He took a cup of coffee with him to the downstairs bathroom. As he worked, he thought about the evening he’d spent with Clare and her daughters. The girls surprised him. He had expected typical teenagers, but they were exceedingly polite to their mother, even solicitous—jumping up to get something for her or to refill her glass without being asked. He’d seen none of the usual teenager attitude he’d learned to expect from girls their age by watching his sister in action. It was almost odd, really.

He was also more curious than he’d been before about their father, since the only sign of Clare in either of them was Maggie’s spectacular blue eyes. The girls were gorgeous, and Aidan felt an unexpected stab of jealousy when he imagined what their father must look like.

By the time he heard stirrings upstairs, he’d applied a coat of paint to the bathroom walls. The new floors in the bathroom and kitchen would be installed next week. The job was slightly ahead of schedule, which worried him. He needed to slow it down so he would have more time to get to know Clare before she went back to Rhode Island. He didn’t like to think about her leaving. He’d been taken aback by how badly he’d wanted to kiss her last night and couldn’t wait to do it again.

“Morning,” Jill said from the doorway.

He turned to her. “Hey. Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I was tired after driving all that way. That’s the farthest I’ve ever driven in one day.”

“Plus it’s through the mountains, which can be stressful.”

“My fingers hurt from gripping the wheel,” she admitted with a grin. “What time do you want to go skiing?”

“Whenever you guys are ready.”

“I’ll go wake up Maggie. Thirty minutes or so?”

“Sounds good.”

“I like that color,” she said, nodding at the sage-colored paint.

“Your mom picked it.”

“She has good taste,” Jill said with a pointed look that told him she knew something was brewing between him and her mother.

Before he could reply, she turned and went back upstairs. Aidan laughed, ridiculously pleased by the backhanded compliment.

The ski area at Mount Mansfield wasn’t as busy as Aidan had expected it to be since it was Christmas vacation week. He figured the tourists were scared off by the big snowfall overnight. Wimps. Within an hour, he and the girls had made three runs down the intermediate slope and were ready to move up.

They skied to the end of the line at one of the lifts for the advanced trails.

“You guys are really good,” Aidan said. “I’m impressed.”

“Our dad’s a great skier,” Jill said. “He taught us.”

“Does your mom ski?”

“She used to,” Maggie said. “Before.”

“Before her fall?”

The girls looked at him with confusion on their faces.

“What fall?” Jill asked.