LITMIR.BIZ

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who had been more of a mother to her than her own. “Elizabeth, would it inconvenience you hugely?”

      “Stay with Elizabeth?” Kayla’s face fell, and she looked thrown, as if that option hadn’t crossed her mind. “Well, I er—”

      Elizabeth stirred. “I’m so sorry, dear, at any other time of course you could, I’d love having you, but I’m expecting hordes of relatives over from England.”

      “Relatives?” Jackson raised an eyebrow. “Which relatives?”

      “Very distant,” his mother murmured, “second cousins. You’ve never met them. They’re on my mother’s side. British. You know I have relatives you’ve never met.”

      “Hordes of them?”

      “I don’t exactly know how many,” Elizabeth said vaguely. “I issued an open invitation, which probably wasn’t very sensible now I think about it. They wanted to come to Vermont, and it’s always a little lonely in the house at Christmas, so I suggested they visit. Oh, what a nuisance. Such bad timing. I’m so sorry, Brenna.”

      “Lonely?” Tyler looked incredulous. “I would pay money to be lonely around here. The place is teeming with people night and day, and it sounds as if it’s going to get worse if Kayla keeps this up. We can offer many things at Snow Crystal but lonely isn’t on the list. Brenna, you can move in with Jess and me. You’d be doing me a favor. Otherwise, I’m going to turn round one day and discover Kayla has rented my empty rooms to tourists.”

      Kayla’s face brightened. “That’s a—”

      “Don’t even think about it,” Tyler growled. “Are we about done here? If there’s one guaranteed way of ruining a perfect powder day, it’s filling it with meetings.”

      “I’m done! I’m so glad it’s settled.” Kayla threw them all a look of relief. “Now I don’t feel so guilty. Oh, my goodness, is that really the time?” She glanced at her phone in a panic. “I have a press interview scheduled for nine. And, Tyler, one other thing. I have a reporter coming to ski powder with you this morning. Hope that’s okay.”

      “It’s one piece of good news after another,” Tyler drawled. “Which publication does he work for? Cartoon Weekly?”

      “He’s freelance, and his work is published everywhere from The New York Times to Outside magazine, but this is a piece for a ski blog. They’ve got half a million followers. He’s doing a piece on undiscovered ski resorts and happened to be in the area, so he called me first thing. Fantastic coincidence that you’re free. He’s going to live tweet it.”

      Tyler’s expression turned from menacing to stormy. “He’s going to what?”

      “Live tweet skiing with you.” Kayla avoided his eye as she typed an email on her phone. “He wants to give his followers a feel for what it’s like to ski with Tyler O’Neil.”

      “I hope his followers enjoy the part where he skis off a cliff.” Tyler rose to his feet, and Jackson sighed.

      “Sit down, Ty. They guy only has two hours to spare and it will be good publicity.”

      Tyler shrugged on his jacket, his powerful frame simmering with suppressed volatility. “I will take your stupid master class, I will help coach the high school team if I have to, but I am not pausing in the middle of a run so that some guy I’ve never met and don’t care about can share the experience of making first tracks in powder with another half a million people I’ve never met and don’t care about.”

      Kayla froze. Slowly, she let her hand drop. “I’m sorry. I can see I’ve overstepped.” She sounded contrite. “I thought it was a good idea.”

      Jackson smiled. “It was a good idea. Ignore him. He’s been indoors for a full five minutes. That always puts him in a filthy mood.”

      Tyler scowled. “If it’s such a great idea, you can do it.”

      “I would do it,” Jackson said calmly, “but no one is interested in skiing with me. You’re the one with the crowd-pulling power, although I’ve never been able to understand why, given that you’re such a moody son of a—”

      “Jackson!” Elizabeth gave her son a reproving look, and Jackson closed his mouth and shook his head.

      “We’re all doing what we can to get publicity for the place, that’s all.”

      Sensing that Tyler was about to combust and knowing that if that happened, they wouldn’t see him for the rest of the day, Brenna decided her own problems could wait. “The reporter can’t live tweet it. That isn’t possible.” Everyone turned to look at her and she shrugged, wondering why she was the only one who could see the problem. “If he only has two hours then that restricts where on the mountain he can ski. If he wants powder, then he’ll have to ski the runs above the resort and down into the glades, but he won’t be able to use his phone. There is no reception there. It cuts out constantly.”

      Jackson pulled a face. “She’s right. I hadn’t thought of that.”

      “And if he really wants to get a feel for what it’s like to ski with Tyler O’Neil,” Brenna continued, “then he’ll be skiing fast, hard and probably way out of his comfort zone. That is expert terrain. I’m assuming he’s an expert, but either way, he needs to concentrate or be killed. I suggest instead of live tweeting, which could easily become dead tweeting, he writes a piece afterward about how it felt. Maybe add a few quotes from Tyler.”

      Tyler’s eyes gleamed. “Great idea. Here’s a quote. ‘Get the hell off my mountain.’”

      Brenna suppressed the desire to laugh and a flash of envy that he was never afraid to speak his mind. “Give him my number, and I’ll give him some quotes on what it’s like to ski powder here.”

      Kayla bit her lip. “He thought if the world knew Tyler skied here, it would draw the crowds.”

      “I hate crowds.” Tyler’s tone was dangerous, but Jackson laughed.

      “I love crowds. Crowds mean business. It’s fine. Tyler will do it. If he doesn’t, I’ll kick his butt.”

      Tyler sent him a glance. “Can we live tweet that?”

      Now that the crisis was averted, Brenna’s mind drifted back to her own problem. They’d moved on. They were already talking about other things. This didn’t matter to them; it wasn’t significant. But to her it was hugely significant.

      Not just because she would no longer be living in Forest Lodge, which she adored, but that they expected her to move in with Tyler.

      She didn’t know which part upset her most—the fact that Kayla could have put her in this awkward position when she knew how Brenna felt, or the fact that Tyler clearly wasn’t bothered.

      If she needed further evidence of his lack of feeling toward her, she had it now.

      He didn’t see the situation as awkward because it wasn’t.

      To him, she was a lodger, nothing more.

      He wasn’t worried that he might bump into her in her underwear.

      Kayla was talking details. “The journalist will be here at 9:30 a.m. Will you do it, Tyler?” She looked anxiously at him, and he sighed.

      “Yeah, I’ll do it. But you owe me.”

      Kayla beamed, strode across the room and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you, have I told you that lately? You’re going to be a perfect brother-in-law.”

      “Going to be? I’m already perfect.” He glanced between Kayla and Jackson. “So have you two finally set a date to get this thing over and done with?”

      “This thing is called a wedding,” Jackson said mildly, “and over and done with isn’t the phrase I would have picked.”

      Kayla

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