A Magical Christmas

“You think I’m cooking you dinner?”

“Of course. You’re the girl. I’m the boy. I get to sit down and watch football with a beer. You get to cook. You and Jess can decide between you who cleans up the kitchen.” His words had the desired effect. Roused from her state of inertia, she stooped and scooped up snow.

“I have one thing to say to that, Tyler O’Neil.”

He told himself that a snowball in the face was worth it to hear her laughing. But of course it didn’t stop at that because both dogs decided to join in as well as Jess, and before he could put a stop to it they were all soaking wet and covered in snow.

Ash hurled himself at Brenna, and she went down on her back, pushing the dog as he tried to lick her face. “Get him off me!”

“Sorry about that.” Tyler hauled the dog off by his collar and then dragged her to her feet. “Dana is going to help Jess train Ash.”

“I wish her luck with that.” But Brenna was still laughing as she brushed away clumps of snow from her jacket. “I might need a shower before dinner which, by the way, I’m not cooking unless you want to be poisoned.”

“I was kidding. Élise promised to send food over, although her exact words were something like ‘don’t get used to it.’” The scent of Brenna’s hair reminded him of summer flowers, and he had to work extra hard not to look at the soft curve of her mouth. Fighting a tug of lust, he stowed her case in the trunk.

She was his friend. He was going to help her out, and helping out didn’t involve pushing their relationship into something he’d been careful to avoid. This was one relationship he was determined not to mess up, and the only way he could be sure of not messing it up was to leave it alone.

“THIS IS YOUR BEDROOM.” Jess pushed open the door. “It looks over the forest and the lake, and it’s next to Dad’s.”

Something in the way she said that made Brenna turn her head, but Jess was trying to stop Luna from scrambling onto the bed. “The dogs aren’t supposed to be upstairs so we have to be quiet about it.”

Brenna put her case down. “I thought your dad said I was having a room at the back.”

“Did he?” Jess sounded vague. “I’m sure he said this one. It has the best view.”

Brenna looked at the wall of the bedroom and imagined Tyler sleeping on the other side. Ideally, she would have preferred a little more distance, but she wasn’t in a position to complain, was she?

“This bedroom is lovely.”

Huge windows stretched up to the vaulted ceiling, and ahead of her stretched the lake, the forest and beyond that the mountains. The large bed was draped in warm green and cool cream, and a rug covered part of the hardwood floor. Not masculine, exactly, but unfussy. The way she preferred things.

Lake House had stood abandoned and uninhabited on the Snow Crystal land for decades until Tyler had decided one day that despite his nomadic lifestyle, he needed a permanent base of his own.

Secluded and set on the most remote part of the resort, Lake House had been the obvious choice and he’d set about restoring it whenever he was home, with occasional help from his family.

Never one to deprive himself, Tyler had installed a large wraparound deck, the same outdoor hot tub as the lodges and added a private dock where he kept a couple of kayaks in the summer.

Downstairs, the living room had the same soaring ceilings and stone fireplace as the lodges, but the floor space was considerably bigger. He’d taken advantage of that space to build a state-of-the-art media room and he’d converted the basement into a well-equipped gym.

“How was school today?” Brenna opened her case and transferred the contents to the drawers by the bed. The exception was a dress, her only dress, which she hung up carefully in the wardrobe.

It was black and made of a stretchy fabric she knew flattered her shape. She wore it every time she needed something smarter than ski pants or sweats, which fortunately wasn’t very often.

“I like that dress, but black is for a funeral.” Jess forced Ash to sit. “You should wear blue. The same blue as your hat. You look pretty in blue.”

“I hardly ever wear the black dress, so I can’t justify a blue one and anyway, I don’t want to accumulate more luggage. It’s easier this way.” Easier to move on when she had to, and she was fairly sure now that she was going to have to. This idyll couldn’t last for long, especially now she was living in such close quarters with Tyler. She sensed it was going to get awkward pretty quickly. “So which is your room?”

“I’m at the back of the house. I look over the forest.” As Luna lay down on the floor, Jess sprang onto the bed and crossed her legs. “I like it. There’s a tree right outside my window. I can climb out if I want to.”

Like father, like daughter.

