One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance

by Weston Parker

  I nodded at him. “I know I never should have kissed her in the first place, but if you were in my shoes, what would you do now? Should I just show up there and talk to her? What if Ian’s there?” I knew that Dad wasn’t the best person to have this conversation with, but I didn’t know who else to talk to about it.

  It only brought home to me how much had changed in recent years. I hadn’t talked to Ian, my closest male friend, in forever, and now that Beth was gone, I felt isolated. It wasn’t entirely my fault: it was hard to keep up relationships with the amount of work that I did and the fact that I had Ethan. Not to mention the fact that life in Park City had gotten more and more expensive over the years and a lot of the people that I had once known there had moved away in search of better pay and cheaper cost of living. But I started to wonder if maybe the real trouble was that I just hadn’t made enough of an effort in a while. I really should try harder to keep friends in this town. Maybe I was just too much of a loner.

  Anyway, Dad finally shrugged. “I think it depends on what sort of outcome you’re looking for,” he finally said.

  “I never should have kissed Bailey,” I said, shaking my head. “I need this job. That’s the only outcome that I’m worried about.”

  Dad stared at me for a moment, and at first, I thought he was going to say something about how work shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all in my life. But of course he didn’t say anything like that. This was my father, who had raised me to be hard-working above all else. Instead, he shrugged again. “If that’s what you’re worried about, then you need to do whatever it takes to make sure that you get to go back to work soon,” he said. “If you’re worried that you may no longer have a job, just remember that the sooner you know for sure, the sooner you can start looking at other options if necessary.”

  With that, he headed off into the house to find Ethan. I mulled over that, knowing on some level that he was right. If Bailey was going to fire me, best that I just get it over with, rather than hanging in limbo, hanging out around the house doing chores. I probably should have already started looking into my other options, submitting applications to other positions at other mountains. Or figuring out what it would take to qualify for other mechanical positions around Park City.

  I knew the reason I hadn’t started that already, though; as soon as I started looking into positions elsewhere, it meant that I had admitted that things with Bailey and I were over, and that my job at Brooks Mountain, the job that I’d had for what felt like forever, was gone. I didn’t want to admit either of those things, so I kept holding off making any decisions.

  I had done that once before, I knew. When Beth got sick, and when Beth died, I had refused to acknowledge the fact that anything had changed, at least at first. But it was impossible to live like that long-term.

  27

  Bailey

  I hated that I had to take Adam off the schedule for the whole weekend. We could really use him around the resort, even just to ease my nerves: I kept imagining all the terrible emergencies that could happen while he wasn’t here. One of the lifts could go down again, and I would have to call him back in. Coming on the heels of the Dasher lift malfunction, it would be a nightmare. Even though no one had been injured and the lift had been back up and running in less than an hour, it was just something that we didn’t want to have to deal with.

  But I could tell that Ian still hadn’t cooled off, and I didn’t want Adam and Ian to get into something because of me. I kept thinking that Ian and I would talk more and that things would calm down. Once that happened, I could have Adam come back to work as normal.

  The trouble was, Ian seemed to be almost avoiding me. Oh, he was everywhere around the resort, right where I could see him. He chatted with guests, employees, everyone. He charmed the pants off everyone he met. But he didn’t seem to want to talk to me about anything. And it wasn’t like I could march up to him and tell him to get the hell out of there.

  Inwardly, I was starting to fume. How dare he come in here, acting like he was the one who owned the place? I had wanted him to stay through the holidays, but now I was starting to regret that wish. If he were back in Vegas, he wouldn’t be able to pull any of this shit.

  How to tell him that, though, without sounding pissed? He was still my brother at the end of the day, and I knew he was just doing what he thought he needed to do to help me. He was just making sure that my business didn’t go under since I took over. But I also remembered what it had been like, working for the family casino business. I had never been allowed to have as much responsibility as I thought I could handle, and this was turning into just another instance of that.

  But I wasn’t working for the family business anymore, and it wasn’t fair for him to treat me as though I was.

  Again, how to approach that topic with him?

  Finally, I just shook my head and let him at it. He had to get back to Vegas eventually. Let him do whatever he thought he needed to do here, and in a couple weeks, he would be assured that things were running smoothly and that he could leave me to it.

  I was just glad that he couldn’t fire Adam in the meantime. We didn’t have anyone else who was qualified to work on the ski lifts, and I doubted he would be able to find someone who could now, with the season already started. I knew it wasn’t really fair to cut Adam’s days since that would affect the amount that he was paid, and right before the holidays, too, but we would figure something out there, Adam and I. Maybe he would get a nice Christmas bonus, or maybe a long-term raise. Maybe both.

  I just had to make sure it didn’t look like nepotism to the rest of the employees. Like they didn’t think it was just because Adam had kissed me. But it was the kind of move that I would do for any of my employees. If they needed my help, I wanted to be there for them. I hoped everyone understood that.

