One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance
Author: Parker, Weston
Date: 2019-01-20
Rights: Copyright 2019 Weston Parker. All rights reserved.

One Shot at Love

Weston Parker

BrixBaxter Publishing

Contents

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Description

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Epilogue

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Description

Falling for your new boss is the best way to mess with your sanity.

Especially if she has an overprotective brother that happens to be one of my childhood friends.

And I had to figure it out the hard way.

But she’s so damn worth it.

Beautiful and curvy, bossy and rich. The woman owns the room when she walks in. Hell, she owns everything.

And though I try like hell to avoid her, she’s going to own me too soon.

I should steer clear and just focus on my little boy, but something inside of me is waking up again.

This might be my one shot at love again.

I hope like hell I’m ready for it.

Introduction

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1

Adam

I finished patching up one section of the roof and eyed it critically. It should hold up to weather. The thought made me glance up towards the sky. The clouds were still low, grey, and threatening, but there was no snowfall just yet. It would hold off for another couple hours, I was pretty sure.

Good. We’d have enough time to finish reshingling the roof before the storm hit.

I glanced over at my father and saw that he was still working on his section of the roof. I was glad that he’d been able to help me today; otherwise, I would never have been able to get it all done in time, not on my own. But Dad was always good to lend a hand. Even though he and I were never very close.

I glanced up again, wondering just how much snow we would get from this new storm. It had been a snowy year here in Park City. One of the better ski years, actually. Which was a damned good thing, given how warm and dry the previous winter had been. Things had finally gotten good in early April, right as the resort was getting ready to close for the season.

A lot of the locals had been frustrated when the resort declined to extend the season in light of that late snowfall. No one really understood just how high the operation costs were to keep those lifts spinning and keep workers at the hill. And since most of the late-season business came from season-pass holders, it just didn’t make sense to keep it all open.

But this year was off to a much better start, and hopefully the snow would keep on coming.

“Winter’s really going to hit hard this year, isn’t it?” Dad asked suddenly, echoing my thoughts.

“Sure looks that way,” I agreed.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You don’t sound very excited about that,” he said. “I would have thought the prospect of a good season would get you more excited than that.”

“Busy season just means more work for the ski lodge,” I reminded him. Sure, it would mean that I’d hopefully get a little good skiing in. But I was looking at a few stand-out runs from the season, nothing more than that. I could only head up to the hill while Ethan was at school, which meant afternoons were already gone. The busier work got, the less time I’d have to enjoy time on the hill in the mornings too.

I expected Dad to comment on that. Maybe to say something about my work ethic or my responsibilities. But he stayed silent, and we finished up the roofing without any more conversation except about the work that we were doing. And even that was sparse.

I sighed internally, hoping that I would never reach a point like this with Ethan. But then, I smiled to myself; of course I wouldn’t. Ethan, little chatterbox that he was, would never let a minute go by in silence.

We finished with the roof just as the first of the snowflakes landed on the tip of my nose. I glanced back up at the sky as I packed up my tools. Dark and grey. A real storm, then. I knew the forecast had been calling for as much as twelve feet of snow when the storm hit land up in Washington state, but I hadn’t seen the latest on either what they had got or what we could expect down here. Sure looked like a lot, though.

As we climbed down the ladder and kicked dirt off our shoes, Ethan came running out of the house. “It’s snowing, it’s snowing!” he cried, pointing up at the sky.

I laughed. “I see that, buddy,” I said.

Dad crouched down so that he was almost at Ethan’s height. “Should we make a bet?” he asked, grinning at the boy. “How much snow do you think we’re going to get tonight?”

“A lot,” Ethan said, scrunching up his face as he thought. “Maybe fourteen inches,” he finally said. “And if I’m right, you have to make sugar on snow!”

Dad laughed. “Sure thing,” he said, shaking hands with the young boy.

Yet again, I wondered why Dad was never more talkative with me. Watching him with my son, it was like he was an entirely different person. Sometimes, in my darker moments, it made me wonder what it was that I had done to make Dad dislike me the way that he sometimes seemed to. But I knew that wasn’t fair. This was just the way that Dad’s and my relationship had always been.

Really, I was just glad that he didn’t shut Ethan out. He seemed to enjoy the kid’s company just as much as Ethan enjoyed his Gramps’ company, which was a relief since there were times when I got called up to the mountain for some emergency maintenance when Ethan wasn’t at school, times when I didn’t have a chance to hunt down a babysitter for him.

It was always a relief to have Dad around at those times.

Like right now, in fact. My phone buzzed as Dad and Ethan chatted about the storm. Ethan was telling Dad all about how excited he was to go skiing again that year, and Dad was telling him that maybe we could build a little ski hill in the backyard until I got the chance to take the boy up on the hill after this storm. I didn’t have the heart to remind both of them that Park City snow was usually too dry to pack together into a small hill like that. Let them dream.

Anyway, Dad was an engineer. He was probably already counting on the dry snow and figuring out how to inject it with the perfect amount of water to hold it together but still keep it from icing. Let them dream and scheme.

I answered my phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Adam,” Gretchen, my boss, said. “We just got a call that there’s a problem with a pipe in one of the rental condos on the resort. One of the Pine Ridge ones. I know we’ve got this big storm that’s just about to come through, so the sooner we can get things fixed, the better. They don’t have any hot water at the moment, and you know what that means to our guests.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I understood it: not having any hot water sucked. But from Gretchen’s tone, I could tell that whoever was in the condo was acting like a lack of hot water was equivalent to the apocalypse, and like we were idiots for not getting things fixed for them sooner.

Of course, given how rich and spoiled a lot of the clientele were, especially the ones who could afford to stay on the mountain at the new ski-in-ski-out condos, this was probably as close to the apocalypse as they had ever felt.

“Sure thing, I’ll be over there as soon as possible,” I said, glancing over at Dad and Ethan. “Dad, would you mind hanging out with Ethan for the afternoon?” I asked, holding my hand over the speaker on the phone. When there was last-minute work like this on the hill, I usually brought Ethan with me. He had all the guest services workers wrapped around his finger, and he always came away with stickers and candies. Plus, not a visit seemed to pass without him getting to hang out with the snow patrol dog.

But it was a little different when I was fixing things up in the condos. No one had ever told me that I couldn’t bring Ethan with me when there might be clients around, but to be honest, I didn’t really want him around a lot of the hoity toity clients. Not that I thought that he would ever act half as spoiled as some of them.

Fortunately, Dad nodded at me. “No problem,” he said. I could see his brows knit together, like he was curious about what the mountain needed now. But I also knew that he would never actually ask me anything about it. Depending on how frustrating the job turned out to be, I might end up telling him about it later. But somehow, despite the fact that his work wasn’t all that different from mine, he just never seemed to care what I was up to on the mountain.

As I headed over to Pine Ridge, I tried to think about what the problem with the pipes could be. We had tested everything earlier in the season, before we started moving in guests, and things had appeared to be working fine. I wondered if one of them had frozen somewhere along the line and made a face just thinking about it. The last thing we needed was burst pipes right in the middle of a storm like this.

I glanced up at the sky. The flakes were starting to fall faster now. Faster and thicker, quickly coating me in white. Hopefully whatever was wrong, it was either an easy and quick fix or else something that I could fix from indoors. But I didn’t get a job working for a ski resort without figuring that there would be some cold and downright miserable days in there. Such was work with Mother Nature.

Still, despite the random hours, challenges, and everything else, I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. Especially not since it meant I got to live here in Park City, and raise Ethan here. Soon, his weekly race program would start up again, and there was nothing better than knowing that you could support a lifestyle for your kid where half of their interpersonal relationship learning happened out in the mountains, breathing in the fresh air.

I knocked on the door at the address that Gretchen had given me. A buxom blonde answered it, her eyes widening fractionally when she saw me. “Are you the mechanic?” she asked, giggling.

“Yup, that’s me,” I said, shoving my hands deeper into my pockets. The sooner she realized I wasn’t interested in her, the better things were going to be for both of us.

But her grin only widened as she stepped back to let me in, her eyes roving over my body. “So, you think you can fix things?” she practically purred.

“Hope so,” I said shortly, heading for the bathroom. She hovered by the doorway, her eyes never leaving me.

“Can I get you a drink?” she asked. Again, she giggled. “I think we’ve still got some beer from the party we had last night, but I’m not sure.”

“No thanks,” I said, crouching down and focusing my attention on the pipes beneath the sink. I reached up and tried the faucet, laying a hand lightly against the pipe to feel if it heated up as normal. Sure enough, it did, and a moment later, the water got hot.

I raised an eyebrow at the blonde. “No hot water?” I asked, trying to keep the frustration from my voice.

She looked surprised. “I swear it wasn’t hot earlier,” she said.

“You said you had a party here last night?” I asked, suspecting I knew what had happened. “Did anyone else shower here this morning?”

“Well yeah, there’s, like, ten of us staying here at the moment,” she said, and I could tell that she still didn’t understand what I was getting at.

I stood up, dusting off my hands even though I had barely had to touch anything. “There’s a finite supply of hot water in the tank,” I explained. “If someone takes a shower, you need to give it time for the new water to heat up.

“But that doesn’t explain why there was cold water coming out of the hot water spout,” the girl said, pouting a little.

I tried not to roll my eyes. How did you explain something like this to someone like her? “Just give it twenty minutes between each person’s shower,” I recommended.

“If we did that, we’d never get to go skiing in the morning,” the woman said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Well, then you’ll need to either take shorter showers or else some of you could maybe shower at night.” I said it bluntly, knowing full well that it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. I’d have to make sure to call Gretchen again as I was leaving, to let her know how this had gone before this idiot could call to complain. Jeez.

It was easy to tell that we were getting into the winter season again. Time for the knuckleheads to come out of hiding.

“But it’s fixed, if I wanted to take a shower right now?” the woman asked.

“Yeah, you should have hot water right now,” I sighed.

The woman cocked her head to the side. “Any chance you might want to join me?” she asked in a breathy voice.

I stared at her for a moment, barely able to believe that those words had just come out of her mouth. What planet did this chick live on, anyway? “I’ve got more work to do,” I finally said. Then, I hightailed it out of there before she could say anything else.

I immediately called Gretchen and relayed what had happened. She burst out laughing and promised she’d try not to send me back over there, but couldn’t make any promises. I shook my head and headed home.

2

Bailey

It was dead silent when I woke up in my room alone on Sunday morning. Not a sound from elsewhere in the mansion, nor any noise from outside. It reminded me of wintry mornings when I had been a kid, those silent mornings when you just knew that snow was falling outside, blanketing the world in white.

But this was Hartland, Nevada, right outside of Las Vegas, and there was no way that it was a snowy morning in early December here.

I sighed and rolled out of bed, wiggling my toes in the plush carpet for a moment as I pulled on a t-shirt and pajama pants. Really, this silence here was no different than usual. But somehow, in the past month, ever since Dad’s death, it had seemed to really hit me.

I walked down to the kitchen. Ian was already there at the stove, frying eggs and making breakfast for the two of us. “There’s coffee,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me as I padded in.

“Thanks,” I said, pouring a cup for myself and refilling his mug while I was at it. I poured a dash of creamer into mine and watched the dark of the coffee turn a couple shades lighter. If only my life would turn a couple shades lighter too.

It was hard to believe that Dad was gone. I was still discovering all the ways that I missed him. Such silly, small ways, really. Ian and I had spent our childhood living with our mother, only coming here every so often, for maybe a couple weeks at a time each visit. Dad had never really been a huge part of our lives.

Even after Ian and I had moved in here with Dad, we had only seen him occasionally. He was always running around like crazy with work meetings here and networking luncheons there. He was a great Dad, and a great man in general, but he was always on a schedule. I had long since ceased to let that bother me. I knew Dad loved us more than anything, and I respected the fact that I had a father who was as hardworking as he was.

Still, now that he was gone, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the times that we had spent together. I had seen a stuffed giraffe in a store window the other day and remembered the time that we had gone to the zoo together when I was maybe five years old. And as the date ticked away later in the year, even though we didn’t really feel the change in seasons down here in southern Nevada, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ski trips that we used to take back when Ian and I were kids.

Dad had had a timeshare on a condo in Park City, Utah, and we would fly up there for two weeks of ski lessons, hot chocolate, and holiday cheer. Those days had seemed like they would last forever, back then. But as we got older, Dad had been too busy with work projects, and anyway, Ian and I had loved coming to Hartland to escape the cold and wet winters we were used to up in Portland with Mom.

Now, though, I felt like I was seeing Park City everywhere; on a concert tour for one of my favorite bands, on the news since they were apparently getting slammed with snow this season. It was like everything in the world was telling me to go back there this year. And really, what better way to honor Dad’s memory than with a trip inspired by him? I knew that he had always loved it there.

“You’re quiet this morning,” Ian said suddenly.

I blinked at him, realizing that I had been staring off into space while he finished up a couple breakfast sandwiches and home fries for the two of us. He shut off the stove and carried the plates over to the table, and I followed him, sighing heavily.

“Just thinking,” I said.

“About Dad?” Ian guessed.

I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “I can’t believe that the litigation is finally over. It just feels like it’s finally hit me that he’s really gone, you know?”

“I know,” Ian said, looking unhappy. “I think it sort of felt like he was just away on a business trip or something and that eventually he would walk back in and announce that he was home.”

“Right!” I said, still just so relieved to have Ian there with me while I was going through all of this. I knew that a lot of siblings didn’t get along very well, but Ian and I had banded together all through our childhood, leaning on one another for support. I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself without him. He was my rock. My best friend. He understood me better than anyone else ever could.

“Honestly, I keep almost cooking for three,” Ian said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I set a third place on the table the other night,” I admitted. “I realized right away that I had made a mistake, but I felt pretty silly about it.”

Ian grinned crookedly. “It’s not like he was even here all that much,” he said.

“I know,” I said, shaking my head. “I honestly never would have thought that I would miss him this much. Guess things will be better now, though, with the litigation over. Like we can finally move on with our lives.” I looked around the kitchen. “At least we won’t have to move out of here.”

“Not for a while, anyway,” Ian agreed, nodding. “Not until the money runs out.”

I snorted. “Did you see how many zeros were on that will?” I joked. “I think we’d have a hard time running out of money in this lifetime even if we were trying to.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ian said. He paused. “Any idea what your first purchase is going to be?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Bet you’re headed right down to the casinos, aren’t you?”

Ian laughed and held up his hands. “Caught me,” he said. He shrugged. “Hey, Dad liked to do a little gambling too, you know that. Hell, he once told me that ‘all business is a gamble’.”

I grinned. “I heard him say that more than once,” I said. In fact, I could practically hear him say it again, now, inside my head.

“So come on, what are you buying?” Ian asked. “New car? New clothes?”

I snorted. “The second one is a bit closer,” I admitted. I took a sip of my coffee. “Actually, I was thinking that maybe you and I could head up to Utah like we used to do with Dad. Get a condo and just spend the winter up there.” I smiled. “Of course, with the kind of snow that they’re apparently getting this year, I’ll need to add a few things to my wardrobe. I don’t even think I have a winter coat anymore. It’s been a long time since I went skiing.”

Ian grimaced. “You know that I can’t do that,” he said. “I’ve already taken enough time off work with the funeral and the litigation and everything. I’m pretty much out of vacation days for the year.” He paused. “And actually, we could use your help around the business. Things are going pretty well, in spite of everything, but we still haven’t been able to find a real replacement for you and Gina is planning on taking off half of December to go back East with her family.”

I stared at him for a moment. It wasn’t a question of whether or not he was being serious; I could tell that he was. But he had always supported my decision to leave the family business, and now it sounded like with Dad gone, he suddenly didn’t support that decision any longer.

I had made my choice, though, and I wasn’t going back there. I still felt kind of guilty for turning my back on all of it. In fact, with Dad’s death, in my darker moments, I had wondered whether the added stress of me quitting had killed him faster. That wasn’t fair for me to feel that way, and I knew it. Still, I never imagined returning to work there. It just wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

“Even if I stay here in Hartland, I don’t think…” I began, but I couldn’t come up with a way to end that without telling Ian that the business was his responsibility. He had really stepped up, and even though I knew that he liked his job more than I had ever liked mine, there was a part of me that still felt guilty about the fact that I had basically dumped everything on him like that. He wasn’t shirking his responsibilities, and he never would. I was.

“I know, I know,” Ian sighed before I could beat myself up about it anymore. “I just thought that I’d ask.” He grinned. “I could offer you a raise, but I doubt that would help. Not when you just walked away with an inheritance in the millions.”

I laughed and shook my head, glad that he had broken the tension in the room. “You wouldn’t be able to pay me enough,” I agreed. I paused. “I really want to head to Utah,” I said.

Ian eyed me for a moment. “What would you do there?” he finally asked. “You don’t have anything waiting for you there. Dad’s not going to suddenly walk into a condo, no more than he’s going to walk in the front door here.”

“I know that,” I said impatiently. “And to be honest, I don’t really know what I’m thinking. But I want to be back where winter is winter. I want to see snow again.”

Ian snorted. “You’ll say that until you actually walk outside on the first morning when it’s actually snowing,” he said confidently. “Then you’ll realize just how cold and miserable it really is.”

I laughed. “We weren’t all born for the Vegas sun,” I said, shrugging easily.

“Where are you even going to stay while you’re there?” Ian asked. “Isn’t it a little late in the year to be thinking about timeshares?”

I paused, taking a deep breath. I had actually done a little bit of research in this area, but I wasn’t sure how to explain that to him. I knew that he probably still wouldn’t be sure that this was the best idea for me. But something in my gut was telling me that all signs pointed to ‘yes’.

“Actually, I looked online and the condo that Dad used to take us to is up for sale at the moment,” I admitted. “There’s no one in there right now; I could buy it and move right in.”

Ian stared at me. “You’re moving to Utah?” he asked.

“Well, maybe not permanently,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t know. But Ian, come on. There’s nothing for me here. I don’t want to work in the family business anymore. I’m just not interested. You know that.”

“I’m here,” Ian reminded me.

“I know,” I said quietly. “And I’m not suggesting moving to the other side of the world. Or even the other side of the country. We would still be close enough that we could visit each other all the time. You could come see me in Utah. I could come back here.”

“Don’t you think that you should maybe, I don’t know, go visit Park City again before you just jump on a piece of property like that?” Ian asked, and I could hear the frustration in his voice. Of course, he would always be happy for me. But he didn’t like change and never had, and there had been more than enough change in our lives lately.

He’d have to get used to the idea, though. I was sure that this was what I wanted to do, and I had all the money I needed to do it.

I shrugged. “If I don’t like it, I’ll come back,” I promised him. “People are always looking for places to rent in those mountain towns. Even if I don’t like the place, I’m looking at it like an investment.” I grinned cheekily. “A real investment would be if I just went ahead and bought the whole mountain and ski resort,” I said casually, as though I hadn’t already thought about that.

Ian sputtered for moment. “I’m not sure right now is the time to be buying a ski resort,” he said.

“Why not?” I asked. “I have the money, and buying the resort would give me the peace of mind to know that some conglomerate isn’t going to come over and make a bunch of changes to the place. I always liked how charming the mountain was. No pretenses. I want to keep it that way. And if I buy it, then I have the chance to.”

“You don’t know the first thing about ski resort management,” Ian protested.

“The way I look at it, I’d be more of an investor,” I said, shrugging. “I’d let everyone keep doing what they were doing before. That’s what I want, after all. But I’d be the one signing off on any new changes.” I paused. “Besides, I know all about how businesses are run. Sure, maybe not ski businesses. But I think I can figure it out.”

The way I said it was a challenge. What was he going to do in response, tell me that I knew nothing about running a business? He knew that that wasn’t true. And even though he didn’t like change, he also had always been my biggest supporter. If I made sure he knew that this was really what I wanted to do, I would have him on my side for life.

Ian was quiet for a moment. “I really think you should think about this,” he finally said.

“I will,” I promised him, just as quietly. But in my heart, I knew that my decision had already been made.

3

Adam

I hummed to myself as I bustled around the kitchen, trying to simultaneously make breakfast while preparing a packed lunch and a couple snacks for Ethan. It would be his first afternoon on the hill with the race club, and I wanted to make sure he’d have enough snacks for not only himself but for a couple friends as well. Not that I was worried about him having friends in the club; a bunch of the other kids were returning from the year before, and it wasn’t like Ethan had ever had a hard time getting to know new kids.

It was honestly a relief to know that I wouldn’t have to pick him up until a little later that afternoon. The school bused the kids over to the hill right after they finished their lunches, around one p.m., and they’d ski until the lifts closed at four, rather than the normal school day when they ended at two-thirty. I had a bunch of things on my agenda for the day, starting with some lift maintenance and ending with cleaning out a bunch of snowmaking hoses that were no longer needed on the hill, and I was hoping I could squeeze it all in. The extra hour and a half would definitely help.

I paused as I opened the fridge, staring at the picture of Beth that was still stuck on there. She was laughing in the picture as she formed a snowball to throw at Ethan, who was on the right-hand side of the frame. It had been two years since she had died, and it was still hard to see her smile like that. But I could never bring myself to take down the photos of her. I couldn’t forget her, either way, and it was better to remember the good times rather than the way that things had been towards the end.

My thoughts started to drift, but before they could really take me down the rabbit hole, Ethan came bounding into the kitchen already wearing his bibs and jacket. I laughed when I saw him. “Buddy, remember you have to go to school before race club,” I reminded him.

Ethan pouted. “Why, though?” he asked. I knew that in his little head, he was going to grow up and be an Olympian. But what he, at his young age, didn’t understand was that after his years of racing were over, he was going to need to do something with the rest of his life. And not only that, but skiing was a fiendishly expensive sport, especially at the most competitive levels. Between skis and helmets and everything else, he was probably going to need to find some way to finance that Olympic bid.

Now wasn’t the time to get into all of that with him, though. Instead, I just grinned at him. “Because you wouldn’t want a bunch of dumb-dumbs on the hill with you, would you?”

It was an argument designed just for him. He had always been a rule-follower, and I remembered how proud he had been when he had finally memorized all seven parts of the skier safety code. In fact, I was sure that I could still recite all the rules in my head, he had told them to me so many times.

Right now, he nodded seriously. “That would be dangerous,” he said, his little eyes going wide and round. “I guess maybe I need to go to school,” he finally allowed. “But I hate math.”

I fought the urge to laugh. “Go get changed into some school clothes and put your bibs back in the hall with your boots,” I told him.

He scampered off. I had breakfast on the table by the time he reappeared. I glanced at my watch and was relieved to see that we were still on time.

“I’m going to learn to do all the tricks this year,” Ethan told me as he munched on a piece of toast.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“Uh huh. Like flips and stuff. And trees! I want to ski through all the trees this year.”

