A Magical Christmas

“But that isn’t what would happen. That isn’t what he wants. If he found out, it would be hideously awkward.”

“Unless you’re wrong about the way he feels about you.”

“I’m not wrong. I know him as well as he knows me, and I know I’m not his type.” There were things that they didn’t understand. Things she’d never shared with anyone. “I think he’ll be dating Christy by next week.”

“Christy?” Kayla looked astonished at the suggestion. “No way. For a start, Tyler is a true outdoorsman, and Christy is most definitely an indoor girl. She’s worse than I am! If she breaks a nail, she needs therapy. She’d drive Tyler mad in under sixty seconds. You have totally got that wrong.”

“She’s the sort of girl he hung out with all the time on the ski circuit.”

“Maybe. But that was after the skiing had finished, and none of those relationships lasted.”

“He flirts with her all the time.”

“Tyler flirts with everyone under the age of fifty. It is how he communicates.”

“Not with me.”

Élise selected a pair of hand weights. “That is interesting, no? That tells you something.”

“Yes, it tells me he doesn’t see me that way. I’m someone to ski and climb trees with, not flirt with.”

Élise pushed the weights up from her shoulders. “Kayla is right. You two are perfect together.” The way she rolled her rs made her sound like a contented cat. “You may need to do something drastic and take control of the situation.”

“I’m already in control of the situation. I’m working very hard to make sure he doesn’t know how I feel.”

“Je ne comprends pas. This I don’t get.” Élise looked bemused. “Why would you not want him to know?”

“Because it would damage our friendship.”

Kayla leaned against the wall. “Perhaps it’s time to turn what you have into something more than friendship.”

Élise lowered the hand weights. “You should ask him straight-out and then there can be no mistake. With Sean, I made it clear I was interested.”

“It’s different.” Brenna reached for her water bottle. “You and Sean have crazy chemistry. You’ve always shared something special. I already know how Tyler feels, and it isn’t the same way I do,” she said quietly. “I’ve learned to live with that. I learned to live with all those photos and rumors when he was on the ski circuit. I suppose that’s one of the reasons the past year has been really special for me. With Jess living with him, the whole thing’s been easier. And because of work we’ve been spending more time together, and it’s been great.”

Élise looked perplexed. “So if you are really happy with the situation, then carry on.”

“That’s just it. I’ve been pretending that we can, but we can’t. It’s inevitable he is going to meet someone. I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be to live with that. What woman is going to want him being friends with me?” She sat down on the machine. “I’m wondering if the whole thing would be easier if I moved away.”

“You did that before.” Élise put the weights down. “Did it work?”

“No.” Suddenly, it felt difficult to speak. “He’s in my heart so wherever I go, he comes with me.”

“Oh, Bren, don’t say things like that.” Kayla’s eyes filled, and she lifted her hand to her mouth. “You’re making me cry, and I never cry. You are not moving away. You can’t! Don’t even think of it. You’re an essential part of the team.”

“Yes, without you, Kayla would turn into a lazy sloth.” Élise’s eyes were a little brighter than usual. “She needs you to help her keep that tight butt of hers. Without you, she’d sit at a desk all day.”

“Crap.” Kayla brushed her cheeks with the palm of her hand and sniffed. “Promise me you won’t do anything rash. Somehow we’ll fix this.”

Knowing Kayla’s formidable abilities to make things happen, Brenna came close to a smile. “Thanks, but even you can’t fix this.”

“Tyler hasn’t started seeing anyone yet. It might not happen.”

“It’s going to happen. He’s been putting his own needs second because of Jess, but if she’s encouraging him, then it’s going to happen. He’s gorgeous. Women are all over him.” She’d had to watch it her whole life. The way they looked at him. The lengths they went to get his attention. “I’m being stupid and pathetic. Ignore me. I’m tired. In fact, I think I’m going to skip the rest of our workout this morning.” She stooped and picked up her bag as Kayla exchanged looks with Élise.

“But you never skip our workouts. Never. You always say there isn’t a single thing in life that exercise can’t help with.”

