One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance

by Weston Parker

  I knew that she didn’t deserve that, but I couldn’t seem to stop the words. I was just so sick of being caught in the middle of the two of them, my job and my whole life hanging in the balance. Bailey looked taken aback and then hurt, and for a moment, I thought about apologizing. But I couldn’t help feeling bitter, knowing that she would no doubt side with him over me.

  So as she opened her mouth, I cut her off. “Just forget about it,” I told her. “But I swear to god, if you don’t do something about Ian, you’re going to have to find yourself another mechanic.”

  I stalked off before she could reply. I needed to get out of there before I said anything that I would regret.

  Or rather, before I said anything that I would regret more than what I had already said to her. Because in my mind’s eye, I could still see that hurt expression on her face, and I knew that I had crossed the line.

  There was a cowardly part of me that dared to hope that might mean that she wouldn’t try to get near me again. But there was also a worried part of me that wondered if I would really be able to keep this job at all.

  41

  Bailey

  I blinked away the tears pricking at the corners of my eyes as I stared after Adam. I didn’t know what the hell had just happened. But I knew that Ian was at the root of the problem, and I could only imagine what that meant. Had he threatened Adam’s job again? Had he told him all about how he didn’t think that Adam was good enough for me? I hoped that he hadn’t done either of those things, to be honest. But I couldn’t help feeling worried.

  I hated that Adam had lashed out at me. But I knew that he was right. I really did need to do something about the Ian situation. It wasn’t fair to the staff here to have to put up with all this confusion. I knew that a lot of them had been wary when I had first bought the place, all wondering what sorts of changes I might make here. And I had brought in chaos, unquestionably.

  Not only that, but I was standing by and letting Ian be a jerk to Adam. Ian might be my older brother, but I was starting to realize just how much I really liked Adam. It wasn’t fair for me to let Ian treat him so badly, trying to get him fired and mucking up all the orders for the resort.

  I wanted to chase after Adam and apologize, get the full story out of him, promise to do something about the Ian situation. But I could tell just how upset Adam was at the moment, and I knew it would be better to give him a chance to calm down. Even if I hated the idea of him sitting there in his office, thinking that I didn’t care about him at all.

  I took a deep breath and went about my afternoon activities mostly as normal. But around two-thirty, I stopped by Adam’s office, hoping that he was in there and that I wouldn’t have to track him down. I tapped lightly on his door and was relieved when he opened it.

  I saw his face fall when he saw me, and he took a step back to let me in. “You’re probably here to fire me,” he said dully.

  “What?” I asked in surprise. “No!” I shook my head. “Adam, I know things have been tricky with Ian being here, and I’m sorry that I haven’t addressed the issue. I’ve just been having a hard time because he’s my brother and he’s got some other things going on in his life right now.” She paused, emotion flickering across her face. “But I am going to figure all of this out.”

  “Sure, okay,” Adam said, and I could tell that he didn’t exactly believe me. That was like a knife to the heart, but I couldn’t blame him.

  “Could you tell me what happened this morning?” I asked him. “I’m going to dinner with Ian tonight to talk to him about all of this, but I want to make sure I have all the facts straight first.”

  Adam sighed. “I was just working on the hot water heaters. One of them has a drip. Ian came and found me and basically told me, on penalty of losing my job, not to keep working on them because he has new ones coming.” He paused. “There’s no reason to install new water heaters; I’m sure that I can fix the leak. And besides, installing new ones now, when we’ve got people staying in all the condos, is going to be a nightmare. We’ll get a ton of complaints from people who, for good reason, are pissed that they can’t take hot showers.”

  I shook my head, grimacing. “We can’t afford new hot water heaters right now anyway,” I said. “I keep trying to tell him, we’re turning a profit, but that money’s all earmarked for other improvements. I mean, it would be one thing if we needed new hot water heaters, but I expect that you or Gretchen would tell me if we did.”

  “Yeah, well, Ian seems to think that he knows best,” Adam said sourly.

  “I’ll talk to him. And I’ll make sure that the order is cancelled,” I sighed, hoping that we weren’t going to lose money on yet another unnecessary purchase. “If you could get that leak fixed when you have a chance, that would be great. I’m sorry about earlier.”

  Adam rolled his eyes, and I couldn’t help wincing. “I know, I know,” I said, holding up both hands. “It should never have happened in the first place.” I took a step closer, but Adam stepped backwards.

  “Don’t,” he said shortly. “Look, Bailey, all of this is getting too complicated. Focus on sorting things out with your brother. Please.”

  I wanted to say something in response to that. His rejection was like another knife to my soul. But I knew that he was right. Until I made things right around the resort, until I made sure that Ian wasn’t doing his best to sabotage things between Adam and me, I had no right to continue trying to be in a relationship with Adam.

  Which meant, I needed to figure out things with Ian as soon as possible. I still wasn’t entirely sure how to approach him about the casino stuff, but I didn’t think taking more time to think about it was going to make things any better. In fact, it might just make things worse since the more time we wasted, the more difficult it was going to be for me to help Ian. I needed to know exactly what was going on.