  Even though at the moment, it felt like I was doing the opposite of being there for Adam.

  I shook my head and went into my office on Monday morning. Another day without Adam on the mountain. I kept hoping that he would just drop by, or that he would at least call me. But he had steered clear. I couldn’t blame him, but it made me second-guess that kiss that we had shared the other day. Did he regret it? Would he have regretted it even if Ian hadn’t walked in on us? Where did we currently stand?

  I didn’t dare call him, though. I didn’t know what I might find myself saying to him.

  I froze in the doorway of my office, staring at Ian. He was seated behind my desk, on the phone with someone. And from the sounds of it, it was a work call.

  “That sounds perfect,” he said while I stood in the doorway watching him. “We’ll agree on all the terms when you get here.” He was silent for a moment, waving a hello at me and gesturing for me to wait just a moment for him to get off the phone. “Yes, we’ll see you this afternoon,” he said. Finally, he hung up.

  I could barely keep from yelling. “What the hell was that?” I asked, hands balled into fists as I jerkily crossed my arms in front of me.

  Ian raised an eyebrow at me. “And good morning to you, too,” he said.

  “This is my office,” I pointed out, not knowing what else to do.

  “Sure,” Ian said, getting easily to his feet and gesturing for me to have my desk back. “I just had a couple calls I needed to make, in here where it’s silent. You know how noisy it gets out in the lodge.”

  “Work calls?” I asked. “For the casino?” I hated that that clarification was necessary, but from the way that Ian had said that he’d see whoever it was that afternoon, I had to assume it was something to do with Brooks Mountain.

  Maybe not, though. Maybe I was being too hard on him. Maybe he wanted to treat someone in the casino industry in favor for capital or something, and he thought that inviting them here was the perfect way to do it. I hoped that was all it was.

  But Ian shrugged. “You know this business is growing,” he said. “And as it currently stands, one maintenance man just isn’t adequate. So I’ve hired a lo
cal company to come work full time for the business.”

  I gaped at him, barely believing that those words had just come out of his mouth. Forget the fact that what he was saying was that he was aiming to put his erstwhile friend out of business, because this was more serious than that. He wasn’t just trying to help out around the business anymore. Now, he really was telling me that he was taking over for me, doing whatever he wanted with the business without any thought for who the real owner was.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down a little. But it was hard to do. “This isn’t your company,” I said in a low, controlled voice.

  Ian raised an eyebrow at me. “You said that I could help you,” he said. “And clearly, you need the help.” He paused. “If you’ve forgotten, I run a successful casino business. Besides, you bought this place using Dad’s money. That means it’s still a family business, as far as I’m concerned. And, well, I’m family. I have a right to have a say in this.”

  “No, you don’t,” I snapped. “I bought this place using my inheritance money. If you wanted to have a say in this, you should have pitched in some of your own inheritance money.”

  Ian rolled his eyes. “You’re still a Peters,” he pointed out. “And as long as you’re using the family name in running this business, I’m going to make sure that the family name isn’t besmirched by a string of business failures. Because that affects the casino business as much as this place.” He looked around disparagingly. “More so than this place,” he corrected. “I know skiing costs a fair amount of money, but what you have to remember is that my clients sometimes throw down hundreds of thousands of dollars between accommodation, food, drinks, and gambling.”

  I stared at him, trying to wrap my head around each of his various points. “So, what,” I finally asked him, “you want me to quit using Peters as my last name?”

  “That’s not what I said,” Ian said, sounding frustrated. “But of course that’s the sort of inane detail that you would focus on.” He shook his head. But before he could say anything else, there was a knock on the door to my office.

  “We’re not done yet,” I told Ian firmly, but I went to the door and yanked it open to see who it was. The last thing I needed was for any of my employees to overhear me having this conversation with my brother. The last thing I needed was for everyone thinking that I didn’t have any sort of authority here, that even my brother wouldn’t respect my position.

  I took another deep breath, again trying to calm myself. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted more at the moment, to burst into tears or to continue fighting with Ian. The things was, everything had been going perfectly fine before he had shown up. But now that he had shown up, it seemed like everything was wrong, from my relationship with Adam to everything around the resort.

  At the same time, though, I knew that everyone loved him, that he was really doing everything he could for the resort. I myself had thought about hiring someone else into a maintenance position so that Adam wouldn’t have to bear the brunt of everything that went wrong around the resort. Adam himself had declined, though, saying that he had a system in place and didn’t want anyone coming in and messing with that. I had to respect that.

  Ian, it appeared, didn’t respect that. But then, he was sure that he knew what was best for the business. Sometimes, I just wished that I had his confidence. Only now, I was starting to see that that confidence and forcefulness wasn’t what this resort needed. This was a laidback, family-style place, and stamping all over that was only going to make things worse in the long run. I had bought this place to keep the culture alive. Ian was only looking at the bottom line.

