“Yeah, Brenna. You don’t ever want to make her mad, I can tell you that.” Sean gave a half smile. “You should have seen her, standing on the doorstep, letting rip. It was at least five minutes before either of them noticed us. Even Ash looked nervous.”
Tyler looked dazed. “Brenna let rip? But she never said a word to Janet in the past.”
“Then I’m guessing she’d been storing them up because she was throwing out plenty of words today. And they were very well-chosen words, most of them relating to the quality of Janet’s parenting skills.”
“Was she upset?”
“Janet? Not visibly, but she’s a cold fish. Nothing upsets her.”
“Not Janet—” Tyler frowned impatiently “—Brenna.”
“Angry,” Jackson said slowly. “She was angry. And then Jess came down and said she didn’t want to see Janet anymore and that you’d promised to fix it.”
Alice made a distressed sound but Tyler had his gaze fixed on his brother.
“And what did Janet say?”
“That you’d never kept a promise in your life.”
A muscle flickered in Tyler’s jaw. “So this lawyer friend of yours—” he looked at Sean “—can he fix it? Because if he can’t, we need to find someone who can.”
“I trust him. You can talk to him direct.”
“I’ll do that.” Tyler unzipped his jacket, sending snow flying onto the floor. “Are they both back at the house?”
“No. I think Brenna took Jess skiing.”
It made sense to him. Whenever life had been hard, Brenna took refuge outdoors. It was the place she went to heal and recover, and it was typical of her that she would have taken his daughter with her.
* * *
“I WISH I COULD ski like you.” Jess watched as Brenna carved another turn to demonstrate her point.
“You’re going to be better than me.”
“Never.”
“I mean it, Jess.” Brenna leaned on her poles, staring into the distance. Jess gave her a worried look.
“Are you upset about what happened with my mom?”
Was she?
She tested her feelings, hunted for the sense of panic and misery that was never far from the surface when Janet’s name was mentioned, but it had gone.
She’d faced something that terrified her and survived. Not only survived, she’d triumphed. She’d said what needed to be said and saying it had healed wounds she’d thought could never be healed. She felt different.
“Of course I was upset that she was there, but I think the two of us handled it.”
“You were awesome. Do you really think she was in love with my dad?”
“I don’t know. Actually, yes, I think she was. It would explain a lot.” Brenna drew a pattern on the snow with her ski pole. “How do you feel about it all? Be honest with me.”
“I want to stay here with Dad, and I’m terrified she might try and take me away to spite him.”
“That isn’t going to happen, Jess.”
“Are you sure?” There was uncertainty in her eyes. “Because if she does I’ll snowboard down the stairs every day until she lets me come home.”