Snow Crystal Trilogy: Sleigh Bells in the Snow / Suddenly Last Summer / Maybe This Christmas
me to bring it over because he’s planning on showing you the charms of Snow Crystal.”
“You’ve spoken to Jackson?”
“Caught up with him in the bar last night. Told me you didn’t have the right gear.”
And that, Kayla thought, was an understatement.
Had he told Brenna about her undignified fall? Or, worse, about the meeting?
“Thanks for the clothes.” Pulling her professionalism around her like a cloak she moved toward the door, but instead of following her Brenna walked farther into the room.
“Do I smell coffee?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Great. You don’t mind if I help myself? Looks like you have plenty and I could do with some help waking up.” Brenna strolled to the kitchen and reached for a mug. “Need a top-up?”
“No, thanks.” She was already on her third cup, the caffeine pushing through her veins and kick-starting her sleep-deprived brain. What she needed was silence. What she didn’t need was to share her space with anyone.
The mornings were her time, before the madness of the day started in earnest.
But it didn’t seem to occur to Brenna that she might be intruding on anything. She walked around the cabin as if she owned it. Unlike Kayla, it didn’t take her five minutes of opening cupboards to find the mugs. She knew exactly where they were kept.
“I love this cabin, don’t you?” Brenna tugged off her gloves and filled the mug to the brim. “It’s my favorite. I could live here. I just love the shelf. The view is so perfect it seems like a total waste to fall asleep.”
“You’ve stayed here?”
“Once or twice. I live in town, but if the weather is bad I sometimes sleep over at the lodge and if Jackson is feeling generous he lets me use one of the cabins. Any excuse to sample Elizabeth’s cooking. Cooking isn’t really my thing. Apart from bacon. I’m good with bacon.” Brenna picked up the mug and nursed it, leaning her hips against the counter. “How was your welcome meal?”
“Welcome meal?” The mention of the night before was enough to make her feel as if she was rolling in snow naked.
“The pot roast. Elizabeth thought it would be the perfect meal to welcome you. She’s been planning it for days.”
“I didn’t stay to eat.” The revelation that the dinner had been especially to welcome her sharpened her guilt. “I had work to do. And I really should get on and do some more.”
“If you worked all last night you deserve a break. And talking of eating—” Brenna glanced around the kitchen. “Do you have any food?”
Kayla stared at her in desperation. “Food?”
“Breakfast?” Brenna lifted her eyebrows. “First meal of the day?”
“Oh—I—No, I don’t eat breakfast. I suppose there might be something in the cupboards, but really I should be getting on and—”
“You don’t eat breakfast?” Brenna sipped her coffee. “That will change when you’ve been here awhile. Breakfast is an important meal in the O’Neil household.”
When she’d been here awhile?
“I’m just here for a few days. Then I’m going back to New York.”
Brenna shuddered. “In that case, all the more reason to make the most of breakfast while you can. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted Elizabeth’s pancakes with maple syrup. Did you know they make their own maple syrup here? Come back in February and you can see them tapping the trees. They have a working sugarhouse.” She chatted away, open and friendly, apparently oblivious to Kayla’s discomfort.
“I won’t be coming back in February. I’m just here until Christmas.”
“You’ll be back. Everyone who visits Snow Crystal wants to come back. You’ll book a vacation.”
Kayla didn’t point out that if that were the case, Jackson wouldn’t need her help. “I don’t take vacations.” She cast a desperate glance at her laptop. “I should probably get dressed and I expect you’ll have finished your coffee by the time I’m done, so I’ll say goodbye and—”
“I’ll wait while you try it on. If nothing fits, we can sort something else out.”
Realizing that the sooner she did this the sooner she’d be allowed to get back to work, Kayla grabbed the box of clothes and retreated to the bedroom.
Guilt pulled at her.
Elizabeth O’Neil had spent all day in the kitchen preparing a meal to welcome her, and she’d rejected their hospitality and walked out.
How on earth was she was going to recover this situation?
Jackson had told her he was having trouble getting them to support his ideas. They were already suspicious of her as an outsider. Even more so since she’d acted like one.
Her head started to pound, and she rummaged through the box and found a pair of black ski pants. They fitted perfectly, as did the fleece zip sweater and ski jacket. Socks in her hand, she walked back into the living room.
“This is all great, thanks.”
“Wow.” Brenna whistled. “Ski pants make most people look fat. Not you. I might have to hate you.”
Join the rest of the O’Neils.
“Don’t bother. People will know I’m a fraud the moment I step onto the snow. Horizontal and soaking wet isn’t a good look.”
Brenna studied her over the rim of her coffee mug. “You don’t ski?”
“No. In fact I suspect I don’t do anything that is going to endear me to the O’Neil family.”
“They’re a sporty family but they’re not employing you for your ability to ski a double-diamond-black trail.”
Kayla felt a rush of despair. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s a difficult one that makes you want to throw up your breakfast. Hey—cheer up.” Brenna grinned. “We’re all expert at different things. I don’t know anything about public relations or whatever it is you do.”
Right at that moment Kayla didn’t feel as if she knew much about anything. Her confidence was at rock bottom. She sank down onto the sofa. “But you know Snow Crystal.”
“Grew up here. Went to school with the O’Neil boys, although they were a few years ahead of me. I skied with them. Followed them wherever they went.”
“Even down those—what did you call them?—diamond-black trails?”
“Those, too. Gave my mother panic attacks. Whatever they did, I had to do it, too, and they never once slowed down for me.” She grinned. “Bastards.”
Kayla remembered what she’d read about the O’Neil brothers. “And you run the ski program?”
“Yes. Although now Tyler’s back I guess that could change.” Brenna finished her coffee, strolled to the kitchen and rinsed her mug.
“What do you mean, now he’s back? Has he only just come back?”
“Tyler’s never been one to hang around Snow Crystal for long. Too wild.” Brenna bent to straighten her socks. “Came back for the funeral and then flew off again. He and Walter drive each other crazy. The more Walter tries to control him, the more Tyler rebels. It was the same when he was a kid. If Walter says white, Tyler says black. In many ways they’re alike but neither of them can see it.”
“So what made him come back?”
“Jess—that’s his daughter—announced she was coming