“It can’t help with this. I need to get going and organize today’s lessons. I’ll see you later.”

There was no solution; she knew that.

She could move away, she could take another job on the other side of the world, but how did she get Tyler out of her heart?

KAYLA WAITED UNTIL the door closed behind Brenna and then breathed out heavily. “Look at me! I’m a mess.”

Élise looked. “C’est vrai. You are a mess. I thought you were a cool Brit who never cried. Your eyes are the color of tomato salsa. Or maybe purée.”

“Why does everything in your life have to have a culinary reference?” Kayla selected the camera app on her phone and checked her reflection. “Crap, you’re right. I’m never wearing makeup to have a conversation with Brenna again.”

“I have never seen her this emotional. She is a very calm, controlled person. It is the first time she has ever admitted her feelings.”

Kayla slid her phone in her bag. “It must be hell being in love with a man who isn’t interested. And when she said that bit about him being in her heart—” Her eyes filled again, and Élise glared at her in frustration.

“Merde, j’en ai assez, enough! What use is all this howling and sobbing? We need a plan.” She muttered something in French and spread out a yoga mat. “And he’s interested.”

Kayla sniffed. “I must admit I thought so, too. Did you see the way he took over in that meeting when Jackson suggested she go and teach in the school? I almost melted on the spot. The man would slay a dragon for her, and she can’t see it.”

“Mmm.” Élise looked thoughtful. “Fillet of dragon, dragon burger—”

“Stop thinking about food for five minutes! What I’m saying is that he is so protective, and he isn’t like that with anyone else. When I fell over on the ice the other day, he laughed and stepped over me, so why doesn’t he do something? Why hasn’t he made a move? He isn’t shy with women.”

“I don’t know why.” Élise twisted her body into a shape that could have been yoga or Pilates. “I don’t claim to understand the way a man’s brain works. Other parts, yes. But not the brain.”

“Maybe he doesn’t see her like that. He grew up with her. She’s like a guy to him.”

“No one could see Brenna as a guy.” Élise changed her position and stretched her limbs. “Perhaps it is lack of opportunity.”

“They see each other all the time. They have plenty of opportunity.” Kayla tilted her head to one side as she watched her friend. “Am I going to have to call the fire service to get you out of that position? How can you even do that?”

“I did ballet for a while. And they see each other at work, not at any other time.”

“That isn’t true. They had a drink together the other night.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I saw them walking toward Forest Lodge. He had his arm around her shoulder and they were laughing.” She raised her eyebrows as Élise sank elegantly into the splits. “I am not winching you out of that position.”

“He had his arm around her?”

“Yes. But it was more friendly than loverlike.”

“It must be very hard for Brenna.” Élise leaned forward, elegant and supple. “You’re right. That would have been the perfect opportunity to make a move.”

“Which suggests you’re wrong and she’s right. He isn’t interested.”

“Or that he is holding back.”

Kayla pondered. “If that’s the case, then he needs to be pushed outside his comfort zone. They need time together. At least then we’d find out one way or another.”

“D’accord. I’m so over this will-they-won’t-they crap. It’s blowing my brain.”

“But how do we engineer that at the beginning of the busiest season we’ve had for years? They’ll be lucky to meet in passing on the ski slope.”

“I am a chef, not Cupid. And I am not good with the indirect approach you all seem to use. If I were Brenna, I would simply say, ‘Tyler, all my life I find you very hot and now I’d like to have sex with you. Yes or no?’”

Kayla grinned. “Is that what you did with Sean?”

“No, with Sean I didn’t ask. I took what I wanted.” She stretched her arms above her head. “I ripped his clothes off, and he ripped mine right back.”

“There is no way Brenna would ever do that. Nor would she tell Tyler she finds him hot and wants to have sex. She’s pretty shy about that sort of thing. And traditional. If anything is ever going to happen between them, he needs to make the first move.” She watched in fascination as Élise raised her legs up slowly and lowered them again. “We need a plan.”

“Brenna will not thank you if you interfere.”

“I don’t want thanks, and I will interfere gently. She won’t know.”

