Because of Lauren: A Love Story Read online

  “Enterprising young man,” said Jonas, amused. “And, I am guessing, not shy.”

  “No, very outgoing, with oodles of charm. He claimed to be a Count and, for all I know, it may have been true. He brought Maddie and me to the family home, an old palazzo along the Grand Canal, where we met his mother and sister. There must have been some family money because he chased me around the world for two years before he finally got the message I wasn’t interested.”

  Intrigued, Jonas said, “You turned down a wealthy Italian Count? And a title?”

  “I didn’t love him. How could I marry him?”

  “Ah!” A simple decision for her, apparently. He wondered how many young women would have turned down the chance to marry wealth and a title when it was offered.

  She remained quiet for so long, he again prompted, “Well?”

  Lauren turned and looked at him. “Seriously, Jonas? You can’t possibly be interested in these crazy tales.”

  “Are they true?”

  “Of course, they’re true.”

  “Then I’m interested.”

  “You’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?”

  He chuckled. “Evidently.”

  “Well, then, here goes. After college, I wanted an adventure, not just a job. I heard about an English School in Taiwan, so I applied, and after a series of interviews I was hired.”

  “You have a teaching degree?” Jonas asked in surprise. Lauren had told him she worked in the Internet marketing field, so he had assumed her degree was in business or marketing.

  “No.”

  “Your tone suggests that was a really stupid question,” he said mildly.

  “A teaching degree wasn’t required, just a degree,” she explained, then demanded, “Are you going to pepper this story with rude comments?”

  “Not rude ones, I hope,” he replied with a wink.

  “Hmm! Well, to continue, in Taiwan, I met teachers from various English-speaking countries. One of the guys in my group was from Nigeria. He was tall and impressive, and the women considered him quite handsome. His name was Fredrick.”

  “Fredrick?” came the amused comment from the opposite corner of the swing.

  “Mm-hmm, with an unpronounceable last name.”

  “And he fell madly in love with your freckles,” Jonas guessed.

  Lauren looked cross-eyed down her nose at the handful of freckles scattered across it. “Close, but no.”

  Enjoying himself, Jonas pressed on. “And on the third date, he asked you to go back to Africa with him.”

  A long-suffering sigh carried clearly from the other side of the swing. “I have an idea, Jonas. How about I lean back and close my eyes and you tell the story? I think it will be a more interesting one.”

  Pinching her toe lightly, he promised to behave.

  “Fredrick made friends with other Nigerian teachers in Taiwan, and they formed a soccer team. That’s football to you,” she said with a superior air.

  “Smartypants!”

  Grinning, she gave his thigh a deliberate kick to get his full attention. “They invited me to join their team.”

  Until now, Jonas had been perfectly relaxed in his corner of the swing. When Lauren kicked him, he shot up with a jerk. “Run that one past me again,” he demanded with a guffaw.

  She scooted back a bit and returned his laughter. “They found out I played soccer in high school and wouldn’t stop pestering me until I gave in. You should have seen us. They were all big and tall, and next to them I looked like a little white midget flying down the field. It was so much fun to be playing again.” She paused. “And then things got a little awkward.”

  “What happened?”

  “Fredrick informed me he had decided I would make a suitable wife for him.”

  Jonas’ mind reeled. The picture in his mind instantly switched from Lauren chasing a soccer ball alongside a group of African men to Lauren in a tribal marriage ceremony in Africa. He couldn’t quite get his head around that one.

  “No kidding!” he said slowly. “How many dates did it take for him to decide that?”

  “None. We worked at the same school, so we were friendly. And I played soccer with him. But we never dated.”

  “How many games before he decided you would make a suitable wife?” Jonas asked curiously.

  “Three,” Lauren admitted with a giggle and threw a pillow his way. “Go ahead and say it. I’m jinxed. And I am not sharing any more proposal stories!”

  “Good grief!” Jonas exclaimed as he caught the pillow. “You mean there are more?”

  “Yes. And my cousin, Maddie, has already given me plenty of grief over them, so don’t you start.”

  “Wouldn’t dare,” he said with a perfectly straight face, then appearing to mull things over, added, “You know, Lauren, there’s a simple solution to your problem?”

  She decided to play along. “All right. I’ll bite. What’s the solution?”

  “Marry the next man who asks you. Once you are no longer available, your problem is solved.”

  Lauren laughed merrily, “A nice and tidy solution. And so practical.”

  “But?”

  “If I do that, what’s my solution when I finally meet the right man? And I’m already married?”

  “Hmm! There is that. Are you certain you’ll recognize the right man when you meet him?”

  “Positive,” Lauren said without hesitation.

  “Well, I wish you better luck than I’ve had. In the meantime, I promised you dinner. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.”

  “I’m actually starving,” she admitted. “I can’t wait for you to feed me.”

  Chapter Three

  “Do you spend most weekends here in the summer?”

  Jonas had fed Lauren well, a simple but delicious meal. He insisted on doing the cooking and was surprisingly good at it.

