Besides, I had managed to get through all of the most pressing things on my list. There was plenty of other maintenance to do around the resort; there always was. But right now, there was nothing to pull me out of bed early on Friday morning, especially not since it had snowed nearly two feet the previous night and Ethan had a snow day.
Originally, I thought that I would swing by the resort first thing in the morning and get a couple projects done. And then go skiing. But things would be busy with this much snow, and I knew that Ethan’s little legs wouldn’t be able to cope with that much powder anyway. So, we’d save it for another day. I got Ethan settled in the living room with some cartoons and his rainy day crayons, and then I went back to bed for another hour. It was a luxury that I never really allowed myself anymore.
When I finally got up a little while later and walked downstairs, Ethan immediately sprang to his feet. “I’m bored,” he whined. “Can we go skiing?”
“You know today’s not a good day for that,” I said, shaking my head. “You’d sink right in.”
“I guess,” Ethan pouted. “But I’m just bored. Cody’s got the new PowerBox, plus all the coolest games like the skiing one and the army one. Why can’t I have a PowerBox?”
I fought the urge to sigh. I would never say it to Ethan or anybody else, but Cody’s parents seriously spoiled the kid. And that was fine, that was their prerogative. But sometimes I wished that Ethan wasn’t exposed to all that stuff. We lived simply, here in our little cabin. I thought this place was pretty damned close to paradise, honestly. I didn’t see why we needed all those gimmicks and things. Ethan was an imaginative kid; he could come up with ten thousand games to play, so why did he need the latest video games and all of that?
“How about this, buddy?” I asked. “We haven’t been fishing in a while.”
Ethan giggled. “Fishing’s for summertime,” he said. “All the water is frozen!”
“It might be frozen on top, but there’s water underneath,” I promised him. “It’s called ice fishing. What do you think, should we try it?” It had been forever since I’d been ice fishing. I used to go regularly, even when Ethan was young. Back then, Beth had been able to watch him for a day while Dad and I went out fishing together. But once Beth got sick, well, things had changed. I hadn’t had as much time for myself.
But fishing would get us out of the house for the day, and I was sure that Dad would be interested as well, if he wasn’t already up skiing. I had always loved fishing with Dad when I was a kid. Even though he and I didn’t have the best relationship with one another, never having been particularly close, there was something about being out on the lake that made the distance seem less between us. Socializing without having to really socialize, I guessed.
I gave Dad a call, and he was more than happy to join us for the day. He promised to bring his auger for drilling the holes, and I promised to bring camp chairs and plenty of blankets. I also threw some of the firewood in the back of my truck, much to Ethan’s delight.
“Can we toast marshmallows?” he asked excitedly.
I laughed. “The fire’s mostly to keep us warm,” I said. “But we can have a few s’mores as well.”
Ethan cheered, and I had to grin at his infectious enthusiasm. This seemed like the perfect plan for the day. We picked up Dad on the way out to the lake and arrived just as the sun was really starting to warm things up for the day. Not that it would be a particularly warm day, but the bright sunlight gleaming off the fresh snow was definitely beautiful. I was glad that I’d remembered sunglasses, though.
There were a few other people out on the lake as well, clearly having had the same idea as us. We set up a little ways away from them, lugging things out from the truck.
Of course, it wasn’t long, once we had everything set up, before Ethan was saying again that he was bored. “When are you going to catch one?” he asked, peering down into the hole.
“I don’t know, buddy,” I said. “You want to reel in the line and let it out again?”
“Okay,” Ethan sighed.
“So what’s new with you, kiddo?” Dad asked, crouching down next to Ethan and checking something on one of the other rods.
“Nothing,” Ethan said. He paused, cocking his head to the side. “My friend has the new PowerBox, though.”
“What’s a PowerBox?” Dad asked.
“It’s a video game system,” I explained, shrugging when he looked up at me. Seeing that Ethan was still engrossed with the fishing rod, I made the gesture for ‘expensive’, and Dad nodded briefly.
“It’s the best,” Ethan said. “He’s got all the cool games. I bet he never gets bored.”
Dad laughed. “Adam, maybe you need to get the boy something to do in his free time,” he said.
“He’s fine, Dad,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s got plenty of things to do. Especially with ski season starting up right now. Between that and school, it’s going to be a busy enough winter. Besides, we don’t need all that fancy technology that they have now. It just makes people lazy.”
I was actually surprised that he had said anything to me about it in the first place. We lived in the only two homes in our area, and cell service at the houses was spotty most times. Neither of us had cable, and I was pretty sure that Dad still had the old TV that we had had when I was a kid. He had a computer, but it was also outdated and slow. He wasn’t exactly with the times, himself.
Still, he shook his head. “You just can’t think of video games without thinking about Beth, that’s all,” he said, and I felt my eyes widen in surprise. He seemed to immediately regret what he had said, but his eyes turned towards Ethan instead of me. Ethan gave no sign of listening, though. Instead, he was shoving snow down the hole in the ice and watching it melt and disappear.