Élise stood up in a graceful movement. “Me, I still prefer the direct approach, but we’ll try it your way first. Now stop watching me and do some exercise yourself.”

BRENNA SAT IN BED high on the shelf of Forest Lodge, her hands curved around a mug of herbal tea. Her alarm wasn’t due to go off for another hour, but she’d lain awake for half the night, thinking about Tyler.

Forest Lodge had a luxurious bedroom on the floor below, complete with bathroom and a private hot tub outside the door, but she chose to sleep up on the mezzanine floor because she loved the view. She lay snug in the bed, looking through acres of glass to the forest beyond. It was like living in a tree house, the view more breathtaking than anything an artist could produce with oils and canvas.

It was still dark outside, but the snow was luminous in the moonlight and she could see the forest smothered in another deep coating of winter-white. It draped itself over the trees in extravagant folds, blunting sharp lines, the weight of it causing branches to droop.

Who needed a Christmas tree when every day at Snow Crystal during the winter was like Christmas?

Kneeling on the bed, she peered through the gaps in the trees. She was just able to see Lake House, where Tyler lived with Jess.

She’d spent so many happy summers and winters in these woods along with three generations of O’Neil men—Sean, Jackson and Tyler, their father Michael and their grandfather, Walter—exploring the outdoors, transforming rambling, tumble-down structures into something habitable. She’d hauled bricks, sanded wood and stood knee-deep in the lake while they’d built a deck. Somewhere out there was a tree where she’d carved his name.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love her parents, but sometimes it felt as if she’d been born into the wrong family. They didn’t understand her love of the mountains and the outdoors, and they certainly didn’t share it. When her parents had thought to dampen her love of the mountains and skiing by refusing to fund her equipment needs, Michael had given her Tyler’s old skis and let her keep them at Snow Crystal.

Brenna had never understood her mother’s hostility toward the O’Neils, who were well liked and respected by everyone else in the county. She’d decided it was just that Maura Daniels was violently opposed to anything to do with skiing and winter sports. She shut the snow out of her small, pristine house and complained endlessly about the long, cold Vermont winters until it sometimes seemed to Brenna that the mountains must have offended her personally in some way.

And so she’d lived her life growing up in one house but spending all her time in another until the day she’d found out Janet Carpenter was pregnant.

It had been the worst day of her life.

She’d vanished into the mountains for two days without telling anyone where she was going.

It had been Jackson, home from college for the summer, who had found her.

Strong, steady Jackson, who had ignored the orders of her parents, his parents and the mountain rescue team and trekked on foot to the ridge where they’d often camped out as children, following a hunch.

He’d wanted her to talk about it, but she’d kept her mouth clamped tightly shut because she always found it easier to keep things inside than let them out.

Strangely enough, that had been the one time in her life when her mother had been a comfort. It was as if finally she knew what her daughter, alien to her in every other way, needed.

It had been her mother who had urged her to get up in the morning, wash her hair, get dressed and keep going through another year of school. It had been her mother who had fed her homemade soup, spoonful by spoonful, and held her when she’d cried.

They’d never talked about the details, but for once her mother had stopped nagging her and shown a kindness and empathy Brenna hadn’t witnessed before or since. It was a painful irony that the worst time of her life had also been the best.

Then Tyler had been given his place on the U.S. ski team. From that moment on he’d been away, traveling from one place to another and not coming home in between, so there were months when the only time she saw him was on TV.

She’d trained as a ski instructor and worked for four years with Jackson in Europe, in the hope that distance might kill those feelings, but Tyler was skiing in Europe, too, and she’d frequently joined the family to watch him race.

She’d watched as his star had risen and he’d won medal after medal, skiing faster, harder than anyone else, his sheer talent and aggression on the mountain setting him apart from the others. The media described him as ferocious and fearless on the slopes, but she just saw him as the boy she’d skied with since she was a toddler.

She understood him.

