“Alex,” she said in a woosh, having tugged the door open just enough to see me.
I didn't know if she was relieved, I was here, or disappointed. I didn't give myself time to think about it.
"Can we talk?" I asked, my words coming out in a rush, afraid she would slam the door closed in my face.
She didn't say anything, but she opened it just a bit wider so I could slip through. She took a step back as I entered her home, careful, keeping her distance and not making eye contact with me.
“Are you here to hand me the divorce papers in person?” Her shoulders were tense as she asked the question. “I thought you could just send them in the mail.”
“I could, but that’s not why I’m here.”
That got her attention, and the weight of the steel blue eyes that had haunted me all week was almost too much for me to carry.
“Why are you here then?” she whispered, her voice raw and cracked.
"When we last spoke, you told me you overheard my conversation with Asta,” I said, and she nodded. “But I don’t think you heard the entire conversation otherwise; things wouldn’t have ended so bitterly between us.
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t go to Asta that night for advice on how to tell you that I wanted a divorce. I went to Asta to ask her how I should tell you that Idon’twant a divorce.”
“Wh-what?” she stammered.
She looked how I felt - bewildered and vulnerable.
“Agotia, I love you. Since you first told me you named your goats, I have been in a slow freefall. There is so much I admire about you that it would take a lifetime to say. And that is what I want, a lifetime with you. I am a selfish, prideful, and stubborn man. Once I have made my mind up, it is hard to change. I have made up my mind about you, which is the one thing I will never give up. I want your morning and your evenings. I want all your smiles and all your laughter. I want to have a family with you; I want to have a forever with you. And not one founded on a business deal but on the friendship we have built together. I want you to be my partner in every way. And I want to be your husband. I want to give you everything you could ever ask for."
Words I didn't realize I had, poured out of me as I had rehearsed them. I didn't stop until I saw the tears streaming down her face. I took a step forward, waiting to see if she would let me get closer, and when she did, I closed the distance between us. I brushed the tears away with my thumbs, not wanting to see her cry anymore. She gripped my shirt as if she was hanging on for dear life.
“Can you forgive me, Agotia? For being such a fool and not realizing the precious gift I had been given in you?”
I asked the question and waited on bated breath for her response. It was the one thing I needed from her more than anything.
"Yes, Alex. Yes, of course, I forgive you. Can you forgive me for not giving you a chance to explain? I should not have rushed out so quickly, but I didn't know what else to do. I thought - I thought you didn't want me."
She hiccupped the last words, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into me. She melted against my chest, and I felt what I had been searching for since she walked out of my house a week ago - home.
“There is nothing to forgive. Let’s put this all behind us, okay, my love?”
She nodded against my chest and then tilted her head back to look at me.
“Say it again, please.”
“That there’s nothing to forgive?”
“No, the other part.”
I smiled as I realized what she was asking.
“My love.”
Epilogue
TenMonthsLater
I twisted and twirled the white fabric in between my fingers. It was the most beautiful gown I had ever seen, and Alex had insisted on buying it for me. I still could not believe how quickly time had flown. We were already celebrating our first anniversary as husband and wife.
After Alex had flown back to Norway to confess his feelings for me, it took us some time to figure out the balance of everything. He arranged his work schedule so we would spend half the year in New York and the other half in Voss. Asta was promoted to running both the lodge and my farm in our absence, she had hired extra help, and business had never been better.
