Maybe This Christmas

“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.”