  “As many as possible and occasional weekdays when friends or family come to visit. I have a fully-equipped office here to make that possible. In good weather, this is also where you’ll find me on weekends in spring and early fall. I find tinkering with my boat relieves the stress of a demanding work week.”

  “So, the place gets a lot of use.”

  “Quite a bit. Friends enjoy spending time here, and if foreign business associates are in town during the summer months, they try to escape here for a few hours in the evening. They’ll do a little sailing, fishing, or even swimming if the weather cooperates. And it gets lively in August when my whole extended family arrives from Oslo. On top of that, a scout leader friend of mine brings his troop over for a yearly trip. They usually set up camp on the other side of the island, though, so I hardly know they’re there.”

  From what Lauren had seen of the island so far, it would be an ideal place for a camp-out. Obviously, his scoutmaster friend thought so. “The boys love camping here, don’t they?” she smiled.

  “They keep returning year after year, so I imagine they do,” Jonas acknowledged.

  “Were you a Boy Scout?”

  “No, thinking back, maybe I should have been. It would have been good for me.”

  “Both my brothers were in scouting and loved it. They would have gone wild over this place.”

  Jonas chuckled. “Tell me about them.”

  “Well, let’s see. They’re both older than me. Nick just turned forty-three. He’s a college professor and lives in Salt Lake City. He and his wife, Melanie, have two little girls, Ashley and Kate, six and five, respectively. And then there’s Cameron. He’s thirty-eight and has twelve-year-old twin boys, Matt and Josh. They live in Denver, and he works in banking and finance. He’s has been divorced since his boys were about seven, and they live with him. He’s one of the best guys you’ll ever meet. Unfortunately his wife turned out to be the unfaithful kind and walke
d out on the family. Just packed her bags one day and left.”

  Jonas whistled, “That’s a tough one.”

  “Yes, the whole experience left deep scars. I keep hoping Cam will find a kind and loyal woman and fall in love again. On the bright side, his boys have adjusted amazingly well and are terrific kids. Cam has done an awesome job with them, and they are a close-knit little unit. I don’t see them often enough, but we keep up via texts and Skype.”

  They had been sitting at the small kitchen table. Lauren looked around the gleaming, modern kitchen. Though not large, it was very functional.

  Jonas observed her interest and said. “In my grandmother’s day, this was a very primitive kitchen, no indoor plumbing, only a pump by the sink for water. There were also pots under the beds if you didn’t want to brave the outhouse in the middle of the night.”

  Lauren laughed. “There was an outhouse? You’re kidding, right?”

  “Not at all,” he insisted.

  Seeing the disbelief on her face, Jonas started describing his grandmother’s idea of a proper outhouse. “It was a small building, only large enough to accommodate one person at a time.”

  “Well, I should hope so!”

  Jonas chuckled. He personally knew of outhouses that could accommodate more than one visitor at a time. He didn’t think she wanted to hear that, though, so he concentrated instead on the one he was most familiar with, the one he had used during his childhood summers.

  “My grandmother painted the outhouse to match the house and then made curtains of some flowery fabric for the window. There was wallpaper to match and a colorful rag rug on the floor. She dressed the bare light bulb in a stylish little lampshade and, as if that weren’t enough, she sweet-talked my grandfather into making a shelf for magazines.” Jonas shook his head in remembered amusement. “I am not sure why she thought anyone would stay in an outhouse long enough to read, but there you are.”

  “Your grandmother sounds fabulous,” laughed Lauren. “I think she must have been quite a woman.”

  “Oh, she was,” Jonas agreed. “Some of my best childhood memories are of the times I spent with her.”

  “But when you inherited the island you had become too sophisticated for an outhouse?” Lauren suggested with a grin. She knew she had not seen a building resembling one, and she had access to a thoroughly modern bathroom in the house.

  “Something like that,” he admitted. “Indoor plumbing became my priority. I wanted modern bathrooms with flushing toilets and no more cold, outdoor showers.”

  “I noticed the free-standing shower out front. I thought it was for rinsing off the salt water after swimming.”

  “No,” he replied dryly. “That was our shower. There were no frills here when I was a boy.”

  “Interesting that you left the shower in place but replaced the pump in the kitchen.”

  He chuckled. “The pump may have held a certain old world charm, but it wasn’t quite the look I had in mind when we gutted and redesigned the kitchen. The shower is quite useful, though. When the kids are here in the summer and come back filthy after a day of exploring, they clean up there. They love it and make enough noise to scare away the wildlife, if we had any.”

  “Well, I think you’ve done a great job of blending the old and the new,” she assured him. “The house has a lot of character.”

  “I’ve always thought so.” He stood up and faced her. “Would you be offended if I asked you to entertain yourself for a little while? I have meetings in Lisbon this week, and there are a few things I should check on.”

  “No, go ahead. I’ll do some exploring if that’s all right.”

  Jonas nodded. “I shouldn’t be long.”

  “Take the time you need. I’ll be fine.”

