Maybe This Christmas

by Sarah Morgan

  They both knew that what he really meant was that sounds like a pile of crap.

  Tyler agreed.

  Not that he didn’t love Snow Crystal, but they both knew he’d rather be racing.

  He realized now how much he’d taken it for granted. He’d treated it as a right rather than a gift.

  He half listened while Chas updated him on the individuals and their performances on the slopes, made the right noises and a vague commitment to watch the next race if he had the opportunity, then hung up feeling worse than he had before.

  The conversation had left him keenly aware of what he’d lost.

  It didn’t help that the one person who would have understood, his father, had been dead for almost two and a half years.

  Shaking off his black mood, he paced to the door of the main house where he and his brothers had grown up and where his mother still lived.

  It still gave him a pang to know that when he walked into the kitchen that had been the hub of the household growing up, his father wouldn’t be there.

  His mother loved to decorate for Christmas, and the evidence of that love was everywhere. Tiny lights were strung across the windows, and decorations sparkled through the glass. A festive wreath hung on the door, as it had every year for as long as he could remember. As a child he’d sat on the kitchen floor waxing his skis while his mother had worked magic from the tangle of forest greenery spread over the kitchen table. She’d snipped, weaved and pulled it all together into a wreath.

  Tyler pushed open the door. Sleigh bells jangled, announcing his arrival, and he blinked as he saw the number of people already seated around the table. Those numbers had increased over the past year. First Jess had joined them, then Kayla and finally Élise. She was often too busy running the successful restaurants at the resort to join them for family nights but tonight, perhaps because it was close to Christmas, she’d found the time.

  There were at least three different conversations going on around the table and Maple, Jackson and Kayla’s miniature poodle, greeted Tyler ecstatically, leaping up and down on the spot as if she had springs in her paws.

  Tyler stooped to make a fuss of her and then hung up his coat.

  His mother was busy at the stove while Jess was seated at the large scrubbed table, listening, rapt, while his grandfather, Walter, told a story about how he’d once met a moose when he was skiing. It was a story Tyler had heard a hundred times but it was new to Jess.

  “And did it move, Gramps, or did you have to ski around it?”

  “It stood there and glared at me, and I glared right back. I’m telling you, that animal was as big as a house.”

  Jess laughed, and Tyler noticed how her eyes sparkled as she listened to her great-grandfather. She soaked up every story about Snow Crystal, every morsel of information, as if trying to fill in the gaps and make up for the parts she’d missed by living so far away.

  His mood lifted slightly.

  If he’d still been skiing the World Cup circuit, he wouldn’t have been here when Jess had needed him.

  “You’re exaggerating, Walter.” Alice, his grandmother, slipped her glasses into her purse. “He always exaggerates. Ignore him, Jess.”

  “I am not exaggerating! Were you there?” Walter grunted. “This was in the days before ski runs and grooming machines. There were no chair lifts.”

  Jess leaned closer, her long hair sliding forward over her shoulder. “How did you get to the top of the slopes, Gramps?”

  “We walked! We attached skins to our skis, and we walked. We didn’t need machines to haul us to the top like you wimps do today. We used muscle.”

  Tyler saw his mother lift a large blue casserole out of the oven. “Let me get that for you. Apparently, I need to build muscle.” He crossed the room in a couple of strides, but she shook her head and placed the casserole in the center of the large table.

  “I lift heavier things than that in the restaurant every day, and if you build any more muscle, I’ll be sewing up your jeans even more frequently than I do already.”

  Kayla reached for her wine. “What happens to your jeans?”

  “Occupational hazard of being a downhill skier. I have muscles like Thor.” Tyler pulled out a chair and winked at her. “Starting to think you’ve picked the wrong brother?”

  “No.” Kayla looked him in the eye. “Muscles or not, I’d kill you.”

  “Only if I hadn’t killed you first.” The normality of the exchange lifted his dark mood, and Tyler took a beer from his brother. “Thanks.”

  “What took you so long?” His mother removed the lid, and delicious smells of cooking mingled with the scent of cinnamon and pine. “I was about to send out a search party! The others said you’d gone on ahead and then you never appeared.” She handed him a stack of plates, and soon the food and the conversation were flowing and the question of where he’d been vanished in the chaos.

  “I just spoke to Chas.” He didn’t mention the twenty minutes he’d stood in the forest, watching the snow fall and trying to pull himself together. He didn’t mention the sick feeling that came from knowing that the Ski World Cup was underway. He should have been traveling the world, skiing in a different country every week in his pursuit of the coveted crystal ball that came with winning what many believed to be the most prestigious title of all.

  He felt as if he’d been forced off a moving train and was watching while it carried on without him, leaving him stranded on a deserted platform.

  Except it wasn’t deserted.

  He had the business to think of. Responsibility. His family. Jess.

  His grandfather’s eyes brightened. “Chas is still the best tech on the circuit.”

  “Yeah.” Tyler sat down and moved a bowl of pinecones out of the way so he could reach the food.

  The house was always the same at Christmas. Vases were filled with branches of forest greenery, candles flickered on shelves next to handmade decorations. It was a home. Lived in and loved.