She understood it wasn’t ambition that drove him, but a love of speed. The media accused him of being ruthlessly competitive and he was, but she knew the person he was competing against was himself. She’d spent hours alone on the mountain with him, watching him tackle new routes, seemingly impossible angles and slopes. As he’d pushed himself to the limit, she’d been the only witness.

Pulling a warm fleece over her pajamas, she walked down the curving staircase that led to the ground floor and was about to make herself another cup of tea when she saw him standing in the door.

For a moment she wondered whether her mind had conjured him, but then she saw him smiling and pointing to the snow.

Wishing she were wearing something other than pajamas, she walked across and opened the door. A blast of ice-cold air almost knocked her off her feet, and she snuggled deeper into the fleece. “Is something wrong? It’s the middle of the night!”

“Nearly dawn, and we need an early start if we’re going to get first chair.”

First chair? “You want to ski?”

“Have you seen the snow? Take a look over my shoulder.”

“I already did.”

Later the air would be filled with the shrieks of happy, excited children but for now Snow Crystal was enveloped in that strange, eerie silence that always followed a heavy snowfall.

“It’s a perfect powder day.”

“Yeah, and before we devote it to other people, I thought we should take time for ourselves. An early Christmas present. Time to head to the office, Ms. Daniels, before the rest of the world arrives. Get dressed and let’s go ride some powder.” His eyes were a lazy, sleepy blue, the only color in a world that had turned white overnight, and she stood for a moment, mesmerized.

“Now?”

He gestured with his head. “There is three feet of untracked snow out there waiting for us. You should already have your feet in your boots.”

She knew plenty of locals, civilized people at all other times, who would kill each other to be first on the four-person chairlift up the mountain on a day like today. “There will be a line for first tracks.”

“All the more reason not to hang around. I’ll give you two minutes to get dressed.” He was wearing a hat pulled down low over his forehead, and his hands were thrust into the pockets of his coat. Judging from the stubble shadowing his jaw, he hadn’t wasted time shaving. His smile was sure and confident and she wondered if any woman had ever said no to him.

Awareness dragged low in her stomach. “We have a full day of work ahead.”

“All the more reason to make the most of the next few hours. Or you could go back to bed and have another hour of sleep if that’s what you prefer.” The gleam in his eyes told her he knew the answer to that.

“I wasn’t asleep.”

“I never had to work this hard to persuade you when we were teenagers. I smuggled you out of your window more than once.”

“That was a long time ago!” A lifetime. Before Janet. “We’re adults now. Responsible.”

“Too much responsibility is bad for a person. I’ll be responsible after 8:30 a.m. The whole mountain will have been messed up by then anyway, but for now I’m on my own time. Come on.” His voice was deep and persuasive. “If I have to spend my day skiing with people who don’t know a ski pole from the North Pole, the least you can do is let me have some fun with you first.”

Élise would have used that as an opening. Élise would have flirted, or maybe even dragged him over the threshold and back to the bed that was still warm from her body.

Maybe she should try.

“You could come in for a while,” she said casually, and he frowned.

“What would be the point in that? You haven’t turned into one of those women who takes ages to get dressed in the morning, have you? I remember you once pulling your ski pants on over your pajamas. I’ll wait here while you change.”

She felt the color rush into her cheeks. How were you supposed to flirt with a man when he didn’t even know you were flirting?

“Why me?” Her voice was a croak. “You could have skied with your brothers.”

“Too complicated and anyway,” his tone was ultra casual, “I enjoy skiing with you.”

It was the one thing they shared. The one thing she had that other women didn’t.

The ability to keep up with him.

“I’ll be out in two minutes.”

He gave a slow, sexy smile. “Make it one minute. We need to make the most of the quiet time. God knows there’s little enough of it round here with visitor numbers increasing.”

She understood, because she felt the same way. Like Tyler, she’d always rather be outdoors than indoors. “Where’s Jess?”

“She slept overnight at my mother’s. They were stocking the freezer for Christmas. There’s a strong chance school will be canceled this morning, and if it is, I’ll ski with her later. If not, Mom will take her to school. Now hurry up and get dressed before the rest of the village beats us to it.”