  It was easy enough to get him to go out to dinner with me that night. We went to one of our old favorites, a cute little pizza place with vinyl booths and the best pizza crust in the world. “I need to talk to you,” I said as Ian took a bite of his pizza.

  Ian frowned at me. “If this is about the orders for the resort, it’s like I told you,” he said. “It’s all stuff that the resort could use. Stuff that will improve the place.” He paused. “Anyway, I heard what you said about that, and I haven’t ordered anything new.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not about the resort,” I said. “It’s about the casino business.”

  Ian raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you hoping to come back to work for us?” he asked. “Because I have to say, Bailey, I know it’s the family business, but there might not be a place for you there anymore. We replaced you a while ago, and your replacement is doing a good job. Plus, you can’t just leave whenever you want to and come back whenever you’re bored with your other projects.”

  I stared at him, wanting to say something nasty in response to that. But this wasn’t about me. I wanted to talk about his place in the casino business. I wondered if the only reason he was saying that at all was because he wanted to deflect the attention from himself.

  So I shook my head. “I’m not planning on coming back,” I assured him. “But I wanted to talk to you about how the business is going.”

  “It’s great,” Ian cut in, before I could say anything else. “Things have really been picking up. We’ve been drawing in more and more high rollers. Lots of improvements around the place.”

  I frowned. “That’s not exactly what I’ve heard,” I said slowly, and I could see uncertainty flicker across Ian’s face for the first time. “I heard there have been a lot of improvements, or at least attempts at improvement. Lots of changes to the way things have been run. All those changes that you always said you wanted to make.”

  Ian shrugged, but he looked wary. “Yeah, well. The place needed some changes, you know that. Things have been run the same way for decades now, and business has been stagnating. Gambling just isn’t what it used to be, especially not wit
h all the online gambling now. We needed to get with the times and draw in a new crowd.”

  “Sure,” I said easily, knowing that the best way to get information from him was to agree with him. “But I’ve heard that not everyone is happy with the changes.”

  Ian scowled. “Who told you that?” he asked.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said easily. I paused and then laid my hands flat on the table. “Ian, come on. You know you can talk to me. What’s really going on? I hear some of the investors might be suing you.”

  Ian stared at me for a long moment, and at first, I thought that he was going to deny everything. And what would I do then, pull out the news articles and demand the truth? I didn’t want to have to do that.

  But finally, my brother sighed. “I am under investigation,” he admitted. “They mainly just want to know where the money has gone and why we’re not making more of it. I’ve tried to remind them that things could take time, that some of these things are long-term investments, but that’s not what everyone wants to hear.”

  I sighed and shook my head. I barely stopped myself before I said something about how he was a better businessman than that and he should have known better. Whatever changes he had put into effect, the damage was already done. All that was left was to figure out how to deal with all of it now.

  “I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” Ian said quietly. “I took all the money from my inheritance and put it into the casino, so it’s not like the investors are the only people losing money.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” I told him simply. Then, I paused. “But if I help you with this, you have to promise to quit meddling with the resort. Because you’ve been driving me crazy lately.”

  “I’m just trying to help,” Ian protested.

  “I know,” I told him honestly. “But you got to make mistakes with the casino business. Now it’s my turn to make some mistakes with the resort.”

  Ian looked like he wanted to protest again, but then his lips quirked into a small grin as he reached out to shake my hand. “Deal,” he said.

  “And,” I added, staring deep into his eyes as I held on to his hand, “you need to lay off Adam. I know you’re not happy about me and him, but it’s really none of your business.”

  Ian looked like he wanted to protest, but I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s not up for discussion,” I told him. “I’m a big girl, and again, I have to make my own mistakes.”

  Ian frowned but then shrugged. “Fine,” he said.

  I slowly smiled as I released his hand. I had honestly expected this conversation to be a lot more difficult than it was, and I hadn’t expected Ian to give in so easily. But that was silly; I knew that he just wanted the best for me. He was just looking out for me. I had proven to him that I could take care of myself, and he respected that.

  I couldn’t wait to tell Adam the good news the next day.

  42

  Adam

  “Adam!” I froze when I heard Bailey’s voice behind me. Slowly, I turned around, pasting a smile on my face.

  “Yeah?” I asked her.

  “Where are you going?” she asked me, her hands on her hips. “We’re about to start the all-employee meeting.” There was a disapproving note in her voice, but she looked amused, like she knew exactly what I was about to say.

  I shrugged one shoulder, glancing back behind me towards the exit. “There’s some stuff that I have to deal with, with the lifts,” I told her. “Unfortunately, it won’t wait.”

  It was only sort of a lie; there was some stuff that I needed to deal with, with one of the lifts. But did I have to do it right that second? Probably not. I never went to the employee meetings, though. Gretchen always gave me the information that I needed afterwards. Usually, there was nothing too important for me, and I had plenty of other things on my plate.