  Lauren slipped quietly out the side door and to her delight, found herself in a small, well-tended garden on the far side of the house. From there she could see quite a distance. She spotted the boathouse and dock tucked into the shelter of the little cove just down the hill from her vantage point. Out on the fjord, a couple of sailboats were gliding almost soundlessly along, and happy teenage laughter carried from the little island across the water. A single day in this idyllic spot just wasn’t enough, she thought wistfully, and understood why Jonas came here so often.

  They’d packed a lot into their day together. Shortly after arriving, they’d taken the yacht—which Jonas referred to as ‘the boat’—cruising and didn’t return until late afternoon. The cross-island ramble, punctuated by friendly banter, had filled the time until dinner. And before long, they would be heading back to town. Lauren was sorry to see the day end.

  She entered the house through the front door. Off the entry hall was a large room tastefully decorated with a blend of vintage and modern furniture. With a cozy fireplace and lots of comfortable seating, the room was the perfect gathering place for visiting family.

  Her eyes fell on an old piano against the far wall, and she went to explore. Running her fingers lightly over the keys, she was surprised to find it perfectly tuned.

  Next to the piano stood a shelf unit holding stacks of music books and sheet music. Curious, Lauren leafed through the contents. Much of it was classical or Norwegian music, but mixed in were a few songbooks of American hits, most from the middle of the last century. She also discovered a collection of vintage sheet music. Skimming through and looking for something familiar, she settled on the title song from the 1950s film, An Affair to Remember, one of her mother’s favorites. Sliding onto the piano bench, she placed the music in front of her and began playing, softly at first so as not to disturb Jonas, then gradually increasing the volume and adding vocals.

  Caught up in the music, she didn’t hear Jonas enter the room, and didn’t know he stopped to listen until she felt his hands on her shoulders as she finished the last few bars of the song.

  “That was beautiful,” he said with quiet sincerity. “You are a constant surprise.”

  Tipping her head, Lauren smiled slightly. “Because I play the piano?”

  Jonas shook his head. “Because I have a hard time reconciling the girl running down a field in Asia, kicking a soccer ball alongside a group of African men, with the girl sitting at my piano, playing and singing like an angel.”

  Lauren laughed softly and with tongue in cheek said, “I am a woman of diverse talents.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I’ve noticed.”

  “Did I disturb your work?” Lauren asked when he lifted his hands.

  “No, I’m finished. We should probably think about getting you home unless you want to stay another day. There are bedrooms upstairs to accommodate guests.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Lauren said, as she stood up and moved away from the piano. “I was walking in the garden just now and realized one day here just wasn’t enough. But I have church in the morning and didn’t bring appropriate clothes, so staying isn’t an option.”

  He turned and looked at her. “Church?” he finally said.

  “Don’t look so shocked, Jonas,” she teased. “Where I come from people go to church on Sunday.”

  He continued looking at her without speaking until his lips finally curved upwards.

  Fascinated by the changing expressions on his face, Lauren asked, “Did I miss something?”

  Jonas shrugged and said, “It’s complicated. Would you mind if I came to church with you?”

  Most Norwegians were Lutheran, and few were regular churchgoers. Lauren assumed Jonas fell into that category as well. She thought she’d better clarify. “I’d like that, but I’m not Lutheran, Jonas. I attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

  Strangely, Jonas did not seem surprised by that piece of information. He merely said, “I’m familiar with your church. I have a good friend who is a member.” Escorting her out of the living room, he added, “I still have to lower the flag and put
away the cushions. If you want to get your stuff together while I take care of that, we can be on our way.”

  Chapter Four

  The flag was lowered, folded, put away, and the outdoor cushions placed in their proper bins for safe-keeping. That done, Jonas changed from the casual island wear of shorts and T-shirt into jeans and a warmer shirt for the trip home. He draped a lightweight jacket over a shoulder to ward off the cool of the evening.

  Lauren slipped into the bathroom to freshen up after her long day, then put on the jacket Jonas had thoughtfully reminded her to bring along when he picked her up that morning. Her short, sassy hair swung flirtatiously against her cheek as she stepped into the hall where she found him waiting, looking quite dashing. His hair was attractively ruffled, and he wore a killer smile.

  With a mischievous grin, Lauren pretended to look him over. “Not bad,” was her verdict. “There really should be a law against cousins looking that good.”

  He acknowledged the compliment with a sharp laugh. “I think that should be my line.” He thought Lauren looked incredibly appealing. She possessed an inborn style and grace and had managed in a matter of minutes to do something flattering with her hair after their day of boating, swimming, and hiking. She was so natural, completely without artifice. They had spent the entire day together, and it struck him that there was nothing about her he didn’t like.

  After checking lights and locks, they were on their way. Walking single file, they tackled the rocky trail to the dock.

  The dock was large by private standards. Several craft were moored there—a sailboat, the yacht, an ancient rowboat, and a small powerboat.

  Jonas made short work of getting her settled in the powerboat, then untied the line and, tossing it to her, shoved off as he jumped on board. He started the engine, and after a short ride, they arrived at a small dock located just down from the main road on the mainland. Jonas eased the small craft close to the dock before killing the motor. He jumped ashore, secured the boat, then helped Lauren onto dry land.