Chapter 10: Moving Day

For the next few weeks or so, things between Lief and Josefin were amazing.

Lief was sure Karen was hoping something would go wrong. But unfortunately for her, things between the two adults couldn't be better.

So good, that Lief decided now was a good time to merge the families.

Not in the marital sense, of course. Lief felt he was going to hold back on that for now.

The father of three decided to wait a little while longer.The last time he rushed into marriage, the result was obvious.

This time around, Lief was going to try a different approach. The next chance he got off of work, he drove up to the Oss house.

As if by some stroke of luck, Josefin was there.

"Hey, pretty lady," He greeted her with an admittedly cheesy sentiment. "So I was wondering..."

"Yes?" The way Josefin looked at him was a mix of hopefulness and confusion.

"I know we haven't been dating that long, but I was hoping that maybe, I don't know..." Lief never understood why it was so hard to talk to her about such big commitments. He soon decided to take the "mince-no-words" approach.

"Josefin, would you and yours like to move in with me and mine?" Now that the request was out, Lief was afraid she would reject him and laugh at him.

But thankfully, she took it well.

"I'd absolutely love to! The boys and I were thinking of moving someplace new, anyway."

It wasn't long before Josefin and her sons were packing their things and heading out to the Helgason household.

Somehow, in the time it took for them to move in, Lief had already set up a room for Arvid and Edvin. Which was convenient.

"This place is twice the size of our old house, Edvin," Arvid whispered to his brother. The twins were clearly taken aback by the almost palatial establishment the Helgasons resided at.

"Huge," was all Edvin said. But then, he was never one to say much.

Letting the boys get accustomed to their new room, Lief decided to give Josefin the grand tour. He was aware she knew part of the house, but he wanted to make absolutely sure.

"Did you paint these yourself?" Josefin inquired of the paintings hanging upon Lief's wall.

Lief grinned, clearly proud of his work. "I sure did! Sometimes when I'm not working, I do some painting."

"Gunnar Hannes could learn something from you." Mentioning the name of another artist in town seemed to please Lief, in a rather twisted way.

He let Josefin get better situated before continuing. 

"This room's my office, and here's my youngest daughter Kristin-"

"Oh, she's a darling! She looks just like you!" Lief let Josefin fawn over his toddler.

Meanwhile, Karen had come downstairs after promising to get something for Karl. She was clearly confused by her boyfriend and his brother standing in the living room for no apparent reason.

"Um, guys? What are you doing here?" Karen almost didn't want to know the answer, though she assumed her father was involved.

"Apparently, we live here now," Arvid said in a rather confused and amused tone.

"Yup," Edvin said, apparently too engrossed in the new TV to pay much attention.

Now, Karen was upset with her father. Again. She had once planned to move in with Arvid after they graduated high school, but not now, and not like this.

Though, all she could do was go along for the ride, and see if things panned out.

(End of Chapter 10.)