mother, and I’m constantly chatting with Everly and Amber through Facebook. They all know that I’ve found my place here, that I plan to stay in Norway indefinitely, figuring out the visas and shit as I go along.