I grinned. “We’ll see what we can do,” I promised him. “But you’d better make sure you’re wearing that helmet if you’re going to be doing flips and stuff.” Personally, I hoped it was a long, long time before he started doing any sort of tricks on his skis. I knew the kinds of videos that were out there these days. And I knew the kinds of injuries that a kid could end up with if he landed one of them wrong.

Fortunately, I trusted the instructors who ran the ski club to keep the kids in check. Ethan had gone off a few little kickers the previous winter, but when he showed them to me when he and I skied together, I was relieved to see that he barely got a few inches off the ground, and he was sure to check out the jump before he hit it. His teachers had taught him well.

I just hoped that those rule-following tendencies of his didn’t disappear as he got older.

And I really hoped that I could get him more into the racing program so that he wouldn’t have time to get too involved with freestyle skiing or anything else. Not that racing didn’t come with its own share of injuries, but at least the kids in race programs weren’t always trying to one-up the others with something ridiculous. Or at least, not exactly.

We chatted for the rest of breakfast. Or rather, Ethan did, keeping up a steady stream of chatter even when I didn’t respond as often as I should have. As for me, I was going through my task-list in my head, trying to figure out what order to do things in so that the most important things would definitely get done. But the trouble with that day was, everything on my schedule felt pretty damn important.

Two weeks into December, we were just heading into the holiday season, our busiest time of the year. And with the way that it had been snowing that year, I just knew that it was going to be even busier than normal. That meant that the new condos had to be one-hundred percent ready to go, with hot water and everything, and the older condos had to be checked out as well. Plus hill operations had to be running as efficiently as possible. The more we could get ahead on maintenance and other on-hill operations now, the less I would be hindered by the hordes of guests that came out for the holidays.

And the happier Gretchen and the rest of the mountain staff would be.

So I was a little peeved when Gretchen caught me in the lodge when I arrived at the mountain that morning. “I was just on my way to check –” I started to say, but Gretchen interrupted me, looking frazzled.

“Sorry, I knew there was someone that I had forgotten to text this morning,” she said. “Mike’s called an all-personnel meeting in the lodge this morning before we start daily ops.”

I frowned. Mike was the general operations manager for the hill, the guy who made sure that things were going well in all the different departments from maintenance to ski school to food & beverage. Generally, we had a couple meetings over the course of the winter, usually one to welcome everyone back and let us know of any changes that had been made in the off season, and another in the middle of the season to thank everyone for their hard work through the busy holiday months.

Technically, we were all supposed to be at each of these meetings, but since I generally didn’t interact directly with the guests and always made sure to get my work done on time, Gretchen had long ago cleared me from having to attend them. She took notes and let me know if there was any interesting news that I needed to know. But otherwise, I was allowed to go about my daily duties while everyone else wasted their time in the cramped main room of the lodge.

Not today, though, apparently. I grimaced but hung around with Gretchen as the other resort workers trickled in. I glanced at my watch, trying not to think about how behind schedule this unexpected meeting was going to put me, and on a day when I was already planning on being pretty busy. There was no way everything on my list was getting done today. But there was nothing that I could do about it. I’d just have to get started with the most critical things and work my way through as much as I could.

It was only Monday, and I was already feeling fatigued just thinking about the busy week ahead of me. But that was life working for a ski resort. The only predictable thing about the work load was its unpredictability. There would be busy times where I was going out of my mind trying to get everything done, complemented by slow periods where there was literally nothing to do for days or even weeks at a time.

Again, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Something about the unpredictability just suited me. That said, those busy weeks could definitely be a pain sometimes.

“I just want to thank everyone for being here on such short notice,” Mike said when we were all sitting around the lodge. “And really what that means, is thank you to our department managers for getting everyone here on such short notice.” He paused. “I know that I could have sent out an email telling everyone this, but that’s not the kind of family that we are here at this resort. I have some news that I wanted to share with everyone as soon as possible, though.”

Something clenched in my gut. What exactly was this news? From the way he was talking, it wasn’t anything good. But we were just going into the winter season, and this was one of the best seasons we’d had in a while in terms of snowfall. Surely we couldn’t be going out of business now?

Things had been tough for ski resorts around the country for a while now. Between the unpredictability of the weather and the rising cost of equipment, it was tough to get people interested in skiing. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the ski movies these days were all about how sick skiing in the backcountry could be.

I was all for skiing beyond the bounds of resorts every once in a while. But people seemed to forget that if resorts went out of business, new skiers would have no way to get their start. There was a reason that groomers existed, after all.

“We’ve been bought,” Mike finally told everyone. I breathed an internal sigh of relief, even as I saw worry on the faces of some of the people around me. “For now, we’ll have to see what ideas the buyer has for the place.” He grinned. “All I know is that the buyer’s last name is Peters, and that doesn’t really narrow it down. But they’ll be here tomorrow. I don’t expect any major changes in personnel or otherwise, but I do want everyone to be on their toes today and tomorrow. I want everything to be as perfect as we can make it. Remember, service excellence, people!”

There were nods around the room. Meanwhile, I was wondering whether this Peters could be one of the Peters that I knew. They used to come up to the mountain and stay in one of the condos regularly. But I doubted that this was them: I hadn’t seen them in years now. And besides, Peters was a pretty common name. There was no reason to think there was any connection at all.

What I did know was that even if there were changes at the mountain, even if this Peters decided to implement personnel changes, my job was safe. There were only so many people in the whole country who were licensed to do maintenance on the ski lifts, and most of those people already had jobs for the winter. And it wasn’t like they could put in a new lift or condos now; they would need to wait until the snow melted for that.

So although I supposed it was interesting to hear that the mountain had been bought, especially considering that I hadn’t realized it was even for sale at the moment, this meeting didn’t really affect me.

Except that it had now cost me twenty-five minutes out of an already busy day. As soon as Mike gave everyone the all clear to leave, I was out of there, my mind already turned to my daily tasks. I didn’t give a shit who owned the mountain, really. Probably just some other yuppie with too much money, someone who didn’t understand the first thing about running a ski resort and who only cared for the bottom line.

Nothing to worry about unless and until it affected my job.

4

Bailey

Ian flopped across my bed, watching as I packed up the last of the things that I would bring with me to Utah. I couldn’t believe how quickly the sales had gone through. Of course, the condo itself, I’d expected to get my hands on, once I made it clear that I could pay for the whole place in cash. But I’d expected there to be a little more hemming and hawing over the mountain itself. The resort hadn’t even been listed as for sale.

I’d made them an offer that they couldn’t refuse, though. And the more I chatted with the previous owners, the more sure I was that they’d been waiting for this day to come. Either because they didn’t want to be involved with the resort anymore or because they expected that they would be bought up by one of the conglomerate groups sooner or later, I couldn’t tell.

It made me wonder if there was something wrong with the place. But I had gone through all the documents that I could get my hands on, and all I could see was that somehow, Brooks Mountain was still turning a profit despite being surrounded by some of the best skiing in Utah. Sure, some of the lifts might be a little old and outdated, and the lodge could also probably use a sprucing up. But I didn’t think for a second that I was buying some money pit.

Instead, I was just glad about the deal that I’d managed to get on the place, even though it was a little scary to consider the fact that I was leaving Nevada so soon. The pieces were all in place, and I knew that it was time to go. If nothing else, I had to go check out the place that I had just bought.

“Are you really sure about this?” Ian asked as he watched me.

I smiled at him. “It’s the right decision for me,” I told him, wishing that I could feel as sure about the decision as I managed to sound. I shrugged. “Right now, I’m not tied down by anything here. And I just have this feeling, like I need to do something for myself for once in my life. See what I can do, out there on my own.”

Ian frowned. “You know that you never have to prove yourself to me,” he said.

“I know,” I said honestly. “Actually, I feel more like there’s something that I have to prove to myself. If that makes sense.”

“I guess so,” Ian sighed. “But I sure am going to miss having you around here.”

“You’ll just have to come visit me in Utah,” I said confidently. “Think about it, we can go skiing and, I don’t know, whatever you want.”

“It’ll be cold,” Ian said balefully. “Maybe I’ll wait until spring. Or summer.”

I laughed. “Suit yourself,” I said, even though I was really hoping that he would get out to visit. To be honest, the only thing that was keeping me from feeling one-hundred percent excited about this new life that I was building for myself was the fact that Ian wouldn’t be coming up to Utah with me. I knew that I couldn’t ask him to do that. His life was here. And anyway, asking him to come with me would, in some ways, defeat the purpose of my going.

But at the same time, there was definitely a part of me that wished I could have my brother at my side through all of this. He and I had never been apart for more than a few days at a time, and the idea of not seeing him again until next summer was scary.

Of course, if he really didn’t come visit me until next summer, then I would probably come back here for a visit at some point. I might have poured most of my liquid funds into the ski resort and the condo, but I still had enough to live comfortably on. And there would be more where that came from if the ski resort continued to turn a profit, which it no doubt would in a year like this with great snow.

Ian carried my suitcase downstairs and loaded it into the back of the car while I ran around the house trying to figure out what I had forgotten. But I was pretty sure I had everything that I needed. Anything that I didn’t have, I’d just have to buy while I was in Utah. I took a deep breath and headed down to the garage.

Ian drove me to the airport, and I tried not to feel too upset about everything that I was leaving behind. It was hard not to feel suddenly sentimental about the neon lights of Vegas, the palm trees, the sand. But I knew that I was making the right decision for myself. And besides, I couldn’t even remember the last time that I had gone out in Vegas proper. I wasn’t leaving behind anything that I couldn’t do without.

When we got to the airport, I gave Ian a huge hug. I was surprised when he opened the trunk to reveal two suitcases. “That’s not mine,” I said, pointing at the green bag that he set down on the curb.

“I know,” Ian said, a grin playing on his face. “And I guess now is the time to give you your early Christmas present.” He held up his phone, and I saw a mobile plane ticket with Ian’s name on it. I couldn’t help shrieking with glee.

“You’re coming with me!” I threw my arms around Ian again, and he laughed as he braced himself.

“I could tell that this was important for you,” Ian said as I broke away. “And the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that this was what Dad would have wanted.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Plus, I figure I need to make sure that you’re okay with running this business. It’s a big challenge, you know.”

I laughed. “Remember, I graduated business school at the top of my class,” I reminded him. “Not to mention all the real-world experience I got with the family business.” I paused. “Speaking of which, I thought you didn’t have any more vacation time this year and that you couldn’t come with me.” It was my turn to narrow my eyes at him.

He shrugged. “Rick and I figured out a way to make things work,” he said. “I’ll have to do some work from home while we’re in Utah, but we’ll still have plenty of time to hang out.”

I grinned and shook my head. “I can’t believe you’re coming with me,” I said.

Ian smiled impishly. “I have to go park the car in long-term parking, but I’ll meet you inside. We’d better go get these bags checked in or else neither of us will be going anywhere!”

He was still smiling as we boarded our flight, sitting next to one another. “I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about this,” he said. “I’ll miss the heat down here, but this could be really fun.”

“Skiing all day, drinks by the fire pit for après, and hot tubbing beneath the stars?” I said, shaking my head. “It’s going to be amazing.”

“Wonder if we’ll bump into anyone we know,” Ian mused.

“Like people from the business?” I asked, frowning as I thought about it. Dad probably wasn’t the only person from Hartland who had a timeshare in Park City, come to think of it. I would have been too young to recognize any of them when we came here as kids, but Ian was right, there was a chance that we might run into some of my former coworkers here now.

But it wasn’t like any of them would say anything about me buying the resort. It was a business venture; that was all that there was to it. It wasn’t like I had said, upon leaving the family business, that I was never going to work again.

Ian shook his head, though. “No, I meant people we know from before, from when we were up here as kids. Like, what was the name of that kid from next door, Mason? Maybe he’ll still be around.”

I laughed. “If he is, I hope he isn’t working for the resort,” I said. “I still remember him as that kid who you challenged to a contest to see who could shove the most bread up their noses.”

Ian grinned. “He was so proud when he won,” he recalled. “But to be honest, thinking back, I’m really not sure that it was ever something to be proud of.”

I giggled. But then, I shook my head. “I doubt we’ll see anyone we knew,” I said. “Probably those families got older and stopped going back, the same as us.”

“Probably,” Ian said, shrugging his shoulders. “Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see.”

“Definitely,” I said, settling in for the short flight.

5

Adam

I was going over some of the plans for the base area when Kayla came over to me. “Aren’t you on your lunch break?” she asked, sitting across from me at the table.

I took a bite of my soup and nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that work stops for me,” I told her. “You know that.”

Kayla shook her head. “You’re going to run yourself into the ground before we even get to the holiday season,” she chided.

I shrugged, not sure what she expected me to say in response to that. Drop everything and have a proper lunch? I didn’t have time. I hadn’t managed to get everything crossed off my list the previous day, just as I’d feared, and there had been a couple unexpected things added to my list for that day as well. I was swamped in work, basically, and I barely had time to breathe, let alone eat.

Kayla was great, always good for a laugh, but she worked as one of the front desk assistants, on a team of people, and she really didn’t understand the idea of a working lunch. Everywhere else on the mountain, things ran on a specific schedule and people went out for lunch or ski breaks. There was no one to really cover for me while I ate, though, and the best way to get ahead was to plan my lunch time with things like this; getting ready for the afternoon’s work. Any little thing that I could do to get ahead.

“Are you coming to the afternoon meeting with the new owner?” Kayla asked.

I nodded as I took another bite of my soup. “Gretchen wants me there,” I said, and I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes.

Kayla laughed. “Why the look?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Got enough on my plate at the moment without wasting time in meetings,” I said.

“Aren’t you curious about who it is, though?” Kayla asked.

“If they had enough money to just up and buy this place with no warning, they’re probably a dick,” I pointed out.

“Oh, agreed,” Kayla said. “I’m just wondering how many times this new owner is going to get in over their head this winter. You know what people like that are like. They won’t understand when we say that we can’t put in a new ski lift in the middle of a season, that kind of thing.”

“They’ll be sure there’s a more efficient way to run the existing lifts too,” I added, shaking my head. “A way that doesn’t involve there being lift operators, probably.”

Kayla laughed. “Yeah, next thing you know, we’ll be importing robots from Asia to take over all our jobs. And then when that doesn’t work and they still have to keep all of us on payroll, this new guy will bail.”

“It’s sad because it’s so true,” I said, grimacing. “But at least if they decide to go the robot route, I’ll still have a job as a mechanic. Speaking of which…” I looked pointedly at my plans, and Kayla shook her head.

“Don’t work too hard,” she cautioned me as she got to her feet.

“If I didn’t, this whole place would shut down,” I reminded her.

She shook her head again and left. I glanced at my watch and hurriedly finished my lunch so that I could stay on schedule. Hell, maybe I could get ‘so engrossed’ in fixing the old four-person chairlift here at the base that I could ‘forget’ all about the meeting with the new owner that Gretchen wanted me to go to.

She was sure to give me shit for it afterwards, but she’d get over it, and it would be worth it if I could fix the stupid starter. Lately, it seemed like every time we had to do an emergency stop on the lift, which was frequently since this lift served all the beginner terrain on the front side of the resort as well as taking more seasoned skiers up to the other lifts, the thing stalled out for more and more time on the restart.

This afternoon, we had closed down the lift and provided alternatives for our guests, but since it was a Tuesday, things weren’t too busy anyway. I had free reign to do whatever work I needed. I was just swinging down the ladder from the bull-wheel, ready to test-start the lift and stop it a couple times, when I heard someone calling my name.

I turned around to see a man whom I hardly recognized at first. Then, I took a closer look. “Ian?” I asked in surprise. I probably wouldn’t have been able to recognize the other man at all if it hadn’t been for Mike saying the previous day that the new owner of the resort was a Peters. But Jesus, it had been a long time since I had seen Ian Peters.

“Shit, are you the new owner of the resort?” I asked, suddenly putting two and two together.

Ian laughed. “Nah, I’m still in the casino business,” he said, shaking his head. “Things are going pretty well for me down in Vegas.” He shrugged deeper into his coat. “Plus, it’s too damn cold here.”

I snorted. “This is a balmy afternoon,” I told him. In fact, I was stripped down to just a flannel and a t-shirt, but then again, I was up in the stuffy upper part of the lift, working hard with my tools to get everything in perfect running order again. “So, what the hell are you doing here?”

Ian shrugged. “Just came up for a couple weeks, like we used to do. Haven’t seen you in forever, though. Actually, weren’t you just about to get married last time I saw you?”

I tried not to wince. “Uh, yeah, sounds about right,” I told him. Ian and I had been surprisingly close whenever he came up to Park City to visit. Inseparable, really. Always up to some sort of prank or other antics. I knew that Ian’s dad had had money, but he always seemed so down-to-earth compared to some of the other kids that came through there.

Ian had been shocked when I’d told him, at twenty, that I was planning on marrying Beth. But I couldn’t imagine my life with anyone else. And now, well. Things were different. That was life.

“And what, you’re still kicking it around Park City?” Ian asked.

I shrugged, only realizing as I did so that I had grease all over both my palms. And probably my face too, because I knew that I had swiped at beads of sweat more than once while I was working up there. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m maintenance and mechanics. Whatever they need, really.”

“Huh,” Ian said, and I could tell from the way that he said it that he wasn’t too impressed with me. He probably knew I wasn’t getting rich working for a resort like this. But fortunately, he didn’t say anything disparaging about it. “Actually, my sister Bailey is the one taking over the resort. So I guess she’s your new boss.”

“Oh, wow,” I said in surprise. Bailey was younger than Ian, I remembered. Maybe by about eight years? She had been twelve or thirteen the last time that I saw her, and to be honest, it was hard to think of her as the new owner of the resort. She’d be in her mid-twenties now, but I couldn’t picture her like that.

“Yeah, she decided that the casino business wasn’t for her, and for some reason, she thinks that this is.” Ian’s tone told me what he thought about that as well. But I could also hear the fondness in his voice, and I remembered that the two of them had always been close. Actually, I was pretty sure that young Bailey had resented how close Ian and I were when he was there. I used to get the feeling she was used to being the only one that Ian wanted to spend all his time with, despite the difference in their ages.

It made me smile even now, just thinking about it. Ian had turned back to the lodge so didn’t see it. “That’s her over there now, actually,” Ian said, pointing towards his sister.

I had to admit, she didn’t look quite like the rich, spoiled brat that I had been picturing as our new resort owner. Nor did she look like the twelve-year-old kid she had been the last time I had seen her. No, she had grown into quite the woman, beautiful in a long blue coat that accentuated her curves. There was still a certain cuteness to her in the way her hair was braided in pigtails, a beanie jammed down on her head.

And a certain sweet innocence in the way her eyes sparkled as she looked around the resort, as though she had just won the lottery. She smiled to herself, and I had to admit there was something about the expression on her face that made my heartstrings tug in sudden, surprising fondness.

“I’m worried about her,” Ian admitted in an undertone. “I don’t know if she really knows exactly how much she’s taken on. I mean, I can tell that she’s done her research, and she’s smart. But this isn’t an ordinary business, you know?” he paused. “I’m glad you’re still around here, honestly. I know I have no right to ask this, but keep an eye on her for me, would you?”

I nodded, still surprised by that earlier feeling of fondness for her. It was just that I was still thinking of her as Ian’s much-younger sister, though, I was sure. She was still looking at the world with childlike innocence, and I still thought of her as a child. That was where the fondness stemmed from.

But I knew, in my gut, that that wasn’t true. No, I definitely wasn’t looking at her like she was still a child. She had grown up quite nicely.

Still, I nodded at Ian. “I’ll help her out as much as I can,” I heard myself promising. Immediately, I wished that I could take the words back. Ian wouldn’t understand, I was sure, that ‘as much as I can’ wasn’t really all that much. To start with, he didn’t know about Ethan. But moreover, he didn’t have any idea about what my work here at the resort entailed.

Ian was smiling, though. “Come on, I’m sure she wants to see you,” he said, herding me over to where his sister was still standing.

I wanted to protest. She probably barely even remembered me. And besides, I had so much more work that needed to get done that afternoon. But Bailey had spotted her brother and seen me as well, and I knew that there was no tactful way to get out of this. If nothing else, I owed her the respect that I would give to any other boss.

Besides, I had told Ian that I would help her out if I could, and I was a man of my word. I was going to have to interact with her at some point. Might as well get it out of the way with.

I trailed after Ian, wondering if Bailey’s smile was always that broad or if she really was that happy to see me.

6

Bailey

The acting manager for Brooks Mountain seemed surprised when I suggested that I should stop by on Tuesday afternoon to say a few words to everyone who currently worked for the resort. Not that I really had much to say, but I wanted to be the kind of owner whom everyone knew. I at least wanted them to know my face around the place before I started making any sort of changes.

This was a family resort, I remembered, and I knew that the staff probably felt like one big family as well. Hell, part of the reason why I had bought the resort was because I didn’t want it to be bought by one of those huge conglomerates. I wanted it to have that down-home, charmingly close-knit feel. The only way to preserve that was to make sure that everyone realized that from the top to the bottom, we were all in this together.

That said, I was a little nervous about the meeting. It wasn’t that I had never given speeches in front of employees before. I had. Many times. I was used to public speaking, and it wasn’t that that was giving me jitters now.

No, it was just the fact that this was all so new to me. The novelty was wonderful; I liked that little bit of shock that I still felt each time I stepped outdoors and saw snow. But at the end of the day, I knew only the barest bit of information about how to run a ski resort. And the trick was making sure that no one at the resort figured that out.

Of course, there was no fooling some people. “Kayla?” I asked in surprise, spotting her at the front desk.

Kayla stared at me for a moment, like she couldn’t believe her eyes, and then a huge grin broke across her face. “Bailey!” she said.

Kayla and I had been best friends when we were kids. Of course, we didn’t get to see one another a lot since I lived half my life in Portland and the other half in Vegas, with only a few weeks or so each year here in Park City. But we had sent letters to one another all through grade school and connected through social media towards the end of high school. We’d taken a few trips together in college, even. But eventually, life got in the way and we fell out of touch.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked her.

She burst out laughing. “What the hell am I doing here?” she quipped. “I grew up in Park City. And now I work here.” She shrugged and then winked conspiratorially. “The pay isn’t great, but they give me a free season pass, so who the hell am I to complain?”

I laughed and shook my head. “That’s awesome,” I told her.

Kayla gave me a dubious look. “Is it?” she asked. “I would have thought that you would be reminding me that there’s a great big world out there beyond Park City. Hell, beyond Utah even.”

“Well, there is,” I agreed. “But this place is great. There’s a reason why I came back.”

