Kayla shrugged. “Just wondered if she had told you when she was coming back. I haven’t heard anything from her.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think she has a flight booked yet,” I told her. “I’m sure it won’t be much longer, though.”
“I don’t know,” Kayla said, grimacing. “Ian’s finally out of the papers, but things still don’t sound very good.”
“Yeah, I know Bailey’s been pretty busy trying to smooth ruffled feathers with the casino’s regulars and the board and everyone,” I said, nodding. “But like I said, I think things are winding down soon. Bailey said she’d only be gone for a week or two.”
It was false optimism, really. Like the more I insisted it wouldn’t be that much longer, the more likely it was that Bailey really would book that return flight. I just couldn’t let myself believe otherwise.
Kayla grimaced, though. “I’m honestly starting to wonder if she’s really going to come back.”
“She said she was going to,” I said shortly.
“I know she did,” Kayla said. “And I’m sure she was planning on it when she left. But I’m wondering if maybe she went back home and realized how much she missed it. The warm weather, her friends, her brother. I don’t know.”
I looked away from her. I didn’t want to think about that. And I didn’t know what to say in response to it.
Kayla shrugged. “I don’t know, she picked up and left everything behind to come here, kind of on a whim. She didn’t know anything about the industry, and she didn’t really plan anything before she just up and left. She’s spontaneous. And I love that about her, but I just worry that she’s going to spontaneously decide to stay in Nevada.”
“Why are you saying this to me?” I asked suspiciously.
Kayla sighed. “I guess I’m just telling you to be careful with Bailey. And wondering if maybe I should post something looking for a new general manager for the resort. If Mike’s going to be out for a while and Bailey’s not coming back you have enough on your plate as it is.”
“Things are fine,” I said. I looked at my watch, signaling that I was done with this conversation. “But I really need to get back to work now, Kayla. I want to get those heaters working as soon as possible.”
“Of course,” Kayla said smoothly, but there was still concern in her eyes.
I turned away from her, not wanting to see that. Pretty much everyone at the resort knew that I was a widower. Not many of them knew about Bailey and I, but Kayla was Bailey’s best friend here. She probably knew more about Bailey’s feelings for me than I did. If Bailey even had feelings for me. She had hinted that she did, back at the airport, but that had been weeks ago now, before she had gone back to Vegas. Things could have changed. Easily.
Or maybe she’d just realized that I had been right when I called myself her seasonal fling. Once she got out of this place, she had realized that she had never been all that interested at all, it was just the fact that she would only see me for a few months until the season was over and she left again.
I got started on trying to fix the heaters, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what Kayla had said. Finally, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. If I wanted to know when Bailey was coming back, I could just give her a call. Surely, she had some idea of how long it would be. Or if she wasn’t planning on coming back after all, maybe she would let me know that.
But she didn’t pick up the phone, and I didn’t know how to leave a message asking her about it. I knew that she would see that I had called, and hopefully she would have a chance to call me back that afternoon.
I couldn’t help feeling that maybe she was avoiding talking to me. Maybe she knew exactly what I wanted to talk about. Maybe she really wasn’t planning on coming back and wasn’t sure how to tell me that.
I shook my head. No, she would be back. I was sure of it. She had proven, in her time here, that she wasn’t one of those business owners who let everyone else do the work for them. She had really tried to get involved, wherever she could. She would be back.
I was letting Kayla get into my head. Bailey would be back soon enough. But for now, I put all my frustrations into fixing the heaters. Jen stopped by when I was just about finished with them. “Hey, it already feels warmer in here!” she said, beaming at me.
I glanced over at her, nodding. “Yeah, I think I’ve got everything fixed. But let me know if these things keep acting up.”
“Will do,” Jen said cheerfully. “Have I mentioned how stoked I am that you’re the one in charge around here? You’re an absolute hero.”
I looked at her in surprise, not sure how to respond to that. Was she flirting with me? I didn’t even know anymore. Finally, I just nodded at her. “Thanks,” I said, turning my attention back to my work. She lingered there for a moment more and then finally walked off. I breathed out noisily and tried not to think about the weird encounter.
Hopefully Bailey would be back soon, and I could fade back into just being the maintenance man again.
48
Bailey
I was walking into a meeting with the board of directors when my phone started buzzing. I pulled it out to see who it was and was surprised to see that it was Adam. Immediately, my mind went to the worst case scenario; something catastrophic had happened at the resort, and I needed to get back there.
To be honest, I almost wished it was something like that, if it meant that I could get out of Vegas and back where I belonged in Park City. When I had committed to helping Ian keep his job in the old family business, I hadn’t realized quite how much work I was going to end up doing. It had been a long two weeks, and there still didn’t seem to be any end in sight. The board of directors had agreed to drop the investigation of Ian, but they wanted me to help undo some of the changes that he had made, plus get all our regulars to trust us again.
