A Magical Christmas. Elizabeth Rolls

She chose her words carefully, hoping to heal not hurt. “We skied here so often. I can still hear his voice telling me to look at the gap between the trees, not the trees themselves.”

      “I think of him here, too.”

      Breaking her own rule, she put her hand on his arm. “There was so much good. He was fun. Adventurous, and he encouraged you to be adventurous. There wasn’t a single day when he wasn’t proud of you, when he didn’t encourage you. He was a skilled outdoorsman, and he saw those same skills in you. It was your dad who taught me to ski, and he was brilliant.”

      “His idea of teaching was to stand at the top of a vertical slope and say ‘follow me.’”

      “Exactly. My parents never let me do anything remotely risky. He encouraged you to pursue your dreams.”

      “And he pursued his own. A little too enthusiastically.” He drew breath. “I don’t usually talk about this. I guess because you knew him—”

      “I loved him,” Brenna said simply, and Tyler turned his head.

      His blue eyes fixed on hers, and she caught her breath because what they shared in that moment was intimate and deeply personal.

      “And he loved you. He thought you were the coolest girl on the slopes.”

      “I envied you so much because you had a dad who really understood your passion. Shared it.” Shaken by the strength of her feelings, she let go of his arm. “I tried to talk to my mother about it. I tried to explain how it felt to surf down soft powdery snow while the sun turns the forest and mountains from snowy-white to burned-orange. I tried to explain how when I’m skiing, all my problems vanish, how I can’t think of anything else but my skis and the mountain, how it clears my head and makes my heart feel free.”

      “She didn’t understand?”

      “She delivered a lecture on how education would be my ticket out of this place.” She’d never understood that Brenna would have been happy to ski the mountains around Snow Crystal for the rest of her life. That she hadn’t wanted that ticket. “Everything I ever wanted is right here, and she never understood that.”

      His gaze was fixed on her face. “What is it you want?”

      “The mountains. This life.” Tyler O’Neil.

      Careful not to reveal that part, she dipped her head and poked her ski pole in the deep snow. “I guess I’m lucky. Most people don’t get this close to living their dream. But I envied you that day. I imagined you going back and sitting round your kitchen table telling everyone about it. I bet Elizabeth made you hot chocolate.”

      “Probably. I’m guessing you didn’t get hot chocolate?”

      “I got a lecture on being responsible and how easy it was to sabotage a life by making bad choices.”

      He gave her a slow, wicked smile. “And let me guess, I was one of those bad choices she was warning you about.”

      Brenna’s heart skipped and bounced like skis on rough ground.

      “Only because she never understood that I would have done all those things even if you hadn’t been there.”

      “She didn’t approve of our friendship.”

      “My mother didn’t approve of anything I did. It wasn’t personal.” She frowned, because sometimes it had felt personal even though she knew it couldn’t be. The O’Neil family had never been anything other than warm and civil to Maura Daniels, so there was nothing to explain the frozen atmosphere except that she resented their lifestyle and their easy relationship with her daughter. “She didn’t like me spending time at your house, and I’ve never understood that.”

      Tyler reached out and brushed snow from her shoulder. “She was worried we were a bad influence. Three boys and her baby girl.”

      “Are you patronizing me?” Brenna raised an eyebrow. “I did everything you did. And most of the time, I did it better.”

      “I guess that’s why she was worried. Did your mother ever know you climbed out through your bedroom window?”

      “No. If she’d known, I would have been grounded for a month.”

      “If she’d known half the things we did together, she would have grounded you until you were eighteen.” There was laughter in his eyes, and she thought about how many times in her life she’d been ready to kill him for something he’d said or done, only to be cut off at the knees by that smile. All the anger, the irritation, the frustration, would leave her in a rush, leaving only one emotion. The most powerful emotion of all.

      Her heart fluttered as if trying to remind her of its existence. Awareness washed over her, warming her skin and stealing her breath. To him, she was a friend, but to her, he was always a man.

      She loved his strength and his unapologetic determination to live the life he wanted to live. He broke hearts but not promises, mostly because he never made any. To his friends and family, he was fiercely loyal and protective.

      What would it feel like to be kissed by him? For a fleeting moment she wished she were one of those women who flirted and enjoyed his attentions. Maybe their time with him was fleeting, but she was willing to bet they enjoyed every minute.

      His eyes held hers for a moment, and then he turned away. “We should go.”

      “Yes.” Her voice was croaky, but it didn’t matter because he was already skiing away from her, picking a route through the trees while she stood for a moment hoping that, on this occasion at least, he hadn’t been able to read her mind.

      When it came to her feelings, he was uncannily perceptive, which was why she’d learned to hide what she felt.

      She followed more slowly. This time she didn’t try to keep up, not only because the trees were closer together as they neared the bottom of the slope, but also because she didn’t trust her legs.

      They were shaky. Unstable.

      Deciding that thinking about kissing Tyler was a quick way to a serious accident in this terrain, she tried to focus on her skiing. She’d already fallen once. She wasn’t going to do it again.

      She reached the lift to find him already waiting for her, and as she removed her skis, her phone chimed.

      “Back to reality.”

      “You shouldn’t have had that switched on.” He sounded impatient. “Ignore it.”

      “I can’t. I’m supposed to be working.” Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she read the text. “I didn’t bother switching it off because there’s no reception in the trees anyway.”

      “Who is it?”

      “Kayla.” She texted back. “Emergency staff meeting at 7:45 a.m.”

      “Emergency?” Tyler dragged off his gloves. “My future sister-in-law has a strange definition of an emergency. For us it’s an avalanche. For Kayla it’s a journalist with a deadline.”

      Brenna smiled because it was true. “She has helped transform this place. She has a lot to do with the fact Snow Crystal has a future. And she and Jackson are so cute together. I never thought I’d see him so crazy about a woman.”

      Tyler bent to unfasten his boot. “Does it bother you?”

      “Why would it bother me?”

      “You had dinner with him a few times.” His voice was casual. “You’ve worked together for years. I wondered, that’s all.”

      “There’s never been anything between Jackson and me except friendship.” Whereas her feelings for Tyler were something different entirely. Not wanting to dwell on it, she slid her phone back into her pocket and bent to pick up her skis. “We’d better go back before they send out a search party.”