  That sudden understanding allowed me to smile at Adam when I saw he was the one on the other side of the door. “Hey Adam,” I said, stepping to the side so that he could see Ian was still there in the office.

  Adam winced. “Sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I probably should have called.”

  “I should have called you,” I said smoothly.

  “Actually, can I talk to Ian?” Adam asked suddenly. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t really want to, and to be honest, I didn’t really want him talking to my brother right now. I wasn’t finished with my own conversation with Ian yet. And I definitely didn’t want Ian telling him all about how we had decided it would be best to hire an additional maintenance crew.

  We hadn’t decided that, after all. Ian had. The only good thing was, thinking back to the phone conversation, I didn’t think any contracts had been signed just yet. I needed to make sure that they never were. And that Adam didn’t think I was trying to replace him.

  So I shook my head at Adam. “You’re off duty today,” I said, but I lowered my voice so that Ian couldn’t overhear. “I’ll pay you for it, don’t worry. And there’s nothing serious for you to look at maintenance-wise, don’t worry about that either. I’ll call you tomorrow and we can talk about all of it, I promise you. And I’m sorry.”

  Adam looked surprised, but slowly, he nodded at me. “Okay,” he said, shrugging and shoving his hands in his pockets. “I guess I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Call me if you need me.”

  “I will,” I promised him. “Just bear with me.”

  28

  Adam

  I drummed my fingers against the countertop, trying to figure out what to do with myself. It was late on Tuesday morning and Ethan was already off to school. All the breakfast dishes had been cleaned, and the whole house was as clean as could be.

  I hated these huge holes in my schedule at the moment. I hadn’t had this much free time since I was a teenager, at least, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  I thought about just heading to the mountain, but I was a little worried after what had happened the previous day. I knew that I should have called ahead, but I’d been on my way back from dropping Ethan off at school, and faced with another day with nothing to do, and with Dad’s words ringing in my ears, I had thought there was no better idea than to head to the hill and try to straighten things out with Bailey. What was my luck, that she’d been in the middle of a meeting with Ian when I had shown up?

  I could tell immediately that something was wrong, too. I had never seen Bailey looking so upset. My first instinct had been to pull her into my arms. But I couldn’t do that, not with Ian standing there in the background. I didn’t even know how to ask her about it.

  She’d made it clear that she didn’t want to talk to me just then anyway. But she’d made it equally clear, by telling me that she would still pay me for the previous days’ time off, that she intended to keep me on payroll. I just needed to calm down and be patient.

  The thing was, I hated the idea of being off work for the next couple weeks or however long Ian was going to be there. Even if Bailey continued to pay me in the meantime. Or rather, especially if Bailey continued to pay me in the meantime. There was something that bothered me about getting paid for work that I wasn’t doing.

  And I knew just what a huge mountain of work I was likely to come back to if I took a couple weeks off work. Oh, it was going to be a nightmare. I could already imagine how many things around the resort needed my eyes on them now, and so far, I had only been gone for a weekend.

  Nothing for it, though. I just should have thought about all of that before I kissed Bailey. I deserved whatever catch-up work I had to do.

  I thought about going skiing today, but again, there was something that made me feel guilty about enjoying the perks of my job, when I was barely even clinging to the job anymore. Besides, I could run into Ian on the hill at any time, and I knew that the reason Bailey didn’t want me around at the moment was that she didn’t want me getting into anything with her brother.

  And besides, if I went out skiing, I might miss Bailey’s call. She had promised that we would talk today, and I didn’t want to miss that. I was pretty sure I was going to keep my job, but I was still impatient to hear what she would have to say to me.

  I tried to occupy myself with organizing the
garage, something I hadn’t done since Beth and I had moved into this place what seemed like forever ago now. I was just getting into it, finally starting to forget about Bailey and Ian and the mountain, when my phone rang. I almost killed myself rushing to answer it.

  “Hello?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Adam?” Bailey asked. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No, it’s fine,” I said, my heart hammering. This could be it. This could be the point where she fired me. I really hoped it wasn’t going to come to that.

  “Have you eaten?” Bailey asked, and I was surprised when I looked at my watch and saw that it was already early afternoon. “I was thinking that maybe we could get lunch together. My treat.” She paused and cleared her throat. “I still think it’s maybe a good idea for you to steer clear of the resort for the moment, that’s the main thing.”

  “Sure,” I said, trying not to sigh. What I wouldn’t give for her to tell me that everything was normal and that I could come back to work as usual. But it seemed that wasn’t going to be the case.

  I had to admit, it would be good to get lunch with her, though. That would give us both plenty of time to talk everything out, from Ian to my job to…us. If there still was the possibility of an us. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted anymore, that was the thing. I had never expected things to get this complicated.

  But things only got more complicated when I sat down to lunch with Bailey. “So there’s something that I need to tell you,” she said, carefully not looking at me.

  I sighed. “You’re firing me,” I surmised.