Things were starting to get back to normal now, though, and I was itching to get back to Brooks Mountain. I had been enjoying my role there. Enjoying the challenges of getting to know the industry. And man, it had been nice to be involved in a business that was so much more laidback than this one here.
I had realized the change when I had first gone to Brooks Mountain, but there had been so many things that I was focused on there that I hadn’t really appreciated it as much as I might have. But coming back to the casino business and dealing with all sorts of rich folks, and the glitz and glam of it all, was jarring.
This was the life that I had left. Even before Dad died, even before I had hatched the plan to buy a ski resort in Utah, I had left the casino business. It just wasn’t what I wanted with my life. I was good at it; there was never any question of that. And I did feel like I was letting down Dad and my brother by leaving it all behind. This was the family business, after all.
But I had never been happier with my decision to quit this job than I was now. I really appreciated what else was out there for me.
Still, I couldn’t turn my back on my family entirely. When Ian got in trouble with the board of directors for blowing through the investors’ money on a bunch of improvements that many of them didn’t think our casinos needed, I had agreed to come back and help put things right. How could I not? Ian was worried about losing his job and his entire savings, which he had also sunk into the improvements here at the business. I had no choice but to help him out.
And to be honest, it had been nice to take a little break from Park City. Not just because the weather was a hell of a lot warmer here in Vegas, even though given that it was the middle of the winter, it definitely wasn’t as warm as it usually was. But more than that, it had been a nice pause, a time to reflect on whether or not I had made the right decisions lately.
Buying Brooks Mountain hadn’t been entirely spontaneous, but I hadn’t totally thought through the purchase. Initially, I had just thought about using my inheritance money to buy the condo that Dad used to rent as a timeshare over the holidays when Ian and I were younger. I hadn’t been back to the resort in years, but I
guess there was part of me, upon Dad’s passing, that wanted to keep those memories alive.
But then I’d started thinking about the ski resort itself. I knew that those conglomerate companies were snapping up ski resorts left and right, corporatizing them and selling huge multi-mountain passes. Killing the local flavor. I didn’t want that to happen to Brooks. I remembered going there when I was a kid, and remembered that charming small-town feel. I wanted that to endure.
So the next thing I knew, I was buying the whole resort. My time in Vegas had assured me that I had done the right thing. I was happy in Park City. Things were challenging, sure. But I liked it.
The other much-needed pause was the one on the relationship with Adam. I liked him. A lot. But the more I thought about it while I was here, the more I felt like I barely even knew him. I had gotten him to open up a little in the time that I’d been in Park City, but he was still so reserved. And now, it seemed like every time I got him on the phone or on an online chat, he was quick to turn the conversation away from himself and over to work matters. I knew everything that was going on at the resort, but I barely knew anything about what Adam had been up to since I had left.
It made me wonder if maybe he was having second thoughts about things. Maybe he had realized that he was no longer interested in me? I remembered what he had said at the airport about how I deserved better than him, and about how this had just been some seasonal fling. Maybe it wasn’t that he thought I thought it was a seasonal thing. Maybe it was more that he wanted to keep thinking about things that way himself.
I tried not to think about it like that. I knew that Adam had been married before. I wanted to be honored that I was the person that he had chosen to break his celibacy with. I wanted to think that I was special somehow. But on the other hand, maybe I was just an easy rebound. Maybe he had his eye on someone else at the resort and wanted me to be the person he tried things out with before he went for something real with her.
I didn’t want to think those things about Adam. But I just didn’t really know him at all. We had never really talked about our relationship. We hadn’t communicated at all like we should have.
The fact that our communication hadn’t really changed since I had come to Nevada only showed me how bad things had been while I was in Utah. He was one of the employees at the resort; I should have seen him pretty much every day. But I hadn’t. He had been careful not to let our paths cross too much, and he had been careful not to say too much when our paths had crossed.
Could you really miss someone that you had never really been with in the first place?
But the more I thought about him while I was here in Nevada, the more I was sure that I wanted to get to know him better. There was something about him that just drew me in. Something about him that I just couldn’t forget. I wanted to be in a relationship with him. I might need to wait until I was back in Utah to really get him to open up to me again. Maybe he just didn’t like chatting over the phone.
I was willing to wait, I realized.
I pushed those thoughts out of my head for now. It was time to go into this meeting with the board of directors and tell them about all the good work that Ian and I had been doing over the past two weeks. We were definitely starting to see an uptick in business at the casino again, Ian and I had had a long chat about the way that things needed to be run in the future so as not to piss off the board of directors again, and that all meant that my work here was pretty much done.
Time for me to head back to Utah and pick up where I had left off, both with the work and with Adam. I couldn’t wait to get back.
I wanted to answer the call from Adam, but I didn’t want to keep the board of directors waiting. I’d give him a call back in a little while. I doubted it was anything too catastrophic anyway. He probably just wanted to update me about the latest news. They had had a company meeting that morning, I remembered. Maybe something had come up in there.