“What about you? Are you on vacation?” Then, Kayla’s eyes widened, and she looked around the lodge. “Are you on your honeymoon? Did you get hitched?”

“No!” I said, and Kayla giggled.

“You don’t have to sound so shocked that I asked,” she said. Then, she narrowed her eyes. “Wait, Mike said something about a Peters buying this place. Was that your dad?”

I grimaced, looking away from her. “My dad died about a month ago,” I told her.

“Oh shit,” Kayla said, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s actually part of why I’m here.”

“Had to get away from it all?” Kayla asked sympathetically.

“Something like that, I guess,” I said, frowning. Then, I shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t even know. I just felt like I had to come back here. I missed the snow, too.”

Kayla snorted. “Don’t say that too loudly,” she cautioned. “It’s been snowing like crazy this year. We get any more snow before Christmas and I think there’ll be a mutiny. Everyone fleeing down to Florida or something. Las Vegas, maybe.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “They work for a ski resort,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t everyone be happy for the snow?”

“Not when it means shoveling your driveway every damned day,” Kayla said, shaking her head. “So come on, who is this Peters? It’s not your brother, is it? Not that that would be bad. Just tell me it’s not, like, a crazy uncle of yours or something.”

“It’s not a crazy uncle,” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I’m the one who bought this place.”

“Get out!” Kayla said in surprise. “Seriously, you?”

“Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound too much like I was doubting myself. Who the hell did I think I was, swooping in here and buying up the whole resort? Someone like Kayla, someone who had grown up here, steeped in the lore of the mountains and the local town, should be the one running things. Not me. I didn’t know the first thing about this.

For the first time, I started to wonder whether maybe Ian had been right. Maybe I should have given this a little more thought before I had so recklessly purchased the place. What was I going to do now, anyway? I couldn’t very well back out of the sale, nor could I turn around and sell the place again after just having purchased it. The only people who would want to buy it, probably were those big conglomerates that I eschewed. And if one of them got their hands on the place, I knew it was never going to be like it had been back when I was a kid.

No, I had to stick it out. I might be feeling a bit out of my depth now, but that was just more fuel to learn everything I could about the operations of this place, so that eventually, I could really step up as a leader here. I could do this; I knew that I could.

I wouldn’t have bought the place if I thought that I was going to fail, after all. I knew business. And business was business. I just had to persevere.

“So if you’re the boss, does that mean that we can’t be friends?” Kayla asked, and I had to laugh.

“Of course not,” I told her. “Actually, I’m counting on you to show me all the best places around this town. It’s been a while since I was here.”

Kayla grinned and bowed sarcastically. “Your humble servant, as always,” she joked, and I laughed again.

“I’m going to go see where Ian ran off to,” I told Kayla. “But let’s get drinks soon. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kayla said, giving me the thumbs up.

I headed outside and soon spotted Ian over near one of the lifts. He was chatting with someone I didn’t recognize. I started walking over to them, but before I could reach them, Ian led the guy over to me. “Guess who I found?” he asked.

I peered at the other man, trying to recognize anything about him. But his dark hair and rough five o’clock shadow didn’t tell me much. Except that, fuck was he attractive. Dressed in his plaid shirt, with his rough, unshaven look, he was almost a hipster. But he had a chiseled jaw and deep, ice blue eyes that nearly drowned me in their gaze. He looked relaxed, at ease with his surroundings, and I craved his easy confidence.

But I didn’t recognize him, not at all. I gave Ian a puzzled look, and he laughed.

“It’s Adam Katz!” he exclaimed, and my eyes widened even further.

Adam Katz. Wow.

Adam had been Ian’s best friend when we’d come up to Park City. Like with Bailey, they never seemed to realize that they’d spent any time apart. I’d been the victim of one too many of their pranks, and I’d learned to hide away when the two of them got together. But every once in a while, I had been able to catch Adam on his own, either around the resort or out in town. Like Ian, he never treated me like I was too much younger than him. And he could always make me laugh, even after my worst falls.

When I was younger, I’d had a bit of a crush on him. But he’d been engaged to someone else, and anyway, I’d still been such a child compared to him. Now, though.

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. Adam looked amazing, and there was no denying that I was no longer a child. But he was married, and I wasn’t going to get in the middle of that.

Unless maybe he wasn’t married anymore? But I would never hope for that kind of unhappiness to befall him. I knew what our parents’ divorce had done to my mom and dad, and to Ian and I. Besides, I was going to have more than enough on my plate with taking over this resort. I wasn’t going to have any time to spare for romantic dalliances. Even if Adam had been available.

“So you’re still here,” I finally said. Then, I winced, knowing just how that sounded. I could tell that Kayla had been uncomfortable with me catching her at work at the resort like that, and there was no reason to assume Adam was any different.

Sure enough, he shrugged, crossing his arms in front of him. “Yeah,” he said, and I could hear the challenge in his voice.

“That’s great,” I hurried to say. “I just bought the place, and I’m sure that I can use someone like you. To… what is it that you do here?”

The words tumbled out of my mouth, and I was blushing by the time I was done. He might feel defensive about the fact that he worked there, but it was nothing to how embarrassed I felt at saying what I had just said. Here I was, hoping to take over this resort. And I couldn’t even manage a normal conversation with one of the workers.

Adam’s lips twitched with a grin, but thankfully, he didn’t laugh at me. “I’m your mechanic-slash-maintenance man,” he said.

“What exactly does that entail?” I asked, frowning.

“Anything that you need done on the lifts, I’m your man,” Adam explained. “But I also make sure that the plumbing and lighting in the condos works, plus the lodge, and all of that.”

“Shouldn’t there be, like, ten people doing all that stuff?” I asked, shocked to hear that he handled all of that. I could only imagine the kind of work that he had to do.

But again, Adam took offense to the blunt way that my words came out. “If you have any doubts about my abilities, I can show you my licenses,” he said.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said lamely. “It just seems like a lot of work.”

Adam stared at me for another moment and then turned to Ian. “Sorry, but I really have to get back to that lift. We’re trying to have it running like normal by tomorrow morning, and I’ve only got so many hours of daylight left.”

“Right,” Ian said, and I could tell that he was amused by something. He clapped Adam on the shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Adam said. He waved a hand and walked briskly across the snow to the old four-person lift that started from the base area.

I groaned. “What a first impression,” I said, and Ian laughed.

“It’s not exactly a first impression,” he reminded me.

“Doesn’t make it any better,” I sighed. I glanced over to where Adam was standing next to the lift, starting the thing and then stopping it again. Then, I forced myself to turn away. Married. Not interested.

One of my brother’s best friends.

Ian glanced at his watch. “I was thinking I might go for a few laps while we’re here. You want to join me?”

I laughed. “I would have thought you would still be getting used to the cold,” I teased.

Ian grimaced. “I am,” he said. “That’s why I think a few laps would be good. I can’t do any more of this standing around and chatting or else I’m going to turn into a popsicle.”

I grinned. “Well, I wish I could join you, but I’m supposed to chat with my new employees,” I said. “But I’ll catch you for dinner tonight.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ian said, heading off to the rental shop while I went back inside.

“Did you find your brother?” Kayla asked as I came back inside.

“Yup,” I said. “He’s already found Adam, of course.”

Kayla peered at me for a moment. Then, she shook her head. “Oh no,” she said. “Don’t go wasting your time on Adam. He is a lost cause.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I told her, even though I knew that somehow, she had read me only too well. But because I said that, and so defensively as well, I knew that I had lost my chance to ask her anything more about him.

Adam was a lost cause? What exactly did she mean by that? Because he worked at the resort? But Kayla worked at the resort as well, and I couldn’t see that being the root of why she had warned me away from him. Whatever it was, though, I didn’t have time to ponder it now. I had a meeting to hold.

7

Adam

Thursday rolled around, and I finally had the day off work. Of course, with the way that I had been busting my ass that week, it was more of a recovery day than anything else. And a chance for me to get my errands run. As much as I would have liked to laze around in bed for half the day, I had to get up and get Ethan off to school. He wouldn’t be skiing after school that day either, and he was bummed about that.

And then, as much as I would have liked to come right back home after dropping him off, and head back to bed, I knew that the grocery shopping needed doing, plus there were a dozen other things on my agenda for the day.

Work or not, the tasks never seemed to end.

I ran around all morning, trying to get as much done as I could. Finally, it was time to pick Ethan up. “Can we go skiing?” was the first thing that he asked.

I winced internally. “Not today, buddy,” I told him, strapping him into the car.

Ethan frowned. “But Dad, I want to ski with you,” he said, and I had to grin.

“I know,” I said. “And I want to ski with you too. I want to see all those tricks that you’ve been learning. But today, I have to work.”

“You’re not s’posed to be working today,” Ethan whined. “It’s your day off.”

“I know,” I repeated. “But just because it’s my day off, doesn’t mean that I don’t have to work. I did the grocery shopping and the cleaning this morning, and now I have to split some wood so that we can stay warm this winter. But you can help me with that, can’t you?”

Ethan stared at me for a minute, and then he grinned. “Yeah!” he said enthusiastically.

My grinned broadened as I drove us home. We lived a little bit outside of Park City proper, which was honestly a little frustrating sometimes since it meant that it took even longer for me to do simple things like take Ethan to school. But Dad and I were the only two houses up our way, with about two miles in between the two places, and you couldn’t beat that peacefulness.

Plus, I hoped that it would teach Ethan to see the beauty in the world around him, and that even in this increasingly interconnected age, he could sometimes unplug and forget about the rest of the world.

But then again, Ethan was nowhere near as introverted as either I or his grandfather were. He would probably move into town as soon as he could. I refused to be bothered by that. And I just hoped that I could teach him enough about outdoor survival that he always knew he could come back to the wilderness, or the fringes of society at least, if he ever wanted to.

Today, the task was stockpiling wood for the winter. Ethan was pretty gung-ho about helping me out, but of course, I wasn’t going to trust the six-year-old with an axe, even if he had had the strength required to split logs for me. Instead, I showed him how to stack the wood to keep it dry. He made a great helper.

At least, until he dropped one of the logs on his finger. “Ow!” he cried suddenly, and I felt my heart stop as I nearly dropped the axe in my rush to look at what he had done.

I could see his lower lip quiver, but instead of crying, he frowned, holding up his finger so that he could look more closely at it. “Shit,” he said, much to my surprise.

I stared at him for a moment and then hurried over to see his finger. He had probably gotten it trapped between two of the logs, and the little finger was already swelling a little, turning a bit purple. There would be a nice bruise there for weeks to come, probably. For a moment, I felt bad about letting him help me. If he hadn’t been out there with me, he wouldn’t have hurt his finger. But I knew that if I hadn’t let him help me, Ethan would have spent the afternoon moping. That was just the kind of boy that he was.

He was a tough little kid, too. He still wasn’t crying. But still, I couldn’t endorse that language. “Ethan you know you’re not supposed to say bad words,” I rebuked him.

Ethan frowned deeper, and when he lowered his hand, I could tell that he had already almost forgotten about the pain. “Shit?” he said again. “Gramps says that sometimes.”

I almost laughed at the innocent way that he said it. But I forced myself to keep the stern look on my face. “There are some words that only adults are allowed to say,” I said. “And that’s one of them.”

“That’s not fair,” Ethan complained.

“I know,” I said. Again, I couldn’t help but smile at him.

Ethan lifted his finger towards me. “Kiss it so it doesn’t hurt?” he asked, again seeming young and sweet.

“I’ll do you one better,” I said, scooping up a handful of snow. “This is going to feel really cold, but I bet it’ll make your finger feel better.”

Ethan stared dubiously at me for a moment but eventually allowed me to press the frozen snow to his finger. He winced but continued to stay strong.

We were still like that when Dad came over. “Thought the mountain might have things for you to do this afternoon,” Dad said, shrugging his shoulders. “I know you’ve been busy lately.”

“Not the mountain, but I’ve got a ton of chores to do,” I admitted. “We’re trying to stockpile wood for right now. Maybe you could help Ethan with stacking the wood?”

“Good plan,” Dad said.

We worked in silence for a while, until Dad suddenly swore, shaking his hand. He had done the same thing that Ethan had earlier. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help grinning. “Hey, watch your mouth. There’s kids around,” I said, looking pointedly towards Ethan.

“Yeah, watch your mouth!” Ethan said. He frowned. “I said that word earlier and Daddy got mad.”

Dad looked surprised for a moment and then laughed. He clapped his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “You’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t use bad words. And neither should you, champ.”

We went back to work for a while. Eventually, Dad cleared his throat. “I heard a rumor that you’ve got a new boss,” he said.

I blinked in surprise. Dad skied pretty regularly, although not as much now as he had when he was younger. He said that he didn’t like to ski on his own, and most of his friends from town had either moved away or fallen out of touch with him. Or both. Dad was a difficult man to stay close to, really.

I pushed away the thought that I might be just the same as him. Instead, I nodded. “Yeah, new owner,” I confirmed. “You remember Ian Peters?”

“That prankster you were always running around with?” Dad said. “He bought the place? I didn’t know he even lived around here.”

“He doesn’t, although he is back to visit. His sister is the new owner of the resort.”

“Huh,” Dad said, and I could tell he was mulling that over. “Well, I think that’s good.”

I frowned at him. “Good?” I said. “We don’t have any idea how she’ll run the place. The last time I saw her, she was just a kid! Not that she is anymore, but I just don’t see what’s so good about her taking over the place.”

Was that a hint of a smile on Dad’s face?

“I just think it’s good,” he said firmly. “You need a woman in your life.”

I sputtered in shock. “She’s just the owner of the resort,” I said. “Nothing more than that.”

Dad nodded, but he did it in the same way that I would if someone made a comment that I didn’t believe. I frowned, wanting to protest more, but I knew that would only make him more certain that there was something more to things between Bailey and I. Which there wasn’t.

But besides, this wasn’t the kind of conversation I wanted to have around Ethan. The boy was old enough to remember his mother. Beth had only died a couple years before. I didn’t want Ethan thinking that I was disrespecting the memory of his mother. Nor did I want him, on the flip side, getting his hopes up that one day he might have a ‘new mommy’.

Anyway, I didn’t know what Dad was talking about. I didn’t need a new woman in my life. Ethan and I were doing just fine on our own, not to mention the fact that I didn’t exactly have time to start a relationship with someone.

But for the briefest of moments, I thought back to the Bailey that I’d seen the day before. Cool, confident. Infuriating, to be honest. I doubted she knew the first thing about running the mountain. I could still see those bright green eyes in my head. And suddenly, I was mentally stripping her down, pushing her onto the bed, climbing over her and kissing every inch of that tanned skin of hers.

No, I wouldn’t go there. She was my boss. Nothing more than that. She couldn’t be more than that.

8

Bailey

I was waiting for Kayla at the front desk when she arrived on Thursday morning. She paused, looking surprised to see me there. Then, she grinned. “If you’re trying to get me to play hooky with you today, I’m going to have to tell my boss,” she joked.

I laughed and shook my head. “Not exactly what I had in mind,” I told her. I shrugged and leaned in, keeping my voice down. “As you probably know, I don’t know very much about running a place like this,” I admitted.

I had done a lot of research the night before and a lot of thinking. I didn’t want everyone in the place doubting that I knew what I was doing, even though I knew that there were probably a lot of them who were already skeptical about my qualifications.

And I wasn’t looking to implement any major changes at the moment, anyway. But I did want to make sure I really had a handle on things around the place. And that meant getting some insider intel.

The previous day, when I had arrived at the resort, Kayla had acted like there hadn’t been a span of years since we had been close friends. She had acted happy to see me. I knew that of anyone at the resort, I could trust her. So if I needed help, and I needed someone who was going to be discreet about the help that I was getting, she was the person that I needed to talk to. I was sure of it.

“I have a feeling you know more about running this place than anyone else,” I said to Kayla.

“What makes you say that?” she asked in surprise.

“You’re smart,” I said simply. “You keep your eyes open. And besides, you’re right here in the thick of things. Not to mention the fact that you’re the kind of person who gets to know everyone. I could use that right now.”

Kayla grinned, and I could tell that she was preening a little. “I don’t know everything,” she cautioned. “But everything that I know, I’ll share with you.”

“That’s perfect,” I told her.

Kayla made a face. “You’re probably going to have to ask Adam some questions too, though. He’s your handyman, and I know he knows a lot more about the condos and snowmaking and some of the other operations stuff than I do.”

I nodded, making a mental note of that. I tried not to let excitement course through me at the idea that I was going to have to chat with Adam at some point. But I couldn’t help it. I knew that I needed to keep him at an arm’s length. He was my employee. And a damned important employee at that. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that it would be easy to replace a lift mechanic if I did something to offend him.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about how good he had looked the previous day. There was an air of mystery about him, too. He’d been cordial enough, but he hadn’t been the prankster that I remembered him being. There was something dark in his gaze, and I wanted to figure out what it was. Wasn’t he happy working here? Or had something else happened that gave him that darkness?

“Let me show you around,” Kayla said, glancing at her watch. “John, you don’t mind watching the front desk until I get back?”

John widened his eyes in mock fear. “But there are so many guests right now!” he said, gesturing towards the nearly empty lodge. It seemed like everyone who was here had already headed out to ski.

Kayla snorted and held up her cellphone. “You have my number. Call me if things get busy, but otherwise, I’ll be back in a little while.”

“No problem,” John said.

Kayla led me away from the front desk. “This means that we can catch up a little too,” she said once we were out of earshot of her coworker.

I laughed. “Well, what do you want to know?” I asked jokingly.

“Everything,” Kayla said. “What have you been up to? I haven’t seen you since, what, that trip we took in junior year? When you came up to Arches to climb that spring?”

“No, it was Cuba, the summer between junior year and senior year,” I reminded her.

“Oh yeah!” Kayla said. “For some reason, I always think that that was the summer before that. What a great trip.” She paused and then looked at me in surprise. “Matt! Are you still dating him? Or married or something?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Nah, Matt’s long gone,” I said, shrugging. Actually, it was weird to even think about Matt now. It seemed like it had been a lifetime since I had dated him. Since I had even thought about him.

“What happened?” Kayla asked, and I shrugged again.

“I don’t know, we just weren’t meant to be. He wanted so much more, so fast. Like, he wanted to get married the second we were out of college. And I just wanted to live my life a little first, you know?” I glanced away from Kayla. I knew what she was probably thinking; that I was just as commitment-phobic as ever. And honestly, that was what doomed most of my romantic relationships.

I just couldn’t seem to find anyone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And I couldn’t help thinking about my parents’ divorce. They had still claimed to love each other. But they could barely stand to be in the same room with one another.

It all just left me pretty jaded, feeling like maybe the idea of marriage wasn’t something that I really wanted to pursue. If that doomed my relationships, then so be it. I had more fulfilling things in my life anyway.

Like this new undertaking, Brooks Mountain Resort.

“But you’ve dated other people since then?” Kayla pressed, and I remembered suddenly that Kayla was one of those people who basically couldn’t stand to not be in a relationship. Hers never lasted all that long, but she seemed to always have a new guy. She wouldn’t understand if I said that it had actually been two whole years since I had dated anyone at all.

“I’ve dated,” I hedged. “It’s just been a while. I’ve been busy with work and stuff.”

Kayla groaned. “You can’t let your work be your whole life,” she said.

I laughed. “Well, I just bought a new business,” I reminded her. “For the moment, it might just have to be.”

Kayla shook her head but before she could say anything in response to that, one of the guests came up to the two of us. “I’m sorry, I think I remember you from before,” he said to Kayla. “You work here, don’t you?”

“I do!” Kayla said, giving the man a bright smile. “What can I help you with?”

“I just was wondering if you could do anything about the lights out in the main hall of the new condos,” the man said. “I might be missing something, but I can’t seem to get them to turn on, and it’s mighty dark in there.”

Kayla frowned. “I’m so sorry about that!” she told the man. “I’m not sure what the problem is, but we’ll get right on that.” She looked over at me as the man thanked her and walked off. “That would be a task for Adam. I’ll give him a call. Maybe you can chat about the business with him while he’s here, too.”

I shook my head. “We don’t need to call Adam in for something like this, I’m sure,” I said. “We’re smart enough to figure out what’s wrong with the lights. It’s probably just a blown fuse or something. Come on, let’s go take a look.”

“Okay,” Kayla said, but I could tell she wasn’t so sure that it was a good idea.

I didn’t know why I was so reluctant to call in Adam. Obviously, I was going to have to get used to working alongside him. There was no reason for this flutter of nervousness in my gut every time I thought about him.

But no, I told myself. That wasn’t the reason why I didn’t want to call him in. I just was sure that there was no reason to call him in on a day when he wasn’t working, just to fix some silly problem with the lights. Besides, I didn’t want to be just a figurehead at the company. I wanted to be involved with everything. If that meant fixing lighting issues, then that was just another thing for me to do.

When we got to the hallway, I saw that it really was pretty dark in there. The five overhead lights that went down the middle of the hallway all seemed to be out. I frowned, peering up at them. “They probably didn’t all go out at once, but we should check the bulbs anyway, just to be on the safe side,” I said. “I bet if just one or two of them went out, no one would really notice it, so maybe things have just been getting progressively darker in here until suddenly they were all out.”

Kayla looked skeptical, but she helped drag a chair over so that I could reach one of the bulbs. I gave it a small shake and, sure enough, there was a faint noise inside. “Definitely gone out,” I confirmed. “We have spare bulbs, right?”

“Yeah, they should be back in the supply closet under the stairs,” Kayla said. “I think that’s where the fuse box is for the condos, too; maybe we can try that as well.”

“Sure,” I said easily. “Like I said, I’m thinking it’s probably more to do with the bulbs, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if there’s something wrong with one of the breakers too. Lead the way.”

Kayla guided me down the hall to the supply closet. Once there, she started rooting around for more of the bulbs while I pulled open the fuse box and tried to make sense of the small letters labeling each switch. I frowned and tried one of the switches experimentally, glancing back over my shoulder towards the hall. Still no change.

I tried another switch, not sure which hallway this was in terms of the labels. Suddenly, everything got even darker than before, the emergency lights turning off as well as the lights here in the supply closet. I hurriedly flipped the switch back in the other direction, but there was no change.

“What did you do?” Kayla groaned from somewhere off to my left.

“Oops,” I muttered, flipping the switch back and forth a few more times. But there was still no change. I sighed. “Maybe we should call Adam.”

“Told you we should have done that from the start,” Kayla said, sounding like she was trying not to laugh. I was glad for the darkness to hide my flaming cheeks.

I pulled out my phone, glad for at least that much illumination. I had already saved all the various numbers for the personnel in my contacts list, so it was easy enough to find Adam and dial him up. “Hello?” he said when he answered the phone.

