“Oh, wow,” I said in surprise. Bailey was younger than Ian, I remembered. Maybe by about eight years? She had been twelve or thirteen the last time that I saw her, and to be honest, it was hard to think of her as the new owner of the resort. She’d be in her mid-twenties now, but I couldn’t picture her like that.
“Yeah, she decided that the casino business wasn’t for her, and for some reason, she thinks that this is.” Ian’s tone told me what he thought about that as well. But I could also hear the fondness in his voice, and I remembered that the two of them had always been close. Actually, I was pretty sure that young Bailey had resented how close Ian and I were when he was there. I used to get the feeling she was used to being the only one that Ian wanted to spend all his time with, despite the difference in their ages.
It made me smile even now, just thinking about it. Ian had turned back to the lodge so didn’t see it. “That’s her over there now, actually,” Ian said, pointing towards his sister.
I had to admit, she didn’t look quite like the rich, spoiled brat that I had been picturing as our new resort owner. Nor did she look like the twelve-year-old kid she had been the last time I had seen her. No, she had grown into quite the woman, beautiful in a long blue coat that accentuated her curves. There was still a certain cuteness to her in the way her hair was braided in pigtails, a beanie jammed down on her head.
And a certain sweet innocence in the way her eyes sparkled as she looked around the resort, as though she had just won the lottery. She smiled to herself, and I had to admit there was something about the expression on her face that made my heartstrings tug in sudden, surprising fondness.
“I’m worried about her,” Ian admitted in an undertone. “I don’t know if she really knows exactly how much she’s taken on. I mean, I can tell that she’s done her research, and she’s smart. But this isn’t an ordinary business, you know?” he paused. “I’m glad you’re still around here, honestly. I know I have no right to ask this, but keep an eye on her for me, would you?”
I nodded, still surprised by that earlier feeling of fondness for her. It was just that I was still thinking of her as Ian’s much-younger sister, though, I was sure. She was still looking at the world with childlike innocence, and I still thought of her as a child. That was where the fondness stemmed from.
But I knew, in my gut, that that wasn’t true. No, I definitely wasn’t looking at her like she was still a child. She had grown up quite nicely.
Still, I nodded at Ian. “I’ll help her out as much as I can,” I heard myself promising. Immediately, I wished that I could take the words back. Ian wouldn’t understand, I was sure, that ‘as much as I can’ wasn’t really all that much. To start with, he didn’t know about Ethan. But moreover, he didn’t have any idea about what my work here at the resort entailed.
Ian was smiling, though. “Come on, I’m sure she wants to see you,” he said, herding me over to where his sister was still standing.
I wanted to protest. She probably barely even remembered me. And besides, I had so much more work that needed to get done that afternoon. But Bailey had spotted her brother and seen me as well, and I knew that there was no tactful way to get out of this. If nothing else, I owed her the respect that I would give to any other boss.
Besides, I had told Ian that I would help her out if I could, and I was a man of my word. I was going to have to interact with her at some point. Might as well get it out of the way with.
I trailed after Ian, wondering if Bailey’s smile was always that broad or if she really was that happy to see me.
6
Bailey
The acting manager for Brooks Mountain seemed surprised when I suggested that I should stop by on Tuesday afternoon to say a few words to everyone who currently worked for the resort. Not that I really had much to say, but I wanted to be the kind of owner whom everyone knew. I at least wanted them to know my face around the place before I started making any sort of changes.
This was a family resort, I remembered, and I knew that the staff probably felt like one big family as well. Hell, part of the reason why I had bought the resort was because I didn’t want it to be bought by one of those huge conglomerates. I wanted it to have that down-home, charmingly close-knit feel. The only way to preserve that was to make sure that everyone realized that from the top to the bottom, we were all in this together.
That said, I was a little nervous about the meeting. It wasn’t that I had never given speeches in front of employees before. I had. Many times. I was used to public speaking, and it wasn’t that that was giving me jitters now.
No, it was just the fact that this was all so new to me. The novelty was wonderful; I liked that little bit of shock that I still felt each time I stepped outdoors and saw snow. But at the end of the day, I knew only the barest bit of information about how to run a ski resort. And the trick was making sure that no one at the resort figured that out.
Of course, there was no fooling some people. “Kayla?” I asked in surprise, spotting her at the front desk.
Kayla stared at me for a moment, like she couldn’t believe her eyes, and then a huge grin broke across her face. “Bailey!” she said.
Kayla and I had been best friends when we were kids. Of course, we didn’t get to see one another a lot since I lived half my life in Portland and the other half in Vegas, with only a few weeks or so each year here in Park City. But we had sent letters to one another all through grade school and connected through social media towards the end of high school. We’d taken a few trips together in college, even. But eventually, life got in the way and we fell out of touch.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked her.
She burst out laughing. “What the hell am I doing here?” she quipped. “I grew up in Park City. And now I work here.” She shrugged and then winked conspiratorially. “The pay isn’t great, but they give me a free season pass, so who the hell am I to complain?”