Anyway, if it had been something catastrophic, Adam would no doubt have left me a message. The fact that he had just hung up led me to believe that he hadn’t been calling about anything too important.
I smiled at the board of directors and received smiles in response, especially from Bill, the head of the board and the guy who had agreed to let me help fix everything that Ian had done wrong. I knew a lot of them wanted me to commit to being here long-term, and not just because of the Ian debacle. Again, I was good at what I did here. But I didn’t want to stay here in this business, and if they weren’t happy with that, at least they all respected that.
I started to reel off the little speech that I had rehearsed about how everything was basically back to normal now. “And Ian and I have walked through a plan for the future so that the casino can continue to be successful,” I concluded. “You shouldn’t have to deal with any of the problems that you’ve been having since he took over before.”
There were grateful looks from the board. “We’re happy to hear that,” Bill said, nodding at me.
“So I guess that means I can go home now,” I said, only partially joking.
Bill looked surprised and then uncomfortable. He glanced around at the rest of the board. “Actually, we were expecting you to stick around for a little longer,” he said, holding up a hand when I started to protest. “I know that you and Ian have talked about a plan for the future, but we’re a little worried that as soon as you’re back in Utah, that plan’ll go out the window again and things will be just as bad as before. Unfortunately, there are a number of our shareholders who don’t exactly trust the fact that Ian is still in power here.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably.
I stared dumbly at him for a moment. “I mean, I understand that,” I finally said slowly. “But this isn’t my business. I have my own things to deal with in Utah.”
“I understand that,” Bill said, nodding at me. “And we’re not asking you to stay here forever. Just for another month.” He paused, glancing around again. “I’m afraid that if you don’t agree to supervise Ian, there are a number of investors who will withdraw their support for the company.”
I sighed, feeling a headache coming on. But really, what could I do? We couldn’t stand to lose any of our investors, especially not given that we had lost a fair bit of money in the changes that Ian had made and then subsequently agreed to undo. And I had agreed to help Ian, after all. If this was what helping him meant, then I supposed I would stick around for another month.
It was just a month, after all. I might own Brooks Mountain for the rest of my life. And plans were already in place for how the mountain’s surplus would be spent in the coming months. Most of those improvements would start to happen once we closed in the spring, and throughout the summer. I would be back there by then, I was positive of that.
So there was nothing to lose by sticking around, and plenty that could be problematic for Ian if I refused to stay here for now.
So I nodded at Bill. “All right,” I said. “I don’t exactly like it, but if that’s what you need, then I’ll stick around. But only for a month.”
“That’s all we’re asking,” Bill said.
We chatted for a little while longer and then people began to disperse. Ben caught me before I could head out the door. “It’s good to hear you’ll be sticking around for a while,” he said in his charming British accent.
I smiled tightly at him. Ben was a new addition to the board of directors; he hadn’t been there when I had worked for the company before. Since I had come back, he hadn’t exactly made it a secret that he was interested in me. And I really wished that I could be interested in him in the same way, but I couldn’t help comparing him to Adam. Ben was definitely more the type of person that I would have thought I would end up with, but I had promised Adam that I would save myself for him.
And besides, Ben just seemed so much more pompous than Adam. I liked how down-to-earth Adam was, how grounded he was. Things with him felt solid. Ben just seemed like more the kind of guy that you might have
a fun fling with, and I wasn’t really interested in that.
“Hopefully, I won’t be here for too much longer,” I said to him now.
“But you’re at least here long enough that I could take you to dinner sometime,” Ben said, his eyes twinkling.
“I’ve got someone waiting for me back in Utah,” I said, hoping that would shut things down.
But Ben shrugged one shoulder, grinning wickedly. “Well, I’ll see you around here,” he promised as he slipped out the door.
I waited a moment before exiting as well, wanting to give Ben plenty of time to get ahead of me. Ian was waiting for me when I got outside, though. “You okay?” he asked. “You look flustered.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ben,” I said, and it was all I needed to say. Ian’s lips quirked into a smile. I knew that he was hoping that I would end up with Ben and forget all about Adam. He wanted to see me with someone who could really provide for me, and he had his own ideas of who that would be. But I had made it very clear I didn’t want to talk about any of this with him, and Ian knew that he owed me one at the moment.
“How did the meeting go?” he asked.
I sighed. “Well apparently they want me to stick around for a whole goddamned month to make sure that things are going okay,” I said, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.
Ian winced. “You don’t sound too happy about that,” he observed. He looked away from me. “Look, if you need to get back to…everything that you’ve left in Utah, you can leave.” I knew that it was hard for him to say that. He missed having me here in Vegas with him, and he had told me more than once that he was sure that my lack of check on his power was part of why things had gotten so out of hand.
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 28