Sleigh Bells in the Snow(87)

“But he can’t race and he is so competitive. It would be like me no longer cooking for appreciative guests, just people like you.”

“Thanks. He was the same when we were kids. Had to be first down the mountain.” Brenna took a mouthful of pancake. “Trouble was, Jackson and I wanted to be first down the mountain, too.”

Kayla cleared her plate. “What about Sean?”

“He’s a good skier, but not like Tyler. Sean treats the mountain the way he treats everything else in life—as an intellectual challenge. He waited for us to fall and then picked up the pieces. The family drives him crazy. He doesn’t have Jackson’s patience. And talking of the family, have you talked to Walter about your idea?”

“Not since the meeting on the night I arrived here, which was an unmitigated disaster.” Remembering made her insides quail. But she also knew she needed his support. Kayla stood up. “I’m going to go and do it right now. I’ve been putting it off.”

“Walter can seem fearsome, but underneath he is a pussycat. I love him very much. I will give you pancakes for him. That will put him in an instant good mood.” Élise pulled open a drawer and found a container. “Wait for him to eat exactly two mouthfuls and then hit him with whatever you want to say.”

“Thanks. This was—” Kayla pulled on her coat “—it was fun.”

Brenna waved her fork. “When you’re ready to give us part two, send a text.”

“Part two is me going back to New York. I bought some gear yesterday by the way, so I’ll drop yours back to you soon, Brenna.”

“No hurry.”

It was still early and most of the occupants of Snow Crystal were asleep or occupied with breakfast. Her feet sank into new snow and she thought how peaceful it was, how restful. The cold froze her cheeks. Her breath clouded the air. The sky was a perfect winter blue. The only sounds were the occasional snap of a twig and the whispery rush of snow falling from branches onto the forest floor.

She followed the path to the old sugarhouse that was home to Walter and Alice, grateful for her new boots and jacket. Both were warm and fitted perfectly. As she rounded a bend in the trail she smelled wood smoke and heard the steady thump of an ax connecting with a log. There, in a covered area next to the house, was Walter with a pile of freshly cut logs stacked next to him.

Nerves fluttered in her belly. Everything she was hoping to do for Snow Crystal depended on this man’s support. “Am I disturbing you?”

That fierce blue gaze reminded her so much of Jackson. “So you haven’t gone back to New York then?”

“No.” She stamped her feet to keep warm. “I’m here for a week. Élise sent you pancakes and blueberries.”

“These aren’t real pancakes.” But he removed them carefully from the container and ate them with the little fork Élise had packed, one eye on Kayla. “Thought you might have run out.”

“I’ve never run away from a job.”

“You’ve been talking to people.” Walter pushed the log with his foot. “Asking a lot of questions. Heard you’ve been skiing, too.”

Kayla thought about the amount of time she’d spent horizontal in the snow. “I’m not sure you’d call it skiing. Other people seemed to be on their feet. I was mostly on my face.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “You were out there. That’s what counts.”

“I hope so.”

“So did you learn anything useful?”

She glanced around her. Saw pretty curtains in the windows of the house and a whisper of smoke rising from the chimney. “I learned I didn’t know much about the place when I arrived a few days ago. I talked when I should have listened.”

“So now you’re an expert?”

“An interested beginner. Jackson took me on a snowmobile.”

Walter grunted. “When I was a boy we used cross-country skis and hauled sleds. Back in those days we didn’t have ski lifts or fancy machinery to smooth the snow. If you wanted to go up a slope, you attached skins to your skis and you walked there.” He pushed the log with the toe of his boot. “It was all backcountry, and when I say backcountry I mean backcountry. We’d be out there in the wilds and the forest and not see another soul all day.”

“You skied, too?”

“We all skied. Had Jackson on skis before his second birthday. Same with Sean and Tyler. Tyler was only interested in going fast, but Jackson—” He paused, smiling as he remembered. “Jackson didn’t just love going fast, he loved the mountains and he wanted to know everything from what makes a slope likely to avalanche to how to check that the ice on the pond is thick enough for skating. If he found something difficult, he’d try harder. Every time he fell, he was up on his feet again. Didn’t matter if he was bleeding, he’d keep going until a job was done.”