“Dad,” Ethan whined as he came back in the room. “It’s Friday. I have all weekend to do my homework.”
I frowned at him. “Ethan, you know the rules,” I said to him. “No PowerBox until you finish your homework for the day.”
“Fine,” Ethan said, rolling his eyes and stomping off to get started.
I looked at Dad and shook my head, unable to help my grimace. “I hate to say it, but I knew that thing was going to be a problem,” I said.
Dad snorted. “Oh, don’t even start with that, Adam Katz,” he said. “Do you remember how many times I had to threaten you with additional chores to get you to do your homework?”
I had to laugh at that. “All right, fair,” I said.
“Since I’m here, why don’t we work on the insulation in the sunroom?” Dad suggested. “And when Ethan’s finished with his homework, maybe we can all play.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, nodding at him.
Dad and I had never had the closest relationship with one another, but I had to admit that things had been better between us lately. And he loved spending time with Ethan. I supposed that was what really mattered.
25
Bailey
I couldn’t believe that Ian had caught Adam and me kissing. Our first kiss. Something that I had been waiting for for weeks, something that I had been trying to deny that I wanted. Something that I had never really expected would happen, and something that I wondered if it would ever happen again.
I could tell just how uncertain Adam had been in the aftermath, and it had nothing to do with the way that he had kissed me. Unbidden, I raised a hand to brush my fingertips against my lips, remembering the passion and the heat between us. No, there had been nothing uncertain about that kiss.
But getting to that point had been difficult, for both Adam and I. And now, I didn’t know if we were ever going to be able to psyche ourselves up to it again.
There were plenty of reasons not to get involved with Adam, after all. He was one of my employees at the mountain. A very valuable employee, too; he was the single mechanic and maintenance person for the resort, in charge of everything from fixing hot tubs to keeping the lifts spinning. It was a big job, and the position wasn’t one that I could fill very easily if I lost him.
But there was more to it than just the fact that he was my employee.
I hadn’t moved here to Park City just to fall in love with a man. I was here as a businesswoman, and I had plenty on my plate at the moment between learning everything that I could about the resort industry as well as dealing with the little daily challenges of owning a ski resort. I didn’t have time for foolishness.
And then there was the fact that Adam had always been one of Ian’s friends. They may have fallen out of touch in the years since we had stopped coming to Brooks Mountain as a family during the holidays, but the fact remained that Ian had always been the one who was close to Adam. And now that I owned this place, it was likely that Ian would be around a lot more and would want to be friends with Adam again. I couldn’t get in the middle of that.
Not only that, but there was Adam’s past. He had a son, Ethan. And I had no problem with that, but it did complicate certain things. It meant that any sort of relationship between Adam and I wouldn’t be just a fling. There was a certain level of commitment there.
Plus, I could tell that Adam was still, at times, bothered by the loss of Ethan’s mom. I didn’t know anything about her or about them, not even how she had died, and maybe that was something that I needed to know about before I fell head over heels in love with Adam. I doubted I would ever be able to measure up to her, and that was something that I would have to come to terms with.
I pushed all of those thoughts out of my mind for now, though. What I needed to do right now was to calm Ian down. Further conversations with Adam would come later, when all of this was resolved.
I found Ian waiting in the main part of the lodge. He gave me a look and then started walking away, clearly not wanting to have this conversation here. I felt my cheeks flush as I hurried after him. Like I had said to Adam, I wasn’t a child, and Ian’s disapproval of my actions shouldn’t bother me this much. But I couldn’t help feeling shame bubble up inside of me.
“Sleeping with one of your employees? Really?” Ian asked scathingly when we finally made it out behind the lodge. He shook his head. “I would have expected more from you as a business owner.”
I gaped at him, trying to think of what to say in response to that. To be honest, his words cut pretty deep. I’d felt uncertain ever since I had started here at Brooks Mountain, but things had been better in recent days. I had actually started to feel like I understood what I was doing there.
Part of that feeling, I knew, stemmed from the fact that Adam had been so supportive of me. But that was another thing that I couldn’t dwell on right now.
Maybe I should admit to Ian that Adam and I weren’t sleeping together. That we had just kissed. That we had only had that one kiss. But there was a part of me that insisted that that was none of his business anyway. Besides, if I made my argument about that now, it meant that there would be no chance for anything more in the future. If I assured Ian that Adam and I had only kissed and that I would never dream of sleeping with him, I was setting myself up to never go any further with Adam.
So instead, I just shook my head at Ian. “Calm down,” I told him. “What are you doing here, anyway? You never even said for sure that you were going to be able to come for Christmas. I thought things were busy with the casino business.”
“They are,” Ian said shortly. “But the more I thought about it, the more I worried that you might need my help here and not be asking for it. I didn’t want to leave you in that position.”
“I don’t need your help,” I protested, trying not to sound too snippy about his assumption that I would. I appreciated that he wanted to look out for me. Even though I thought it was a little ridiculous. I was a big girl, and this wasn’t my first foray into the business world. But Ian and I had grown up together, and he had always had my back when I still worked for the family business. It was only natural that even though I wasn’t part of the family business anymore, he would want to look out for me.
