Page 56 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

EPILOGUE

Ulysses

I stand at the windows of the lodge that look out over the frozen lake, a feeling of relief sweeping over me. Finally we’re back here in Iceland for Christmas and I don’t want to be anywhere else.

Warm arms slide around my waist and I turn to find my wife standing behind me, smiling up at me.

We had six months together after that day in Iceland and, at the end of it, I asked her to marry me.

She agreed. We were married a few hours ago in the Icelandic church in the middle of Reykjavik, and now we’re honeymooning in our lodge that sits on the edge of a lake, with mountains in the distance. It’s snowing and there’s a big Christmas tree with lights in the corner of the big living area.

Olympia, Rafael and their new baby will be arriving to join us on Christmas Eve, but for now Katla and I have the place to ourselves. Her eyes are luminous and her smile makes me everything inside me gather tight.

‘I have a very special Christmas present to give you,’ she says. ‘Do you want it now, or on Christmas Day?’

I hold her close, revelling in her warmth. ‘Now, of course. Have you ever known me to actively choose to wait for something?’

She laughs, then brings the hand she has behind her back in front of her and opens her palm. A long, thin item wrapped up in Christmas paper sits in the middle of it. I frown at as I take it. It’s not very heavy and I have no idea what it is.

‘Open it,’ she says, eyes alight.

So I open it with careful hands and for a moment I stare at it, not really understanding what it is.

Then I do. It’s a small plastic stick displaying lines in a plastic window. Two lines.

I blink and look at my little Icelandic volcano. ‘Katla?’ I say.

She’s smiling and her face is pink.

‘Katla?’ I say again, my heart beating fast.

She’s nodding now, and then I drop the stick, wrap my arms around her and hold her very, very tightly. Everything I was going to say rushes straight out of my head.

Katla is pregnant. I am going to be a father.

‘Merry Christmas, my love,’ she whispers in my ear.

It is indeed going to be a very merry Christmas, and next year it will be even merrier.

She is the life I was waiting for, the life I didn’t know I needed.

And I can honestly say that I can’t wait to live it.