“Perfect.” Robyn was smiling. “Come over tomorrow morning. Join me for some fika.”

“Fika?”

“It’s a Swedish tradition. Basically a social gathering with coffee and cake.”

“It sounds great. What time?”

Robyn shrugged. “Anytime that suits you in the morning. I’ll be doing paperwork first thing, so come over whenever you’re ready.”

“Right.” Anytime. So clearly Robyn was nothing like her sister. Elizabeth had a schedule for everything. Arrangements were never casual. The words Come over whenever you’re ready had never left her mouth.

Robyn paused. “Unless you’d rather fix a time? We can do that if you’d prefer?”

Oh it was tempting. Her hands still ached to reach for her notebook. She made lists in her head that she never wrote down. “No,” she said firmly, “I don’t need to fix a time.” She didn’t want to be that person. She reminded herself that meticulous planning didn’t make you any more in control, it just gave you the illusion of control. But sometimes the illusion was good. The illusion was comforting.

“Great.” Robyn smiled at Holly. “Will you take care of Suka for me?”

“Yes!” Holly hugged the dog who stood patiently, tail wagging, and she looked so blissfully happy that Christy thought, We’re going to have to get her a dog.

Robyn left, and Zac and Alix followed her to the door.

“We’ll move our things and see you later.” Zac picked up some of their luggage, and Alix took the rest.

“Wait!” Christy didn’t want them to leave. She wanted to know more about what had happened. And now Alix was waiting, as requested, and Christy didn’t know what to say. What is going on with Zac? “So...how was it?”

“How was what?” Alix pulled on a hat, even though their new cabin was apparently only a short distance away. Through the trees, one turn in the track, Robyn had said.

“Your few days here. Was there any trouble?”

“Trouble?” Alix zipped her coat. It was black, thickly insulated and would have made most people look like an overstuffed pudding. Alix looked spectacular. Her hair, also dark, curved around her chin. “What kind of trouble?”

The male kind. The kind standing within touching distance, waiting for Christy to stop bumbling and rambling so that they could get on with moving their things.

“Any kind.”

Alix smiled. “There was no trouble. As far as we’re aware, Holly didn’t incur any visible damage. This place is special. I hope you enjoy your afternoon.”

That was it? No! There was more. There had to be more. And Christy wanted all the details.

She watched as Alix turned to Zac and asked him a question, the tone casual, familiar, and Christy felt unsettled, pushed out, less important, because for the first time ever in their friendship there was something about Alix that she didn’t know. She wasn’t part of it. She was second best.

Was this how Alix felt with her and Seb?

The sudden insight was unsteadying.

They’d talked about a lot of things when they were growing up, but they’d never talked about this situation. How they would handle another person in their lives. A serious relationship. Conversations that neither of them were part of. Jokes that they didn’t understand. They’d taken for granted that nothing would ever change, but how could it not?