I grinned after him, unable to help it. If he was this nervous around me, it meant that he cared about me, didn’t it? And even though I knew that I needed to stay focused on my job, even though I knew that Ian hadn’t quite come around to my relationship with Adam just yet, things felt good between us, and it was nice to think that he cared.
34
Adam
I managed not to run into Bailey on Friday. Not that I was avoiding her. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about what Ian had said to me about her deserving someone better. I was busy anyway. Maybe if I just gave it a little time, she would come to her senses, or get interested in something or someone else, and we would never have to have the awkward conversation about how she didn’t really want to be with me.
I sure hoped so, anyway.
I mean, I didn’t. If I had my way, I would have taken Bailey up on that dinner on Thursday, and maybe something more. Oh, I had to get back to Ethan, that was true. I couldn’t stay the night there. But he and his grandfather had been playing video games when I got back. They would have been fine for another hour or so. Longer, maybe. I knew that Dad was, in his silent way, happy to think that I might have found someone again.
Sometimes, I wondered why he was so okay with being alone but didn’t seem to support the same thing for me. But then again, I was a lot younger than he had been when he and Mom split up. And although I took after him in a lot of ways, he was a lot more of a loner than I could ever be.
Anyway, I made it through Friday at the hill, working my way through my checklist and not really interacting with anyone. It was a surprisingly productive day, so much so that at the end of it, I was surprised to see there wasn’t much left on my list. I headed in to talk to Gretchen about it, and she told me to take Saturday off. When I pointed out that I’d already had a bunch of days off earlier that week, she shrugged and reminded me that it was nearly the holidays. She suggested spending a little time with Ethan and maybe going skiing.
So that’s what Ethan and I ended up doing on Saturday morning. Even though it was a weekend during the holiday season, we basically had the place to ourselves: a lot of people were just arriving that day and planning to stay the whole week for Christmas. Or coming later, so that they would be here for New Year’s Eve. The snow was great, the sun was shining, and after Ethan got over his initial pout about the fact that we weren’t at Brooks Mountain and skiing with Bailey, he got properly excited and we had a great time together, father and son.
There was a part of me that felt kind of bad that we were at one of the other resorts in the area. But I wasn’t sure what to do about the Bailey thing, and I knew that if Ethan and I went to Brooks, we would have to talk to her. Ethan wouldn’t let me avoid her there. Not only that, but we might run into Ian. Better that we just avoid both of those situations. Plus, it had been a while since I had skied anywhere else.
I had to keep my phone on in case they called me in for anything at Brooks, but fortunately, if anything went wrong, they were able to handle it without me.
I tried not to think about the fact that there were apparently other mechanics willing to help out around the resort. Tried not to think about how Bailey could easily call one of them on my day off, especially on an unplanned day off like this one. Instead, I focused on having fun with Ethan. He was really starting to get the hang of parallel skiing on the intermediate slopes, and it was fun watching him rip down them.
We grabbed hot chocolate in the lodge in the early afternoon and headed home after that. Ethan chattered the whole way about how much fun it had been to ski somewhere new and explore trails that he had never been on before, and I couldn’t help but pat myself on the back for the idea. Even if that hadn’t exactly been the logic behind my decision to take us away from our usual resort for the day.
Dad stopped by while I was making an early dinner. “Hey,” he said as I greeted him at the door.
“Gramps!” Ethan said, rushing into the hall and skidding in his socked feet. “We went skiing today! It was so much fun.”
“Oh, really?” Dad asked, raising an eyebrow at me. In a low voice, he asked. “No work again?”
I lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “Finished up everything yesterday,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. Of course, I had been wondering if part of why Gretchen wanted me out of there was because of the tension between Ian and I. She had to know about it; Bailey would have had to explain taking me off the schedule.
Suddenly, I wondered just how she had done that. Had she told everyone why Ian was pissed at me? Did everyone know about us? Not that there really was an us. But now, I had to wonder about my job security. If everyone knew about Bailey and I, the budding relationship that could never develop into more, then she might feel too awkward if I told her that it wasn’t a good idea for us to be together. She might feel like I was deliberately scorning her in front of everyone. And she might fire me.
I wanted to think that she wouldn’t do that, but I also knew that Ian was pushing to have me replaced anyway. She might side with her brother if she was angry enough at me. All it would take was one signature on a contract to hire another maintenance company.
I never should have gotten involved with my boss. The owner of the mountain. I had known that from the start, but I had been too cocky, thinking that my job was safe. Now, I couldn’t help but feel worried.
I could see from the way Dad was eyeing me that he could see something on my face. He clearly wanted to ask about it, but then he glanced down at Ethan. I could see him decide not to have this conversation in front of my son, and I couldn’t say how much I appreciated that.
Dad knelt down next to Ethan. “I didn’t get to go skiing today, but I did clean out the garage, and I found something I thought you might like,” he said, holding out an old BB gun towards Ethan.
Ethan’s eyes got big. “That’s so cool!” he said. But then, he looked up at me. “Am I allowed to have this?” he asked, and I couldn’t help laughing.
