Walter grunted. “So why is he working in Boston? If he worked here, he could help out at Snow Crystal when he isn’t fixing bones.”
Sean didn’t respond, but Kayla saw a muscle flicker in his cheek.
Elizabeth sighed. “Do we have to talk about bones at the lunch table?”
“You’ve raised three boys. No way can you be squeamish. And anyway, you should be proud of him.” Walter tried to sneak a slice of turkey onto Jess’s plate. “Just try one small slice. It will make you big and strong.”
“I didn’t say we weren’t proud of him,” Elizabeth murmured, “just that I didn’t want to talk about surgery over lunch.”
“I don’t want her any stronger than she already is or she’ll be beating me down that slope.” Tyler forked the turkey from Jess’s plate onto his own. “She’s faster than I was at her age. And faster than you, Gramps.” He pushed the vegetables toward Jess, and Walter brandished the carving knife.
“In my day we didn’t have all the fancy equipment you have now.”
“She’s more stylish than you, Tyler.” Brenna helped herself to potatoes. “Your aim was to get down the mountain as fast as possible. You didn’t care how you looked.”
“The point is to get down as fast as possible.” Tyler’s eyes glittered. “And I looked awesome.”
“You crashed all the time. Jess is amazing.”
Basking in the attention and love, Jess glowed like the flame of a candle.
Family could be like a cushion, Kayla thought. Something soft to protect you from the blows of life. You couldn’t stop the blows happening, but if you had people who cared around you then the blows hurt less.
She’d learned to live without that cushion. She’d learned to protect herself from the blows of life, but she’d done it by avoiding anything that might hurt. She’d avoided relationships so she didn’t have to nurture herself through the pain of an ending.
And she’d avoided Christmas.
She rubbed her hand over her stomach, realizing that she hadn’t reached for indigestion tablets since that first night with Jackson.
“Are you hungry, honey?” Alice patted her hand. “Sean, put some turkey on this poor girl’s plate before she starves.”
They noticed everything. They looked out for each other. They even looked out for her.
Kayla’s throat thickened. She’d come here to escape Christmas, and ended up being immersed in it. She’d been cushioned from the usual bruises by the O’Neil family.
By Jackson.
She turned her head and saw him laughing at something Tyler had said.
He’d dropped everything to come home and support his family. He was there for them, all the time, even when they drove him crazy, because Jackson O’Neil wasn’t a man who walked away.
She thought about that first night when she’d messed up her presentation and he’d insisted she stay. She thought about the night she’d been on her own and miserable and he’d refused to leave her. She thought about the sled ride through the forest and the times they’d laughed. And she thought about making love with him.
It had felt perfect, and the things that made it perfect were the same things that made him absolutely, totally the wrong man for her.
She sat still, frozen by the realization that she’d allowed herself to care.
How had that happened? How?
“Time for presents!” Jess leaped up from her chair, and Maple barked furiously, fired up by the excitement in the room.
Kayla stood, too, like a robot executing a preprogrammed movement. “I ought to be getting back to my cabin.”
She shouldn’t have come. She should have worked, instead of allowing herself to spend time with them.
“You can’t leave now!” Elizabeth took her hand and squeezed. “We’re opening presents. You’re part of that. Let’s go into the living room. We can clear up later.”
Before she could even draw breath, Kayla was seated by the Christmas tree she’d helped decorate days earlier.
Maple jumped onto her lap, and Kayla hugged the dog, trying to work out how she’d got in so deep so fast.
Jess was on her knees in front of the tree, sorting through presents.
“This pile is for Grandma—” She read labels and handed out presents while Kayla sat, awkward and self-conscious, grateful for Maple.
“This pile is for Kayla—” Jess dropped them onto her lap next to the puppy, and Kayla stared at the prettily wrapped gifts.
“What are these?”
“Your presents.” Jess passed two to Elizabeth and one to Jackson, while Kayla sat there, clutching parcels, her feelings raw and exposed.