A Magical Christmas. Elizabeth Rolls

like that to watch TV?”

      “No, Brenna is going out. She has a date with Josh.”

      “Josh?” Jess’s jaw dropped. Her expression went from astonished to horrified. “No way! You can’t do that.”

      Brenna shifted on those high heels. “Jess—”

      “I mean, that isn’t what—I wanted you to—” she shot an agonized look at her father “—why are you just standing there? Say something.”

      He didn’t trust himself to say anything civilized so he focused on his daughter. “Let’s go. I’ll give you a lift to Grandma’s.”

      “I can walk—”

      “No, you can’t. The weather is awful. Have a great evening, Brenna.”

      Jess planted her feet, more stubborn than the dogs. “Dad—”

       “Move!”

      “All right! Sorry for being alive.” Sending him a sullen look, she jammed her feet back into her boots and stomped to the car, a vision of injured innocence.

      It was a four-minute drive to his mother’s house, and Jess used every second of those four minutes to tell him where he was going wrong in his life.

      “Why are you letting her do this? She likes you, Dad!”

      “Sure she does.” Distracted, he drove too close to the side of the road. The snow was piled in deep mounds, and he felt the wheels spin. “That’s why she’s going out with Josh. Makes perfect sense.”

      “You are not allowed to do sarcasm. That’s my role. I’m the teenager, you’re the parent.” Jess clenched her fists in exasperation. “You didn’t see her the other night. We were watching you ski. She kept staring at the screen.”

      “If you were analyzing skiing then of course she was staring at the screen.”

      “That wasn’t what she was doing. She had this look on her face. Sort of faraway. And now she’s going out with Josh! Why are you letting this happen?”

      “Last time I looked, I wasn’t in charge of who Brenna dates.” He turned the wheel to the left and steered the car skillfully out of the deeper snow. The surface was slick. Dangerous. “That is a whole lot of snow. We need to get this road cleared again.”

      “Stop changing the subject. Brenna isn’t interested in Josh, Dad!”

      “Then why is she going out with him? If you’re such an expert, perhaps you can tell me that!”

      “I don’t know!” They were both yelling, and it struck him again how similar they were. It was like dealing with himself, and it wasn’t a comfortable situation.

      “In my experience a woman doesn’t dress up in heels and a killer dress to date a guy she doesn’t like.”

      “That’s the only dress Brenna owns. It’s not like she bought it specially or anything.”

      “How do you know that?”

      “I was with her when she unpacked, remember? She is a jeans-and-ski-pants person.”

      “So why is she going on a suit-and-tie date with Josh if she isn’t interested in him?” He almost laughed at himself. He was so messed up he was asking advice on women from his thirteen-year-old daughter.

      Jess stuck her feet on the seat and then caught his eye and put them down again. “Probably because you never asked her out yourself, and she wants to have a life. She doesn’t want to die old and withered without a sex life.”

      Tyler almost swerved across the road. “What do you know about—”

      “Don’t start, Dad. We are not going to have that conversation.”

      “Fine!”

      “Fine isn’t an answer.”

      He gritted his teeth as she threw his words back at him. “I see her all the time. Every damn day.”

      “You said damn. And seeing her around isn’t the same as asking her out on a proper date and giving her a chance to dress up and look cute.”

      “Brenna doesn’t need to dress up to look cute. She looks cute in jeans.”

      “Listen to yourself. How have you had so much success with girls? I don’t get it.” Jess bashed her head with her fist. “Dad, you need to do something. Go back there now and talk to her before Josh arrives.”

      Tyler pulled up outside his mother’s house. “Look, I appreciate your interest in all this, but I can’t have a relationship with Brenna just because you like her.”

      “You like her, too. You love her.”

      “I love her as a friend.”

      “Really? Then why have you been acting weird ever since she moved in? Why are you so angry she’s going on a date with Josh? If you were really just her ‘friend,’ you’d be pleased for her.”

      Tyler opened his mouth and closed it again. He stared at the door of his mother’s house, framed by tiny lights and winter greenery.

      Christmas.

      Family.

      Brenna wanted all that, he knew she did.

      “We don’t want the same things.”

      “How do you know? Did you ever ask her?”

      “I’m not good for women.”

      “Maybe it depends on the woman. And how you behave is your choice. You two are driving me crazy. ‘For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.’ Shakespeare had obviously never met you and Brenna.” Jess opened the door and jumped out, dragging her bag with her. “See you tomorrow, Dad. Try not to be a jerk.”

      “Wait. Jess, I want to talk to you about—”

      “Good night. ‘A thousand times good night.’ That’s Shakespeare, although why Juliet says it a thousand times, I don’t know. Probably because Romeo wasn’t listening the first time. Men should wake up and pay attention.”

      The door slammed.

      Tyler flinched.

      So much for open communication.

      Maybe Jess was right. Maybe he should go back and ask Brenna straight out why she was dating the chief of police.

      She’d tell him she’d always had feelings for Josh, and that would be the end of it.

      He drove back as fast as he dared and pulled up outside Lake House behind Josh’s cruiser.

      Relieved Jess wasn’t still sitting next to him, he cursed fluently and then strode into his house.

      The sound of laughter told him that whatever her reasons were for dating Josh, she wasn’t under duress.

      There hadn’t been a trace of a smile on her face when he’d been talking to her earlier.

      Tyler managed what he hoped was an approximation of a civil smile. “Josh! That weather must be keeping you busy.” But not busy enough, he thought savagely, because you’re in my house with your hands on my—

       My what?

       My woman?

      Brenna wasn’t his woman and never would be.

      “Nothing we haven’t handled before.” Josh gave him an easy smile, and if he was aware of any tension in the atmosphere then he gave no sign of it. Out of uniform he looked younger, more relaxed.

      Tyler guessed most women would find him handsome. He knew plenty who were interested. Including Brenna, it would seem.

      He