Why hadn’t it occurred to her sooner that the poisonous behavior might have had its roots in Janet’s feelings for Tyler?
She’d been devastated, focused on her own survival.
She hadn’t looked beneath the surface, and nothing on the surface had hinted at the presence of deep feelings.
She’d run away when she should have stood her ground.
“We can’t change the way we behaved in the past, Janet, but we choose how to behave in the future. I don’t know why you’re here, but I hope it’s because you care about Jess and want to see her. Otherwise, you have no business coming here and trying to unsettle a family.”
“He’s not your family. And no matter how much you kid yourself people can change, he is never going to. That’s the difference between us. I see reality, and you live in a dream world.”
“I was talking about Tyler and Jess,” Brenna said, “and the difference between us is that I don’t want him to change and never have. I love him for who he is, and my relationship with him is between me and him, no one else.” She stopped because two broad-shouldered men appeared behind Janet.
“Janet?” Jackson’s voice was hard, the expression on his face one that Brenna had never seen before in all the years she’d known him. “Get in your car and drive back to wherever you were staying last night. I’ll make sure Tyler knows you were here.”
Janet turned her head, glanced between Sean and Jackson and then turned back to Brenna. “I want to see my daughter.”
Brenna heard a sound behind her, and then Jess stepped forward.
How much had she heard?
“I don’t know why you’re here, Mom.” Jess stood close to Brenna. “You’ve told everyone I ruined your life, how having me was the worst thing that happened to you, how you wish I’d never been born. I wish you’d let me live here with him right from the start, but you didn’t, and there was nothing I could do about that, but I’m older now, and I can make that decision for myself.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Dad is going to make sure I stay here. He promised.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but your father doesn’t have much practice in keeping promises.”
“He’ll keep this one.”
“And I’ll help him keep it,” Sean said pleasantly, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing a number. “In the meantime, I think this might be a good time to leave. I see our chief of police arriving, and rumor has it his life has been pretty boring lately. He might be glad of some entertainment.”
* * *
“SHE WAS HERE and now she’s gone?” White-faced, Elizabeth sank onto the chair and looked at her sons.
“Yeah, she’s gone.” Jackson looked up from his phone. “Sean has spoken to a lawyer friend. He’s going to get it sorted out. Don’t ask me the details.”
“Don’t ask me the details, either. My knowledge of law comes from watching a few episodes of The Good Wife.” Sean yawned. “I fix broken legs.”
Jackson looked at him. “It crossed my mind to put some business your way.”
A ghost of a smile flickered across Sean’s mouth. “Crossed my mind, too, but generally I’m better at fixing them than breaking them.”
The door crashed open, and Tyler strode into the kitchen without removing his boots. He had snow on his shoulders, and his hair was wet. “What the hell has been going on?” He saw Alice wince and gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry, Grams. Janet was here? I didn’t know she was coming back or I’d have been here. I’m guessing she knew that.”
Jackson slid his phone back into his pocket. “I think she chose her moment carefully.”
“How did you know she was there?”
“Jess texted us both when she showed up at the door.”
“She called and texted me, too, but I was up on the mountain with no signal, and by the time I got her text it was too late to help. Thanks for sorting Janet out.”
“We didn’t sort her out. Brenna did that.”
“Brenna?”