“Hey, it’s Bailey,” I said, wishing my voice didn’t sound quite so meek.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“There’s a sort of situation in the condos,” I told him. “A problem with some of the lighting in the hall. I was hoping that you could come and check it out. I know it’s your day off, so I’m sorry to call you in. But Kayla and I aren’t having any luck figuring out what’s going on.”

Adam groaned. “Please tell me you haven’t already tried to do anything yourself,” he said.

I bit my lower lip, not sure how to respond to that. Suddenly, I felt like a chastised child. I should have just called him in the first place.

“For future reference, you can always call me on my days off, and I’m usually around to do whatever you need,” Adam said. “I can be there in about an hour. There’s a reason you have a maintenance person. I’m qualified to do the work that the place needs.”

“I know, I know,” I said, staring down at my feet. “I just…wanted to help.”

“I’ll see you soon,” Adam said, hanging up the phone before I could really finish apologizing. I slowly put my phone back in my pocket, grimacing. I felt foolish. But still, did Adam have to be so rude about it? I really was just trying to help. And spare him having to come in to work on a day off.

I didn’t remember Adam ever being so brusque with me when we were younger, and it made me wonder again what had changed about him. Kayla seemed to think that he was damaged goods, and maybe she was right. But I wondered how he had gotten that way.

9

Adam

I tried not to feel frustrated about the fact that Bailey had tried to fix things at the ski resort without consulting me. I knew, rationally, that she was only trying to help. And sure, it would have been nice not to be called in on one of my precious days off. But Dad was there to watch Ethan, so really, it would have been better for her just to call me.

I was a little worried to see just what she had managed to do. We had redone a lot of the wiring that summer when we had put in the new condos, but given the age of the lodge itself, everything was kind of on the same grid and that meant that it could be finicky, to say the least.

I wanted to think that Bailey wouldn’t have done too much on her own before she called me. But I couldn’t help but feel especially nervous when I pulled up in the employee lot and saw that easily half of the lights in the main lodge, plus most of the lights in the condos, were all out. I groaned inside and immediately headed for the utility room in the new condos. Sure enough, that’s where I found Bailey and Kayla, still messing around with the switches.

“All right, let me at it,” I told them, and Bailey immediately turned around with a look of relief on her face.

“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you!” she said. “I hit the switch for the hall, but it seems to have knocked out half the power at the resort, and now I can’t get it to turn back on.” She shook her head. “It’s all so confusing, all of these little labels. Someone really should clean them up sometime.”

“I know my system,” I said, trying not to sound rude even though to be honest, I had very little patience left for her. There was a reason the resort had a maintenance man, after all. Was that one of the changes she thought that she could make in taking over this place, fire me? Or at least cut back on the hours of work that I did for the resort?

She’d always struck me as intelligent, but I didn’t know what she was like as a businesswoman. Maybe she was the kind of person who only looked at the bottom line and didn’t really give a damn for how it affected the business itself. Or maybe she just really didn’t understand what my position was there at the mountain. Suddenly, I started to wonder whether my job was as secure as I had thought that it was. Brooks Mountain was in Bailey’s hands now, and she could really do whatever she wanted.

And the trouble was, if I lost this job, I’d have a damned hard time finding a new position now, with the season already started. I didn’t want to have to uproot Ethan in the middle of the school year, nor pull him away from his friends, his ski mountain, and everything else. Plus, if we had to move away from Park City, I wasn’t naïve enough to think that Dad would follow us. That meant that I would no longer have the free help around the house and with Ethan.

“Kayla, why don’t you get back to the front desk?” I suggested so that I could step in and take a closer look at just what they had done. Time to prove just how useful I was around here, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about losing this job.

In actual fact, it might just be a good thing that Bailey and Kayla had really screwed things up on their own. It would give me a chance to prove myself to the new boss and all.

But it was hard to concentrate on what I was doing with Bailey hovering behind me. “Can you explain to me what you’re doing? Just in case this happens again?” she asked.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Hopefully next time, you’ll just call me before you start monkeying around with the breakers,” I said. “But basically, when you flipped half the switches in the board, you shorted out a couple of the circuits. So I’m doing a little bit of repair on those. And no, it isn’t anything that you should be working on yourself.”

“Oh,” Bailey said, sounding put out. She was quiet for a moment, but her eyes didn’t leave me as I continued to work. “So what were you up to on your day off, anyway?” she asked suddenly. “Anything fun?”

“Just chores around the house,” I said, shrugging one shoulder. “Was hoping to get in some skiing for an hour or two, but there’s lots that needs doing at this time of year.”

“Right,” Bailey said, sounding guilty. “I really am sorry that we had to call you in today. And that I messed everything up.” She paused. “If there’s anything that I can do to help you out, let me know. I know that there’s a way that things are done around here and I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I don’t want to be one of those bosses who…” She trailed off, not seeming to know just what she was trying to say.

I had to admit, I appreciated her saying that. I was never a fan of those bosses who were totally hands off with the businesses that they owned. But at the same time, she was right; she didn’t know how things worked around here. There was no one to take up the slack for me if I cut back on my hours. And I didn’t like the idea of the resort hiring someone else who was skilled in the same area, if only because I had my system and things worked out well when I was the only person messing around with various pieces of equipment. Besides, it wasn’t really a large enough resort to warrant an additional maintenance and mechanics person.

“So you’re sticking around Utah for the holidays, huh?” Bailey said, continuing to try to chat with me while I worked. “Bet your dad’s still here, isn’t he? He’ll never leave this place; he’s a true mountain man.” She laughed, but I grimaced. I knew she didn’t mean it as a bad thing, but I also knew that she probably looked down on people like me and my dad. We made our living by working hard, working with our hands. Not everyone could just come into a ton of money.

But I let those comments slide for now. “Holiday season’s the busiest season at the resort,” I reminded her. “I kind of have to be here.”

“Do you work here year-round?” Bailey asked curiously. “I mean, you must get some time off at certain times of the year, right?”

I finally looked over at her. “You know, this would be a lot easier to straighten out if you left me alone to do my work,” I said. I didn’t mean to be so rude to her, but I didn’t really want to talk to her about my personal life either. I knew that Ian remembered Beth, or at least remembered that there had been a Beth. I wondered if Bailey did as well and assumed that she did. She hadn’t been that young.

Which meant it was only a matter of time before Bailey asked about her. And the last thing I wanted right now was to talk about my deceased wife, or Ethan, or anything else related to those topics. Bailey was just my boss, and even though this resort operated more or less like a family, she was still an outsider. I wasn’t interested in opening up to her.

Bailey looked taken aback by my abruptness, but then she nodded at me. “Right, I’ll get out of your hair. Kayla was actually giving me a tour of the resort before and introducing me to some people, so I guess I’ll get back to that. But I’ll see you around.”

“Sure you will,” I said, already intent on my work again. I refused to turn and watch her leave, even though in my mind, I was already picturing those round hips of hers swaying as she walked away.

I pushed those thoughts aside. She was just my boss. And anyway, I had enough on my plate at the moment without thinking about a relationship with someone. Let alone with my boss.

It took me a little while, but I finally got lighting restored in all parts of the base area, plus put the lightbulb back into the hallway of the new condos. I wasn’t entirely sure why they had taken it out in the first place since it was working just fine, but I didn’t plan on asking Bailey to explain.

I also redid a few of the labels on the breaker switches. Not because Bailey had told me that she didn’t understand them, but just because I was always tailoring my system to work even better the next time. That was all.

I headed into the main lodge just as the skiers were starting to come off the mountain for the day. “All finished?” Kayla asked, grinning at me.

“All finished,” I agreed.

“Excellent,” Bailey said, appearing from the direction of the kitchen. She wiped off her hands on an apron, and I wondered if she realized that she had a smudge of flour on one cheek. Interesting. I wondered what she had been doing back there. Not that I would ask, of course. I didn’t want her to start thinking that I wanted to be friends with her or anything.

I mean, friends wouldn’t be that bad. But I just didn’t want her to get the wrong impression. To think that I was interested in her.

She grinned at me. “Join me for dinner.” The way she said it, it wasn’t really a question. I glanced around to see what Kayla’s reaction to that was, but she was off chatting with a couple of the guests.

I looked back at Bailey and shook my head. “I –” Then, I glanced past Bailey to where she was gesturing and realized that she already had food out on the table waiting for us. It was nothing special, just the normal food that the lodge served; hearty and warm, perfect for these chilly winter days.

For a moment, I still hesitated. I didn’t want to hurt Bailey’s feelings. There was a part of me that still remembered the young girl that she had been. Witty and charming, a real riot to be around. Would it really kill me to open up to her a little? To become friends with her? Surely I was allowed to have friends, even if I never wanted anything more again.

And Dad was perfectly capable of feeding Ethan. In fact, I had left instructions with him for dinner in case my work ran late. So there was no reason not to join Bailey. Other than that weird little flip in my gut as I looked at her.

I cleared my throat. “All right,” I told her, moving matter-of-factly past her to seat myself at the table. “By the way, you’ve got flour on your cheek. The left one.”

Still trying for casual, I only saw her flush out of the corner of my eye as she hurriedly swiped at her face with her apron. I couldn’t help grinning. I wondered if she knew how cute she was or if she was so wrapped up in acting like the perfect, powerful businesswoman that she didn’t think about things like that.

But I sure noticed. Oh, how could I not?

10

Bailey

When I told Kayla I wanted to help out back in the kitchen, and to invite Adam to join me for dinner, she rolled her eyes knowingly. “I told you not to get too interested in him,” she reminded me, but the way she said it told me that she knew I couldn’t help it.

I wanted to ask her about Adam. He had to be in a relationship. Or have been in a relationship. I thought back to when we had last been here, but I couldn’t remember him hanging around with anyone other than Ian during that time. Still, I didn’t ask Kayla about it. It was one thing for her to know that I was interested in him. It was another thing entirely for me to actually start talking about it.

I was still new here, and I wanted everyone to know that even though I wanted this place to be just as chill as ever, I was a professional. And that meant I couldn’t go mooning after my maintenance guy.

Besides, this dinner wasn’t about any of that. It was just a way of saying thank you to Adam for coming in on his day off. And a way to help him out a little. I could tell that he was busy, maybe too busy. When he said that he was doing errands on his day off, I looked a little closer at him and could see the dark smudges beneath his eyes, like he was perpetually tired. Anything that I could do to help him, I wanted to know it. Letting him off the hook for cooking, at least for one night, was the first thing that came to mind.

I had to admit, though, I was pretty excited to have him join me. I hadn’t really missed him; we had never been close friends or anything. But I had always liked his energy and youthful spirit, and there was definitely something about him that intrigued me.

At first, though, I couldn’t think of where to start the conversation. Earlier, in the utility room, he’d been so short with me. It was clear that he didn’t really want to talk about himself. But I didn’t want to just start talking about myself.

To my surprise, Adam rescued the conversation. “So whatever possessed you to buy this place, anyway?” he asked bluntly.

I shrugged and took a bite of my meal as I thought of a way to answer that. Finally, I decided just to be honest. “My dad died a little over a month ago, and I came into my inheritance,” I admitted. “And I just needed a change. I quit working for the casino business earlier this year, and I’ve just been kind of adrift ever since. I needed to get out of Vegas for a bit.”

“Huh,” Adam said, but he didn’t sound disinterested. “I’m sorry to hear that about your father.”

“Thanks,” I said, staring down at my plate and trying not to choke on my emotions. Even though I’d heard dozens of people express their sympathy about my loss, there was something in Adam’s voice, something about the way he said it, which made it sound more genuine than all those other people.

“What’s Ian doing with his money?” Adam asked, grinning at me. “Funding the next great series of pranks?”

I laughed, glad for the lighthearted change of topic. “Actually, he’ll probably invest it into more of the casino stuff,” I said. “In more ways than one, he likes to gamble.”

“As should every good businessman, right?” Adam said. “Just hope he knows when to quit. That’s something he never had a handle on when I knew him before.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Fortunately, he’s matured a lot,” I said. “And actually, he’s taken over a lot of responsibility at the company. Even before Dad died.”

“That’s good,” Adam said. The conversation abruptly died there, and I was back to struggling to think of something to say. I just didn’t remember things being this difficult with him. It was like he was totally guarded, like he didn’t want to get to know me at all, and like he definitely didn’t want me to get to know him.

To be fair, I had reservations of my own. I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about how attractive he was, about how I would do or say whatever it took to get him to grin at me again, to get him to grin at me for real. And that was dangerous territory, I knew. I couldn’t let myself get too involved with him. It wouldn’t be professional, and anyway, I didn’t have the time to devote to a relationship right now. Besides, he was one of Ian’s friends, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about crossing that line with him.

“Look,” I finally said, leaning towards him, “there’s a reason I wanted to have dinner with you.”

Adam grimaced and looked away from me, carefully setting down his fork. I could see the way that his face closed off as he did his best to look uninterested in whatever I was about to say.

Interesting.

But I knew I needed to keep this strictly professional. I had to ignore that little flip in my belly at the thought that he might be trying to keep his own emotions in check in just the same way that I was. Focus on the task at hand.

“I know this place is turning enough of a profit that we could hire someone else on as maintenance. To help you out some, especially during the holiday rush. It isn’t right for you to have to be on call all the time, even on your days off.”

Adam frowned at me. “It’s not worth it,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a system here. A way of doing things. You get someone else to come in and it’s that classic ‘too many cooks’ syndrome.”

“I get that,” I said, having already thought about that. “But what I was thinking was, maybe you could switch so that you’re really just handling lift maintenance and operations. I’m sure there’s more than enough work there to keep you busy, and anyway, I know you know what you’re doing there and that that’s probably pretty specialized knowledge. We could hire someone else to deal with things like the lights, though.”

Adam continued to stare at me for a moment. Then, he shook his head, exhaling noisily. “Nah, don’t worry about it,” he said, picking his fork back up. “I like that this job keeps me busy. I can handle it. And seriously, don’t worry about having to call me in on my days off. I’m just a few miles away. Or I’m here skiing.”

“Well, at least credit it towards your hours for the week and take tomorrow off,” I insisted.

For a minute, Adam looked like he might protest. I could practically see him going through task-lists in his head, trying to figure out if he really could afford to take the next day off. Finally, though, he nodded. “All right,” he said. “I’ll take tomorrow off. There might be one or two projects that I’ll try to wrap up first thing in the morning, but then I think I’ll go skiing.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” I said approvingly. I wanted to say more, maybe to ask if he wanted some company to ski with. But it had been forever since I was on skis, and I didn’t want to hold him up all day. And besides, he no doubt knew plenty of people around town that he would rather ski with. He wasn’t being too subtle about the fact that he didn’t want to be friends with me. And that was fine. I was his boss.

“Thanks again for coming and helping today,” I said for the billionth time as he was getting ready to head home.

He just shrugged one shoulder. “It’s my job,” he said gruffly. I wanted to say something in response to that, but he was already turning away from me. “I’ll see you around,” he said over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” I echoed faintly. “See you around.”

And I hoped that I did. I wanted to see more of him. He might be downright rude to me at times, and lukewarm at best, but to be honest, I kind of understood that. I was pretty emotionally guarded myself, especially when it came to men.

Still, there was something about the air of mystery to him that made me want to break through those walls of his. To really get to know him and know his story. What was it that had turned him from the laughing prankster in my memory to the man he was now? I was determined to figure it out.

11

Adam

Having an unexpected day off was a surprising luxury. I had almost balked when Bailey suggested it. I wanted to prove to her that I didn’t need it, that I could still work my regular hours and get everything done as needed. But at the same time, I knew that I was already worn out and that things were only going to get busier as we really got into the holiday season. So, any extra time that I could take off now was only going to benefit me in the long run.

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 response 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 things 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.

Dad knelt down next to him. “I just wanted to give you this,” he said, winking at Ethan. “I know Christmas isn’t for a couple weeks, but I figured this would give you a chance to play with it a lot once your school break starts.”

I realized with dismay that Dad hadn’t come empty-handed. And what’s more, I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew exactly what was in that box. But before I could intervene, Ethan was excitedly tearing off the wrapping paper from a new PowerBox. My hands bunched into fists as he threw his arms around his grandfather.

“Ethan, why don’t you go upstairs and get your shoes on?” I asked my son, barely able to keep the fury out of my voice.

Ethan looked back and forth between his grandfather and I, and I could see the worry in his look. But Dad stood up, brushing off his knees. “Don’t worry,” he said to Ethan. “Your dad just wants to talk to me.”

“Dad, what the hell is this?” I asked in an undertone the moment Ethan had disappeared upstairs.

Dad gave me a mild look. “It’s a Christmas gift,” he said, stating the obvious.

I fought the urge to shake him. “I thought I made it very clear that I don’t want Ethan to have one of those,” I reminded him.

“You certainly made it clear that you weren’t going to buy one for him,” Dad said, nodding his head. “But I didn’t realize that meant he couldn’t get one as a gift.” He shook his head. “You know that all the other boys at his school are going to have them. If they don’t already, then they’ll get them for Christmas, from parents who aren’t as stubborn and anti-technology as you are. He’s going to be playing video games at their houses when he’s over there. I just thought it would be nice for him to have a chance to practice here as well. Plus, it would mean you got to see which games he was playing and set some rules for him.”

“That’s not what this is even about,” I snapped.

“Isn’t it?” Dad challenged. “Admit it, what you’re afraid of is that your son is going to suddenly somehow start to be a little brat who only cares about video games and who lacks imagination. But you know that’s not going to happen.”

“Don’t try to tell me what I think,” I warned him. “Why are you doing this anyway? Being the good guy to him? You were never like that with me when I was growing up. You would never have let me have any sort of video game console, let alone one that’s this new and fancy!”

Dad grimaced. “Maybe I wasn’t the best father to you,” he allowed.

“You weren’t!” I agreed, too angry to even think about what I was saying now. I saw the way Dad flinched, but I wasn’t in any mood to take it back. “I want this thing out of the house before I get back this afternoon,” I said when Ethan came downstairs. “I mean it.”

I gave Dad one last scathing look and then headed towards the door, with Ethan trailing slowly behind me.

I tried to calm myself down. I didn’t want to be angry like this in front of Ethan. Especially not when the person I was angry at was the boy’s grandfather. I tried to dissect just why I was feeling this way anyway.

I knew that Dad was right when he reminded me that Ethan was a good kid. I really wasn’t worried that he was suddenly going to start misbehaving or anything like that. He had always been a rule-follower, and I didn’t see that changing any time soon.

So what was it that I was worried about? Sure, there was my dislike for technology. I definitely believed that it should be limited, and I didn’t think that Ethan needed to have the latest and greatest. But that wasn’t really what I was mad at Dad over, this time.

Part of it was the fact that Dad hadn’t asked me about it. He hadn’t even given me a heads up that he was coming over. And he had showed up right before school that morning, when he knew that we were about to leave. Like he thought that somehow, he’d be able to sneak it in or something. Get me to give permission to something I really didn’t want, just because I didn’t have time to argue with him just then.

And now I looked like the bad guy because I wouldn’t let Ethan have the gaming console that he had already been gifted.

There was a definite part of me that felt guilty. But not just about the fact that I had refused to let Ethan have this video game console that he wanted so much. That he had been so excited about. I knew that I had used some harsh words with Dad as well. And sure, we had never had the best relationship growing up, but especially in the past few years since everything with Beth, Dad had been there time and time again, helping me out around the house and with Ethan.

I could tell that he had been excited to give Ethan the gift, too. That was probably why he had shown up first thing in the morning. Because he was so excited that he couldn’t wait any longer before he got to give the gift to his grandson.

I just wished that he had talked to me about it first.

Ethan was uncharacteristically quiet on the way to school, but I didn’t know what to say to him. So I stayed silent as well. I was in a bad mood by the time I got to work, and unfortunately, that mood only soured further when Bailey came up to me the minute I stepped foot in the lodge. “What?” I asked shortly, knowing that I already had a million tasks to do today and that I didn’t have time for whatever else she wanted to add to my list.

Bailey looked taken aback, and I reminded myself that this was my boss and that I couldn’t talk like that to her. “Sorry,” I said, running a hand back through my hair. “It’s just been a rough morning.”

“You feeling okay?” Bailey asked, sounding worried.

“Fine,” I said shortly. “Now, what can I help you with?”

Bailey held out a cup of coffee towards me, and I eyed it suspiciously but accepted it, wondering what kinds of strings it came with. “Now, I know you’re really busy at this time of year, but I was thinking that today, maybe I could shadow you around the resort. See what kind of work you’re up to and that sort of thing.”

“Like an evaluation?” I asked, unable to keep the snippiness from my tone. Why the hell did she need to do an evaluation? She wouldn’t understand what she was looking at anyway, and she couldn’t possibly be thinking about firing me. Right?

“No, I just think it would be a good idea for me to know this place a little better,” Bailey said, shrugging. “And if you could show me things like where the spare lightbulbs are or how to fix, I don’t know, whatever chronic issues this place has, then maybe I wouldn’t have to call you in on your days off.”

I stared at her for a moment. “I’d rather that you didn’t try to fix anything on your own,” I said slowly.

“I’m not talking anything major,” Bailey hurried to say. “Like I said, just lightbulbs and stuff. Little things.” She laughed. “I’m definitely not going anywhere near the ski lifts except as a passenger, trust me!”

I sighed. “Like you said, I’m busy at this time of year,” I told her. “No offense, but I don’t really have time for you to follow me around and get in the way.”

“I won’t get in the way,” Bailey promised. When she could see that I wasn’t about to budge, she sighed. “No offense, but I don’t really want to play the boss card. But I will if that’s what I have to do.”

I frowned, but I could tell that she was serious. “Fine,” I said shortly, turning and heading towards my office. I dropped my coat over the back of my chair and grabbed my checklist for the day. “First thing Gretchen wants me to do is fix the jets on some of the hot tubs. Should be easy enough.”

“Is Gretchen part of maintenance as well?” Bailey asked. “I’m sure I met her, but I can’t remember which one she was.”

“She’s not really maintenance, per se, but she’s my main liaison point. If guests have an issue, it gets to her eventually, and she passes it on to me. She’s the eyes and ears. I’ll see if we can reintroduce the two of you later; she’s a good person to know.”

“That’d be great,” Bailey said. She reached out a hand for my toolbox. “Come on, if I’m going to be bothering you all day, the least I can do is actually help out some.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, but I dutifully handed over the toolbox. I could tell she was surprised at how heavy it was, but she gave me a game look. I had to hide a smirk. “Off to the old condos,” I told her. She led the way.