  Boots lay abandoned near the doorway, magazines stacked in an untidy heap on the table under the window. Since his mother had started working in the restaurant with Élise, she’d been spending less and less time in the house, something that Tyler and both his brothers had greeted with relief.

  Over the past year, she’d regained some of her old energy and enthusiasm for life.

  It also hadn’t escaped his notice that Tom Anderson, who owned a farm a couple of miles away, was a more frequent visitor than his role as a local supplier to the restaurant warranted.

  Tyler wondered if he was the only one who had noticed Tom’s visits were becoming increasingly regular.

  Jackson was seated across from him, his arm across the back of Kayla’s chair. “So where’s Chas right now?”

  “Italy. Val Gardena.”

  “Molto bene.” His older brother grinned. “You must be missing all the—er—pizza.”

  Tyler ignored the innuendo and pushed the bowl of fluffy mashed potatoes toward his grandfather. “The food is pretty good here.”

  “So what were you talking about for over an hour?”

  “I wasn’t talking to Chas the whole time. I encountered a moose the size of a house.”

  “Seriously?” Kayla put her glass down. “Because if that’s the truth, I want to know exactly where so I don’t walk that way.”

  “The moose would be more scared of you than you would be of him.” Jackson reached across the table for the salt. “You’ve lived here a year. You know that.”

  “I do not know that. The only moose I feel safe with is the chocolate variety Élise serves in the restaurant.”

  Jess giggled. “That’s a different spelling. Was there really a moose?”

  “Sure.” Tyler never missed an opportunity to tease Kayla. “It was hoping for an encounter wi
th a city-loving Brit so I gave it directions to Kayla’s barn. It should be snuggled up waiting for her when she gets home. I might have mentioned that Jackson wants antlers for the wall. He looked pretty annoyed.”

  “You’re not funny. Carry on like that and I’ll move back to New York.” Kayla glowered at him, and Jackson curved his arm round her shoulders in a protective gesture.

  “I’ve got your back, sweetheart.”

  “What about the rest of me?”

  Jackson dropped his eyes, and a smile flickered in the corner of his mouth. “I’ve got that, too. I promise to come between you and the moose from this day forward, for better for worse...”

  “Stop it! You’re freaking me out.” But Kayla leaned across to kiss him, and Tyler shuddered.

  “You’re freaking me out, too. I can only take so much romance on an empty stomach and anyway, we have children present. Keep it clean, people.”

  Jess straightened defensively. “I’m not a child.”

  “I know, but I’m using you as an excuse to stop this disgusting public display of affection, so if you could look shocked, that would be great.”

  Jess helped herself to potatoes. “I’m not shocked. They’re always kissing. You should be used to it by now.”

  “I’ll never get used to it. I’d rather watch ice dancing on TV.”

  “You hate watching ice dancing. Dad, can I have new skis?”

  He opened his mouth, caught his mother’s eye and remembered that he had to suppress the overwhelming urge to overcompensate for a less than perfect childhood and give Jess everything she wanted. “You already have skis.”

  “One pair.”

  “So? You have one pair of legs.”

  “How many pairs of skis did you have when you were racing?”

  “Sixty.”

  “Sixty?” Jess’s eyes were round. “No wonder you needed Chas.”

  His mother shook her head. “I remember days when I couldn’t move around this place for skis. Between your father and you three boys, we could have supplied the whole village.”

  The conversation turned to skiing as it so often did, and from skiing it moved on to the business.

  “Brenna should have joined us tonight. That girl is working too hard.” Elizabeth O’Neil checked that everyone’s plates were full. “I hate to think of her all alone in that cabin. You should have invited her.”

  “I saw you talking to her.” Across the table, Kayla sent him a look. “Did she mention my idea for offering a master class?”

  “She might have done.”

  “Great. So will you do it?”

  “Go easy on him.” Jackson picked up his fork. “He’s agreed to coach the high school ski team. There’s only so much bad news he can take in one day.”

  “I invited Brenna,” Tyler said, deliberately switching the subject as he heaped vegetables onto his plate. “She said she had things to do.”

  “You should have insisted.” His grandmother passed him a napkin. “She probably wanted to join us but was worried she might be intruding.”

  “That’s nonsense.” Walter gave a grunt. “That girl virtually grew up here. Why would she think she’s intruding? You can’t intrude when you’ve known someone for a lifetime.”

  “Then why isn’t she here?” Alice picked at the food on her plate. “Are you going to let her use Forest Lodge for the whole season, Jackson?”

  “Providing we don’t suddenly have a flood of bookings. And I invited her to join us, too, by the way. She said she was busy.”

  Distracted by images of Brenna in a wet, clinging sweater, Tyler turned his attention to his plate. “And if we do have a flood of bookings? You can’t kick her out.”

  “No. But we’d have to find somewhere else for her to sleep. Don’t worry. I doubt it will happen.”

  Kayla looked at him thoughtfully and then exchanged glances with Élise. “Don’t her parents live in the village? Couldn’t Brenna stay with them in an emergency?”

  “No way! She’d hate that,” Jess blurted out. “Her mom is a total neat freak. She wouldn’t let her have a dog or anything, because of the mess.”