Brenna, who had climbed out of her bedroom window at home more times than she cared to remember, decided that a lecture would be hypocritical. Beginning to understand Tyler’s dilemma, she tried a different approach. “Your dad is pretty easygoing. If you want to leave the house, you could use the front door. He’s not going to stop you, and you’re less likely to break a bone that way.”

“I like climbing trees. Mom would never let me do anything like that because she thought it wasn’t ladylike.”

Brenna pushed ski socks into a drawer. Talking about Janet Carpenter was one way of turning a bright day dark. “Do you speak to your mom often?”

“Every few weeks. It’s a pretty awkward conversation.” Jess wrapped her arms around her legs. “She isn’t interested in hearing about my skiing, and she hates everything to do with Snow Crystal so I can’t talk about that. If I mention Dad she almost hangs up, so I spend the whole time trying to find things to say that don’t involve him or skiing, which is pretty tough when you live in a place like this.” She scraped her hair back from her face in a universally teenage gesture. “I guess I’m a major disappointment. I’ve never been what she wants.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.” Brenna’s mouth was dry. She didn’t want to talk about this. She couldn’t. It made her heart race and her stomach churn. She wanted desperately to change the subject, but that wasn’t fair to Jess.

“According to my mom, I’m too much like Dad. You don’t know her, but—” Jess frowned “—do you know her? It isn’t like Snow Crystal is that big a place, and you must have been at school at the same time.”

Brenna pulled a couple of T-shirts from her suitcase. “I knew her a little.”

“I wonder why she’s never mentioned you? She was older, so I guess your name never came up.”

Her hands were shaking. “That’s probably it.”

“You’re going to love this room. After twelve years living in Chicago, it’s like heaven to look out on the forest.” Jess picked at a thread in her sock. “Sometimes I sleep with the window open so that I can breathe the air. At school I try and sit by the window, too.”

Brenna slid the T-shirts into a drawer. “Are things any better?”

“At school? No. It’s like being in a cage. Was that how you felt?”

“Some of the time.” All of the time. Brenna opened another drawer. “How are the other kids?”

“Annoying, mostly.” Jess avoided her gaze. “Are you nearly done? Because we should go help Dad cook. He can make a real mess if he’s left on his own. Even the dogs won’t touch his food.”

“One more minute.” Brenna pulled out the last of her clothes and thought back to a conversation she’d had a few weeks earlier. She’d picked Jess up from school, and the teenager had been visibly upset. On the drive home she’d been unusually silent. It was that miserable silence that had induced Brenna to tell her a little of her own experiences at school in the hope of encouraging Jess to open up.

It hadn’t worked, but the way she’d listened and the questions she’d asked had convinced Brenna that something similar might be happening to Jess. If that was true then she wanted to help.

“Now I’m staying here for a while we should be able to ski together a bit more often, if you’d like to.”

“I’d love that! Thanks. I want to win everything this season. I want to make Dad proud.”

“He’s already proud, Jess. He loves you.”

“I know he loves me, but you know Dad. With him you either win or you lose.”

“There were plenty of times when he lost as well as won. It isn’t all about winning.”

“He says that’s the whole point. No one competes to come second. Can we watch skiing together tonight? I want to watch some of the World Cup runs and analyze technique.”

“You should ask your dad to do that with you. He’s good at seeing what people are doing wrong.”

“He won’t.” Jess’s voice was flat. “He never watches skiing.”

“Well, he’s busy and—”

“It’s not because he’s busy. He watches football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey—any sport that happens to be on TV. But not skiing.”

Brenna paused, a sweater in her hand. “Never?”

“Never.” Jess gave an awkward shrug. “I guess it’s hard for him. I shouldn’t have told you. He probably doesn’t want either of us to know.”

“I— You were right to tell me.” Aching for him, Brenna stuffed the sweater in the drawer and pushed it closed. “Does he ever give you a reason?”

“Yes, but after a year of excuses you realize there has to be something else going on. I want to ask him, but I don’t want to make it worse and anyway, I’m just a kid. I guess he wouldn’t want to talk to me.”

“You’re a great kid. He loves you,” Brenna said softly, “but he’s not the type of guy who finds it easy to talk about the way he feels.”

“I know. Macho man and all that.”