I laughed and shook my head. “That’s awesome,” I told her.
Kayla gave me a dubious look. “Is it?” she asked. “I would have thought that you would be reminding me that there’s a great big world out there beyond Park City. Hell, beyond Utah even.”
“Well, there is,” I agreed. “But this place is great. There’s a reason why I came back.”
“What about you? Are you on vacation?” Then, Kayla’s eyes widened, and she looked around the lodge. “Are you on your honeymoon? Did you get hitched?”
“No!” I said, and Kayla giggled.
“You don’t have to sound so shocked that I asked,” she said. Then, she narrowed her eyes. “Wait, Mike said something about a Peters buying this place. Was that your dad?”
I grimaced, looking away from her. “My dad died about a month ago,” I told her.
“Oh shit,” Kayla said, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
I shook my head. “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s actually part of why I’m here.”
“Had to get away from it all?” Kayla asked sympathetically.
“Something like that, I guess,” I said, frowning. Then, I shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t even know. I just felt like I had to come back here. I missed the snow, too.”
Kayla snorted. “Don’t say that too loudly,” she cautioned. “It’s been snowing like crazy this year. We get any more snow before Christmas and I think there’ll be a mutiny. Everyone fleeing down to Florida or something. Las Vegas, maybe.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “They work for a ski resort,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t everyone be happy for the snow?”
“Not when it means shoveling your driveway every damned day,” Kayla said, shaking her head. “So come on, who is this Peters? It’s not your brother, is it? Not that that would be bad. Just tell me it’s not, like, a crazy uncle of yours or something.”
“It’s not a crazy uncle,” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I’m the one who bought this place.”
“Get out!�
� Kayla said in surprise. “Seriously, you?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound too much like I was doubting myself. Who the hell did I think I was, swooping in here and buying up the whole resort? Someone like Kayla, someone who had grown up here, steeped in the lore of the mountains and the local town, should be the one running things. Not me. I didn’t know the first thing about this.
For the first time, I started to wonder whether maybe Ian had been right. Maybe I should have given this a little more thought before I had so recklessly purchased the place. What was I going to do now, anyway? I couldn’t very well back out of the sale, nor could I turn around and sell the place again after just having purchased it. The only people who would want to buy it, probably were those big conglomerates that I eschewed. And if one of them got their hands on the place, I knew it was never going to be like it had been back when I was a kid.
No, I had to stick it out. I might be feeling a bit out of my depth now, but that was just more fuel to learn everything I could about the operations of this place, so that eventually, I could really step up as a leader here. I could do this; I knew that I could.
I wouldn’t have bought the place if I thought that I was going to fail, after all. I knew business. And business was business. I just had to persevere.
“So if you’re the boss, does that mean that we can’t be friends?” Kayla asked, and I had to laugh.
“Of course not,” I told her. “Actually, I’m counting on you to show me all the best places around this town. It’s been a while since I was here.”
Kayla grinned and bowed sarcastically. “Your humble servant, as always,” she joked, and I laughed again.
“I’m going to go see where Ian ran off to,” I told Kayla. “But let’s get drinks soon. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Kayla said, giving me the thumbs up.
I headed outside and soon spotted Ian over near one of the lifts. He was chatting with someone I didn’t recognize. I started walking over to them, but before I could reach them, Ian led the guy over to me. “Guess who I found?” he asked.
I peered at the other man, trying to recognize anything about him. But his dark hair and rough five o’clock shadow didn’t tell me much. Except that, fuck was he attractive. Dressed in his plaid shirt, with his rough, unshaven look, he was almost a hipster. But he had a chiseled jaw and deep, ice blue eyes that nearly drowned me in their gaze. He looked relaxed, at ease with his surroundings, and I craved his easy confidence.
But I didn’t recognize him, not at all. I gave Ian a puzzled look, and he laughed.
“It’s Adam Katz!” he exclaimed, and my eyes widened even further.
Adam Katz. Wow.
Adam had been Ian’s best friend when we’d come up to Park City. Like with Bailey, they never seemed to realize that they’d spent any time apart. I’d been the victim of one too many of their pranks, and I’d learned to hide away when the two of them got together. But every once in a while, I had been able to catch Adam on his own, either around the resort or out in town. Like Ian, he never treated me like I was too much younger than him. And he could always make me laugh, even after my worst falls.
When I was younger, I’d had a bit of a crush on him. But he’d been engaged to someone else, and anyway, I’d still been such a child compared to him. Now, though.
I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. Adam looked amazing, and there was no denying that I was no longer a child. But he was married, and I wasn’t going to get in the middle of that.
Unless maybe he wasn’t married anymore? But I would never hope for that kind of unhappiness to befall him. I knew what our parents’ divorce had done to my mom and dad, and to Ian and I. Besides, I was going to have more than enough on my plate with taking over this resort. I wasn’t going to have any time to spare for romantic dalliances. Even if Adam had been available.