14

Bailey

Kayla had been right when she said there was a lot that I could learn about the day-to-day operations from Adam. But I could tell that he wasn’t going to just sit down and talk to me about everything that I wanted to know. And I understood it when I saw his office in the back. Jeez were there a lot of papers scattered around, various lists in his handwriting plus the messages from Gretchen, always adding things to his To Do list. I wondered how he could get all of this stuff done and still manage to have some sort of a life outside of work. He had to be exhausted.

I started to wonder if I had been right in caving when he said that he didn’t want me to hire someone else to take over his responsibilities. But I knew now wasn’t the time to bring that up again. For now, I just wanted to see what a normal day in the life was like for him, plus learn more about the operations of the mountain. He had a lot of useful information.

And to be honest, I just wanted to spend a little more time with him. The more chances I got to talk to him, the more likely I was to figure out what it was that had changed him so much from the man that I remembered.

“Can you hand me the yellow-handled screwdriver?” Adam asked from where he was bent down around the lip of the hot tub, working on something with the jets.

“The Phillips-head one?” I asked to confirm.

Adam gave me a surprised look. “Uh, yeah,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Look, I may not be up to snuff as a maintenance person here, but I can at least name all the tools in your toolbox.”

“Cool,” Adam said lamely, but I could see he felt embarrassed at having doubted me. I grinned sweetly in response, and slowly he grinned back at me. He stepped to the side so that I could see what he was doing. “So to be honest, this is probably a pretty useful thing for you to know because we have problems with these jets pretty regularly, and it’s a pretty easy fix. This is all you have to do.” He started to explain it to me, and I nodded along.

Then, he jammed the jets again and let me practice it once for myself. “Just like this?” I asked.

His hands came up to correct mine just briefly, but the contact of his skin against mine made me shiver. “Yeah, just like that,” he said, and was it my imagination or was his voice just a bit huskier than normal?

“So what’s your brother been up to anyway?” Adam asked when the hot tub was in working order again and we were walking back towards the condos for the next project. “Is he up skiing a lot? I haven’t seen him around since that first day when he came by with you.”

I sighed. “Actually, he got called back to Nevada,” I told him. “Work stuff that they just couldn’t do without him. I’m trying to get him to come back in a few weeks, maybe for New Year’s Eve, but I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to or not.”

“That’s a shame,” Adam said. He paused. “I would have thought he’d want to be here, to make sure that you really could handle all of this on your own. He’s always been so protective of you.”

I snorted. “Yeah, I know,” I said. “And that was the original plan, but yeah, he just needed to get back.” I shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t need him looking out for me anymore. I’ve grown up. I can handle this just fine without him.”

“I’m sure you can,” Adam said quietly, almost to himself.

“So what else is on the list for today?” I asked Adam, trying to change the subject. As flattering as it was to hear that he thought that I could handle things, it also made me inordinately nervous. What if I couldn’t handle it? Not that I thought that having Ian there would really help. And anyway, I had gotten myself into this in the first place. It was up to me to figure things out.

But I knew that Adam was probably still thinking back to the other day when I had totally screwed up the thing with the lights. And that made me nervous about what might come up around the resort, especially with the busy season starting.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a pretty busy day today,” Adam told me, pulling a list out of his pocket. “I’m really trying to get as much done as possible before next week.”

“What happens next week?” I asked curiously.

“It’s the start of the busiest time of year for us,” Adam explained.

“It’s going to get busier than this?” I asked in surprise. I blushed and shoved my hands in my pockets, feeling silly for asking. “I mean, I’m sure you know. I just don’t remember it being this busy when I was younger. But I must not have realized it.”

“It’s also a really good snow year,” Adam reminded me. “That means there are a lot of people thinking about skiing right now. They’re seeing all these storms on their news channels wherever they live and have planned trips out here. Even the people who only come up skiing every so often.” He glanced sidelong at me, and I laughed.

“Contrary to what you might be thinking, I’m not just here because it’s a good year,” I said, shaking my head. “I plan to be here until, well, I guess if things are terrible this year and I figure out that I’m not cut out for this, then maybe I won’t be back next year.” I gave a self-conscious laugh, and I was surprised when Adam reached up and lightly squeezed my shoulder.

“You’re not going to have that much of a problem,” he promised me. “Honestly, the previous owners were hardly ever here. We all know our jobs, and we’ll make sure that we get things done. And we’re all here to answer whatever questions you have.”

It was the most honest thing that I had heard him say to me, and I was touched to hear it. It sounded like he really was warming up to me a little. At least he was willing to answer all of the questions that I had. That was definitely something.

“How’s the cold been treating you?” Adam asked while we ate lunch together in the main lodge. I was surprised to hear him initiate any sort of small talk with me, and for a minute, I had to think about how to respond.

Finally, I laughed and shrugged. “Honestly, it’s been a little tough,” I admitted. “I’m wearing, like, three layers under my sweater right now. And I could still probably do with another one.”

Adam laughed. “You’ll get used to it,” he promised.

“I hope so,” I said fervently. Even if that was all the small-talk that we managed over the course of the day, at least it was something. And every little bit bolstered my confidence that maybe I did know what I was doing here.

“You’re doing a great job,” Adam said as we were parting ways later that evening.

“Really?” I asked in surprise, unable to stop myself.

Adam carefully looked down at his checklist, but I could see the faint smile on his face. “Yeah,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said shyly.

He nodded at me and then finally looked at me again, giving me a quick, awkward wave. “I’ll see you around, okay? I have a couple of last minute things I want to check on before I head home tonight.”

I frowned, wanting to… to what? Order him to go home? Pull him in for a hug for goodbye? I shook both of those thoughts out of my head. Adam was a grown man; he could stop working when he was good and ready to quit for the day. And a hug would only have made things awkward. It probably would have made him pull away from me even more, right when we were finally making progress.

No. I gave him a quick wave in response and headed out of there. My thoughts were swirling chaotically in my mind, and I still felt like there was more that I would have liked to say to him. But I had missed my chance.

There will be more chances, I reminded myself fiercely. And there certainly would be. He had shown me, over the course of the day, that he was everywhere and involved in just about everything at the resort. Which meant that I really, really couldn’t start anything with him. If things went sour, it would be impossible to avoid him afterwards.

No, I couldn’t let myself do something foolish. But as I flicked on the lights of my newly purchased condo, I couldn’t help wondering if I had already started down the path of no return.

15

Adam

I had calmed down a lot by the time I was ready to leave the resort that evening. And I knew that I had been too hard on Dad. I wanted him to be close to Ethan. I still wished that he had talked to me about the game console first, but I knew that he wasn’t trying to buy Ethan or anything silly like that. He was just genuinely happy that he could provide something like that for Ethan, something that the kid really wanted.

I knew that he just wanted to know the kinds of things that Ethan was interested in. And I knew that he was right when he told me that Ethan was a good kid and that spoiling him a little wasn’t going to ruin him. What was I so afraid of, anyway?

I knew the answer to that, I just didn’t like to admit it. I was afraid that I was going to lose Ethan. In a different way than I had lost Beth, but lose him all the same. He was already getting to that age where he would rather be off skiing and hanging out with his friends than hanging out with his old man. But the gaming console wasn’t going to accelerate that process. And new technology or not, Ethan was always going to be my son.

I sat in my truck for a moment and then sighed. I needed to apologize to Dad. To thank him for the kind gesture. To admit that maybe I had been too quick to say that Ethan couldn’t have the PowerBox.

I finally turned the key in the ignition and drove over to his house.

When I got there, I slipped inside, hearing him chatting with Ethan in the living room. I paused for a moment as I kicked off my shoes. They were watching a movie, or… no, I was pretty sure it was video games that they were playing. I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but I found myself grinning.

Of course that was how Dad would play it. He had always been the most stubborn person I knew. Other than myself, but I had learned it from the best. When I told him that I didn’t want the PowerBox in my place, he had brought it over here. And then when he had picked Ethan up after his ski club that afternoon and brought him back here, he had let the boy play.

I should have been frustrated. After all, I had wanted to set down some rules before Ethan went near the gaming console. But I knew also that Dad had been strict with me as a kid and that he wouldn’t let Ethan have unlimited time playing video games. If they were playing at all right now, that meant that Ethan was probably already finished with his homework.

I walked into the living room and cleared my throat to get their attention. Dad immediately paused the game, looking almost guilty. Ethan, on the other hand, looked scared. He immediately jumped to his feet. “Am I in trouble?” he asked.

I blinked in surprise at him and then slowly shook my head. “Of course not, buddy,” I said. “Dad, could we talk in the hall?”

Dad glanced over at Ethan and then gave me a measured, defiant look. This time, I couldn’t stop my sheepish grin, and Dad’s look softened.

“I wanted to apologize for this morning,” I said when Dad had joined me in the front hall. “I know I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. You were just trying to do something nice for Ethan, and I totally ruined it. I said some things that I shouldn’t have.”

Dad shrugged. “It was your prerogative as his parent,” he said, but I could tell that he didn’t believe the words that he was saying. Well, he agreed that it was ultimately my choice, maybe. But he still didn’t think that there was any harm in Ethan having the console.

“I wish that you’d talked to me about it first,” I said. When I saw Dad start to interrupt me, I held up a hand. “But I also know that you were probably right, that if you did talk to me about it first, I wouldn’t have listened to you. And you’re also right about the fact that Ethan is a good kid and that this isn’t going to change that. I still think he needs to get his homework done before he plays games, and I still think that he should only be allowed a certain amount of time playing games. But you were also right that the kid probably needs something to do.”

Dad nodded slowly. “I appreciate that,” he said gruffly.

I glanced towards the living room. “Maybe it would be a good idea for you to keep the PowerBox over here?” I said, even though I knew that Ethan would probably pout if we told him that that was the plan. “That way, the two of you can keep playing together. It sounded like you were having fun.”

Dad snorted. “You’re just saying that because you still don’t want the responsibility of having that thing in your house,” he said. Then, he immediately apologized. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

I grinned crookedly at him. “You’re probably right about that too, though,” I said.

“I’m not the one that he really wants to play video games with,” Dad said, shaking his head. “My eyes aren’t good enough, and my reflexes, quite simply, are terrible.”

I sighed. “He wants to play with his friends. Which would mean it makes more sense to have it at my house.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want Ethan having other kids over to our house, but with the amount that I worked, I knew that the number of playdates he wanted to set up would exceed the amount of time that I was usually at home. That could be another complication that I hadn’t thought about.

But Dad was looking at me like I was crazy. “I mean, sure, he probably wants to show off his new games to all his friends,” he said. “But more than that, I think he wants to show them all to you. You should have heard him earlier when we were playing the ski game; he kept going on and on about all the things he was going to tell you about it.” He grinned and shook his head.

Then, suddenly, he cleared his throat, looking off to the side. “You were right about some things this morning too. I wasn’t there for you when you were a kid. Not the way that I should have been.”

“Dad,” I protested, because I knew that I never should have said all of that this morning. I never should have critiqued his parenting skills. He had done the best that he could. And he had managed to raise me to be a hardworking kid. He had put up with all my crazy antics back then, too. I couldn’t have asked for better, not really. Although it would have been nice if we could have a real conversation every once in a while.

It appeared that I was getting that wish now, though. Dad was shaking his head. “No, you were right,” he said sternly. “I know that I maybe didn’t do things the way that I should have. And I’m proud of you for not being such a standoffish bastard with your own kid. You make me want to be different for him too.”

He cleared his throat again, while I struggled to come up with something to say in response to that. It didn’t seem right to deny the fact that he had been a ‘standoffish bastard’, not that I ever would have accused him of that in those specific words. But before I could figure out what to say, he clapped me on the shoulder and then headed back into the living room where Ethan was waiting.

I trailed slowly after him. Ethan bit his lower lip when he looked at me, and it was my turn to clear my throat. “Gramps and I were just talking about the PowerBox,” I said slowly. “And we think that it would probably be a good idea to bring it back to our place so that you can play on it there with your friends.”

Ethan cheered and gave Dad another big hug. “But we’re still going to have to play together sometimes because you’re never going to get better if you don’t practice,” he told Gramps seriously, and I couldn’t help laughing.

Dad, for his part, smiled right back at the kid. “Sounds like a deal,” he said, holding out his hand so that Ethan could shake on it.

“We’re going to have to have some rules for the PowerBox, though,” I told Ethan as we drove over to our house and brought the game console inside.

“I know,” he said. “Gramps told me you’d say that. And I have to do my homework first, and I can only play for the same amount of time as I get TV privileges for the week. And I have to listen to you if you want to change the rules at any time. And, um, I forget what else.” He giggled and I laughed as well.

“That sounds like about all of it,” I said, ruffling his hair affectionately as we walked inside.

“And I should maybe let you win sometimes?” Ethan asked cheekily, and again, I burst out laughing.

“Buddy, you don’t have to let me win,” I told him.

“Okay,” Ethan said, but he didn’t sound sure. And true to his word, he kicked my ass three times that night.

“It’s just because you’re used to the controls already, from playing with Gramps earlier,” I protested.

“Nuh-uh!” Ethan said, sticking his tongue out at me. “You’re just bad. Really, really bad.”

I snorted and stood up, scooping him up off the couch. “All right, I think it’s bed time,” I said. “But we can play more another time, okay?”

“Okay,” Ethan sighed, but he didn’t protest as I carried him upstairs to his room and set him down on his bed, pulling a set of pajamas out of his drawer and helping him into them.

I couldn’t help feeling, as I went back downstairs a little while later, that I was happier than I’d been in a while. But it had nothing to do with the PowerBox. Or rather, it sort of did; the conversation that Dad and I had had earlier was one of the most productive ones that we’d ever had.

And it would never have been possible, I knew, if I hadn’t spent the whole day with Bailey. There was something about her that just made my defenses feel weak. Something that made it easier to admit that I had been wrong, and that I’d said things that maybe I shouldn’t have said.

Not that I planned to start making this a habit. But really, when it came down to it, she was the entire reason for the good mood that I currently enjoyed. I shook my head and tried to forget all about that, but when I closed my eyes, in my bed later, my mind’s eye started conjuring up images of blonde hair and green eyes.

What was it about Bailey that got to me like this? She wasn’t Beth. No one could ever replace my former wife. Even if that had been something that I wanted, it wouldn’t be fair to put that kind of pressure on anyone.

I couldn’t seem to quit thinking about Bailey, though. She had made me laugh more times that day than I had laughed in years now. And I had to admit, she was doing a damned good job of learning as much as she could about the resort. She asked all the right questions, and she really seemed to want to show up. To do the job the right way, to consider all the different sides. To really take over the business.

Not only that, but she threw herself into learning my job. The more tasks I had let her help me with, the more impressed I had been with her. She was smart, and a quick learner. And there was something about her that just…

This time, I rolled over and forced myself to forget those thoughts. Beth’s knowing eyes stared out at me from the picture that still sat on her nightstand. I groaned and reached out to push it down flat on the low wooden table. Normally, it was comforting to have her picture there where I could see it. Like she was still watching over me. I knew that she would have wanted me to move on; she had told me that herself, when it became clear that she wasn’t getting any better.

But tonight, I just couldn’t handle her gaze.

It wasn’t like I could start something with Bailey, even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t, just to be clear. She was intriguing, and as a person, I liked her. But that didn’t mean I wanted to date her or anything. There were just too many complications there. She was my boss, after all. It would have been irresponsible to get involved with her. What kind of example would that set for Ethan?

Not that Ethan would find out about that. My personal life, I knew, I needed to keep totally separate from my life with him. At least until I was serious about someone.

Someone who wasn’t Bailey, I thought again, my cheeks flaming. Yet again, I tried to put my new boss out of my mind. I refused to examine why it was so difficult to do that.

16

Bailey

I couldn’t stop thinking about Adam as I got ready for bed that night. I didn’t know what it was about him that I was so fixated on. To be honest, there was a part of me that expected that spending a whole day with him might cure me of my infatuation for him. Maybe I would see how rude and dismissive he was to me at all times, and it would start to wear on me.

But instead, spending the day with him had done just the opposite. I was still intrigued by him and eager to learn more about him. But not only that, he had really been great the whole day. Oh, I could tell that he wasn’t too thrilled to have me following along with him, but as the day went on, he seemed to get over that. We might not have talked as much as I would have hoped for, but I did feel like we had laid some solid foundations for friendship.

Or something more? That was apparently what my brain was hoping for, if my dreams were any indication.

Adam’s hands were warm as they covered mine, guiding my movements as I worked to fix the hot tub. “Just like this?” I asked, a breathy note to my voice.

“Just like that,” Adam agreed, voice warm and deep. I could feel the words as much as hear them, with his chest pressed up against my back as he leaned around me.

When I turned around, we were close, so very close. I could see every fleck of grey in those blue eyes of his, could feel his breath brush my sensitive lips. My body was quivering with how badly I needed him, and I could see an answering desire in his darkened gaze.

His hand came up to caress my cheeks, and I could see a question in his eyes. I nodded in answer, my skin still tingling with the heat of his touch.

He lowered his lips to mine, devouring me in a passionate kiss, and I moaned as he backed me up against the edge of the hot tub, pressing his body flush against mine. Suddenly, we were naked, his fingers down my side tracing lines of fire along my skin. I shivered and hungrily turned my face up for another kiss.

He laughed at my eagerness, his hands framing my face as he kissed me again. This kiss was soft and gentle, tender even. It said everything that he couldn’t say in his words about how much he cared for me.

“Come on,” he said, tugging at my hand and leading me up the steps and into the newly-fixed hot tub. He pulled my body against his there in the water, his fingers gliding easily across my skin.

I trailed my own hands down his muscular chest, then gave his thick cock a rough tug, watching it twitch with interest while Adam groaned, his head falling back against the edge of the tub. I jacked him off for a moment, watching his expression as I dragged my thumb across his slit I gave my fist a little twist as I worked it along his length.

Slowly, I slid closer to him, knees bracketing his hips against the wide seat of the hot tub. I lowered myself down onto his length, biting my lip to keep from whimpering his name. But I couldn’t help already feeling overcome with pleasure; he fit just right inside of me, it seemed, as though we were made for one another.

I grabbed on to the side of the hot tub, using it for leverage as I started to move against him, rocking slowly up and then dropping quickly back down on his length. I couldn’t help but gasp as he nailed that bundle of nerves inside of me. Again and again, I repeated the motion, and even though I was moving for my own pleasure more than his, he didn’t seem to mind, his fingers grasping my hips and helping me get myself off.

I came hard, choking out a sob, my eyes squeezed tightly shut. It seemed like forever before my pussy quit quivering, before I could meet his bright blue gaze. He locked his eyes on mine as he thrust into me again, and I moaned. His gaze flickered down to my lips, and he kissed me again, one hand coming up to caress my breasts as he did so.

The heat built again in my core, even though I already felt boneless and relaxed from my previous orgasm. Adam was still hard, though, and I could tell he was getting close. I held onto him as he continued to rock into me, quick little snaps of the hips that drove the breath out of my lungs. I whimpered as it suddenly became too much, acute pleasure washing through me, leaving me breathless and mewling even as his hips stilled, his seed filling my hole.

He ran his hands down my back and lightly kissed my jaw, and there was something beautiful about this feeling of intimacy with him.

I came awake with a gasp, aware of just how damp my panties were, how my body was still quivering with unslaked lust from my dream. I fell back against the bed, gasping for air just as my dream self had been. But here, there was no Adam to hold me close, ground me, kiss me. No hot tub, either. Nothing. It was just me, alone in my room, staring up at the dark ceiling.

I blinked as a surprising wave of loneliness and longing filled me. I hadn’t realized how much my body craved that intimacy. I knew, realistically, that I could never allow myself to have that with anyone. And especially not with one of my employees. I could never let things go the way that things had gone for my parents. Slowly drifting apart, ending up lonelier than you had started out…

That just wasn’t the life that I wanted for myself. I’d much rather keep Adam as a friend, nothing more.

Besides, I wasn’t conceited enough to think that he was head over heels for me. He tolerated my presence, that was all. He probably thought that the more he showed me how to do, the less he would have to interact with me. Nothing more.

The thought left me feeling surprisingly depressed. I rolled over, curled my body around a pillow, and forced myself to forget all about the ski resort’s mechanic and go back to sleep.

This time, there were no more dreams.

17

Adam

I watched Bailey out of the corner of my eye, barely able to concentrate on the lift manual that I had in front of me at the moment. Fortunately, there was nothing majorly wrong with the lifts anyway. Just that same old problem with the chairlift out of the base area, where every time we stopped it, it took a little time to power it back up again. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been before, but I was still looking for clues as to why it was happening, so I had decided to consult the manual again.

Not that it really told me much of anything. Nothing that I didn’t already know.

When Bailey had come into the lodge and headed over to the counter to chat with Kayla, it had been only too easy to turn my attention over to the two women.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on with Bailey. When she’d first taken over the resort, she had been so interested in learning whatever she could from me. I thought that day that we spent together had gone really well. But now, I realized that I must have said something wrong. I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out what.

But for the last week or so, Bailey had been avoiding me. She could barely meet my eyes the few times that we had needed to interact with one another, but for the most part, our paths didn’t seem to cross at all.

At first, I was sort of relieved by that. There was really no reason for me to interact with the owner of the resort, after all. Gretchen had been my go-between for years now, and nothing had changed there. However, there was a part of me that felt a little disappointed. Bailey had seemed like she wanted to know everything that I could teach her about the operations of the place so that she could fix things on her own. And it wasn’t that I wanted her to take over my job or anything. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle things on my own. But I just hadn’t thought that she would be one of those owners who was hands off with their business.

Not that she was, though. That was the thing; she was still interacting with everyone else like normal. She was still going about the place finding jobs that she could do and getting things done. She had had some long talks with the marketing department and came up with some innovative ideas for the coming season, by all accounts, and things were going likewise smoothly for her with the other departments around the mountain.

But she didn’t seem to want anything to do with me, and to be honest, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. If I had said something wrong, I just wanted to know what, so that I could apologize to her. I had hoped that things would just blow over eventually. Bailey didn’t seem like the kind of person to hold a grudge. Clearly things weren’t blowing over, though, and finally, I knew that I had to talk to her about it.

I thought about asking Kayla first. Maybe Bailey had said something to her. The two of them had easily fallen back into being close friends now that Bailey was back. But it didn’t seem professional to talk to Kayla about this, and I was afraid that she would see right through me.

See through to the fact that I actually found myself liking Bailey. In a way that I had never expected to like anyone again, after Beth.

Oh, I wasn’t in love with Bailey. Nothing like that. But she was smart and cute and there was something about her that just drew me in. She was like a warm fire to my cold bones. All I knew was that I couldn’t keep obsessing over figuring out what I had done wrong. Better to just talk to her about it.

I caught up to her as she finished her conversation with Kayla and headed out towards the condos. “You’ve been avoiding me,” I said, walking up alongside her.

