Brenna felt her cheeks burning. “That isn’t true.”
“You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t lie to me. He was a bad influence on you growing up, and he’s a bad influence on you now. You’re throwing your life away because of that boy.”
“It’s my life, and I don’t consider I’m throwing anything away. I love Snow Crystal. It’s where I want to be.” And he’s not a boy. She thought of Tyler’s broad, muscular shoulders, the athletic power of his body and the dark stubble that grazed his jaw. Oh, no, not a boy. He was all man.
“Would you want to be at Snow Crystal if he wasn’t there? You’re making a fool of yourself, that’s what you’re doing and embarrassing all of us.”
Brenna gripped her mug. “How am I embarrassing you?”
Tight-mouthed, her mother whisked eggs and tipped them into the pan. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you?”
“Tell you what?”
“That you’ve moved in with him. I’m your mother, and I have to be the last to know my daughter is living with Tyler O’Neil.”
She knew?
Brenna’s stomach lurched, and she cursed herself for not anticipating that possibility. “Mom—”
“Instead of hearing the news from my own daughter, I had to hear it from Ellen in the store. How do you think that made me feel?”
“How does Ellen know?”
“How does anyone around here know anything? Because people talk.”
The thought of everyone gossiping made Brenna squirm. It was like school all over again, everyone whispering about her. “I’m not living with him, Mom! I’m staying in his house, that’s all, and it happened a few days ago. Business is looking up. They needed to book out the lodge and I needed somewhere to stay. I’m a grown woman, and I make my own decisions. Get off my back!”
“You could have stayed here. Your room is there for you, same as it has always been.”
Heat pricked the back of her neck. “I start work early and finish late. With bad weather coming, I don’t want to have to make the drive every day.”
“We both know that’s not the reason why.” Her mother tilted the pan, adjusted the heat. “He was wild as a boy, and he’s wild as a man. The Carpenters have never forgiven him for what he did to Janet.”
“You make it sound like he assaulted her or something, and we both know that isn’t what happened. Why does everyone blame Tyler? Janet was at least half responsible.” In her head, more than half. But there were things Brenna knew that she hadn’t shared and never intended to. What was the point? “And Jess is wonderful.”
“I don’t blame the child. It can’t have been easy for her growing up as Tyler O’Neil’s daughter.”
“She’s proud of him. She adores him. And he’s a good father. He shows an interest in her. He accepts her as she is.” She added as much emphasis as she dared and tried to ignore the fact that her own father hadn’t once joined in the conversation. “The O’Neils fought to keep Jess. It was Janet who took the baby away.”
“Don’t think I have any sympathy for that woman, because I don’t.” Her mother tipped a perfect omelet onto a plate and placed it in front of Brenna. “You still haven’t told him, have you?”
“Told him what?”
Her mother paused. Looked her straight in the eye. “You haven’t told him that Janet Carpenter was the one who bullied you at school.”
Sweat drenched her, and she started to shake.
How could it still affect her so badly after so many years?
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
“You never did.” Her mother dragged open a drawer and removed a couple of forks. “That girl made your school life a misery, but you never told him.”
“How could I? She’s Jess’s mother. If I told him what happened, everything would be even more complicated. It would be awkward for him and awful for poor Jess.”
“I lost count of the number of new schoolbags and coats I had to buy you.”
That hadn’t been the worst part. No, the worst part had been the words that had carved chunks out of her confidence.