“I think I was younger than you when Gramps gave me that,” I admitted. “But there’s going to have to be some rules to go along with it. Just like everything else.”
“No playing with it before I do my homework and I can only play for so much time?” Ethan guessed.
“Sort of,” I said, kneeling down. “But there’s some safety things as well, okay? And I have to show you how to use it first.” I wasn’t sure if a BB gun was the best gift for Ethan. I could remember all the stupid things that my friends and I had done when we were younger, after all. Not only that, but I knew that it was a different world today than it had been when I was growing up. There were so many scary things on the news about gun violence, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to put Ethan in a position where the other parents might hear about this and think that he was destined to be a problem.
But I did like the idea that with this gift, Ethan would be outside playing, rather than inside with the game console or the computer. And besides, Dad’s house and mine were the only two out here. Ethan wouldn’t be allowed to take the BB gun away from the house, and the chances of him really getting into trouble out here were slim.
Not only that, but it would have been a little difficult to tell Ethan that he couldn’t have it, since I remembered that Dad had trusted me with a BB gun when I was a kid. And I did trust Ethan to be careful with it and to understand the responsibility that went along with having a BB gun. He was a good kid, just like Dad had reminded me when he gave Ethan the PowerBox. He hadn’t questioned my rules at all with regards to the gaming console, so I had no reason to believe he would with this, either.
Plus, there was a part of me that recognized the sentimentality of this gift from Dad to my son. Dad likely remembered when he had first given it to me and how he had watched me practice with it for hours and hours, shooting at cans and other small targets that Dad set up for me. He was trying to give a gift that would help me bond with my son.
I appreciated that.
“Uh huh,”
Ethan said, nodding his head and giving me the most serious look that he could manage at his young age. “I’ll be careful.”
I smiled at him. “I know you will be, buddy.” I glanced at my watch. The lasagna I had carefully assembled wouldn’t be done for a little while longer, so we had some time now. I was sure that he was eager to try out the new gift, and I was sure that Dad would want to see him as well.
“Why don’t I go see if I can find some empty cans?” I suggested. “We can have a quick lesson now before dinner.”
Ethan cheered, and I saw Dad’s approving nod. He stuck around to watch us as well, and I tried not to feel nervous, trying to remember if I was passing on all the advice that Dad had given to me once upon a time. Dad clapped a hand on my shoulder as we watch Ethan square up to shoot for the first time, though, having gone over all the safety procedures with him, and I knew that that was the closest to affirmation that I could get from him.
Ethan managed to hit the can on his third shot and quickly put the gun down before throwing his hands in the air and cheering. I had to smile at that. “Good job, buddy,” I told him.
“Why don’t you go set up a couple more of them?” Dad suggested.
Ethan nodded and scampered off to set up the other cans. Dad turned to look at me. “So, still not at work,” he said quietly.
I shrugged. “I was yesterday and the day before,” I said.
Dad shook his head. “I think that whatever you did to make Bailey upset, you should apologize,” he said gruffly. He grinned crookedly. “Even if you don’t think that you did anything wrong. That’s something that I learned a long time ago with your mother.”
I paused for a second. Dad rarely ever mentioned Mom. I knew that they had had their difficulties, but sometimes it felt like Mom had never even existed. I wondered what things would have been like if they had managed to make things work. If Mom hadn’t run off to make art down in New Mexico. But I supposed I would never know. Maybe that was part of why Dad just didn’t want to talk about her.
Still, he had brought her up. “Do you ever wish that things had worked out differently for you and Mom?”
Dad watched Ethan for a moment in silence, and I wondered if he would choose not to even respond to my question. If maybe I had just ruined the easy camaraderie that we had finally managed to put together recently. But then, he shrugged. “Do you ever wish that things had worked out differently for you and Beth?” He held up a hand to stop whatever I might have said to that. “I know the situations were different. But all I’m saying is, life has its way with us, whatever we might hope for. All we can do is take advantage of the chances that we’re given.”
I sighed and Dad turned to look at me, his bushy eyebrows knitting together. “Whatever you did to Bailey, as long as she’s in your life, you still have a chance,” he said. “Just think about it.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that, Dad,” I said quietly. Because it wasn’t. This wasn’t a matter of apologizing to Bailey or about fixing things with her. For a moment, I let myself imagine that it was. But it hurt, imagining that I could be with Bailey. I knew that I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
“What happened between the two of you?” Dad asked, and I could tell that he was perplexed.
But I just shook my head. “Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “It’s nothing.” Fortunately, Ethan ran back towards us just then, and Dad let the matter drop.
35
Bailey
I was surprised to not see Adam around the resort at all on Friday. At first, I wondered if something had happened to either him or Ethan. Maybe one or both of them was sick again? But when I checked the logs at the end of the day, I saw that he had been there. I just hadn’t seen him at all.
I felt disappointed in that, and I tried not to let it get to me. I doubted that he was avoiding me. He was probably mostly out working on the lifts, up in places where our paths wouldn’t cross. He had a job to do, and I couldn’t expect to see him every single day.
