“Sometimes, especially during the World Cup, but it’s hard for you. We all know that.” Jackson looked at him expectantly. “So?”
“So nothing.” Tyler put the ski down and decided it wouldn’t hurt to be honest. “I’m taking this a day at a time. Trying not to screw it up.”
“A day? Wow. That’s a long-term relationship for you.”
Tyler didn’t rise to the bait. “Instead of enjoying my pain, you could give me advice.”
“You’re asking for my advice?” Jackson grinned. “This is a first. Give me a moment to savor the experience.”
“You could offer up pearls of wisdom instead of gloating.”
“I could, but where would be the fun in that?”
“I need help not to screw it up.”
“Why would you screw it up?”
“Because I have every other time.”
His brother eased upright. “You won’t screw it up. If you do, Sean and I will kill you, slowly and painfully.”
Tyler watched him walk away, envying Jackson’s calm stability and the fact that he knew what he wanted.
He knew Brenna loved him, and the weight of responsibility was terrifying. It scared him more than any vertical drop he’d faced on the downhill circuit.
If this relationship went wrong he would hurt her badly, but what experience did he have in getting things right?
None.
He finished the skis, took a group of wealthy college kids for their first experience of powder and then went back to the house. Brenna had texted that she was planning to come back for an hour in the middle of her day.
He planned on surprising her.
With time to kill, he opened Jess’s laptop that lay abandoned on the kitchen table and started searching for gifts.
What did Brenna like?
He scrolled restlessly through pictures of sweaters, boots, books, DVDs but nothing caught his attention.
Then he switched to a jeweler but he couldn’t imagine Brenna having much use for dangling diamond earrings while she was skiing powder.
He could buy her skis, but she already had more than enough pairs along with several snowboards.
Pushing the laptop away, he sat back in the chair. He was useless at th
is. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what she liked, because he did, but nothing she liked could be wrapped up and stuffed under a Christmas tree.
Another hat?
No, because she loved her blue one. And he loved the way she looked in her blue one.
He was about to call his mother and ask if she had any ideas when he heard the doorbell.
Assuming Brenna had forgotten her key, he strode to the door and tugged it open, the smile ready on his face. “I thought I’d surprise you—” The words died in his mouth along with the smile when he saw who was standing there.
“That’s funny,” Janet said calmly, “because I thought I’d be the one doing the surprising.”
Tyler gripped the door frame, knuckles white, emotions slamming into him from all sides. “What the hell are you doing here?” He hadn’t seen her since the summer, on one of the rare occasions she’d come to see Jess.