“Not only that.” Brenna wondered how much Jess knew about Tyler’s life. “When he was on the ski team, it was hard for him to be private. There was always someone taking photos or pushing a microphone in his face. People printed things whether he’d said them or not, so he learned not to say anything.” It had made her mad—furious—to read some of the lies they’d printed.

“He might talk to you, especially now you’re here all the time. He trusts you. You understand him, and you guys have been friends forever.” Jess slid off the bed. “I hope he does. He should talk to someone. I think it’s driving him nuts. That’s why he nearly murdered that reporter this morning. The guy was stupid enough to ask him how it felt to not be able to ski competitively anymore.”

“He asked that? How do you know?”

“Kayla told me. She was furious because apparently she told the guy ‘not to ask anything about his career or his family’ and he did both. He was lucky Dad didn’t bury him in an avalanche.” Jess winced as a crash came from the kitchen beneath them. Ash whimpered and slid under the bed for cover. “We should go, before he breaks everything or poisons himself.”

Brenna followed the teenager downstairs.

They were all so busy, so stretched trying to save the resort, that none of them had given enough attention to how being here and not being able to ski was affecting Tyler.

They walked into the kitchen to find him crashing and cursing as he pulled out pans. Food was spread out over the counter, and Brenna raised her eyebrows.

“I thought Élise was providing dinner.”

“She was—” he sent her a look that would have started a fire without a match “—but apparently I not only have to cook it, I have to reheat parts of it, too. It would have been easier to call for takeout.”

“But not as healthy.” Jess took the frying pan from his hand. “I’ve got this, Dad. You sit down and enjoy a nice, relaxing drink with Brenna.”

She made it sound as if they were on a date, and Brenna’s heart gave an extra bump.

Why did this feel so awkward?

Tyler waved a hand. “There’s steak—”

“I know.” Jess was patient. “You fry it. It’s not hard.”

“You’re vegetarian.”

“That was last year.”

“Right.” He lifted the same hand and dragged his fingers through his hair. “There’s a sauce.”

“…Which needs to be heated, but not boiled or it will curdle.”

Tyler stared at her. “Since when did you turn into a chef?”

“Since Élise gave me a few lessons.” Looking pleased with herself, Jess tipped oil into the pan and waited for it to heat. “She said that basic cookery is a survival skill, and as I’m living with you I’m going to need all the survival skills I can get.”

“She said that? Charming. That’s the last time I help Élise with her skis.” Tyler tipped salad onto plates. “Brenna, there’s beer in the fridge. Help yourself. It will numb your taste buds for whatever is about to exit that frying pan.”

He was treating her the way he always treated her. The same way he treated his brothers.

There was no reason to feel uncomfortable.

“It’s going to be delicious.” Jess flipped one of the steaks awkwardly and it landed on the kitchen floor. Ash crossed the room in a single bound and devoured it.

“Obviously it was delicious,” Tyler said drily. “That was yours, right?”

Jess was giggling helplessly. “Bad boy. Bad Ash.”

Ash wagged his tail happily, and Tyler sighed.

“You’ve got some way to go learning how to discipline that dog. If you say ‘bad boy’ you don’t laugh at the same time.”

“He’s adorable, especially when he knows he’s been naughty. He has this cute, guilty look. It’s fine. Élise sent more than we’d need. I guess she knew we might mess it up.”

Tyler scowled at Ash. “You are out of control. And notice I’m not smiling when I say those words. And I don’t think you’re adorable. I think you’re a pain in the—”

“Language, Dad.” Jess tipped another steak into the pan, and Ash wagged his tail, his eyes fixed hopefully on her.

A delicious smell of cooking wafted through the kitchen, and this time when Jess turned the steak, she did it with exaggerated caution.

Ash whined and settled down on the floor, hoping for another culinary error in his favor. Luna, the better behaved of the two dogs, lay quietly under the table watching Jess.

Tyler shared salad between the plates and pulled a couple of beers out of the fridge. “Why have you never cooked for me before?”

“Because I’m still learning. Élise has been teaching me at Grandma’s. I wanted to surprise you.” Jess added steaks and a baked potato to the plates and put them on the table.