And it was true. When I thought about video games, I thought about Beth sitting there in the hospital with her tablet on her lap, doing anything to make the hours pass a little faster. Towards the end, she had been waiting anxiously to go, to leave behind this world of pain. I knew that she wasn’t looking forward to leaving Ethan and I behind, only that she had to do whatever she could to accept the fact that the diagnosis was terminal. But that hadn’t made it any easier.
Still, there was no reason for Ethan to have the latest and greatest when it came to technology. He was still young. I wanted to raise him right. I wanted to raise him thinking and imagining for himself. Books instead of video games, at least for the most part. There had been plenty of studies done to show that limiting screen time for kids would help them as they grew up. Dad had to know that.
“Well, I don’t think there’s any harm in letting the boy play some games,” Dad said gruffly. He clapped his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Christmas isn’t that far away,” he said significantly, and Ethan’s face broke out into a huge smile.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but I knew that it would be fighting a losing battle. I’d just have to make sure that if Dad got him some gaming system for Christmas, we went over the rules for it before it was even out of the box. Same as with TV, he would get a limited amount of time per week that he could use. And the amount of time would be based around what chores he did for the week, I decided.
It was funny, the way that Dad had taken such a shine to Ethan. He had never been like that with me. If I had been a kid still, I sincerely doubted that I would have received any sort of gaming system for Christmas. All the gifts that I could remember getting from my parents had been utilitarian; things like socks and sweaters, logic puzzles, ski gear. Very practical, and nothing too flashy. Hell, I could still remember the first time I had gotten a brand new pair of skis. I had been well into my teens by that point, and the only reason I got them was because I worked hard, saved my money, and paid for half of the pair by myself.
But I bit my tongue before I said anything. I liked that Dad wanted to spoil Ethan and bond with him in a way that he never had with me. Not only that but I knew exactly what Dad would say in resp
onse if I mentioned anything about spoiling my son; Ethan was a good kid, and good kids deserved rewards sometimes. That was the same work ethic that he had always taught me.
Anyway, maybe it would be a good thing for Ethan to have a gaming system. Something else for him to amuse himself with while I toiled away around the house. I loved the kid, but it would be nice if I could get a little time to myself sometimes. Or time with…
No, I pushed those thoughts away. I didn’t know where they had come from, even. Bailey? Spend time with her? I was probably only thinking about that because I used to spend so much time with Ian. And actually, if Ian was still in town, I should see if he wanted to hang out at some point. We had a lot of catching up to do.
There was a part of me, though, that was still thinking about Bailey as I contemplated the fishing holes. Dinner with her had been kind of nice in a way. It had been a while since I had shared a meal with someone other than Dad or Ethan. I would do it again. But she had only wanted to have dinner with me so that she could chat about hiring someone else to take over part of my duties on the hill. It hadn’t been a social call at all.
I needed to remember that. I wondered why it was so difficult to remember that.
12
Bailey
I frowned down at the box of things closest to me. And then transferred my gaze to the other bags of things that littered the floor. I’d gone shopping to buy all the things that I was going to need for my new condo. To be honest, I hadn’t brought all that much with me from Nevada. Just some clothes, but that was about it. Not the kinds of things that I needed to actually live here in Utah, I was starting to realize.
Ian had had to return home to work, and he had sent me some of the stuff that I should have brought. I had gone out and found towels and things for the kitchen and a couch cover and stuff like that, but now it was a matter of getting everything organized.
To be honest, it was about the last thing that I wanted to be doing today. I’d much rather be out skiing again. I had put in some work the previous morning but gone out for a few laps in the afternoon and rediscovered my joy for it. Now, that was all that I wanted to be doing.
But I needed to get this place feeling like a home, I knew. The sooner it felt like a home, the sooner I’d start to feel like I actually belonged here. Like I hadn’t made a mistake in impulsively purchasing a ski resort.
I was trying not to let the panic get to me. But to be honest, I’d felt nervous and unsettled ever since that dinner with Adam. I had really botched the thing with the lights, but it wasn’t just that. Actually, it was more the fact that when I had suggested hiring someone to take over some of his duties, he’d acted like I didn’t understand anything about what he did for the mountain.
And I didn’t, not really. But it was unnerving to realize just how easily everyone could tell that.
I didn’t want to think about that today, though. Today, I was going to get my things organized here at home and then maybe explore the town a little. Then, I’d be in a position to start the new week off right. I rubbed my hands together and started pulling things out where I could see them.
I was about halfway through laying things out on the floor when someone knocked at the door. I frowned, wondering who it could be. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see Kayla. I laughed. “How the heck did you find me here?” I asked her.
She grinned and shrugged. “Wasn’t too hard,” she said. “You had to turn in your address to HR when you filled out all of your paperwork. So it’s in the system.”
“Makes sense,” I said, nodding.
“What are you up to anyway?” Kayla asked. “Today’s my day off, so I was thinking maybe we could do something.”
“I’d love to,” I said. “Actually, I was thinking that I’d really like to just wander around town in a little while. But right now, I’m trying to get all my stuff unpacked and put away.”
