A knock on the bedroom door scattered her thoughts, and she jumped up to find Gabrielle standing outside her door.
“Dumplin’, you comin’ to church?”
She nodded, following her friend down the stairs and out the front door into the sunshine.
This morning, everything felt possible.
***
“So, dumplin’…”
Katrin and Gabrielle sat across from each other at Amazing Crepes after church, sipping good French coffee, and waiting for their sweet treats: a dark chocolate and strawberry crepe for Katrin and an apple and cinnamon crepe for Gabrielle.
“Tell me ‘bout de bredda comin’ to dinner tonight.”
Katrin had learned that every man, brother or no, was “bredda” to Gabrielle.
“He’s…sort of a family friend.” She smiled, stirring her coffee.
“Oh, dumplin’.” Gabrielle’s dark brown eyes flashed with humor, watching Katrin’s face soften. “Friend you say? No. Your face say different. You in ag-on-y?”
Katrin shook her head at her friend, grinning. “What’s that mean? Do I even want to know?”
“Oh, you know. De agony. Like de ecstasy.” Gabrielle smiled and raised her eyebrows suggestively, wiggling her hips.
“Paca!” Katrin’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, no. We haven’t, um, done that.”
“Why not? I seen him. I seen you both last Sunday, dumplin’. That’s not jus’ some friend who’s comin’ to see you. Drivin’ his car up in here. You ago jump him like one monkey.”
“You were watching!” Katrin tsked her friend, turning red at that thought that she and Erik had an unexpected audience during their kiss last Sunday night. “I don’t know. He’s not one for making promises, and I like a commitment. I’m trying to figure it out.”
“You like him? Ah, yes, you like him. I see it all over your face.” She poured more sugar into her coffee, and her bracelets jangled merrily.
“I like him.” Katrin nodded, then confided softly: “I like him so much. I’m falling hard. So much harder than...” She let her words trail off, and shook her head at her friend. “…I should.”
“Should! He like you too, comin’ here every Sunday. Why you worry, dumplin’?”
“It’s complicated. Our families are totally intertwined. His childhood friend Ingrid is my brother’s wife. My cousin Sam is his sister’s husband. If things got messy, it’d be bad, Paca. Anyway, he says he doesn’t want anything serious. He’s never had a long-term girlfriend. He doesn’t like commitment. He doesn’t want any emotional entanglements.” She shook her head ruefully. “But I…I love being with someone, and I feel so safe when I’m with him, like I can be myself, and I don’t feel worried. I can’t get him out of my head, but I don’t actually know if there’s any hope.”
“Dumplin’, I tell you true: every man alive think he don’t want forever. Jesas christ, a she mi affi marry? An’ carry roun’ like ball and chain. But, truss me, a true. They say that until they meet di here girl. Then? Everything cook and curry.” She beamed at Katrin, perfect long, red-lacquered fingernails splayed open as if to say “Voila!”
“You think so?”
“You just give him time. Sooner later, he see it too. Nuh worry ‘bout it, dumplin’. He will see it too.”
***
Erik looked up the Mountain Lake Lodge on the internet to see what sort of place he was headed to this evening, and was surprised to see it wasn’t just nice. It was really nice. It was Sunday clothes nice. Checking his closet, he chose the simple navy suit he mostly saved for weddings and funerals, coupled with a light blue dress shirt. He stared at his three ties: one with Santa Claus, one purple with gold Vikings helmets, and a red-and-blue-striped number that served for any occasion that wasn’t Christmas or the Sunday after a Vikings victory at the Super Bowl. He closed the closet and left the ties. The suit was enough.
He took his black dress shoes out of his closet to shine them, thinking of seeing Katrin tonight.
During their week apart he’d had to admit to himself that the feelings he had for her went beyond just wanting to sleep with her. He certainly wanted to sleep with her, but he cared about her regardless of whether or not that actually happened. Ever since that first meeting in her brother’s house, she’d had a certain hold on him, and there was no use fighting it anymore. She was different from any other girl he’d ever met: strong, but soft. Hopeful, after everything she’d been through. Funny, well-read, interesting, beautiful. The way she looked at him melted his insides, made him feel like a god. So, okay. He had feelings for Katrin Svenson.
But, feelings or not, he was still not comfortable with the idea of being in a relationship. Not with her. Not with anyone. He didn’t want to leave his heart open like that, and he didn’t want to be responsible for hers, because, as she had correctly guessed, it scared him to death. Getting hurt, hurting her. It was all so damn messy.
That said, he wouldn’t be able to stand seeing her with someone else. Last Sunday, when he’d jumped to conclusions about her going out with José, he’d felt how visceral, how agonizing, it would be to lose her. Which left a pretty frustrating conundrum: He didn’t want to be her boyfriend, but he didn’t want her to be with anyone else either.
Frustrated. There were no good answers, and with them both heading home for