  Tyler looked up from his food. “She told you that?”

  “We talk.” Jess fiddled with the food on her plate. “What? So she doesn’t treat me as if I’m six. Why is this news to everyone?”

  “I don’t treat you as if you’re six. And you’re right that Brenna wouldn’t want to live at home.” Brenna’s mother liked everything pristine. Maura Daniels would be out polishing windows while there was a foot of ice on the ground and most other folk were sheltering indoors.

  He used to joke with his brothers that she didn’t need a home-security system because her house was surrounded by an impenetrable wall of disapproval.

  “She’s not close to her parents.” Tyler wondered if he was the only one who really knew her. “Staying with them would drive her nuts.”

  “I bumped into her mother in the store last week,” Elizabeth murmured. “She barely acknowledged me. I swear you’d think we’d known each other three minutes, not thirty years.”

  “Cold as fish is Maura Daniels, and the husband’s almost as bad, although living with her, it’s not surprising. She’s frozen enough there are days a person could skate on her without risk of falling through the ice on the surface.” Walter slipped Maple some food under the table. “Don’t know how the pair of them produced someone as warm as Brenna.”

  “Is that why she spent all her time over here when she was young?” Jess asked, and Tyler saw his mother exchange looks with his grandmother.

  “She was an only child, and I expect she liked the company.” Closing down that line of conversation, Elizabeth started talking about plans for Christmas. “When will you be able to fetch me a tree, Jackson? I want one exactly like the one you found me last year.”

  Tyler pushed his chair away from the table and stretched out his legs. “I’m taking a trip into the forest tomorrow to look at one of the trails. I’ll pick one up for you.”

  “We need a tree, too.” Jess sat up straighter. “Can I come? Please? I want to help choose it.”

  “You’ll be at school.”

  “You could wait until I’m home.”

  “Then it will be dark, and I’ll risk chopping off vital parts of my anatomy along with the tree.” He saw her expression change from excitement to disappointment. “We’ll go on Saturday, after skiing. We have a vaulted ceiling. We can have a bigger one than Grandma.”

  His mother smiled, and Jackson picked up his beer.

  “If you’re picking up a tree for Mom, can you choose one for Moose Lodge, too? It’s booked from this weekend for a week and then the Stephens family is having it after that.”

  Tyler raised his eyebrows. “They’re back?”

  “Well, of course they’re back.” His grandfather gave a grunt. “That’s what Snow Crystal is about. Families returning over and over again. Making memories. The Stephenses have been coming here summer and winter for the past five years. Or is it six?”

  Jackson glanced up. “It’s six. And they’ve booked two weeks. Good to know what happened in the summer didn’t put them off.”

  Kayla shuddered. “Can we not talk about it? I still get flashbacks.”

  “You have flashbacks?” Cool and calm, Sean reached across the table for a knife. “You weren’t the one covered in the kid’s blood.”

  Catching sight of his mother’s white face, Tyler decided it was time to change the subject. “You may have fixed the boy, but I fixed the bike. I deserve some of the hero worship.”

  “Last time I talked to his dad, everything was fine.” Sean helped himself to more food. “No ill effects and the kid’s still riding that red bike of his, so I guess the whole incident scared us more than it scared him.�
�

  Tyler doubted his brother had been scared. Even as a child, Sean hadn’t been bothered by the sight of blood or bone. On the contrary, it had fascinated him, a factor that had no doubt influenced his decision to become a surgeon.

  “You called him?” Jackson reached for his beer. “That was nice of you.”

  “All part of the service.”

  Walter glanced at his grandson. “How is the new job working out? Are you missing Boston?”

  “I’m not missing the traffic. And it’s good to be closer to here.”

  “We love having you close by.” Elizabeth sneaked more potatoes onto Jess’s plate. “You need to keep your strength up. We have a lot of baking to do on Sunday, sweetheart. You’ll need to come over early. And if you want to spend the night on Saturday, that’s fine.”

  “I’m skiing. It’s race training. Dad’s coming.” Jess’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree, and Tyler put his fork down.

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Will Brenna be there, too?”

  “Yeah, she should be.”

  “That’s good. She’s a good teacher.”

  Jackson lifted his beer. “Which is why I suggested she coach the high school team. But you had to interfere.”

  “That’s right. I did.”

  “Mind telling me why?”

  “Because it’s Brenna’s idea of a nightmare. You shouldn’t have put her in that position.”

  “What position?”

  “Asking her to do something that’s hard for her when she already does so much for you.”

  “Why is it hard?” Jackson looked blank. “She’s the obvious choice. She teaches that age all the time.”

  His temper started to simmer. “But not the high school team. You’re asking her to go into the school. That place doesn’t have good memories for her.” He wondered how Jackson could possibly have forgotten, and then realized his brother had barely come up for air since the shocking discovery that Snow Crystal Resort was in serious trouble.

  As if to confirm that, Jackson stared at him for a moment, eyes blank and unfocused as if he’d suddenly walked into the light after a decade underground. “That was a long time ago.” He thought for a moment and then cursed under his breath, earning himself a reproving look from his grandmother. “It was thoughtless of me. So why didn’t she refuse?”