“It’s a surprise.” Tyler handed Brenna a beer. “A good one. Does this mean you’re also going to stop dropping your clothes around the house and do the laundry?”

Brenna twisted the cap off the beer. She’d been in this kitchen more times than she could count. So why did everything suddenly feel different? Her response wasn’t logical. “You shouldn’t have cooked for him, Jess. You’re reinforcing gender stereotypes.”

“I’m not. I’m making sure I eat well.” Jess sat down and picked up her knife and fork. “It’s his turn to cook tomorrow. Dad, you can’t put ketchup on that delicious steak. It will ruin the flavor.”

Ignoring her, Tyler added a huge dollop of ketchup to his plate. “If tomorrow is my night then we’re having takeout food.”

Jess glanced at Brenna. “What’s your favorite?”

“Mexican.” Tyler sliced into his steak. “Her favorite is Mexican.”

Jess gave him a long look. “You guys know everything about each other.”

“Not everything.” Brenna focused on her plate. The things she didn’t know about Tyler were the little things. Personal things. Did he sleep naked?

“You can cook Mexican from scratch, Dad. All you need is beans, tortillas—I don’t know, but I bet it’s not that hard. I’ll text Élise and ask her, and then we can go shopping tomorrow.” Jess fed a slice of steak to Luna under the table. “Brenna will be impressed.”

“Or she might be poisoned. I’m not trying to impress Brenna. She’s known me forever so she’s past being impressed. This steak is good. For this, I’ll tidy the house, but you can do your own laundry. And stop feeding that dog under the table. So how’s your room, Bren? Great view of the forest?”

He knew more about her than anyone, and yet he didn’t know the most important thing of all. The way she felt about him. “It’s beautiful, thank you, and I love being able to see the lake.”

He paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. “You can see the lake?”

“Yes. Jess put me in the room next to yours.” And she was wondering how she was going to sleep at night, knowing that all that separated them was a thin wall.

Tyler put his fork down slowly. “Next to mine?”

“Is that a problem?” Brenna tried to sound casual. “I can easily move if you’d rather I used a different room.”

His gaze locked on hers, blue and disturbingly intense. “No.” His voice was slightly thickened. “It’s a nice room.” His gaze flickered to Jess but she was absorbed in her food.

“Sorry,” she said brightly. “My mistake. I thought you said the front room. No point in moving now. It makes no difference, and Brenna liked the room. There’s more steak if anyone is still hungry.”

Hungry?

Brenna could barely force food down her throat.

She never would have thought being with Tyler could have felt this uncomfortable.

CHAPTER SEVEN

OVER IN THE main house that had been home to the O’Neils for four generations, Walter O’Neil settled himself at the scrubbed kitchen table and watched as Alice, his wife of sixty years, helped Elizabeth arrange cookie dough on large baking sheets.

“So Brenna has moved in with Tyler.”

“She needed somewhere to go.” Elizabeth removed two trays of cinnamon stars from the oven, replacing them with the next batch. “We’re so lucky Tyler has room.”

Walter grunted. “Last time I counted, you had five spare rooms.”

“I invited relatives from England.” Elizabeth transferred the cookies onto a cooling tray.

Walter glanced at the empty chairs around the table. “I don’t see any relatives from England.”

“I’m not sure what’s happening yet, but it didn’t seem fair to invite Brenna and then risk having to ask her to move. She needs somewhere permanent.”

“Permanent?” Walter’s gaze sharpened. His face was weathered and lined from a life spent outdoors, but he still had a full head of hair and looked at least a decade younger than his eighty years. “Exactly how long were you thinking she’d stay with Tyler?”

“I don’t know.” Elizabeth broke one of the cookies in half to check it. “At least until Christmas. Jess loves Christmas so much, and it will be good for Brenna to be part of that.”

“You’re throwing the two of them together, aren’t you?”

“I am doing no such thing.” Elizabeth nibbled a cookie. “But those two virtually grew up together, and Jess loves Brenna. It makes sense for her to move in with him.”

“I’m old, not stupid. You’re interfering.”

“You’re not old.” Alice reached across and patted his hand. “And I seem to remember you interfering plenty with Sean and Élise.”