“Oh wow,” Kayla said, looking around at the mess when she followed me inside. “You have a lot of stuff.”
I snorted. “Not really,” I said. “It just looks that way because it’s all on the floor.”
Kayla raised an eyebrow at me and pointed towards a pile of neatly folded towels. “You have, like, ten towels. How many guests are you expecting?”
I laughed. “Well, I couldn’t decide which color I wanted,” I said. “So I bought three of each color.” I frowned. “Maybe I could have gone with two of each color.”
Kayla just shook her head. “Well, why don’t I help you get unpacked?” she suggested. “It’ll go faster with both of us working at it, and then we can grab lunch and hang out.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, and we got to work.
A little while later, Kayla giggled. “Look at this picture!” she said, holding up a photo that had fallen out of the front of one of my notebooks. “It’s us, way back when.”
I grinned when I saw the photo she was holding up. “Yeah,” I said. “That was always one of my favorites.” It was Kayla and I with our arms around one another on one side of the frame, with Ian and Adam on the other side and the mountain in between us. We were all laughing, probably at something that one of the boys had just said. We looked happy.
It was part of what had made me want to come back here now, to be honest. Those vacations when we were younger, things had just seemed so perfect here. Beautiful scenery, great people, and good skiing. What more could you ask for?
“Gosh, is that Adam?” Kayla asked, peering at the photo. “He looks so different.”
“That’s because he doesn’t have his broody mysteriousness that he has now,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What’s up with that anyway? He used to be so friendly, and now it’s like he wants nothing to do with me.”
Kayla shrugged, looking away from me. “I don’t know much about him, to be honest,” she admitted. “At least, not outside of work. He’s pretty careful to keep his personal life private.” She paused. “He’s got his ghosts though, that’s for sure.”
I tried not to be disappointed with what she had told me. I’d been hoping that she could shed a little more light on things, though. I wished I could figure out what it was that made Adam so silent and stern these days. The sooner I figured that out, the sooner I could go about getting him to relax and be more like the happy-go-lucky kid that he had once been.
I didn’t know why that was so important to me. I tried to tell myself that it was just better for the resort if all the workers were happy, but I knew that wasn’t it.
“You like him, don’t you?” Kayla asked.
I blushed and shrugged. “He’s a good guy,” I hedged. “I’m not going to, like, fall in love with him or anything, though. I have enough on my plate at the moment already. You know that.”
“I know,” Kayla said, but I could tell that she didn’t quite believe me. But I didn’t know how else to defend myself. “Just be careful,” she finally said.
“Always,” I promised her.
Because I was. Ian and I had seen what our parents’ divorce had done to them. I wasn’t looking for anything like that. Nothing long-term. And I knew that I had to stay professional while I was here in Utah. I didn’t want to screw this thing up. Any sort of relationship with Adam was off-limits.
But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t try to get him to open up a little more. Something in him had really changed, and it made me miss the jokester that he used to be. Surely that person was still there inside of him. What would it take to break him out of his shell? I wanted to find out.
That was all.
13
Adam
We were running a little late come Monday morning, but at least we were almost ready for Ethan to get off to school so that I could go to work. “Hurry up and eat your eggs, buddy,” I said to him. “We don’t want to be late.”
I didn’t know why some mornings always seemed so much more difficult than other mornings, to be honest. Well, I did; there were always those little random quirks that made th
ings take longer than they were supposed to, like when Ethan decided that he didn’t want to wear the shirt he had picked out the night before, or when we couldn’t find his lunchbox at the end of a long weekend.
Things like that could derail the whole process. Because it wasn’t like I still had Beth around to help out with Ethan while I made breakfast, or vice versa. No, at this point, it was all me, trying to do everything. Those moms who joked about how they had to be supermoms to make things work out for their families? I totally got it now.
But this morning, I was pretty sure we were going to make it on time. Of course, then there was a knock on the front door.
I frowned, glancing at my watch even though I knew it was too damned early for deliveries or anything else. “Keep eating,” I instructed Ethan as I headed towards the door. I was surprised to see Dad standing there.
“What’s wrong?” I immediately asked him, sure that it must be something dire for him to show up here on a morning when he knew that I was going to be taking Ethan to school and heading off to work myself.
Dad shook his head, though. “Nothing’s wrong, I was just hoping to see my favorite grandson before he goes off to school.”
“Dad, you know we barely have enough time to get ready in the morning,” I said in an undertone, but it was no use. Ethan had already come down the hall to investigate who was at the door, still munching on a piece of toast.
“Buddy, you know our rule,” I chided him. “Food needs to stay in the kitchen.”
Ethan shoved the last bite of his toast into his mouth, even though it was probably more than one bite. His cheeks swelled like a chipmunk’s, and for a moment, he couldn’t even talk. I was afraid he would choke, which would just be one more thing to deal with that morning. But eventually, he swallowed. “All done!” he declared proudly. I rolled my eyes.
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 7