“So you’re still here,” I finally said. Then, I winced, knowing just how that sounded. I could tell that Kayla had been uncomfortable with me catching her at work at the resort like that, and there was no reason to assume Adam was any different.
Sure enough, he shrugged, crossing his arms in front of him. “Yeah,” he said, and I could hear the challenge in his voice.
“That’s great,” I hurried to say. “I just bought the place, and I’m sure that I can use someone like you. To… what is it that you do here?”
The words tumbled out of my mouth, and I was blushing by the time I was done. He might feel defensive about the fact that he worked there, but it was nothing to how embarrassed I felt at saying what I had just said. Here I was, hoping to take over this resort. And I couldn’t even manage a normal conversation with one of the workers.
Adam’s lips twitched with a grin, but thankfully, he didn’t laugh at me. “I’m your mechanic-slash-maintenance man,” he said.
“What exactly does that entail?” I asked, frowning.
“Anything that you need done on the lifts, I’m your man,” Adam explained. “But I also make sure that the plumbing and lighting in the condos works, plus the lodge, and all of that.”
“Shouldn’t there be, like, ten people doing all that stuff?” I asked, shocked to hear that he handled all of that. I could only imagine the kind of work that he had to do.
But again, Adam took offense to the blunt way that my words came out. “If you have any doubts about my abilities, I can show you my licenses,” he said.
“That’s not what I meant,” I said lamely. “It just seems like a lot of work.”
Adam stared at me for another moment and then turned to Ian. “Sorry, but I really have to get back to that lift. We’re trying to have it running like normal by tomorrow morning, and I’ve only got so many hours of daylight left.”
“Right,” Ian said, and I could tell that he was amused by something. He clapped Adam on the shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah,” Adam said. He waved a hand and walked briskly across the snow to the old four-person lift that started from the base area.
I groaned. “What a first impression,” I said, and Ian laughed.
“It’s not exactly a first impression,” he reminded me.
“Doesn’t make it any better,” I sighed. I glanced over to where Adam was standing next to the lift, starting the thing and then stopping it again. Then, I forced myself to turn away. Married. Not interested.
One of my brother’s best friends.
Ian glanced at his watch. “I was thinking I might go for a few laps while we’re here. You want to join me?”
I laughed. “I would have thought you would still be getting used to the cold,” I teased.
Ian grimaced. “I am,” he said. “That’s why I think a few laps would be good. I can’t do any more of this standing around and chatting or else I’m going to turn into a popsicle.”
I grinned. “Well, I wish I could join you, but I’m supposed to chat with my new employees,” I said. “But I’ll catch you for dinner tonight.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ian said, heading off to the rental shop while I went back inside.
“Did you find your brother?” Kayla asked as I came back inside.
“Yup,” I said. “He’s already found Adam, of course.”
Kayla peered at me for a moment. Then, she shook her head. “Oh no,” she said. “Don’t go wasting your time on Adam. He is a lost cause.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I told her, even though I knew that somehow, she had read me only too well. But because I said that, and so defensively as well, I knew that I had lost my chance to ask her anything more about him.
Adam was a lost cause? What exactly did she mean by that? Because he worked at the resort? But Kayla worked at the resort as well, and I couldn’t see that being the root of why she had warned me away from him. Whatever it was, though, I didn’t have time to ponder it now. I had a meeting to hold.
7
Adam
Thursday rolled around,
and I finally had the day off work. Of course, with the way that I had been busting my ass that week, it was more of a recovery day than anything else. And a chance for me to get my errands run. As much as I would have liked to laze around in bed for half the day, I had to get up and get Ethan off to school. He wouldn’t be skiing after school that day either, and he was bummed about that.
And then, as much as I would have liked to come right back home after dropping him off, and head back to bed, I knew that the grocery shopping needed doing, plus there were a dozen other things on my agenda for the day.
Work or not, the tasks never seemed to end.
I ran around all morning, trying to get as much done as I could. Finally, it was time to pick Ethan up. “Can we go skiing?” was the first thing that he asked.
I winced internally. “Not today, buddy,” I told him, strapping him into the car.
Ethan frowned. “But Dad, I want to ski with you,” he said, and I had to grin.
“I know,” I said. “And I want to ski with you too. I want to see all those tricks that you’ve been learning. But today, I have to work.”
“You’re not s’posed to be working today,” Ethan whined. “It’s your day off.”
“I know,” I repeated. “But just because it’s my day off, doesn’t mean that I don’t have to work. I did the grocery shopping and the cleaning this morning, and now I have to split some wood so that we can stay warm this winter. But you can help me with that, can’t you?”
Ethan stared at me for a minute, and then he grinned. “Yeah!” he said enthusiastically.
My grinned broadened as I drove us home. We lived a little bit outside of Park City proper, which was honestly a little frustrating sometimes since it meant that it took even longer for me to do simple things like take Ethan to school. But Dad and I were the only two houses up our way, with about two miles in between the two places, and you couldn’t beat that peacefulness.
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 4