Still, looking out for me didn’t mean that he had any right to interfere in my personal life.
I tried to turn things even further away from my relationship. “Things have been going really well the past couple weeks,” I assured Ian. “It helps that we have really great snow this winter, but I also feel like I’ve been doing a good job here, and the staff seems to be responding to that too.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk about the business right now,” Ian interrupted. “Clearly you don’t have everything in control if you’re sleeping around with an employee. That’s not a responsible business practice, and you should know that. If you don’t, then you need my help even more than I had realized.”
I stared at him, fuming. But there was a part of me that knew that he was right, that kissing Adam had been irresponsible. It was part of why I had tried to hold back in the first place.
Ian continued, though. “Look, even leaving beside the fact that he’s your employee, you shouldn’t be with someone like Adam.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked in surprise. “I thought you guys were always friends.”
“We were,” Ian agreed. “We are.” He shook his head. “But come on, Bailey, you deserve someone better than some tradesman who has never even left his hometown.”
I blinked at him in surprise. I had never thought of Adam that way. Adam was Adam; kind, attractive, gruff but sincere, helpful in more ways than I could keep track of. He might work with his hands, but wasn’t the important thing that he was a hard worker? And he might not have gone to college that I knew of, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t intelligent.
Ian shook his head. “Look, he’s a great guy; I’ll be the first to say that. But you’re from different worlds, Bailey. He ment
ioned he married a girl he met when he was still in high school, and he’s never shown any interest in anything beyond this place. Why would you want to tie yourself down to that? And moreover, do you really think that things could possibly work out between the two of you in the long run? You’d get bored with him, and he’d hate how flighty you are.”
I swallowed hard, not even sure how to respond. Ian knew me better than anyone in the world. Was there a possibility that he was right? Maybe I was too flighty. It had been a pretty quick decision on my part, after Dad’s death, to buy this resort with my inheritance money. I had been struggling ever since, given that I just had no experience in the winter sports industry. Hell, I hadn’t even owned any winter clothes prior to moving up here.
And it was true that Adam was a creature of habit. From his morning routine to everything else in his life, there was a script that he followed. He wasn’t going to change that for anyone. Maybe he would get sick of me. Maybe I would get frustrated with him. It didn’t feel like that at the moment, but then again, what did I really know? All new relationships seemed exciting at first.
“Exactly,” Ian said, as though I had agreed with him already. He shook his head. “Lucky for you, I managed to find someone to take over for me for a couple weeks through the holidays. So I can help you out with turning this place around.”
“This place doesn’t need turning around,” I said, but my voice was no longer as certain as it had been before.
“Well, there are definitely certain changes that need to be made,” Ian said firmly, giving me a no-nonsense look.
There was a part of me that wanted to remind him that I was the one who had bought this place, that I was the one responsible for it. There was a part of me that wanted to tell him that he had no right to swoop in and start making changes to things.
But instead, I found myself nodding at my older brother. “All right,” I said quietly. “It’s good to see you.”
I headed back into the lodge, feeling shell-shocked. My feet found their way over to where Kayla was sitting at the front desk. I wanted to say something, to tell her how unfair Ian was being. Or to tell her that I had finally kissed Adam. But instead, when she asked what was going on, I just shook my head.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
26
Adam
I was glad for the snow on Saturday, if only because it gave me a new set of chores to attend to on Sunday. I had been shocked, on Friday night, to look at my schedule online and see that I had been taken off on Saturday as well. I had thrown myself into chores around the house, making my way through literally everything that was on my list. Only to look on Saturday night and see that I had been taken off the schedule for Sunday as well.
What else was there to do? Ordinarily, if I had found myself with sudden free time, I might have taken Ethan out skiing. But I wasn’t sure if I should be seen around the resort at the moment. I even thought about heading to one of the other resorts in the area, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that picture that Ethan had drawn of him skiing with Bailey. I knew that he would pitch a fit if I suggested going anywhere else, even though there were plenty of great resorts in the area. No, he would want to ski with Bailey, and when he found out that that couldn’t happen, he’d be upset.
I’d rather not open that can of worms at the moment.
So on Sunday morning, after a big breakfast with Ethan, I clapped my hands together. “Time to shovel,” I said.
Ethan groaned. “Do we have to?” he asked.
“Of course we have to, buddy,” I told him. “It snowed nearly a foot last night. That means if we want to get to town, we need to clear the driveway.”
“I don’t want to get to town,” Ethan grumbled.
“You never want to eat again?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow at him. “Because the grocery store is in town, and we’re almost out of food in this house.”
Ethan sighed, but then he cocked his head to the side. “If we shovel now, can Gramps come over this afternoon and play on the PowerBox with me?”
“We’ll have to ask him if he can, but I think that’s a great idea,” I said, relieved to hear that plan. That would keep Ethan occupied for most of the day, and there would be no question about why we weren’t going skiing that day.