  Besides, I didn’t really want to hear whatever it was that Bailey wanted to talk to everyone about. She had assured me the previous day that she was going to have dinner with Ian and straighten out that situation, but I had seen Ian around the resort already that morning. I doubted that she had managed to say anything to him.

  Which, okay, fair enough. He was her older brother. I’m sure it was hard for her to tell him off. But all the same, she shouldn’t have promised me that she was going to talk to him if she wasn’t really going to. And as for this meeting, well, whatever she had to say to everyone couldn’t be too important if she was refusing to solve the very real issues that we were having at the resort.

  So why the hell should I care? I was starting to wonder if I should just suck it up and quit before I got myself fired. I didn’t want to find a different job, but at the moment, I didn’t really want this one either.

  Bailey frowned at me. “I’ll keep the meeting short, but I really want everyone to be there,” she said.

  I stared at her for a moment, wanting to protest. But then, I shrugged. I had a feeling if I did try to weasel my way out of it, she would just remind me that she was the boss around here. I didn’t need to hear that again.

  “Fine,” I said, following her into the conference room.

  Bailey smiled and greeted everyone, then took a deep breath. “I just wanted to apologize for the way things have been around here lately,” she said. She locked eyes with me. “I know that there’s been a certain amount of confusion about who’s the boss, and that certain of your jobs have been a bit uncomfortable as a consequence.” She looked around the room again. “But I wanted to let you know that things are going to be back to normal.”

  She gave a short laugh. “It wouldn’t be the holidays if we weren’t dealing with that one disruptive family member, am I right?” There was some quiet laughter around the room. “I know that Ian’s been causing some issues around the place, putting in orders for things that we haven’t agreed to purchase and whatnot. But I just want to make sure you all know that I’m not going to just stand by and let him do whatever he wants here. He might be family, but I’m on your guys’ side here. We’ve made some commitments to improve this resort in certain ways, and we’re still planning to do that. Ian and I have had a long talk, and he has agreed not to meddle anymore.”

  “So we should be coming to you if he continues to, uh, step in?” Kayla asked from somewhere in the front of the group.

  “Absolutely,” Bailey said, nodding. “I know it’s a lot to ask you guys, and I hope you don’t feel like you’re tattling on him or anything. But if this is going to work, I need to know what’s going on with everyone in the business, and how I can help make your jobs run more smoothly.” Again, her eyes locked on mine. “If Ian is interfering with anyone’s work, that’s something that I need to know.” She shrugged and smiled. “But like I said, I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore, so hopefully it’s not something any of us have to worry about.”

  She clapped her hands together. “Now, onto a lighter note. I think Mark wants to talk to everyone about the annual New Year’s torchlight parade, so I’ll turn it over to him.”

  There were a few other miscellaneous notes in the meeting, but I could tell from the way that Bailey’s eyes lingered on me that that first part was the reason that she’d wanted me to be there. And I appreciated her words. She really had talked to Ian, and she understood just how uncomfortable he had been making things around the resort. She was committed to making things better for all of us.

  Again, I had to admit that she was a good boss. She would do whatever it took to help out her employees. I respected that.

  Near the end of the meeting, Bailey got back up to close things out. “I just also wanted to thank everyone for the work that you’ve been putting in over the past couple weeks,” she said. “And to thank you in advance for the work you’ll put in while we close out this busy holiday season. I know that things have been pretty crazy this year, but I’ve heard so many great things about all of you guys from our guests. Guests who plan on making Brooks Mountain part of their yearly holiday traditions
. So keep up the good work, and again, let me know if there’s anything that I can do to help you out!”

  It was a positive note to end the meeting on, and I could see smiles around the room as everyone started to file out. Bailey’s eyes caught mine, and I nodded at her. She immediately made a beeline over to me, something that I hadn’t anticipated.

  “Hey, can I talk to you alone for a minute or do those lifts really need seeing to right now?” she asked.

  I was torn. I wanted to tell her that I needed to get to work. I wanted to tell her that as long as Ian was still there, I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be seen chatting with her. But she had clearly put down her foot about the fact that she was the boss. Maybe she wouldn’t be so inclined to listen to Ian if he tried to get me fired. And besides, even though I knew that she and I couldn’t be together, that there were still insurmountable barriers there that had nothing to do with Ian’s apparent dislike for me, I wanted her to know that if she needed help around the resort, she could come to me.

  So I paused and shrugged. “I have a few minutes,” I allowed. “What’s up?”

  “I need some advice,” she said, and my hackles immediately rose.

  “If it’s something with Ian and the resort,” I started to say, but Bailey interrupted me, looking around to make sure that no one was in earshot. But nearly everyone had left the conference room already, and those who hadn’t were clustered near the doorway.

  “It’s not the resort, but it is about Ian,” she explained. “He’s in some trouble with the casino, and I’m trying to figure out a way to help him out.”

  “I don’t know anything about the casino business,” I said, shaking my head. I refrained from adding that, what’s more, there was no reason for me to help Ian out after everything that he had said to me since he had arrived here in Park City.