Bailey gave me a surprised look which quickly turned sheepish. Was it my imagination or had she picked up the pace a little, like she was hoping to get away from me? I grimaced. I didn’t think that it was my imagination, and it only made me more certain that I had done something wrong.

Instead of telling me what, though, Bailey sighed. “Things have just been busy,” she said. “I feel like I’m being pulled in every direction.” She gave a quick laugh. “I know you told me things were going to get crazy once people started arriving for the holidays, but I guess I didn’t expect anything like this.” She was smiling, though, as she looked down at the resort from up here on the raised part of the base area that held one of the restaurants as well as the condo buildings.

“It’s one of the busiest winters I’ve ever seen here,” I agreed, looking down at everything. I paused. “From what I hear, you’ve been doing a damned good job here. Everyone’s pretty impressed.”

I could see the faintest tinge of pink on Bailey’s cheeks. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

I shrugged easily. “Just calling it like it is,” I said. We were both silent for a moment. Suddenly, I found myself blurting out the words: “Let me take you to dinner tonight. To get your mind off work. And to celebrate a successful start to the season for you.”

Bailey gave me a surprised look. “Adam, I don’t know,” she said, and I could hear something in her voice. Like she wanted this but wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea.

“Just as coworkers. Or friends,” I quickly clarified. “I’m sure you don’t know the area very well, so let me show you some of the good places. It’s the least I can do. Plus, then you’ll have an idea of where to recommend to our guests if any of them ask you.”

Bailey stared at me for a moment longer. I was kicking myself. I knew that I didn’t want to go to dinner with her just as friends, and I definitely didn’t want her thinking that this was just some work thing. But the damage had already been done.

She smiled shyly at me. “That sounds nice,” she said quietly. “What time are you done today?”

“Should be around five,” I said.

“I’ll meet you in the lodge?”

“Perfect,” I said. I watched her walk away towards the condos. I wanted to follow after her, to stop her, to tell her that I hadn’t meant for this to be as friends or about work. I had told myself that I was never going to fall in love again, and I meant that. And what’s more, I wasn’t ready to start anything serious.

But I wanted this to be a date.

I didn’t know how to explain that to Bailey, though. And I knew all the reasons why it couldn’t be a date. They went beyond the fact that I had lost my first wife. Bailey was my boss, and she didn’t know about my history. She didn’t know about Beth, and she didn’t know about Ethan. If we started dating, I was sure to have more than a few moments where I panicked at the very thought of commitment.

Anyway, maybe this was a good thing. If we both approached this as friends, if we really got to know one another, maybe we could hang on to our friendship even if it never could evolve into anything more. I had promised Ian that I would look out for her.

God, Ian. He would probably kill me if he knew that I had a thing for his younger sister. Even if I never acted on it, I knew that he would never approve. Just another reason to let Bailey think I just wanted to go to dinner as friends and colleagues.

I couldn’t keep thinking about this now. I had work to do. Like Bailey had said, there were a lot of guests here this week, and that meant that there were a lot of hot tubs that needed fixing, basic lift maintenance to keep track of, lightbulbs to change, snowmobiles to work on, and everything else that went into running the resort. I had a full list of things planned for that afternoon.

But at the end of the day, even though I hadn’t finished quite as much as I had hoped to that day, even though normally I might have stayed longer and finished up a few more projects, I was only too happy to head to the lodge to meet Bailey.

She showed up just a couple minutes after I did, looking flushed and hurried. “Sorry, I’m late, aren’t I?” she asked, immediately checking her watch.

I laughed and shook my head. “Relax, I just got here a minute ago,” I told her. I eyed the soft green sweater that she had changed into. “You look nice.” I hadn’t realized that she would actually get ready for this dinner together. Especially not since I had very clearly told her that this wasn’t a date, that this was just about work and friendship.

She blushed deeper and shook her head. “One of the guests was having trouble with his car, so I helped him jump it. But anyway, when I was attaching the jumper cables, I leaned up against the car and got all covered in mud.” She met my eyes with a challenge in her own, like she was daring me to question her story.

I shook my head, grinning at her. “Now you know why mechanics are always in old flannels and jeans,” I joked, gesturing at my own outfit.

“You always look good,” Bailey blurted out, then looked mortified at having said that. I couldn’t help grinning, but I didn’t respond to that, just led her out to the parking lot.

“The place I want to take you to is a few miles away,” I told her, “but I was thinking that since your condo is here at the hill, we could take your car and then drive back here, and then I’ll pick my truck up then.”

“Sounds perfect,” Bailey said, leading me over to a nice new sedan. “Where exactly are we going?” she asked as we drove.

“It’s this great little Irish pub. Good live music most nights, a good beer list, and some of the best hearty, warm food that you can imagine. Perfect for after a day of skiing.”

“Sounds great,” Bailey said, nodding approvingly. Then, she gave me an appraising look. “You’re not going to make me dance, though, are you?”

I laughed and shrugged playfully. “We’ll see.”

“So how’s it feel, being the successful new owner of one of the best resorts in the west?” I asked Bailey when we had ordered dinner.

She snorted and shook her head. “I don’t know if you could really call me ‘successful’ just yet,” she protested. “I mean, sure, I haven’t made any huge mistakes, at least not that I know of, but the whole reason things are running as smoothly as they are is because you guys already have such a great system in place.”

I shrugged. “That’s partly because the previous owners didn’t want to be involved at all, with any of this,” I said.

“I still can’t imagine that,” Bailey said. “I mean, I know there are people like that. But if I’m going to own a business, I want to be right there on the ground level, involved with as much as I can. It’s fun to me.”

“It’s more about the money to some people, though,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Bailey said. She paused and then grinned at me. “But you said that this dinner was about getting my mind off work,” she reminded me cheekily.

I laughed. “That is what I promised,” I agreed. But at the moment, I couldn’t think of anything to say that wasn’t about work.

Or about Ethan, but I still wasn’t ready to tell Bailey about my son. I wasn’t sure why, exactly. Well, maybe because if I told her about Ethan, I would have to tell her about Beth, and I wasn’t ready for her to know about Beth just yet. I didn’t want to see her pity over the fact that I was thirty-two and already a widower.

But that wasn’t all of it. Maybe it was just that I was afraid if she knew about Ethan, she would be even more hesitant to call me into work on my days off. Or maybe it was the fact that she wouldn’t want to go to dinners like this with me if she knew that I had a son that I was responsible for as well. Never mind that Ethan was perfectly happy to spend the evening with his grandfather. Never mind that I had plenty of time to spend with my son even during these busy holiday weeks.

I wasn’t sure exactly what held me back, but with my whole life spent either at work or home with Ethan, I didn’t know what else to talk about.

Bailey came to my rescue, though. “So, do you have any plans for Christmas?”

I shrugged. “Not really,” I said. “I usually go skiing every year. It’s one of the best days of the season. Never too crowded, and everyone’s just out to have some fun.”

“I would have thought that Christmas would be one of the busiest days to be out there,” Bailey mused.

I shook my head. “Nah, most people are at home spending time with their families,” I reminded her. And of course, I would be spending time with my family as well. It was the one day of the year that I could count on Dad to get out there and ski with me and Ethan. But I didn’t explain all of that to Bailey.

“What about you?” I asked her instead. “Are you staying here or headed back to Vegas to spend time with Ian?”

“I’ll be here, but I’m still hoping that Ian will be able to get back here at some point during the season,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Can I admit something?”

“Sure,” I said, heart already hammering with ideas about what she might admit. Had she heard something about me from Kayla or one of the other workers? Or did she want this to be a date?

But her confession had nothing to do with me. “To be honest, it’s kind of nice doing something separate from Ian for once. Like, we grew up together and we’re always going to be close. But I feel like in the casino business, I was always in his shadow. Now, I have the chance to just be myself and do things my own way. It’s refreshing.”

“Who’s talking about work now?” I teased, trying to get my beating heart to calm down.

Bailey laughed. “Fair enough,” she said. “All right, how about this one; you always seemed like a family guy. Why are you still single?”

I stared at her for a moment, wondering if those words had really come out of her mouth. At first, given the way that she blushed, I expected her to try to take them back, too. But instead, she just gave me that look of challenge that she had perfected.

I knew that this was the point where I should tell her about Beth, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not yet. I just wasn’t ready yet. And really, who could blame me for that?

“Why are you still single?” I countered instead. “Las Vegas must have ten times the eligible bachelors as Park City. You can’t tell me that not a single one of them has managed to ever catch your eye.”

I hoped I didn’t offend her by saying that. It just seemed like the easiest way to turn the attention away from myself. And I didn’t really want to talk about myself right now, partially because I found myself wanting to learn as much about Bailey as I could.

Bailey laughed and shrugged. “I’m too focused on work to be interested in having a relationship,” she said, and I tried not to wince.

There wasn’t a reason for me to wince, after all. This wasn’t a date, and I wasn’t trying to start a relationship with her. But there was something about the way that she said it that made me feel like even if I wanted to start a relationship with her, she wasn’t going to take the time for me. She was too focused on her career for that.

I wanted to say something about how sad that was. About how she shouldn’t spend her whole life trying to only find meaning in her career. But there was no way for me to explain what I knew about the joys of a relationship without mentioning Beth and Ethan.

So instead, I just smiled across the table at her. “There’s a great ice cream place up the road,” I told her.

Beth groaned. “You should have told me that before I ate my whole dinner,” she complained, but I could tell that she was amused. “Lead the way. But you’d better be the one driving on the way home!”

“Deal,” I said.

This wasn’t a date. And maybe I shouldn’t have suggested ice cream. The place up the road, The Dairy Cow, was a place that I used to go to with Beth and Ethan, back before Beth got sick. And even after she got sick, I used to stop in there and pick up pints to take home. Beth didn’t have much of an appetite with the medications that she was on, but she always used to smile at the gesture.

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind, though. Focus on the now. Focus on Bailey.

It was surprisingly easy to do that, I found.

18

Bailey

I was surprised when Adam suggested that we get dinner together on Tuesday. He was right, I had been mostly avoiding him ever since that day when I had shadowed him. I hadn’t been lying when I said that part of the reason was just that the resort had become every bit as busy as he had warned me it would.

But to be honest, there was more to it than that. I had seen him once, the morning after I had had that naughty dream about him, and I could immediately feel my body flush with heat. It took everything I had not to head over to him, grab his shirt, and pull him into a heated kiss.

I knew that I couldn’t do that, though. And especially not right here in the middle of the workplace. That wouldn’t be proper. So I had decided it would be safer just to steer clear of him, at least for now. I’d get over this silly little crush on him. Throwing myself into my work had always done the trick in the past.

I was actually really enjoying working at the resort. I had managed to carve out a niche for myself, to pick up slack in certain areas and just lend another pair of eyes in other areas. I was already starting to feel like they were my family, and I was surprised at how quick most of them had been to accept me. Not only that, but they accepted my ideas for the resort and responded enthusiastically with other things that we could try.

I liked the whole culture of working for a ski resort. It wasn’t like working in the casino business. It was a lot more relaxed and down to earth. Sure, we still had our higher-end clients, the ones who shelled out the big bucks to come here and bring their families here. But we weren’t like some of the other hoity toity ski resorts in the area. Brooks Mountain was a bit smaller and a lot friendlier. Everyone kind of knew everyone, and if you stayed for even a week, you started to feel like a local.

It was what I had instinctively loved about this place when I was younger. But I appreciated it even more now that I was trying to make a home here.

I was sure that that local hospitality was the only reason that Adam was taking the time to take me out to dinner. He had been very clear that this was just a friends thing. A coworker thing, moreover. But there was something about sitting across from him at the table in the little diner that felt like a date.

And what’s more, I could tell that he was nervous. I was nervous too. I wanted to break through that shell of his, but I just didn’t know how. I didn’t want to risk offending him or anything. The question about why he was still single was out of my mouth before I had fully considered what it would sound like, asking that.

I wanted to take it back. But there was a part of me, deep down, that really wanted to know why he was still single. That needed to know why. Not that I was looking to start a relationship with him. I knew all the reasons why I couldn’t do that.

Then again, if this was a date, well. I kind of liked it. I would do this again.

It wasn’t a date, though. I had to keep reminding myself of that.

Gosh, it was so confusing.

What was even more confusing was the way that Adam refused to answer my question about why he was still single. I mean, sure, it was only fair that he turn the question back to me. But I didn’t miss the way that his eyes flicked off to the side, as though he was in pain. What had happened?

Maybe he had been in a serious relationship. Maybe whoever it was hadn’t appreciated him and had broken his heart. That could be why he was so gruff, why he didn’t let anyone get close to him. He wasn’t ready to try to commit to anyone again.

I wanted to ask more questions, but I wasn’t sure how. And the next thing I knew, we were headed down the street to get ice cream.

“Rainbow sprinkles? Really?” Adam asked, raising an eyebrow at me when he heard my order.

“Hey, don’t judge,” I said. “Vanilla ice cream and rainbow sprinkles is what I always used to get as a kid. At least, before…” I trailed off for a moment. But then, I realized it was something that I wanted to share with Adam. “When I was really young, and our parents were still together, sometimes Mom would take us down to the casino floor at the end of the day when Dad was finishing up work. And I didn’t really like it down there. It always smelled funny and there were so many old people. And I wasn’t allowed to just run around or anything.”

I shrugged. “So to distract me, Mom would take me past this little ice cream cart that was tucked away down one of the casino ‘streets’, because this place was modeled to look like it could have been a seaside retreat on the East Coast or something. Anyway, I always used to get vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. And now, I guess it just kind of takes me back to that, every time.”

I was blushing, I realized. Why was I telling him all of this? Adam probably didn’t care at all. I should have just let him laugh and forgotten about it.

But Adam was looking at me with a considering look on his face. He shook his head and turned away. “I get that,” he said, and I could hear a rough note in his voice. He cleared his throat awkwardly but didn’t say anything more as he accepted his own chocolate praline ice cream from the woman behind the counter. He paid for both our ice creams and lead me over to a table in the corner.

“It must have been tough, when your parents split up,” he said quietly. Then, “Not that we have to talk about that, if you don’t want to.”

I shrugged and grinned at him. “I’m over it,” I assured him, even though there was a part of me that knew I was never really going to ‘get over’ it. “I mean, if Mom and Dad hadn’t split up and Dad hadn’t been trying to prove that he was the best dad ever afterwards, we probably never would have come up here for those holidays,” I added. “And look where that’s gotten me.”

Adam snorted. “Yeah, look where that’s gotten you,” he said, sounding amused. “Don’t you miss Las Vegas at all? I would have thought that by now, you would have been sick of the cold.”

I shrugged. “Like I said, I needed this change,” I said. “And besides, there’s something magical about a white Christmas. We never get that in Vegas.”

“I guess not,” Adam mused. “But the grass is always greener, right?”

“Are you trying to make me want to leave?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Adam looked taken aback. He stared down at his ice cream, digging his spoon into it a couple times without lifting any of it to his mouth. “No,” he said, and I could hear the honesty in his voice. He looked up at me, cocking his head to the side. “I like having you around. You’re good at the whole business thing, and you, I don’t know, seem to fit in well.”

He looked embarrassed at having said it, and I couldn’t help feeling pleased. I had a feeling that was as close as I was going to get to hearing him admit that he would miss me if I left. I felt a warm flush go through me. Maybe, despite the fact that he had phrased this as just a friends thing, this really was a date? Or at least something more than what he had said.

And even though logically I knew that I shouldn’t get involved with him, I was still thinking about that dream that I’d had. Where was the harm, really, in two consenting adults spending some time together? I wasn’t suggesting that we have sex in the hot tubs or change our work relationship in any way. But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t share a little warmth on these cold winter nights, did it?

The more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I wanted to see where this could go. Not in a relationship sense, maybe, but I didn’t want this night to be over just yet.

We finished up our ice cream, or at least as much of it as we could, and true to his word, Adam drove me back to the resort. “Did you want to come in and see my condo?” I asked Adam shyly. “I’ve got a bottle of wine that I keep meaning to break out. Ian gave it to me to celebrate my buying this place.”

Adam stared at me for a moment and then looked away. “I can’t,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry, but there’s somewhere that I have to go.”

“Okay,” I said, trying not to sound too disappointed. It had been a long shot anyway. I could tell that Adam was still closed off, still keeping his secrets. I might feel like I had gotten closer to him in the time that we had spent together, but that didn’t mean he was interested in anything more with me. He probably was just trying to be friendly.

Hell, Ian might even have asked him to look out for me. That wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

I pushed away my disappointment as we got out of the car. “Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at work,” I told him. I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “I promise I’ll try not to avoid you tomorrow.”

Adam laughed, but there was still something hollow in the sound. “Avoid me if you have to. I know you’re busy. I am too, at this time of year.” He gave me a quick hug and then headed over to his truck. I sighed and headed towards the condos, wondering just what the hell I thought that I was doing.

It was like suddenly, logic had caught back up to me. I shouldn’t have even asked for anything more, and I was almost glad that Adam had declined. Who knew where the night might have ended up if he had come inside to share a bottle of wine with me.

Sure, I might have finally cracked through the layers of mystery surrounding him, but it might have ruined everything that I was trying to build here. I felt embarrassed that I had even said anything to him.

As I walked towards the condos, I was surprised to see Kayla walking towards the parking lot. She paused when she saw me, her eyes flicking speculatively towards Adam’s truck which was still pulling out of the lot. She raised an eyebrow at me and gave a low whistle.

I rolled my eyes. “What are you still doing here?” I asked her.

“Forgot my phone charger behind the desk and had to come back for it or else I wouldn’t have an alarm tomorrow morning,” Kayla explained, but I could tell she was still waiting for me to explain what I was doing with Adam.

“Oh, come on,” I sighed. “I have a bottle of wine, don’t leave me to drink it on my own.”

Kayla laughed and followed me inside. I went to the wine cabinet, hesitating as I reached for the bottle of wine that Ian had given me. But for some reason, I felt like saving that one, even though I would have shared it with Adam if he had been the one to come inside with me.

I pushed that thought out of my head and grabbed a different bottle, uncorking it easily and pulling down two glasses while Kayla made herself comfortable on the couch. “So, you and Adam?” she asked, before I could even sit down.

“It’s not like that,” I said, shaking my head. “He just wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate me having a good first couple of weeks, or something. And he wanted to show me the area. I think my brother probably asked him to look out for me.”

“I don’t know, dinner with him sure sounds like a date,” Kayla said doubtfully. “He even hugged you. I can’t remember the last time I saw him so much as shake hands with someone. That’s big, coming from him.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, a hug through five layers of clothing, that sure is something,” I said sarcastically. Was it sad that I wanted to believe her, that I wanted to think that it really did mean something more, coming from him?

Kayla shrugged. “I’m just saying,” she said.

“He probably has a girlfriend anyway,” I said. “I asked him tonight why he was still single, and he totally refused to answer the question.”

Kayla laughed. “Did you legitimately ask him that? And expect him to answer you?”

“I guess it was a pretty rude thing to say,” I sighed.

“He’s too cold to have a girlfriend,” Kayla said decisively. “I mean, he’s friendly enough with everyone at work, but you can always tell that he’d much rather be up to his elbows in motor grease, monkeying around up in the wheelhouse of a lift, than hanging out chatting with anyone.”

I frowned, thinking about that. It was true that Adam seemed much more comfortable when he was hard at work rather than chatting with anyone. But the Adam that I had seen that day when I had worked with him, and the Adam that I had seen tonight, especially, made me wonder about that. At first, I had thought that he was just as cold as Kayla said.

But now, I wasn’t sure. There were definitely walls there, a hesitancy to him. I didn’t think that he was deliberately trying to hurt people, though. If anything, I was sure that he was trying to make sure that he, himself, didn’t get hurt.

And that, honestly, was something that he and I had in common. I had those sorts of defensive mechanisms too, especially when it came to guys.

“Either way, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Kayla continued. “Just be careful.”

“I will,” I promised her, even though I was wondering if I had already broken that promise. Adam and I hadn’t even done anything yet, but I knew that if we never went to dinner again, it was going to hurt me. And it wasn’t just that I wanted to be friends with him, either. If I needed a friend, there was Kayla.

But there was something more that I wanted with Adam. I couldn’t quite dare to admit it to myself even, not just yet, but it was there, lurking in the background, and would be for every interaction that I had with him from here on out.

Still, I knew that Kayla was right to caution me to be careful. She wasn’t just looking out for my broken heart, if he wasn’t interested in me as well. But there was something more, below the surface, with Adam. Something that he was hiding. And I had to assume that if he was hiding it, it was probably something that he knew I wouldn’t like.

Even if not, how could I get involved with someone who didn’t want to communicate honestly with me? Someone who was clearly so wrapped up in themselves that they didn’t care how those mysteries and silences affected me?

Kayla was right. I’d be better off staying away from Adam.

But as before, it was like all the logic in the world couldn’t make me stop wishing that he were there with me. That he had been the one to agree to come in and have a glass of wine with me.

I forced a smile onto my face, though, and turned the conversation to something else.

19

Adam

I frowned when I finished up making breakfast on Wednesday morning and Ethan still hadn’t come out of his room. I dithered for a little longer, putting together a packed lunch for the boy to take to school as well. But still, he didn’t appear. Had he overslept? Usually, he was up long before I was. And although it was kind of nice to be able to get everything done in the kitchen without him getting underfoot, but all the same, I was starting to get a little worried.

I knocked on his door and peeked into his room. “Hey buddy, you awake?” I asked.

“Daddy?” Ethan asked, his voice sounding tired. “I don’t feel good.”

I felt my blood run cold. It had always stressed me out when my son got sick. Especially when he was a baby, I had just always felt so damned helpless watching him. There was only so much that I could do to ease whatever sickness he had, and most of it was about letting him rest. It tugged at my heart every time.

But things had been especially worse ever since Beth got sick.

Logically, I knew that whatever Ethan had now was nothing like what Beth had had. Logically, I knew that he probably just picked something up at school. He would rest for a day or two, maybe take some antibiotics, and then he’d be running around just like normal. It was totally natural for a kid his age to get a cold every once in a while. Especially with the cold and snowy weather that we’d been having that year.

Just because I knew that logically, though, it didn’t mean that my head was ready to accept it. I swallowed hard, trying not to panic as I came over to Ethan’s bedside. I didn’t want to freak him out, but I needed to figure out what was wrong with him. I tried not to be too overbearing in the process.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, sitting on the edge of his bed and automatically reaching out to place a hand against his forehead. He definitely felt warm. But I waited to hear what he had to say before I went for the thermometer.

“My head hurts,” Ethan said, pouting. “And my tummy feels yucky. Like there’s worms in it.”

I tried not to grin at that description. “Sounds like you might be sick,” I said. “You stay put here while I got get the thermometer, all right?”