Trying not to read anything into the invitation, Brenna dressed quickly in her ski gear, grabbed what she needed for the day and joined him outside.

He drove to the base of the quad lift that carried four people at a time up the mountain. It had been replaced a few years previously, and the new lift had fewer problems with the ice and cold weather.

It was still dark and, despite her predictions, they were the first skiers on the lift.

Tyler brushed the snow from the seat, and Brenna settled next to him on the chair, her thigh pressing against his. They sat in silence, enjoying the slow glide of the lift as it carried them smoothly up the mountain. From here she had an aerial view of winter perfection. She looked down at the trees and narrow trails, mentally plotting a route, trying not to think about the pressure of his leg against hers.

It was bitterly cold, and she snuggled deeper inside her jacket, her shoulder resting against his.

How many times had they done this? Sat side by side watching the sun rise over the ridge, the light dazzling and dancing over the untouched surface of new snow, the ice crystals sparkling under the warm blue of the winter sky.

As they skied off the lift and paused at the top, Tyler turned to her. “Glad you didn’t stay in bed?”

“Yes. I love the way the forest feels after snow.” No possession, nothing she’d ever owned, could be this beautiful or give her the same kick of excitement as nature did when she shone light down on the mountains and forest. “This is perfect.” And being with him made it all the more perfect.

It was because she was thinking about him and not concentrating that she caught an edge and landed flat on her back.

“Oh, crap.”

Laughing, he skied over to her. “I can’t remember the last time I saw you fall.” As she struggled to sit up, he reached into his pocket for his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Savoring the moment. And gathering photographic evidence.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I’m kidding.” Still laughing, he slipped the phone back into his pocket, reached out and hauled her to her feet.

Her ski tangled with his, and he slid slightly and clamped her hard against him to stop them both falling.

She rested her hand on his shoulder to steady herself, looking first at his jaw, then at his mouth and finally his eyes.

Serious eyes, all suggestion of laughter gone. “All right?”

“I’m good.”

His gaze held hers for a moment, and then he released her, disentangled their skis and turned toward the trees.

For him, the moment had passed but her mind, her memory, was full of moments like this. His name wasn’t just carved on a tree somewhere, it was carved in her heart.

She stood still, watching him move fluidly through the deep snow. He made it look effortless and easy as only an expert could.

It didn’t matter whether he was bombing from the top to the bottom in a World Cup downhill, floating through deep snow or arcing on groomers, he was the best. A supreme athlete, in tune with his surroundings. In a sport where the difference between winning and coming in second was the matter of a hundredth of a second, he had been right at the top of the game.

She followed as he took a route through three feet of perfectly layered snow, instinct and local knowledge helping him find the perfect path through the deep powder. He was a skilled, aggressive skier, attacking the slopes with no visible signs of fear, regardless of the conditions. She heard him whoop as he executed a run of smooth, perfect turns, gliding through the snow with fluidity and rhythm. She followed as he swooped down into the glades, and they weaved through snow-sculpted trees, their branches misshapen and heavy from the weight of their winter load. The only sound was the whisper of skis and the soft thud of snow falling on snow as they wound their way through hardwood forest toward the main part of the resort.

Eventually, he paused, and she stopped next to him in the clearing, her cheeks stinging from the cold, her breath clouding the air.

“That was incredible.” The early morning sun danced across the surface of the new snow, and ice crystals sparkled like spilled sugar. High in the trees a pair of chickadees were singing, and the sky behind them was an unblemished blue.

“It’s the best time of day.” He tugged off a glove and lifted his ski goggles. “It’s going to be a good one.”

It had already started in the best possible way.

“Thanks for asking me to join you. Most people would kill their neighbor for first tracks.”

“Hey—” he turned his head and gave her a smile that connected straight to her knees “—I still made first tracks. You were behind me.”

She pushed him but he didn’t budge, rock solid on his skis. “Next time, I’m going first.”

“If you can catch me, you’re welcome to go first.”

“Remember when we used to skip school and come up here?” She leaned on her ski pole. “We felt as if we owned the mountain.”

“We did.”