The Lost and Hidden Years

Chapter Twenty-Three

When Christian and Jens had arrived from the store with meat and potatoes, buns and greens, the family had all begun their madness in the kitchen. Each one helped with something. Linda prepared the meat to make hamburgers, Jens and Christian made cuts for vegetables to go into a salad, then lettuce, onions, and tomatoes for the burgers.

Meanwhile at the other end, Agnetha and Björn had peeled the potatoes and sliced them. Björn's cuts were not as thin as Agnetha was expecting them. She looked at them and then at him and laughed.

"Björn, first. This isn't the direction you cut," she laughed.

"Yes, it is."

"No, you're rounding them. Look, turn it then slice. Come on, you know this," she laughed.

"You know, since you're so good at it, how about you slice, I'll peel?" He leaned in and smiled. She rolled her eyes and bit her lip.

"Here," she exchanged the board and the platter with him.

"Papa, you should call Benny and Frida. I asked them if they wanted to come, but they didn't give me a definite answer." Benny and Frida were definitely set on coming, though Agnetha was left clueless of everyone's intentions.

"Call them," Agnetha agreed.

Björn had called and by 5 PM the family had grown. Benny and Frida joined them hand in hand, chatting to one another on their way up to the steps.

The food was ready after fifteen minutes. They had all sat together at the long dining table in Agnetha's home. Laughter was roaring through and filled up the space.

Although they had kept their distance, there was no denying the looks Björn and Agnetha shared. Each of them had a glow. They all had noticed. It was typically them. No one suspected anything was happening between the two, yet they felt their energy easily.

A few hours of a joyous gathering, Björn got the que from Linda and stood. He took Agnetha's hand and asked her for a walk. She looked around at the guests, who had attempted to not stare because each one knew what was going on, except for Agnetha.

"Come, let's walk outside."

"But Björn, everyone's here. I don't want to leave them all," she looked at all her distracted guests then back to him.

"It'll only be a minute," he smiled. Her hand slipped into his and she followed his steps outside of the sliding glass doors. The night was dark now, but the pavement was dimly lit to lead a walkway around her yard. They walked slowly, looking at the stars above them.

"Are you happy, Agnetha?" He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.

"I am," she said. "For once, I feel secure."

"I never want you to feel otherwise," he pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. She relaxed into his arms, but he felt her shiver from the cold. He rubbed his hand against her back to warm her and she chuckled. He saw the lights in the house all shut off and then looked at her eyes purely. Björn kissed her lips and he could feel she wasn't ready to part.

"I'll warm you up later, if you'd like," he whispered against her lips.

"Uh," she breathed a laugh, "I think I might like that."

"Then I'm yours. Come, let's head in," he lead her by her hand. She stepped into the house surprised to see the lights were off.

"What–"

Immediately the lights turned on and one by one a line of her favorite people walked through the door into the living room. Linda holding a birthday cake, Benny holding large balloons that half spelled "happy" while Frida held the other half. Jens and Christian held the letters to "birthday".