“I drew a picture,” Ethan announced now, brandishing the piece of paper excitedly.
“When, this morning?” I asked in surprise. I glanced at my watch, wondering how he could possibly have drawn a picture that morning. Of course, he didn’t have quite as many responsibilities first thing in the morning. I had to get breakfast made, and pack his lunch. Make sure that he was up and that he had clothes laid out for school. Make sure that his ski gear was all together so that he could go skiing with his friend and his friend’s dad after school that day. And so on. He just had to get dressed and brush his teeth. Still, I didn’t think he had had time to draw a picture.
Ethan laughed. “No, I drew it yesterday in school,” he told me. “But you need to take it to work today.”
I blinked in surprise. It wouldn’t be the first time that I had brought one of Ethan’s pictures in to work and hung it up in my office, but usually, he didn’t ask me to do it; I was the one asking him if I could keep the picture.
He held the picture out to me, and I was surprised to see two skiers on there, one of whom was unmistakably blonde with green eyes. “It’s for Bailey,” Ethan told me proudly. “It’s me and her and we’re skiing.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t tell her, but I’m faster,” he stage-whispered, and I couldn’t help laughing.
“I bet she’ll love it,” I told him.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Duh,” he said, like he didn’t even have to think about it. “Do you think we could go skiing this weekend? You, me, and Bailey?”
“Maybe,” I said. “I’ll have to talk to her about it and see how busy things are at work. But if not this weekend, then soon. I promise.” To be honest, I was looking forward to that ski date almost as much as Ethan was. Not just because I was curious to see how Bailey skied, but also because it would just give us a bit more time together, away from work.
Well, not really away from work. But…you know.
“Okay,” Ethan said. “But don’t forget to give her the picture. It’s important.”
“I’ll remember,” I promised him.
I had known all along that Ethan needed a female in his life. I knew he didn’t remember his mother very well, and it wasn’t like I was looking for someone to replace Beth to him. There was no replacing Beth. But I could tell that spending more time around Bailey could only be a good thing. For both of us, probably.
What’s more, I didn’t get the feeling from Bailey that she would protest spending more time with Ethan and me. There was the whole ski day thing, but even if that had just been Ethan’s idea that she had gone along with, it was clear that the two of them had bonded while I was out fixing the ski lift. And she had been the one to offer her help as far as Ethan was concerned. She had made sure I knew that he was welcome there at the resort.
There was definitely more that she and I needed to talk about, but for a moment, I let myself picture it. What if I did give in to my attraction to Bailey? What if I told her about Beth, cautioned her that I was still damaged goods in some ways but that I wanted to work on things with her, that I wanted to start something with her? Could we actually make things work?
In any case, I was starting to feel, for the first time since Beth’s death, that maybe it was time to get back in the saddle. It was what she had wanted for me, after all. She hadn’t wanted me to spend the rest of my life alone, and she definitely hadn’t wanted for me to have to raise Ethan all by myself.
I didn’t want to casually date, as scared as I was of the idea of committing to anyone. It had been so long since I had dated anyone, let alone dated someone that I didn’t see myself spending the rest of my life with. But I really had the feeling that Bailey and I clicked, albeit in different ways than Beth and I had.
Really, there was a lot of Bailey that was totally opposite to how Beth had been. Bailey was outspoken, business-minded, and she wasn’t afraid to push me or to go toe-to-toe with me. But at the end of the day, she was just as kind and warm and compassionate as I could have hoped.
And cute as all hell. That was a definite plus too.
Maybe Bailey could be the next chapter in my life. Or at least the start of the next chapter. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on things, but maybe things could work out. In spite of the fact that she was my boss. If not, well, we’d cross that bridge when we got to it. Lately, I seemed to be spending a lot of time worrying about things that never ended up happening anyway.
I dropped Ethan off at school, promising him again that I would make sure to give the picture to Bailey as soon as I saw her that morning. I just hoped our paths crossed before Ethan somehow ran into her on the hill later that day, when he went skiing with his friend. If not, there would be hell to pay, I was sure.
But then again, I kind of liked the fact that I had a reason to seek Bailey out now.
She wasn’t hard to find, in fact: when I arrived at the mountain, she was chatting at the front desk with Kayla, both of them sipping at mugs of coffee. Bailey held one out to me, and I raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged. “You don’t have to sit with us, but I just figured you’d probably want some coffee to start your day,” she said to me.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her, even though I really wasn’t worried about whatever she might have to throw at me that day. No, that day, it kind of felt like I could handle anything. That was the kind of mood that I was in.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked her, and she laughed.
“Don’t worry, I’m not planning on shadowing you all day again. I know you have a lot to do with it being this busy this week.” She shrugged. “I just really thought you might want some coffee to start your day. That’s it.”
I smiled at her. “I appreciate that,” I said, taking a sip. “Actually, could I talk to you?” I glanced over at Kayla, suddenly realizing that I didn’t want to pull out Ethan’s picture right here. I wanted Bailey’s reaction to the picture to be mine and mine alone. It was also kind of awkward to ask to speak to Bailey in private when she was already in the middle of chatting with Kayla.