“Uh huh,” Ethan said, sounding like there was nowhere else in the world that he would rather be.

I hurried into my bathroom and dug the thermometer out of the medicine cabinet. Sure enough, he was running a temperature. Nothing too high, nothing to be too worried about, but I was already worried, unable to help it.

And when I glanced at my watch, I knew that I needed to get to work. If I wanted to get everything done that day, I wasn’t going to be able to hang out here much longer. I knew, too, that Dad would be more than willing to watch Ethan for the day while I went to work.

But I was still thinking about Beth. About all those hours that I had missed with her because I went off to work expecting that she was going to get better. About how…

But this situation was nothing like that, I reminded myself. Ethan just had a fever, and not even a very high fever at that. He needed rest and fluids. He was going to be fine.

“Do I have to go to school today?” Ethan whined.

“No, buddy,” I said, still trying to calm myself down. To think things through. I wouldn’t take him to the doctor, not unless things got worse. I knew that there was no reason to, and I knew that the doctor wasn’t going to tell me anything that I didn’t know already. But I still couldn’t bring myself to leave Ethan with Dad and go off to work.

“Why don’t you go back to sleep for a little while?” I suggested to Ethan.

“Okay,” he sighed, snuggling into the blankets. I tucked him in, trying not to think about how small he was, about how easy it would be for me to lose him.

No, I wasn’t going to think about that. He was just a little sick. That was all.

I headed out into the living room and went to get the sick kit. The little bell to put on the bedside table, the jolly little glass with its bright balloons. It was a stab in the heart to see each of those things. This wasn’t the set-up that we had used with Beth when she was sick and bedridden. No, she’d had her own bell and her own glass and her own everything. But this was a sick kit that she had put together for Ethan during the first cold that he’d had when he was old enough to be out of a crib.

Every piece of it had her touch all over it, and I suddenly found myself aching with the wish that she were still there. It was, of course, an ache that never really went away, but two years after her death, I wasn’t a slave to the feeling like I had originally been. Now, though, the lack of her by my side hit me hard.

If Beth were still there, she would get me off to work. She would promise to watch our darling son for the day. She would be there, steady as a rock, patiently reminding me that everything was going to be okay.

For a moment, I closed my eyes, overcome again with the loss. But the moment I closed my eyes, the image of her changed and shifted, until somehow it was Bailey that I could imagine there by my side, helping me out, unflappable and kind as ever.

I shook my head to clear it and brought the sick kit into Ethan’s room. “All you have to do is ring and I’ll be here,” I said, when his sleepy eyes found me. He nodded his understanding but didn’t say anything.

I smoothed a hand over his forehead and left again, careful not to close the door behind me so that I would hear him if he did end up ringing the bell. Then, I went into the living room and gave the front desk a call.

I supposed that I could have called Bailey directly. That maybe I should have called her directly. After all, she was my boss. But I still hadn’t told her about Ethan, and I knew that she, unlike Kayla, would likely ask questions that I wasn’t prepared to answer. I didn’t want to have to lie to her.

“Hey Kayla,” I said, when the other woman picked up the phone, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m not going to make it in today. But I’ll be there tomorrow instead of taking my day off as usual. There shouldn’t be anything on my plate at the moment that’s too pressing anyway. I got most of the big projects done before the holiday rush started.”

“No problem,” Kayla said. “I’ll pass it on. Hope everything’s okay?”

“It’s fine,” I said shortly. Most of the people at the mountain knew about Ethan, having seen him up there before. But I didn’t want to tell Kayla that the reason I couldn’t be there that day was him. I didn’t want her passing that message on to Bailey.

Belatedly, I wondered if I should have just mentioned car trouble or something like that. Too late now, anyway. We hung up, and I had to fight to resist the urge to go in and check on Ethan again. If I checked on him every ten minutes for the whole day, he would never have a chance to get the rest that he needed.

Instead, I headed into the kitchen. I had already made breakfast, but I wasn’t hungry now, still too worried about Ethan to have any sort of appetite. I put the food in containers and into the fridge, trying to let the routine of it all soothe my nerves.

I was startled when there was a knock at the door. Frowning, I went to answer it, wondering if it was someone from the resort come to see what was going on. But who would do that? And anyway, it hadn’t been long enough since I had gotten off the phone with Kayla. No one could have gotten over there that quickly.

I pulled open the door and was surprised to see Dad there. “What’s up?” I asked him.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “I was going to ask you the same question,” he said. “Today isn’t your day off. I saw your truck still parked in the driveway and wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Yeah, Ethan’s just not feeling well,” I admitted.

Dad frowned. “Don’t you have work today, though?” he asked.

“I called in,” I told him.

Dad’s frown deepened, and I could see slight disappointment in the way that he looked at me. “You should have called me,” he said. “This is the busiest time of the year; I’m sure they could use you.”

“I got most of the major works projects done before the holiday season hit,” I protested. “It’s really not a problem. I’ll make up the extra hours tomorrow. Assuming that Ethan is better then.” If not, well, the mountain could do without me for a couple days at a time. Sure, it was the busy season. But a lot of the problems we might have would be routine things like blown lightbulbs and plugged jets in the hot tubs. Those were things that Bailey was capable of handling now. That was the whole point of her spending a day shadowing me, wasn’t it?

Dad shook his head. “You know you can’t just blow off your responsibilities to the mountain,” he chided.

“I’m not,” I said, an edge to my voice. “Dad, I just want to make sure that he’s okay.” I paused. “Look, I hope you’re not taking this as a personal insult, because it’s not. You know that I trust you with Ethan. Hell, you’re with him half the afternoons already. I just want to make sure that if he gets worse, or if he needs to go to a doctor, then I’m here to make that decision.”

Hanging in the air between us, I knew, was ‘unlike when Beth got sick’. Dad and I might not be close, but one drunken night, after Ethan had gone to bed, I had confessed that I felt like everything with Beth was my fault. Dad, of course, had assured me that it wasn’t. That there was nothing that I could have done, that there was no way of knowing how things were going to end up. That you couldn’t predict the future or plan for all possibilities.

That you couldn’t beat yourself up over things when your partner was lost.

Of course, everything that he said just felt like empty platitudes. The kind of thing that a father kind of had to say to his son. It read like a fucking movie script, to be honest. I had never talked to Dad about any of that again. But I knew he knew exactly what I was thinking at the moment.

Despite the breakthrough that we’d had after he gave Ethan the PowerBox, he didn’t respond with any sort of emotion. Instead, he just shook his head. “Well, let me know if you need me,” he said, heading for the door.

I thought about stopping him, but only for a second. Instead, the words out of my mouth were, “I’ve got it handled.”

When the door shut behind Dad, there was a certain finality to it that made me feel immediately guilty. But what was I supposed to do, chase after him and tell him that I was sorry? I didn’t want to leave Ethan alone, even for the short amount of time that it took me to do that. Instead, I just shook my head at the closed door and headed back into the kitchen to make sure that everything was straightened up in there.

20

Bailey

I was shocked to find that Wednesday was the busiest day we had had so far. I would have thought that the weekends, or at least Fridays, would be the worst days for the lift lines. But this was nuts.

When I arrived at work that morning, there had been a lineup already, just to make first chair. A line, in fact, that stretched all around the base area and halfway back to the parking lot. I headed into the lodge and found Kayla at the front desk. She grinned ruefully at me. “This is what happens when you get nearly a foot of snow right before Christmas,” she said, gesturing at the lodge.

Which was packed, people sitting at nearly every seat, pulling on boots or wolfing down quick breakfasts. I shook my head, still barely able to comprehend it. “I’ve never seen the place like this before,” I said.

“I think today’s definitely going to pass the record for visits,” Kayla confirmed, nodding her head.

“Is there anything that I need to do to keep things going?” I asked, even though I couldn’t begin to imagine what that would be.

Kayla shook her head. “It’s mainly up to the lifties; we just need to start getting people on the lifts and out on the mountain, and then they’ll spread out a little. I mean, there are still going to be some long lift lines today, so I hope you weren’t planning on skiing at all.” She paused. “Although another thing you could do would be to greet guests. We’ve got a bunch of resort ambassadors coming in as greeters today, but they could always use one more. Plus, we could use a liaison for guests who are having any sort of issue. It’s Gretchen’s day off and usually Adam would keep track of everything but he’s not here today.”

“He’s not?” I asked in surprise.

“Nope, he called in,” Kayla said.

“Is he sick?” I asked.

Kayla shrugged. “He didn’t say,” she told me. “Just that he’d be in tomorrow instead.” She snorted. “For all I know, he knows just how busy it’s going to be today and doesn’t want anything to do with it.”

“He wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities like that,” I said automatically, even though, hell, I barely knew the man. But I could tell that Adam had a huge sense of commitment to the resort and a great work ethic.

Kayla held up both hands. “Yeah, no, I was just joking,” she said. “I know that’s not it.”

I couldn’t help feeling a little worried. There was part of me that almost wanted to call Adam up right now and demand an explanation. But there was another part of me that knew I didn’t have any right to do that. If he wanted us to know what was going on, he would have told us. And besides, there was plenty of other work that I could do at the resort that day. I couldn’t waste time calling up Adam and trying to suss out what the problem was. If he didn’t come in the next day either, then maybe I would.

I headed out and got to work greeting the customers waiting in line. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of them. A little before noon, one of the cooks came out and told me that there were fresh chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen if I wanted to start handing those out to guests, so I started carrying out trays.

I smiled when I saw a dad with his young daughter ski towards me for cookies. I couldn’t help thinking back to when my own father used to bring Ian and I here over the holidays. Of course, it had never been quite this busy back then, and Ian and I frequently went skiing with dad. But it was still nice to know that the spirit of the resort was still the same in so many ways at it had been when I was a kid.

Who knew, maybe that little girl would one day grow up and buy a condo here as well. With that thought in mind, I continued to smile as I moved around greeting our guests.

The day passed pretty quickly like that. It was early afternoon when Kayla approached me with a ‘bad news’ look on her face. I immediately excused myself from the guests I’d been chatting with. “What’s up?” I asked her.

“We’ve got a problem,” Kayla said grimly.

“What kind of problem?” I asked her.

“Apparently one of the lifts, Dasher Express, the one over on the west side of the hill, went out about five minutes ago and the lifties can’t get it to start back up again. They’re not even sure what happened in the first place; no one hit the emergency stop or anything,” Kayla explained.

I swore under my breath. “Are there guests on it?” I shook my head. “What am I saying? Of course there are guests on it right now.”

“It’s been the busiest lift all day,” Kayla confirmed. “Everyone’s over skiing the bowls and stuff.” She paused. “The other problem for everyone standing down there at the bottom waiting for the lift is that there’s literally no way for them to get back here except by getting up to the top of the mountain and skiing out. We’ve got ski patrol already blocking off the way down there and directing people to alternate spots on the mountain, but unless we want to evacuate everyone already on that side with snowmobiles or whatever.”

“That could take a long time,” I surmised. With the way the lifts looked down here at the base area, I could only imagine how many people were waiting for the Dasher lift when it broke down.

I tried to think of what to do. But I knew there was really only one thing we could do; we needed to call Adam. He was the only person, as far as I knew, who was qualified to work on the lifts. If he couldn’t come in that day, maybe he at least would know someone else that we could call. We couldn’t very well leave our guests stranded. Whatever was up with him, I knew that he would understand that.

I sighed. “I’ll call Adam,” I told Kayla.

“I can, if you want,” Kayla offered, giving me a sympathetic look.

I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll do it. If I have to, I’ll pull the boss card and tell him that whatever’s going on, I need him to get his ass over here.” I just hoped it didn’t come to that.

I headed inside and back to my office, where it was a little quieter. Then, I gave Adam a call.

“Bailey?” he asked in surprise. “What’s up?”

“You know how you keep telling me that I can always call you during your days off? Well, I need you to come in today. As soon as possible,” I told him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding worried.

“Something with the Dasher lift,” I told him. “No one really knows what. But we’ve got people stranded on the lift and down in the lift line there, so we really need you.” I paused. “I wouldn’t have called if I knew anyone else who could help. But I at least need a recommendation for someone else who might be able to help.” I paused. “It’s our busiest day ever, and I really don’t want to have the bad press over this.”

Adam groaned, and I could hear the frustration in his tone. “Did the lifties hit the emergency stop?” he asked. “Sometimes it sticks a little and you just have to jiggle it a bit to get it working again.”

So much for how I could call him whenever it was his day off. I started rethinking whether it made more sense to hire someone on to work with him. I knew that he was against that idea, that he liked having control of every part of the maintenance of the mountain. But it meant we had a serious problem if he wasn’t available.

“They didn’t,” I said tightly. “They have no idea what happened, it just stopped.”

“All right,” Adam said. “I’ll be right over there.”

“Thanks,” I said, hanging up the phone before he could say anything else. Then, I headed out to talk to our mountain operations lead to chat about how we were going to minimize the bad press from this.

Just when things were really going well for the resort, I thought with a sigh as I walked. But then again, wasn’t that always the way with businesses? You could never just count on things to go well. There were always going to be some hitches in there. Half of being a good business person was knowing how to minimize the messes.

And making sure that your staff were going to be there when they were supposed to be there. I tried not to feel frustrated with Adam, especially since I didn’t know what was going on with him that day, that he couldn’t be there. But at the same time, it was hard not to be frustrated. Our busiest day and no mechanic on site?

Yeah, we were definitely going to need to have a talk about that. I sighed, filing that away for now. First, we needed to get all our guests off the lift and to safety. We’d worry about the rest later.

I should just be glad that it wasn’t too cold right now, and that it wasn’t snowing. The guests stranded on the lift probably weren’t too comfortable, but things could have been much worse. We’d get them off there as quickly as we could, even if it meant evacuating the lift.

21

Adam

Of course this was the day that there was a problem at the mountain while I wasn’t there. Of course. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, trying not to let frustration get the better of me. I knew that Bailey had done exactly the right thing in calling me; I knew that she hadn’t had any choice in the matter. And I knew that I needed to get over there and get that lift working again. It probably wouldn’t even take that long, in the scheme of things.

But it wasn’t like I could leave Ethan here alone. On any other Wednesday, he would have been at school right now, and it wouldn’t have been an issue. Hell, before Bailey showed up, I wouldn’t even have minded taking him over to the resort with me. But now, well. The trouble was, there was something that insisted that I should have told her about Ethan before now.

Which was ridiculous, really. It wasn’t like Bailey and I were in a relationship or anything. She didn’t need to know every detail of my life. She didn’t deserve to know every detail of my life, even. But she had asked me if I was single, and she had made it seem like maybe she was interested in me. Hell, she had invited me in for wine, after we’d had dinner together in what might have been a date.

I should have told her about Beth, and I should have told her about Ethan. I didn’t even really know why I hadn’t. But I did know that if I just showed up at the resort now with my son in tow, things were going to look bad. It was going to look like I had been hiding this from her, like I was either ashamed to have a son or else didn’t trust her with that information. I wasn’t sure which was worse.

Either way, I didn’t really want to do that.

So I tried calling Dad. But either he was out or else he was ignoring my call after my snappy words from that morning, my insistence that I could handle this on my own, without his help. I swallowed hard and called up the babysitter who sometimes helped me out. But she was busy as well. I tried Dad again, but I still couldn’t reach him.

There was nothing else that I could do. I knew we couldn’t leave our guests stranded up on the lifts, and I knew that even if we got them all evacuated by other means, I was going to have to get that lift spinning as soon as possible. With the way we’d been getting slammed with snow lately, it was one of the most popular lifts on the hill, servicing a good half of the expert terrain, from bowls to glades and everything in between. It would be a huge media issue if the lift was out of commission for more than an hour.

I sighed and headed into Ethan’s room. “Hey, buddy,” I said, unable to keep the unhappiness out of my voice. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Ethan said, and he definitely did sound and look better. A lot more lucid. And when I felt his forehead, he was nowhere near as warm as he had been that morning. Whatever bug he had had, it seemed to have mostly gone. My relief was short-lived, though; all I could think about was the fact that I had no choice, I had to take him to the resort. Whatever might come of that.

“I’ve got to go fix one of the lifts at the resort,” I told Ethan slowly. “And I tried calling Gramps to see if he could stay with you, but he’s not around right now.”

“That’s okay,” Ethan said immediately. “I can come with you. I like going to the mountain.”

I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to ask if he was sure. Because even if he had said that he didn’t want to go with me, I had no other choice. This wasn’t a good idea, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there was nothing else that I could do.

“All right, let’s get dressed as quickly as we can,” I told him instead.

“Okay!” Ethan chirped, leaping out of bed and rushing towards his little dresser.

I helped him get ready and then carried him out to the car and got him strapped in. “Let me know if you start feeling yucky again,” I told him, adjusting my rearview mirror so that I could see him nod. “And when we get to the resort, I want you to stay right with me, okay? I’m going to have to leave you with someone so I can ski over to Dasher, and I want you to mind your manners.”

Yet another complication to this whole plan; normally, he would stay with Gretchen if he was with me at the resort and couldn’t actually tag along on the work that I was doing. But today was Gretchen’s day off. I fought the urge to swear. What a messed up day. I would probably have to leave him with Kayla and whoever was at the front desk, but that was exactly where Bailey was most likely to see him.

I’d figure it out when I got there, though. Right now, all I could think about was the lift and what might be wrong with it. I hadn’t noticed anything out of the usual with it lately, so I wasn’t sure why it would spontaneously quit working. Unless maybe something had iced over. With the way it had been snowing this year, that was entirely possible. Not meant to happen, of course; we knew that these pieces were going to be used outside, and there were certain precautions made to ensure that the lifts kept spinning whatever the weather. But if a little water had somehow dripped into somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be, that could cause all sorts of problems.

“I’m going to try to make sure that we don’t have to stay very long,” I promised Ethan as I helped him out of the car. “But I don’t really know what’s wrong with the lift. I brought some things for you to do while you’re waiting, though.”

“That’s okay,” Ethan said, slipping his little hand into mine as we walked towards the lodge. “I know it could take a while. I like it here, though.”

“I know you do, buddy,” I told him with a small sigh. Internally, I still wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. “You make sure you let someone know if you start feeling yucky again, though, okay? They’ll give me a call on the radio and we’ll go back home. Or to a doctor.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Dad, I’m fine,” he promised me. “I feel all better now. Don’t you always tell me that sleep is the best medicine?”

I had to laugh in response to that, because hearing those words come from the mouth of my six-year-old was hilarious. Some people said that kids never listened. Not true with Ethan; I could count on him to parrot my words back to me at the most random of times.

I wanted to say something more to him about staying back behind the counter with Kayla, or in general just staying out of sight. But there was no way to really tell him that without making him suspicious. And again, it wasn’t like I was trying to hide the fact that he existed. The only thing that I could think to tell him was that my new boss was scary and that he wouldn’t want to see her.

But I didn’t want to make him not want to come to the resort anymore. And besides, that would only make things more awkward when Bailey eventually found out about him.

I tried to tell myself that the only reason I was so sure that Bailey was eventually going to find out about him was that she was my boss and she had shown that she planned to be around the resort a lot that winter. She and I were going to interact a lot, and it was only a matter of time before she found out about Ethan.

But in my heart, I knew there was more to it than that. I actually wanted Bailey to find out about Ethan, when I really thought about it. I was still worried what it would mean for her and I, what she would think about me for having kept his presence from her. But I wanted Bailey to know him, and I wanted Ethan to know Bailey.

I shook my head, trying to forget about that for right now. But as though my thoughts had summoned her, the first person I saw when I walked into the lodge was Bailey herself. “There you are!” she said, sounding at wits end. “We’ve got a snowmobile waiting outside for you.”

“I’m here,” I agreed, my eyes flicking down towards Ethan as I tried to think of a tactful way to raise the issue of who was going to watch him while I went and worked on the lift.

“Who’s this?” Bailey asked in surprise.

“This is my son. Ethan,” I told her.

Bailey’s eyes widened fractionally, but she knelt down in front of Ethan. “Nice to meet you, Ethan,” she said solemnly. “I’m Bailey.”

“She’s my new boss,” I explained to Ethan. “The new owner of the resort.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ethan said, on his best manners, and I saw the corners of Bailey’s lips twitch with a smile.

“He’s actually the reason I called in today,” I admitted. “He was sick. I’m sorry, though, I didn’t realize that there was anything wrong with the Dasher lift.”

“I know you didn’t,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “And anyway, you’re here now. Just see if you can get it fixed.”

“Ethan –” I started to say, but Bailey interrupted me.

“He can stay here with me,” she said. “If he’s sick, he shouldn’t be out in the cold.”

“I’m not sick anymore,” Ethan protested. “I’m all better now.”

Bailey laughed. “You probably still don’t want to go hang out with your dad while he works on the lift, though, do you? I bet that’s going to be super boring.” She winked up at me, and I grinned when Ethan wrinkled up his nose in thought. “I bet we could probably have some hot chocolate in here, too,” she whispered conspiratorially.

Ethan’s eyes lit up. “With marshmallows?” he asked excitedly.

“Of course!” Bailey said, and just like that, she had him.

“All right,” Ethan said. He turned back towards me, a wicked smile on his face. “Take a long, long time, Dad.”

I laughed and bent down to give him a quick hug. “I’ll see you soon,” I promised him. “And thanks,” I added to Bailey.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Just get that lift fixed for me!”

I knew this probably wasn’t the end of it. That Bailey and I were still going to have to have a talk about the fact that I had a kid, that I had been married, that I hadn’t told her about any of this. I didn’t even know where to start with it all, really. But that was a conversation for another time.

For now, I trusted Ethan in her hands, even though by all rights, I barely knew her. But from what I knew about Bailey, I knew that she was warm, kind, fun. Ethan was going to be fine.

I had work to do. I headed out front and hopped on the snowmobile without a second thought, speeding up towards the lift station so that I could figure out what the problem was.

22

Bailey

To say that I was shocked to find out that Adam had a son was an understatement. I never would have guessed that was what he was hiding. And Ethan wasn’t exactly young, either. He had to be five or six years old. It immediately made me want to ask so many questions.

Why hadn’t Kayla told me? She had to know about him.

Who was Ethan’s mom? Why hadn’t Adam corrected me when I asked how he was still single? Was he still single, or was he actually together with some woman, Ethan’s mother? Anything was possible; Adam wasn’t exactly the chattiest of guys.

How could Adam spend as much time at the resort as he did? Where was Ethan during all of that time? Of course, he would probably be at school or a daycare for part of the time. And I supposed Adam’s father was still in the area, or so he had said. That could explain it, I supposed.

But it didn’t seem like Adam to just abandon taking care of his son to someone else. There had to be more to it than that.