We bundled up in our winter gear, even though I knew we would probably both be stripping off layers as soon as we got moving. It wasn’t actually that cold outside, and the sun was shining brightly off the snow. Perfect bluebird day, I thought with a sigh. If only we were on the mountain.
I wanted to call Bailey and hear what the story was. Had she talked to Ian? What had he said? How long would he be sticking around, and how long was I going to have to avoid the resort for? Were she and I still okay? Did she regret letting me kiss her?
So many things that I wished I knew the answers to, but I didn’t dare call her. It might only make things worse. And anyway, it was the kind of conversation that I would rather actually have in person with her. I just had to be patient.
I forced myself to focus on shoveling, letting myself fall into the mindless rhythm of scooping snow and throwing it off to the side of the driveway. “Thanks for your help, buddy,” I told Ethan as we took a break when we were about halfway down the driveway. “This would take forever if it weren’t for you.”
“Did Mommy used to help you shovel the driveway?” Ethan asked suddenly. It wasn’t too surprising to hear him ask something like that. He was always curious about his mom. And I had long since gotten used to talking about her with him.
“She did used to help me,” I told Ethan. “She was the fastest shoveler that I ever knew, in fact. And she used to really love the snow. Every time it snowed, she was happy as I’d ever seen her. Even if it meant that she had to shovel.”
I could still see her in my mind’s eye, her face turned up towards the sky, snowflakes dotting her cheeks as she grinned and twirled in a circle. She had always had such a pure, almost childlike excitement with each new storm. Even at her sickest, she seemed better on the days when she could see snow falling outside her window.
“Plus, when we finished shoveling, she would always go back inside and make cookies,” I added, smiling at the memory of those warm afternoons by the fire, the scent of gingersnaps drifting through the cozy house. I shook my head. “She was the best woman I ever knew.”
That last I said quietly, almost to myself, but Ethan responded. “I think Bailey is the best woman I ever knew,” he said.
I had to laugh at that. “Oh, really?” I asked him. “What makes you say that?”
“She skis and she’s pretty and she listens good,” Ethan said, shrugging.
I didn’t want to tell him that Beth, his mother, had all of those qualities as well. I knew that Ethan remembered his mom somewhat, but I sometimes wondered how much he actually remembered of her and how much he only knew about her from what I had told him. Not that I could blame him for not remembering more of her; Beth had died when he was only four, and she had been sick for a while before that. In all honesty, it was probably better that he didn’t remember more about her from there at the end, when she’d been in pain and bedridden and sickly.
If there was a bargain that I could make so that I could only remember the earlier days in our relationship, I might have considered it too.
“Can we see Bailey soon?” Ethan asked, his tongue poking out between his teeth as he focused on his shoveling for a moment.
I leaned against my own shovel as I looked over at him, trying to think of how to respond to that. He was old enough that at some point, he was sure to realize how strange it was that I had suddenly stopped going to work. But that didn’t feel like a conversation I could start with him until I understood what my employment situation was, myself.
So finally, I just nodded. “I’ll see what I can do, buddy,” I promised him. It was kind of a cop-out answer; it wasn’t a yes or a no. But it would have to do for now. I was still trying to figure out
when I would next get to see Bailey.
Ethan chattered away about Bailey for a little while, about how much he wanted to ski with her and about how he was going to draw another picture for her. Then, he continued talking about his ski club and school and other things. But my thoughts were stuck on Bailey.
I knew I shouldn’t have kissed her. I had known all the reasons why not to before I had done it. But I had to think that if things felt so right between the two of us, then maybe there was some reason for it. Some way that we could make things work out. It was definitely going to take a bit of work, though; that much was obvious.
Trouble was, I didn’t want a relationship with Bailey more than I wanted this job. I needed to keep my job; there was no option about that. I couldn’t go jobless for the rest of the winter, but neither did I think I would have much luck finding a new job at a ski resort in the middle of the season. And definitely not at one of the local ones. But I didn’t want to move either; I didn’t want to pack up and uproot Ethan from his school and his ski club.
What a mess.
I tried to fall back into the rhythm of shoveling and to forget all about her, but I could still hear Ethan’s words echoing in my skull; Bailey was the best woman that he had ever met. That was another complication to the relationship. If things went south, I didn’t want Ethan to lose Bailey. But I also didn’t think there would be much chance of hiding a relationship from Ethan. He was a smart kid; he would figure it out. Especially since he was at the ski resort nearly as often as I was.
And way more often than Ian was, come to think of it, yet somehow Ian had managed to catch Bailey and I in the middle of our first kiss.
I sighed heavily. “Me too,” Ethan said, sighing exaggeratedly and leaning against his small shovel.
I had to laugh at that, at least.
We finished up shoveling and did a few other chores to while away the afternoon. After a trip to the grocery store, I gave Dad a call to invite him over to play on the PowerBox with Ethan while I cooked dinner for the three of us. He came over a little while later, raising an eyebrow at me. “You got taken off the schedule again,” he said, not sounding surprised.
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 15