The Solstice Mistletoe Effect (13 page)

tickled his nostrils. He lifted his head to check under the

pillow and found a small bouquet of several types of dried

flowers, including mistletoe. Apparently the hotel believed in

old traditions. Lance smiled. He was pretty sure he was too

tired to dream. He put the pillow back, leaving the bouquet

in place.

The next morning came much too quickly. Lance didn’t

want to wake up from his dream, where everything was all

right and he was in Magnus’s arms. Lance opened his eyes

with a start. He’d dreamed about Magnus. His lover would

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tell him off for believing in yet another superstition. Lance

thought it was a good sign anyway.

What was he going to do? He was no closer to a decision

than he’d been last night. He was still torn between his love

for Magnus and his need to be recognized as his partner.

Was that external recognition really that important? His

heart said yes.

He’d never realized this before and wasn’t sure he liked

it. It wasn’t like they could get married in Wyoming. Even

living together like they did was slightly risky. So far, all

they’d gotten was a few stares and some nasty comments.

But if anything happened to Magnus, Jakob would be on his

own since joint adoption by gay parents still wasn’t possible

in Wyoming.

Something needed to change. Maybe it was a good thing

that Sigrid had given them this wake-up call. One thing was

clear. He wasn’t just going to give up. In fact, he couldn’t

believe that he’d run away again—just like he’d left for his

parents’ house when there’d been a misunderstanding before

Christmas. Apparently this behavior was so ingrained that it

was hard for him to react differently. He’d have to work on

that, and he was going to start as soon as the festivities were

over.

For now, there was a beautiful sunny day outside and a

solstice celebration to attend.

When Jakob woke up a few minutes later, they got

dressed, packed their bag, and left it with the concierge while

they went to have breakfast in the large restaurant. The

buffet carried every breakfast dish Lance had ever seen, plus

a few more that looked uniquely Swedish. Lance recognized

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some of them from the cookbooks he had studied, but others

looked really different.

Lance left the bag in the hotel because he didn’t want to

carry it around all day. He could always come back for it

later. It took them about fifteen minutes by taxi to reach the

entrance to the park. The lines were unbelievable, but they

joined in good spirits. Jakob seemed excited, and it looked

like Lance had made the right decision. This distraction was

just what they both needed.

MAGNUS felt like he hadn’t slept at all. In reality, he’d

probably managed about two or three hours, but that wasn’t

enough to make him feel rested. He’d missed Lance too

much to feel comfortable in their bed. Breakfast without him

and Jakob wasn’t any fun either. His parents were

uncharacteristically quiet, not a big surprise after last

night’s fight followed by this morning’s shock at discovering

that Jakob was gone.

They’d even dared suggest that Lance had abducted

Jakob. Calling the police had been totally out of the question

for Magnus, and he’d told his parents so in no uncertain

terms. His father had flat-out refused to accept that Magnus

himself was really responsible for Lance leaving. His mother

had started to look thoughtful when Magnus explained.

After much back and forth, they’d finally had to accept

that Magnus, as Jakob’s legal guardian, was ultimately in

charge of the decision. The last thing Magnus wanted was to

get the police involved. Lance hadn’t abducted Jakob; he’d

never do something like that.

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Magnus sipped his coffee while he tried to figure things

out further. One thing had become abundantly clear during

the quiet hours of the night. Magnus had made a major

mistake when he didn’t react quickly enough to protect

Lance, not to mention Jakob, against Sigrid’s attack. He’d

been way too preoccupied with considering her proposal’s

impact on his own life. He should have realized much earlier

how her words affected Lance and even Jakob. His nephew

had clearly not liked her—and who could blame him, after

the way she’d threatened to send him to boarding school?

His mistake of not putting his family first had cost him.

For the moment, there was still hope that Lance and Jakob

would return. But what if they didn’t? What if he couldn’t

find them? What if he found them, but they didn’t want to

live with him anymore?

“You’re trying to figure out how to find Lance, aren’t

you?” His mother’s voice was soft but reminded him that he

wasn’t alone in the room.

“Of course I am!” Magnus finished his coffee and was

ready to leave, but the look in his mother’s eyes made him

hesitate.

“I’m not sure, but I think that Lance would try to make

this day as normal for Jakob as possible. Since we were

planning to take Jakob to the children’s groups that make

the garlands of birch-leaf for the official midsommarstång,

I’m thinking that might be a good place to start looking.” His

mother blinked a few times, but the tears weren’t to be

stopped.

“That makes a lot of sense.” Magnus was relieved to

have a starting point. “Thank you for bringing it up.”

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“No need to thank me. I can see how much you miss

them, and I think it’s our fault that you are in this situation

in the first place. I’m sorry we didn’t listen to you when you

told us that you’d made your choice of life partner. And I’m

sorry we didn’t believe that you were serious. I hope that it

isn’t too late to get Lance back in your life. He’s a wonderful

man, and Jakob obviously adores him.” His mother smiled.