“You’re imagining things.” But there was a gleam in Walter’s eyes. “All I did was point out what the rest of the world knew. Those two were both too stubborn to see what the rest of us saw.”

“It’s the same with Tyler. It’s obvious how Brenna feels about him.” Elizabeth picked up a bowl of icing, and Walter looked at her thoughtfully.

“But how does he feel about her? She’s not his usual type. Nothing like the others.”

“He wasn’t serious about the others. They were just part of that life he led. And I don’t remember fielding phone calls from any of those women when he was lying in the hospital with his career in ruins. Where were they then?” Elizabeth wiped her hands on her apron. “It was Brenna who sat by him. She was there night and day, and there was no getting her to leave. She was the one who coaxed him out of his bad temper when the rest of us were almost afraid to walk into that room. She’s been there for him through thick and thin.”

“And in all that time, nothing has ever happened. I remember the party in the summer. He didn’t even look at her. What they have is friendship, and it’s never going to be anything else.” Walter reached out to steal a cookie, and Alice rapped his knuckles.

“They’re for the Boathouse Café.”

“They won’t miss one, and I don’t want to give the guests what I haven’t tried myself.”

“You’ve eaten enough of those in your life, Walter O’Neil. Remember what the doctor said.”

“He said moderation.” He caught Alice’s eye. “One cookie is moderation, and I was shoveling snow all morning.”

“He cares about her.” Elizabeth dusted the cookies with icing sugar. “I sometimes think being here is slowly killing him, but he offered to coach the high school team because he knew she didn’t want to walk into that school again. He wouldn’t have done that for anyone else. It’s the most romantic thing I ever heard.”

Walter sighed. “That boy has been tearing after women since he hit puberty. I’ve never seen him show the slightest interest in Brenna that wasn’t to do with friendship.”

“He didn’t object when Kayla suggested she move in with him.”

“How could he? You were all squashing him like an ant under a log pile. Likely he’ll rebel, as he always does when you try and cage him.”

“No one is trying to cage him, Walter.”

“Maybe your plan will backfire. Maybe she’s not what he needs.”

“I think she’s exactly what he needs, and hopefully he’ll discover that himself.” Calm, Elizabeth poured the tea.

TYLER TOOK THE DOGS outside and waited, his breath clouding the freezing air.

He wasn’t in any hurry to go back inside knowing that Brenna was curled up in his den. She and Jess had picked a movie, and between the two of them they’d sentenced him to an evening of romance and sugar he was unlikely to survive without the support of a bottle of whiskey.

The choice didn’t surprise him.

He already knew Brenna was romantic. It was a side of her that would have surprised some people given her tomboy ways, but not him.

She believed in love and happy ever after, which was another reason he’d stayed the hell away from anything more than friendship with her.

Unfortunately, that plan had become more complicated since Jess had put her in the room next to him.

He breathed deeply and tried to banish what could only be described as inappropriate thoughts.

Brenna had been in his house a million times, and not once had it felt awkward.

Until tonight.

Not for one moment did he think his daughter had made up the room next to his by accident. Nor did he think relatives from England were likely to show up anytime soon, but he hadn’t wanted to embarrass Brenna by telling his infuriating, interfering family what they could do with their plans, especially as she already seemed embarrassed enough.

How was he supposed to sleep knowing she was on the other side of the wall?

Did she sleep naked?

From what he’d seen, there wasn’t much room in that suitcase for clothes.

He heard the front door open, and Jess came out to join him.

“Brenna is making hot chocolates. She does the whole thing, with whipped cream and marshmallows.”

“We don’t have any marshmallows.”

“She had them left over in her cupboard and packed them in her case.”

Which left even less room for clothes.

“Great.” He unzipped his coat to let the air cool his skin. “So if I wasn’t already going to die of a sugar overdose watching that movie you’ve both picked, I will now.”

Jess stamped her feet to stay warm. “I like having another woman around the house. I hope she stays forever.”

“You need to stop what you’re doing, Jess.”

“What? What am I doing?”

He preferred straight talking and saw no reason to change that approach with his daughter. “You need to stop trying to fix me up with Brenna.”

“Are you suggesting—?” Her mouth fell open, and he enjoyed her exaggerated display of surprise and offense for a moment before shaking his head.