LITMIR.BIZ

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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 with 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

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