I knew that no matter how we were going to approach this possible situation, her and me, it would be better to keep it from all of the other employees, at least for now. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on things or make our work life awkward.
But Bailey came to my rescue, hopping off her stool and shooting Kayla an apologetic look. “Actually, I needed to talk to you about something too. I left something on your desk, with a note about it, but I’m not entirely sure it makes sense. I just found this thing, it’s probably better that I just show you it. Do you have a moment?”
“Sure,” I said faintly, surprised it was that easy. I followed her back towards my office, shutting my door behind us as we walked inside.
She raised an eyebrow at me as she turned to face me, but I didn’t miss the way that her breath hitched just slightly, her eyes darkening a little. It took all of my willpower not to drag her into my arms right then and there. Instead, though, I held out the picture that Ethan had drawn for her.
“It’s from Ethan,” I told her, as though she might not have guessed. “It’s the two of you skiing. He wanted you to have it.”
“I love it,” Bailey said, her eyes shining as she looked down at the two figures. “He’s a great kid,” she added softly.
“Thanks,” I told her. I cleared my throat. “He definitely seemed to like you.” I paused. “And I just wanted to say thank you again. For the other day, and for everything else that you’ve done.” I knew that was vague and that she probably didn’t understand.
But to my surprise, she nodded. “I know it must be hard for you,” she said softly. “Ethan told me…” She trailed off, and I wondered just what Ethan had told her. I could guess, anyway.
I nodded at her, and suddenly, it all became too much. As though my hands were magnets, I found myself reaching out to her, pulling her close to me, and kissing her with everything I had. She opened herself to me, moaning quietly, making it
very clear that she wanted this nearly as bad as I did. Her arms came around me, pulling me even closer, her fingers teasing the bare skin of my lower back as she pushed my shirt up a little.
I was so focused on her tongue curling against mine that I barely heard the door to my office swing open. But the cleared throat was impossible to miss.
We sprang apart, both looking guiltily towards the door. I felt my heart plummet to my feet. Because it wasn’t one of the employees that had found us. No, standing in the doorway was none other than Bailey’s brother, Ian.
Ian who had asked me to make sure that Bailey was okay. Ian who probably wanted to kill me now, having seen me wantonly making out with his sister in my office while we were both supposed to be working.
Because in all my worry about whether I should act on my interest in Bailey, there was one thing I had forgotten. It wasn’t just my relationship history. It wasn’t just the fact that she was my boss. But it was also the fact that she was my good friend’s much younger sister.
I didn’t even know what to say to him anymore.
24
Adam
I winced as Ian walked out of my office, slamming the door shut behind him. To get caught kissing one of your friends’ younger sisters? That was pretty bad. There was no explaining it, nor was there any excusing it. I mean, sure, you couldn’t help who you were attracted to. And Bailey was, well, Bailey. She was kind, cute, determined, intelligent. Everything that I could want in a woman, really.
But it was the kind of thing that I should never have acted on. Even leaving aside all my other personal reservations to starting something with her, this was a terrible idea.
I glanced over at Bailey to see how she was taking this. To my surprise, she started laughing. “Well, that wasn’t the way I expected that to go,” she joked.
And I guess she could joke about it. Ian was hardly going to kill her. But he had asked me to look out for her, to help her around Brooks Mountain Resort as much as possible. And instead, here I was, shoving my tongue in her mouth. What a mess.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Bailey. “Your brother looks pretty pissed.”
Bailey tossed her long blonde hair and shrugged. “I hate to say it, but let him be pissed. I’m not a kid anymore. I know what I want.”
I shook my head. “He’s always been protective of you,” I reminded her. “He actually asked me to look out for you here. And I’ve totally violated that trust that he had in me.”
Bailey made a noise of protest. “Well, he should never have asked you to look out for me in the first place,” she maintained. She shook her head. “Like he thinks that I have no idea what I’m doing.” I raised an eyebrow at her, and she laughed. “All right, I don’t really. But Ian has no right to interfere in any of this, and he should know that.”
“I don’t think he was trying to interfere so much as just make sure that you had a friend here,” I said, shrugging.
“Yeah, I guess,” Bailey sighed. She cocked her head to the side. “Can you and I continue this another time? I think I should probably talk to Ian alone.”
I knew that I should probably protest. I was the one who had gotten us into this mess; it was my responsibility to deal with whatever Ian wanted to throw at me. But at the same time, she was probably right that it was better for her to talk to her brother. I had a feeling a lot of her argument was going to come down to the fact that she didn’t want her brother to continue to be so protective of her, and that wasn’t an argument that I wanted to be in the middle of. That was between the two siblings.
Not only that, but things might go better if I didn’t join Bailey in talking to Ian. He was probably pretty frustrated with me, and my presence during that conversation would only stoke that anger even more. Better that I let Bailey calm him down some before I faced him.
Part of my trouble was that I didn’t want to walk out of this room without knowing just where Bailey and I stood. But I knew that the longer we kept Ian waiting, the more frustrated he was going to get.
