don’t have a sweater that’s fancy enough.”
“I’ll call Kayla,” he said desperately. “According to Jackson, she brought half of New York City with her when she moved. He’s thinking of giving her a room especially for her clothes.”
“I’ll wear my coat. And Josh’s car will be heated.”
And she’d be in that car. With Josh. With those mile-long legs on display in those mile-high heels.
“You might be better in snow boots.”
“Snow boots?” She looked at him as if he’d gone crazy.
“We had two feet of snow this weekend.”
“But not in the restaurant, I hope.”
“How are you going to get from the car to the restaurant?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve been skiing Devil’s Drop since I was six, so I think I can manage to walk up a path.” Her eyes glinted with anger. “What is wrong with you?”
That was a question he couldn’t answer. “I didn’t have the best day.” But nowhere near as bad as his evening was going to be. “Look, I was hoping we could talk about Jess. She said something today. Has she confided in you? Said something?”
“Confided generally means someone doesn’t want you to disclose information.”
“But this is Jess. If you knew something bad was happening, you’d tell me, right?”
Her eyes skidded from his. “You should be having this conversation with her, not me.”
“I’m having it with you. She’s my daughter, Brenna! She’s vulnerable. If you know something, you should tell me.” He broke off as the door opened and Jess barreled in with two thoroughly overexcited dogs.
“I decided to walk the dogs now instead, so I’m going to Grandma’s and taking my English assignment with me.” Freezing air and snow followed her into the house. “Can you give me a lift, Dad?”
Ash shook himself, sending snow flying, and then caught sight of Brenna and bounded toward her.
“Sit!” Tyler roared, and the dog skidded to a halt and plopped onto the floor with an offended whine.
“We’re on our third lesson with Dana. He’s trying so hard.” Looking proud, Jess toed off her boots and then took her first proper look at Brenna. “Wow, you look amazing. Dad, you need to get changed. Wherever you’re going, if she’s wearing that, you can’t wear jeans.”
Tyler clenched his jaw. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“Brenna’s dressed like that to watch TV?”
“No, Brenna is going out. She has a date with Josh.”
“Josh?” Jess’s jaw dropped. Her expression went from astonished to horrified. “No way! You can’t do that.”
Brenna shifted on those high heels. “Jess—”
“I mean, that isn’t what—I wanted you to—” she shot an agonized look at her father “—why are you just standing there? Say something.”
He didn’t trust himself to say anything civilized so he focused on his daughter. “Let’s go. I’ll give you a lift to Grandma’s.”
“I can walk—”
“No, you can’t. The weather is awful. Have a great evening, Brenna.”
Jess planted her feet, more stubborn than the dogs. “Dad—”
“Move!”
“All right! Sorry for being alive.” Sending him a sullen look, she jammed her feet back into her boots and stomped to the car, a vision of injured innocence.
It was a four-minute drive to his mother’s house, and Jess used every second of those four minutes to tell him where he was going wrong in his life.
“Why are you letting her do this? She likes you, Dad!”
“Sure she does.” Distracted, he drove too close to the side of the road. The snow was piled in deep mounds, and he felt the wheels spin. “That’s why she’s going out with Josh. Makes perfect sense.”
“You are not allowed to do sarcasm. That’s my role. I’m the teenager, you’re the parent.” Jess clenched her fists in exasperation. “You didn’t see her the other night. We were watching you ski. She kept staring at the screen.”
“If you were analyzing skiing then of course she was staring at the screen.”
“That wasn’t what she was doing. She had this look on her face. Sort of faraway. And now she’s going out with Josh! Why are you letting this happen?”
“Last time I looked, I wasn’t in charge of who Brenna dates.” He turned the wheel to the left and steered the car skillfully out of the deeper snow. The surface was slick. Dangerous. “That is a whole lot of snow. We need to get this road cleared again.”
“Stop changing the subject. Brenna isn’t interested in Josh, Dad!”
“Then why is she going out with him? If you’re such an expert, perhaps you can tell me that!”
“I don’t know!” They were both yelling, and it struck him again how similar they were. It was like dealing with himself, and it wasn’t a comfortable situation.
“In my experience a woman doesn’t dress up in heels and a killer dress to date a guy she doesn’t like.”
“That’s the only dress Brenna owns. It’s not like she bought it specially or anything.”
“How do you know that?”
“I was with her when she unpacked, remember? She is a jeans-and-ski-pants person.”
“So why is she going on a suit-and-tie date with Josh if she isn’t interested in him?” He almost laughed at himself. He was so messed up he was asking advice on women from his thirteen-year-old daughter.
Jess stuck her feet on the seat and then caught his eye and put them down again. “Probably because you never asked her out yourself, and she wants to have a life. She doesn’t want to die old and withered without a sex life.”
Tyler almost swerved across the road. “What do you know about—”
“Don’t start, Dad. We are not going to have that conversation.”
“Fine!”
“Fine isn’t an answer.”
He gritted his teeth as she threw his words back at him. “I see her all the time. Every damn day.”
“You said damn. And seeing her