“We should have paid more attention to what the boy’s

behavior was telling us, shouldn’t we?”

Magnus nodded, too overwhelmed for words.

“Go on, get going. You’ve got a man to apologize to and a

boy to convince that he’s important to you.” His mother had

hit the nail on the head.

Almost an hour later, Magnus had finally made his way

to the entrance of Skansen. The lines weren’t as bad as he

had expected, but it was already mid-morning. Once he’d

bought his ticket and got inside, he made his way past the

many beautiful farmhouses and old buildings, straight to the

central area.

Orsakullen was where the children’s activities took

place. It looked like a beehive that had been turned upside

down. Children and adults were milling around, and Magnus

realized it would be difficult to find anyone in this mass of

people. Not that it would stop him.

A few minutes passed while he tried to orient himself,

closely watching the long tables and benches people were

working at for any sign of his lover or his nephew. He’d need

to be methodical about the search if he wanted to find them

before nightfall.

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But before he could get started on his plan, he noticed a

dark head of hair right in the middle of a large group of

blond people working at one of the tables at the edge of the

large area. That could only be Lance. The relief Magnus felt

was overwhelming and made him weak in the knees.

He had found his älskling. Jakob wouldn’t be far. It was

time to win his family back. He’d do whatever it took to make

them understand that they came first in Magnus’s life from

now on. Temptation from an interesting career move would

not interfere with their happiness. He wouldn’t let other

people come between them any longer, be they his parents or

colleagues from work.

Magnus took a deep breath and walked toward the two

people who meant most to him in his life.

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Chapter Eleven

LANCE smiled when Jakob presented him with yet another

garland. This one had a few red flowers braided into the

many different types of green. His own effort was coming

along nicely, including some mistletoe with its tiny white

blossoms, but he wasn’t as fast as Jakob. In fact, all of the

children seemed far more suited to making the festive

decorations than the few adults who had enough courage to

join the group effort.

“Do you like this one?” Jakob stroked the soft leaves,

then put his garland aside for collection by park staff, who

loaded them onto wooden carts that they’d use to transport

the greenery to Tingsvallen where the giant maypole was

waiting. It would get decorated after lunch, then raised in a

community effort led by the Skansen Folk Dance Team. “Red

is Uncle Magnus’s favorite color. Did you know that?”

“Yes, I did know that.” Lance swallowed, emotion

suddenly making it difficult to speak. “You miss him too,

don’t you?”

Jakob nodded, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“I bet he misses us as well.” Lance closed his eyes for a

moment, not wanting Jakob to see how much he was

hurting.

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“He misses you more than he can say.” Magnus’s deep

voice came from right behind them.

“What?” Lance opened his eyes and turned around so

quickly that he almost lost his balance. But he needed to

make sure that he wasn’t dreaming.

“Uncle Magnus!” Jakob was up and in his uncle’s arms

before Lance could blink.

“Jakob!” Magnus held on to the boy, but his eyes were

on Lance as he slowly sank onto the wooden bench next to

him.

“Magnus?” Lance didn’t know where to start. Apologies

and questions were all mixed up in his head. But all he

really wanted was to be in his lover’s arms again and to be

able to forget all this nonsense about a university career,

Sigrid, and the palpable disapproval of Magnus’s parents.

“I’m so sorry. I should never have let Sigrid carry on like

that. She had no right to say any of those things, and I

should have made her stop. In fact, I should have never

encouraged her by listening to the university’s proposal.”

Magnus pressed a soft kiss to Jakob’s head and made the

boy pull back so he could look him in the eye.

“Are you going to marry Sigrid?” Jakob asked the only

question that had any relevance to him. “I don’t want to go to

boarding school.”

“No, I’m most certainly not going to marry that woman!”

Magnus focused on Jakob. “I don’t love her, I don’t even like

her. So there’s no way that I’m going to marry her. And you

will not go to boarding school if I have anything to say about

it. I want to spend as much time with you as possible, and

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you being away at boarding school most of the year would

not leave enough time for that.”

“Good!” Jakob nodded and snuggled into Magnus’s

chest, looking like he was going to stay there for the

foreseeable future. “I don’t like her either. She was nasty to

Lance and she didn’t like me very much.”

“That’s settled then.” Magnus looked up, and his silver-

blue gaze rested on Lance. “I’m sorry for not putting you

first, älskling. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I

can promise you that it will never happen again. You and

Jakob are my family now, and nothing and no one is more

important than the two of you.”

“I’m sorry too.” Lance was ready to shake apart from the

emotions of being reunited with Magnus. They’d only been

apart for less than a day, and already it had upset him more

than he wanted to admit. “I shouldn’t just have left. I should

have stood up and fought for you, for our family, not just let

her walk in there and take over.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Magnus took one

arm away from Jakob, opening it for Lance to scoot into. “It