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what age were you supposed to have that talk? He had no idea. He had no idea about any of it.
    And what was going on with school? He didn’t know, but it was obvious that something wasn’t right.
    He needed to spend more time with her, and the easiest way to do that was to focus on her skiing.
    Thinking about skiing helped him to relax. With that, at least, he was in his comfort zone.
    She was good, but having grown up in Chicago with a mother who hated everything about skiing, she lacked experience. Somehow he had to cram that experience in while still fulfilling his obligations to the family business. What she needed was more hours on the mountain with someone who had the ability to coach her.
    He knew he had the ability, if not the patience.
    Still, the prospect of training her lifted his mood. He might not be able to ski competitively anymore, but he could ski with his daughter. He saw a lot of himself in her, which was probably why her mother had all but kicked her out the winter before. Janet had tried everything in an attempt to stamp the O’Neil out of Jess, but nothing had worked.
    Pride mingled with the slow simmer of anger.
    The Carpenter family had paid a fortune to slick lawyers to make sure Janet had custody of Jess. For twelve years he’d had to put up with only seeing her in the summer and at Christmas, but then Janet had become pregnant again. The combination of a new baby and Jess hitting her teenage years had culminated in her sending Jess to live with him.
    Tyler had vacillated between relief and happiness that his daughter was finally where he’d wanted her all along, and fury and disbelief that Janet had sent the child away.
    As far as he was concerned, family was family, and they stayed that way even when the going got tough. You couldn’t sign off or resign. Walking away wasn’t an option. He’d been eighteen when Janet had told him that their single encounter had left her pregnant, and no matter what emotions had rippled through the O’Neil family at the time, he’d never doubted that he’d had their support.
    The Carpenter family had been less accepting, and Janet had never forgiven him for making her pregnant. She blamed him for the whole thing, as if she hadn’t been the one who had walked into the barn that day wearing nothing but a smile. And that blame had permeated her relationship with her daughter. It was no wonder Jess had arrived at Snow Crystal feeling insecure, unwanted and vulnerable.
    “What do you think, Tyler?”
    Realizing he’d been asked a question he hadn’t heard, Tyler woke up and looked at his brother. “Yeah, go for it. Great idea.”
    “You have no idea what I said.” Jackson folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. “This is important. You could try paying attention.”
    Tyler suppressed a yawn. “You could try being less boring.”
    “The high school ski team is a coach down. The team is losing more than they’re winning. They want our help.”
    “I said
less
boring.”
    His brother ignored him. “I said we’d help out at the school for a couple of sessions. We can talk theory and give a waxing demonstration.”
    “Waxing?” Kayla’s eyebrows rose. “We’re still talking skiing, yes? Not grooming?”
    Tyler gave her a look. “How long have you lived here?”
    “Long enough to know exactly how to wind you up.” Smiling, Kayla made a note on her phone. “Helping the high school team will be good publicity. I can do something with that locally.”
    Tyler stared moodily at his feet and waited for them to ask him to do it.
    Once, he’d skied alongside the best in the world.
    Now he was going to be coaching a losing high school ski team.
    Regret ripped through him along with sick disappointment and a yearning that made no sense. What was done was done.
    He was about to make a flippant comment about how he’d finally made it to the top, when Jackson said, “We thought Brenna might do it.”
    Brenna was the obvious person. She was a PSIA level