But at the same time, there was a part of me that was surprised he didn’t stop by to find me at some point during the day, just to say hi at least. Was that a silly thing for me to wish for? Probably. But I found myself wanting that all the same. As it was, I kept thinking back to the way that things had been on Thursday, how short his answers had been when he was talking to me. Maybe there was something wrong, and maybe he was avoiding me.
But that wasn’t fair, I knew. He was nervous around me, and he was probably still nervous around Ian. In fact, Ian’s continued presence around the lodge might be just what had kept Adam from dropping in to see me.
I knew that Ian had said that they might go for beers, and it sounded like he was really trying to smooth things over. But Adam might still feel uncomfortable since he had been caught kissing me. Things would probably feel more normal once Ian was back in Las Vegas.
And so even though I definitely wanted my brother with me for the holidays, there was also a part of me that kind of wished the holidays would just end soon. Not least of which because the resort was getting busier by the day.
I spotted Ian in the lodge on Saturday morning and brought a coffee over to him. He was just finishing up a phone call, and when he hung up, I could see that he looked tired. “Is everything okay?” I asked him.
Ian shook his head. “It’s just some stuff with the casino business,” he said. “I won’t bore you with it.”
I frowned. “You know, as much as I want you here for the holidays, it’s okay if you need to head home and sort some things out,” I told him. “Things are busy here through Christmas, but I know things are busy down there as well. Especially in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve.”
“No, it’s fine,” Ian said tersely. “I’ve got everything handled.”
I bit back a retort about how I had everything handled here and didn’t need him anymore. That wasn’t what this was about, I reminded myself. Ian had backed off with trying to help around the resort, and now he was just there as my brother. Oh, he was still checking up on me and keeping tabs, making sure that I was bringing in a good profit. And he’d suggested a few ideas for various improvements, a couple of which were things that would kill the resort’s charming feel, in my opinion. But he’d been a lot better, and I was grateful for that.
My phone rang, and I slipped it out of my pocket, surprised to see that it was Kayla. I looked around but didn’t see her in the lodge. I answered it. “Hey, what’s up?”
“So, I totally meant to ask you this yesterday,” Kayla said, laughing a little. “Today’s my day off, and I was thinking that I could totally use a spa day, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me?”
I thought through my schedule for the day. But I didn’t really have all that much that needed to get done right then. We had done a great job preparing for all the guests to arrive, and I was confident that the rest of the resort employees could handle things if I wanted to take a day off. And I hadn’t really taken much time off since I had bought this place. I could definitely use a day to just chill and hang out with Kayla. And a massage, I could use one of those too.
“That sounds great,” I said to Kayla. “But are we going to be able to get in to a spa with no notice? It’s the holidays, after all.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Kayla said. “I know some people. It’s not that big of a town. And besides, today is, like, the day when everyone is going to be arriving. Tomorrow is the day they’ll actually start doing things.”
“Okay,” I said, shrugging. “Where should I meet you?”
“I’ll text you the address,” Kayla promised me.
I got off the phone and smiled at Ian. “Kayla and I are going to have a spa day,” I told him. I held up a hand as he opened his mouth. “And please don’t tell me that it’s not responsible to take off from work at the drop of a hat. I’ve barely taken any time for myself since I first came out here, and I don’t have anything pressing to do today.” I didn’t know why I was trying to
defend myself to him anyway. It only validated his feelings that he had some right to tell me how to do business, I was sure.
But Ian grinned at me. “I was just going to tell you to have fun,” he said, spreading his hands.
I thought I could see the glimmer of something else in his eyes, but I left it at that. “Enjoy the skiing,” I told him. “I’ll see you later.”
Later, as I sank into a hot tub next to Kayla, I groaned, feeling the tension slipping away from my back and shoulders even more than it had during my massage. “This was the best idea,” I said to Kayla.
She grinned at me. “Yeah, I try to come here around this time every year,” she said. “I know I don’t have to deal with as much stress at the resort as you do, but it’s definitely still so busy all the time. It’s nice to unwind a little.”
“Definitely,” I said fervently. I shook my head. “To be honest, a lot of my stress right now is Ian.” The words slipped out before I knew it, but I knew Kayla wouldn’t judge me.
In fact, she giggled. “Yeah, he’s not exactly the cool older brother that I remember him being,” she said. “Maybe it’s just that we’re grown up now, but he really seems, I don’t know, intense?”
“Yeah,” I said, sighing. “I know he’s just looking out for me, but sometimes, I just want to shake him. Like, he hardly tells me anything about the casino business, just tells me that he has it all under control, but then he wants to turn right back around and try to take over my own business? After he originally told me he didn’t think it was a good idea for me to buy the place?”
I shook my head. “But I’m glad he’s here. It’s good to see him. It’s just, I can’t help thinking that things will be easier once he’s back in Nevada.”
“So you can have a little more alone time with Adam?” Kayla asked, her eyes twinkling with laughter.
I grimaced and stared down at my hand as I brushed it along the surface of the water. “We had sex,” I admitted. “We went for dinner the other night and then he came over to my place for a little while. And of course he had to get back home to Ethan, but then, I don’t know, I just thought that things were going better than they were.”
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 20