So I nodded at Bailey. “Sounds like a plan,” I said.
“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” Bailey suggested. “It’s probably better that you’re not here at the resort during this.”
I frowned at her. “You know I can’t do that,” I told her. “There’s a bunch of things that I need to get done today.” It was the busiest time of the ski season, after all, and when I had tried to take off a day earlier that week to stay home with my sick son, one of the ski lifts had randomly quit working and I’d had to rush over to prevent a major PR disaster from happening.
“All right, I’ll put it this way,” Bailey said. “As your boss, I’m telling you to ignore all projects that will keep you visible down here in the base area. You want to go out and check on Dasher or any of the other lifts, be my guest. But everything down here is off limits to you for today.”
I started to protest, but Bailey gave me a look, and I sighed. She was the boss, after all. She was the owner of the resort. And I trusted that she would call me if she really needed me for something. Fingers crossed that nothing major would happen that day anyway. What were the chances that two lifts would go down in one week?
So I nodded at Bailey. “All right,” I told her. “I do want to check on a few of the lifts just to make sure they’re doing okay. Dasher in particular since it had the problem the other day. And I don’t care that Ian’s here; if you need to call me, then I need you to call me.”
“I will,” Bailey promised. She glanced at the picture she was still holding in one hand. Ethan had drawn it, of him and Bailey skiing together. Bailey smiled now. “Tell Ethan thanks for me,” she said. “And I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I told her.
She leaned up on her tiptoes, and for a moment, I thought she was going to kiss me on the lips again. But this time, her lips brushed against my cheek. It might have seemed like a friendly gesture and nothing more, but I knew this wasn’t usual behavior for Bailey. And the shy look in her eyes as she pulled away let me know exactly what she was thinking.
I fought the urge to sigh again. Things had seemed so easy and self-explanatory before Ian had seen us. Well, not easy. But I had come to some kind of decision in my head. Despite the fact that she was my boss, despite the fact that I hadn’t been with anyone since my deceased wife, Beth… Now, though, the whole thing with Ian threw another wrench into the matter. I wasn’t sure that this was a good idea at all.
But I didn’t have a chance to tell Bailey that now. She pulled open the door to my office and headed out to find her brother. I trailed slowly after her, almost forgetting to grab my coat on the way out. I was going to need it, though, if I was relegated to fixing things not there in the base area for the rest of the day.
In my head, I scrambled my to-do list, trying to figure out what I even had to work on that day. There wasn’t much. I sighed and then shrugged. Might as well do what I could and then head home. I’d have to make up the hours some other time. I wasn’t entirely sure when that would be, since I already worked nearly every day of the week and there still always seemed to be more to do. But I’d figure something out.
I dickered around for most of the morning and then headed home. As I drove along, I started compiling a mental list of things that I could get done around the house that afternoon, with my unexpected time off. As with the ski resort, there seemed to be a never-ending list of things left to do. I had finally finished chopping wood for the winter and we had a great stockpile built. And Dad and I had finished reroofing the house recently too. But there was still plenty more to be done.
Including a deep clean of the whole place, I decided. That would be my focus for the afternoon. Ethan was still off at school, and Dad would pick him up for me on his way back from the grocery store, like he always did on Fridays. Then, I’d go take him off Dad’s hands a little earlier than usual.
I was deeply engrossed with cleaning the windows when the front d
oor suddenly opened that afternoon. But I smiled when I heard Ethan chattering away. I glanced at my watch. Yes, it was really that time now. It was still a surprise, though. I would have expected them to go back to Dad’s place.
I hopped down off the stepstool that I’d been using and went into the hall. “Hey guys,” I said, wiping off my hands on my jeans.
Dad’s eyebrows knit together, but Ethan was the one to ask the question. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
I grinned at him. “I got done with work a little early today, so I’ve been cleaning up around here,” I explained. “Actually, there’s a basket of your toys in the living room; could you take it upstairs for me?”
“Okay!” Ethan said, running off to grab the basket.
“You got done with work early?” Dad asked after Ethan ran off. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I said, even though I wasn’t so sure. I coughed lightly. “Actually, Ian showed up unexpectedly and caught me kissing Bailey, so we decided it was probably a good idea for me to get away from the resort today, until Ian’s calmed down a little.”
Dad harrumphed but didn’t say anything in response to that. I could see the corners of his lips twitch, though. “I brought Ethan over here so we could play on the PowerBox some,” he said. “I hope that’s okay?”
Dad had given Ethan the new video game console as a Christmas gift recently, even though it hadn’t quite been Christmas yet. And to be honest, I hadn’t been particularly happy about the gift, but I had gotten over it by now and had agreed to let Ethan use the PowerBox as long as he followed the rules that we set with regards to how much time he was allowed to spend on it, what kinds of games he was allowed to play, and so on.
“That’s fine as long as he’s done with his homework already,” I said.
“Dad,” Ethan whined as he came back in the room. “It’s Friday. I have all weekend to do my homework.”
One Shot at Love Page 14