I wanted to know everything. But I also knew that interrogating Ethan wasn’t the way to go. However, I wondered if getting to know the kid, becoming friends with him even, might get Adam to open up to me a little more.

Maybe there was a very tangible reason for why Adam was so guarded all the time.

Well, I had always liked kids. Actually, before I bought the resort, I had thought about doing something that involved kids as my new career. But at the end of the day, I liked being in the business world. And I definitely didn’t regret that now.

At the moment, I was thinking about those families that I’d been meeting all day. Really, Ethan was just an extension of that same thing. Part of the family here at this resort. I smiled at him. “All right, hot chocolate is over this way!” I told him, leading him towards the other end of the lodge.

We got our hot chocolates and marshmallows and sat down at one of the tables.

“I wish I could go skiing,” Ethan sighed as we watched a family clump inside, kicking snow off their ski boots and laughing the whole way.

“Do you know how to ski?” I asked him. I had no idea how old kids normally were when they learned how to ski. I had seen some pretty tiny tots out there on the hill a couple times now, but it was hard to determine ages when they were bundled up against the cold.

Ethan scoffed at me. “I’m one of the best skiers in the local school program,” he informed me proudly.

“Wow!” I said. “You must be a real natural. Bet you want to be an Olympian when you grow up?”

Ethan scrunched up his nose again in thought, and I couldn’t get over how adorable he was when he made that face. But eventually, he shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “I like skiing, but I’d rather ski the back country.”

“The back country?” I asked in surprise. “Does your dad let you ski that already?”

“Well, no,” Ethan said, giggling. “He lets me go in the trees sometimes, but only when I’m with him, and I have to be really careful and go really slow.” He chattered on about some video he had watched that summer and how he had thought that he wanted to learn to do flips and things and maybe ski in the half pipe but now he wasn’t sure.

“Bet you have plenty of time to make that decision, though,” I pointed out, winking at him, and he grinned.

“Guess so,” he said. “Do you ski?”

“Yep,” I said, nodding at him. “Actually, my dad taught me to ski. But I was a little older than you when I started, I think. How old are you anyway?”

“I’m six,” Ethan said. “Can we go skiing?”

I tried not to grimace. “That’s probably not a good idea right now if you were feeling sick this morning,” I reminded him, trying not to crush his hopes.

But he was surprisingly matter-of-fact in his acceptance of what I had said. “Oh, right,” he said. “I’m feeling better now.” He paused. “But I don’t want to feel sick again today. We have ski club tomorrow and I don’t want to miss it!”

I laughed. “Bet you don’t,” I said. Then, spurred by an impulse I didn’t understand, I added, “But I bet if you asked your dad, the three of us could probably go skiing together sometime. Maybe after New Year’s when it gets less busy.”

“Uh huh,” Ethan said, bobbing his head at me.

“Does your mom ski?” I couldn’t resist asking. Really, where was the harm? If she wasn’t in the picture, then Ethan would tell me that. If she skied, if she was in Adam’s life at all, I wanted to know that.

I just didn’t want to examine the reasons why I felt like I had to know about her, whoever she was.

But Ethan shook his head, delivering heartbreaking news: “My mom’s dead,” he said, just as matter-of-factly as ever. He shrugged philosophically. “I bet she’s skiing the best mountains in heaven. I asked Gramps and he said there’s lots of snow up there.”

My heart broke for the poor kid, losing his mother at such a young age. Granted, he didn’t seem too upset about it. It made me wonder how long ago it had happened, not that I could really ask.

But more than that, I felt my heart break for Adam. It was silly because I didn’t even know what his relationship to Ethan’s mom had been. For all I knew, they had just had some one-night fling and gone their separate ways until nine months later, Ethan was born. But somehow, I doubted that.

First of all, Adam didn’t seem like the kind of guy to have one-night stands like that. Not that I knew what he was like in relationships; I had no experience with that at all. Even though the other night had felt like it might maybe be a date, he had been quick to tell me that it was just a dinner between friends and coworkers.

But he just seemed like he cared a lot more than that. And besides, wouldn’t that explain everything? His coldness, his aloofness, that change that I had noticed between who he used to be and who he was now. His wariness. His unwillingness to answer the question of why he was still single.

It all suddenly made so much sense. He hadn’t been single, at one point in his life. His girlfriend, or his wife, whatever they had been to one another, had died. My heart went out to him.

I wanted nothing more than to give Ethan a big hug, but I could tell that he didn’t need that. He was already chatting about other great skiers, and other people in his ski club. Like his mother had never been brought up at all.

Ethan finished his hot chocolate and pulled his little knapsack towards him. “I’m going to draw a picture,” he announced.

“Sure,” I said easily. “What are you going to draw?”

Ethan cocked his head to the side. “Daddy fixing the ski lift,” he said. He grinned wickedly. “’Cause then I get to draw all the people stuck on the lift.”

I groaned. “Don’t remind me about them,” I said, hoping beyond hope that Adam had somehow already got the lift running again and that there were no more problems up there. I had talked to the marketing guys and the head of mountain ops, trying to figure out how to even handle the situation. Did we give everyone a free pass to ski another day here? How many of them would return, if we did so? And what did we do for the people who were here from out of town, who wouldn’t have the chance to return?

I didn’t really want to refund them all their money from the day. First of all, that could get complicated: how could we keep track of which people had legitimate claims to make and which ones hadn’t even been over in that area when the lift had problems? Not only that, but this was the busiest day that we had ever had. I didn’t want to cut into our profits from the day by refunding everyone’s money.

Especially since that would only complicate things further in the future. How long did the lifts have to stop before people were owed some sort of refund? When we checked into the local laws, the guests hadn’t been stranded for long enough (yet) that we were required to call the fire department to have everyone evacuated. So surely that meant that we didn’t owe them anything, despite the inconvenience of being stuck out there?

I just didn’t know what to do, and suddenly, it had seemed like I had been crazy in buying this place. I never should have tried my hand at owning a ski resort, not with my limited knowledge on the subject.

But then, I came up with an idea; everyone on the lift would be offered meal vouchers, plus vouchers for one lesson either for them or for someone they knew, as well as the opportunity to demo skis for free. These vouchers could be printed off now, before the lift started running again, and we could hand them out to people as they got off the lift once it was running. The guests would be happy because they’d get multiple freebies, but we’d still earn money on their return visits if they chose to come back since they would still need lift tickets and might buy drinks or other things outside of what the meal vouchers gave them.

I was sure it wouldn’t make everyone happy. There would still be people clamoring for a full refund on the day, probably. And I might have to give out some of those as well; we’d see. But it seemed like the best solution for now.

I was kind of proud of myself for coming up with that idea. In fact, I found myself looking forward to telling Adam all about it.

For now, though, I watched as Ethan colored his picture. I couldn’t help smiling at the young boy as I drew him back into a conversation. “You’re pretty good at drawing,” I said. “Is that your favorite class at school?”

“We don’t have a drawing class,” Ethan said distractedly. “I mean, we have art, but usually in art class we get to paint or build things with clay or stuff.”

“That must be fun too,” I said.

“Yeah, but it’s not my favorite,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “My favorite is ski club.”

“Is that a class?” I asked in surprise. “You get graded on that?”

Ethan cocked his head to the side. “Well, not really,” he admitted. “But the teacher tells you when you do things good and stuff.”

I laughed. “That’s fair,” I said. “Skiing would probably be my favorite class too. But I wasn’t lucky enough to have a ski class when I was a kid. I’m from Las Vegas, and it’s pretty warm and dry down there.”

Ethan hummed in acknowledgment of what I had said. He opened his mouth with another question, but before he could ask it, Adam came over and dropped down at our table, rubbing his chapped hands together. “It is chilly out there!” he said. “But Dasher’s up and running again. Found the problem and got it all fixed, so it shouldn’t happen again, but we’ll stick around for a little while if that’s what you want. And if Ethan’s still feeling okay.”

“I’m fine, Dad,” Ethan said, and I could tell from his exasperation that this probably wasn’t the first time that Adam had asked him, and also that Adam was probably a pretty protective dad. It was cute, really. I couldn’t help smiling at both of them.

Then, I stood up. “You look frozen right up to your eyelashes,” I said to Adam. “Why don’t I get you a cup of coffee?”

“You don’t have to,” Adam protested, rising half out of his seat when he did so, but I put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

“Let me,” I said. “You just saved hundreds of our customers from freezing out there; it’s the least I can do.”

Adam laughed and settled back down. “You’re also the one paying my checks,” he reminded me, his eyes twinkling.

“Are you asking for a raise?” I joked.

“Maybe,” Adam said, shrugging easily.

I snorted and shook my head. “I’ll have to talk to HR about it,” I said.

“You’re the boss, boss,” Adam teased.

I grinned and headed to get him that coffee that I had promised him. When I came back, Ethan was showing his dad his picture. “That’s really good, buddy,” Adam told him.

I cleared my throat as I set down the coffee. “Look, I’m sure you have some sort of arrangements made for him already, but I just want to make sure you know that if you ever want to bring him in here to work, or if he needs a place to hang out and wait for you after his ski club is over, we can always find someone to look after him here.”

Adam looked surprised, but he masked it quickly. “Not necessary,” he said, shrugging. “I mean, yeah, you’ll see him around here sometimes, but his Gramps takes care of him a lot, and I try to set up my work schedule so that it’s at the same times that he’s at school or ski club.”

“Sure,” I said easily. “I just wanted to make sure you know that if you ever need anything, I’m always here. Or if you need to take days off because he’s sick or anything, I’ll do my best to make the lifts not break next time.”

Adam laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind, and I may just take you up on that,” he said, grinning at me.

“Plus, she said she’d come skiing with us sometime!” Ethan announced excitedly.

“Oh, did she?” Adam asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I blushed brilliantly. “Only if it’s okay with you,” I quickly clarified.

“I think that might be fun sometime,” Adam said, and Ethan cheered, his grin stretching from ear to ear.

23

Adam

Ethan skipped into the kitchen on Friday morning, and I hid a smile, glad to see that he was feeling totally better again. To be honest, he’d been back to his normal self by Wednesday night, and he’d gone to school yesterday as well. But I still kept waiting for a possible relapse, for him to start feeling ‘yucky’ again. But he seemed totally fine.

I couldn’t help feeling relieved about that, even though I knew there had been no serious problems in the first place. It was good to see him back at his usual energy levels, though.

Dad had called me not long after Ethan and I had returned from the mountain on Wednesday. He had apologized for not being around; he had been out grocery shopping at the time, and he had forgotten his phone out in the center console of his truck, where it had frozen so that the battery died faster than it should have. He sounded worried that I had called him, and he wanted to make sure that everything was all right.

I had been able to assure him that everything really was all right. In fact, things felt better than they had in a long time.

I still knew there was a conversation to be had with Bailey. But she seemed surprisingly okay with suddenly finding out that I had a young son. I couldn’t tell her how much that acceptance meant to me, or how much it meant to hear her offer to help me out with him if I ever needed anything.

It meant almost as much as seeing the two of them interact with one another. Ethan had chatted all about Bailey on the way home, telling me how pretty she was and how she was probably a great skier too because she’d been skiing forever, and how she was from a place where they didn’t have ski club and that must be horrible.

I had to laugh at that last. I was just glad that the two of them had really gotten along. I would never think twice about leaving Ethan with her, I already knew. For some reason, I believed that she would take care of him as though he was her own son.

“I drew a picture,” Ethan announced now, brandishing the piece of paper excitedly.

“When, this morning?” I asked in surprise. I glanced at my watch, wondering how he could possibly have drawn a picture that morning. Of course, he didn’t have quite as many responsibilities first thing in the morning. I had to get breakfast made, and pack his lunch. Make sure that he was up and that he had clothes laid out for school. Make sure that his ski gear was all together so that he could go skiing with his friend and his friend’s dad after school that day. And so on. He just had to get dressed and brush his teeth. Still, I didn’t think he had had time to draw a picture.

Ethan laughed. “No, I drew it yesterday in school,” he told me. “But you need to take it to work today.”

I blinked in surprise. It wouldn’t be the first time that I had brought one of Ethan’s pictures in to work and hung it up in my office, but usually, he didn’t ask me to do it; I was the one asking him if I could keep the picture.

He held the picture out to me, and I was surprised to see two skiers on there, one of whom was unmistakably blonde with green eyes. “It’s for Bailey,” Ethan told me proudly. “It’s me and her and we’re skiing.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t tell her, but I’m faster,” he stage-whispered, and I couldn’t help laughing.

“I bet she’ll love it,” I told him.

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Duh,” he said, like he didn’t even have to think about it. “Do you think we could go skiing this weekend? You, me, and Bailey?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I’ll have to talk to her about it and see how busy things are at work. But if not this weekend, then soon. I promise.” To be honest, I was looking forward to that ski date almost as much as Ethan was. Not just because I was curious to see how Bailey skied, but also because it would just give us a bit more time together, away from work.

Well, not really away from work. But…you know.

“Okay,” Ethan said. “But don’t forget to give her the picture. It’s important.”

“I’ll remember,” I promised him.

I had known all along that Ethan needed a female in his life. I knew he didn’t remember his mother very well, and it wasn’t like I was looking for someone to replace Beth to him. There was no replacing Beth. But I could tell that spending more time around Bailey could only be a good thing. For both of us, probably.

What’s more, I didn’t get the feeling from Bailey that she would protest spending more time with Ethan and me. There was the whole ski day thing, but even if that had just been Ethan’s idea that she had gone along with, it was clear that the two of them had bonded while I was out fixing the ski lift. And she had been the one to offer her help as far as Ethan was concerned. She had made sure I knew that he was welcome there at the resort.

There was definitely more that she and I needed to talk about, but for a moment, I let myself picture it. What if I did give in to my attraction to Bailey? What if I told her about Beth, cautioned her that I was still damaged goods in some ways but that I wanted to work on things with her, that I wanted to start something with her? Could we actually make things work?

In any case, I was starting to feel, for the first time since Beth’s death, that maybe it was time to get back in the saddle. It was what she had wanted for me, after all. She hadn’t wanted me to spend the rest of my life alone, and she definitely hadn’t wanted for me to have to raise Ethan all by myself.

I didn’t want to casually date, as scared as I was of the idea of committing to anyone. It had been so long since I had dated anyone, let alone dated someone that I didn’t see myself spending the rest of my life with. But I really had the feeling that Bailey and I clicked, albeit in different ways than Beth and I had.

Really, there was a lot of Bailey that was totally opposite to how Beth had been. Bailey was outspoken, business-minded, and she wasn’t afraid to push me or to go toe-to-toe with me. But at the end of the day, she was just as kind and warm and compassionate as I could have hoped.

And cute as all hell. That was a definite plus too.

Maybe Bailey could be the next chapter in my life. Or at least the start of the next chapter. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on things, but maybe things could work out. In spite of the fact that she was my boss. If not, well, we’d cross that bridge when we got to it. Lately, I seemed to be spending a lot of time worrying about things that never ended up happening anyway.

I dropped Ethan off at school, promising him again that I would make sure to give the picture to Bailey as soon as I saw her that morning. I just hoped our paths crossed before Ethan somehow ran into her on the hill later that day, when he went skiing with his friend. If not, there would be hell to pay, I was sure.

But then again, I kind of liked the fact that I had a reason to seek Bailey out now.

She wasn’t hard to find, in fact: when I arrived at the mountain, she was chatting at the front desk with Kayla, both of them sipping at mugs of coffee. Bailey held one out to me, and I raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged. “You don’t have to sit with us, but I just figured you’d probably want some coffee to start your day,” she said to me.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her, even though I really wasn’t worried about whatever she might have to throw at me that day. No, that day, it kind of felt like I could handle anything. That was the kind of mood that I was in.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked her, and she laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning on shadowing you all day again. I know you have a lot to do with it being this busy this week.” She shrugged. “I just really thought you might want some coffee to start your day. That’s it.”

I smiled at her. “I appreciate that,” I said, taking a sip. “Actually, could I talk to you?” I glanced over at Kayla, suddenly realizing that I didn’t want to pull out Ethan’s picture right here. I wanted Bailey’s reaction to the picture to be mine and mine alone. It was also kind of awkward to ask to speak to Bailey in private when she was already in the middle of chatting with Kayla.

I knew that no matter how we were going to approach this possible situation, her and me, it would be better to keep it from all of the other employees, at least for now. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on things or make our work life awkward.

But Bailey came to my rescue, hopping off her stool and shooting Kayla an apologetic look. “Actually, I needed to talk to you about something too. I left something on your desk, with a note about it, but I’m not entirely sure it makes sense. I just found this thing, it’s probably better that I just show you it. Do you have a moment?”

“Sure,” I said faintly, surprised it was that easy. I followed her back towards my office, shutting my door behind us as we walked inside.

She raised an eyebrow at me as she turned to face me, but I didn’t miss the way that her breath hitched just slightly, her eyes darkening a little. It took all of my willpower not to drag her into my arms right then and there. Instead, though, I held out the picture that Ethan had drawn for her.

“It’s from Ethan,” I told her, as though she might not have guessed. “It’s the two of you skiing. He wanted you to have it.”

“I love it,” Bailey said, her eyes shining as she looked down at the two figures. “He’s a great kid,” she added softly.

“Thanks,” I told her. I cleared my throat. “He definitely seemed to like you.” I paused. “And I just wanted to say thank you again. For the other day, and for everything else that you’ve done.” I knew that was vague and that she probably didn’t understand.

But to my surprise, she nodded. “I know it must be hard for you,” she said softly. “Ethan told me…” She trailed off, and I wondered just what Ethan had told her. I could guess, anyway.

I nodded at her, and suddenly, it all became too much. As though my hands were magnets, I found myself reaching out to her, pulling her close to me, and kissing her with everything I had. She opened herself to me, moaning quietly, making it very clear that she wanted this nearly as bad as I did. Her arms came around me, pulling me even closer, her fingers teasing the bare skin of my lower back as she pushed my shirt up a little.

I was so focused on her tongue curling against mine that I barely heard the door to my office swing open. But the cleared throat was impossible to miss.

We sprang apart, both looking guiltily towards the door. I felt my heart plummet to my feet. Because it wasn’t one of the employees that had found us. No, standing in the doorway was none other than Bailey’s brother, Ian.

Ian who had asked me to make sure that Bailey was okay. Ian who probably wanted to kill me now, having seen me wantonly making out with his sister in my office while we were both supposed to be working.

Because in all my worry about whether I should act on my interest in Bailey, there was one thing I had forgotten. It wasn’t just my relationship history. It wasn’t just the fact that she was my boss. But it was also the fact that she was my good friend’s much younger sister.

I didn’t even know what to say to him anymore.

24

Adam

I winced as Ian walked out of my office, slamming the door shut behind him. To get caught kissing one of your friends’ younger sisters? That was pretty bad. There was no explaining it, nor was there any excusing it. I mean, sure, you couldn’t help who you were attracted to. And Bailey was, well, Bailey. She was kind, cute, determined, intelligent. Everything that I could want in a woman, really.

But it was the kind of thing that I should never have acted on. Even leaving aside all my other personal reservations to starting something with her, this was a terrible idea.

I glanced over at Bailey to see how she was taking this. To my surprise, she started laughing. “Well, that wasn’t the way I expected that to go,” she joked.

And I guess she could joke about it. Ian was hardly going to kill her. But he had asked me to look out for her, to help her around Brooks Mountain Resort as much as possible. And instead, here I was, shoving my tongue in her mouth. What a mess.

“What are we going to do?” I asked Bailey. “Your brother looks pretty pissed.”

Bailey tossed her long blonde hair and shrugged. “I hate to say it, but let him be pissed. I’m not a kid anymore. I know what I want.”

I shook my head. “He’s always been protective of you,” I reminded her. “He actually asked me to look out for you here. And I’ve totally violated that trust that he had in me.”

Bailey made a noise of protest. “Well, he should never have asked you to look out for me in the first place,” she maintained. She shook her head. “Like he thinks that I have no idea what I’m doing.” I raised an eyebrow at her, and she laughed. “All right, I don’t really. But Ian has no right to interfere in any of this, and he should know that.”

“I don’t think he was trying to interfere so much as just make sure that you had a friend here,” I said, shrugging.

“Yeah, I guess,” Bailey sighed. She cocked her head to the side. “Can you and I continue this another time? I think I should probably talk to Ian alone.”

I knew that I should probably protest. I was the one who had gotten us into this mess; it was my responsibility to deal with whatever Ian wanted to throw at me. But at the same time, she was probably right that it was better for her to talk to her brother. I had a feeling a lot of her argument was going to come down to the fact that she didn’t want her brother to continue to be so protective of her, and that wasn’t an argument that I wanted to be in the middle of. That was between the two siblings.

Not only that, but things might go better if I didn’t join Bailey in talking to Ian. He was probably pretty frustrated with me, and my presence during that conversation would only stoke that anger even more. Better that I let Bailey calm him down some before I faced him.

Part of my trouble was that I didn’t want to walk out of this room without knowing just where Bailey and I stood. But I knew that the longer we kept Ian waiting, the more frustrated he was going to get.

So I nodded at Bailey. “Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” Bailey suggested. “It’s probably better that you’re not here at the resort during this.”

I frowned at her. “You know I can’t do that,” I told her. “There’s a bunch of things that I need to get done today.” It was the busiest time of the ski season, after all, and when I had tried to take off a day earlier that week to stay home with my sick son, one of the ski lifts had randomly quit working and I’d had to rush over to prevent a major PR disaster from happening.

“All right, I’ll put it this way,” Bailey said. “As your boss, I’m telling you to ignore all projects that will keep you visible down here in the base area. You want to go out and check on Dasher or any of the other lifts, be my guest. But everything down here is off limits to you for today.”

I started to protest, but Bailey gave me a look, and I sighed. She was the boss, after all. She was the owner of the resort. And I trusted that she would call me if she really needed me for something. Fingers crossed that nothing major would happen that day anyway. What were the chances that two lifts would go down in one week?

So I nodded at Bailey. “All right,” I told her. “I do want to check on a few of the lifts just to make sure they’re doing okay. Dasher in particular since it had the problem the other day. And I don’t care that Ian’s here; if you need to call me, then I need you to call me.”

“I will,” Bailey promised. She glanced at the picture she was still holding in one hand. Ethan had drawn it, of him and Bailey skiing together. Bailey smiled now. “Tell Ethan thanks for me,” she said. “And I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” I told her.

She leaned up on her tiptoes, and for a moment, I thought she was going to kiss me on the lips again. But this time, her lips brushed against my cheek. It might have seemed like a friendly gesture and nothing more, but I knew this wasn’t usual behavior for Bailey. And the shy look in her eyes as she pulled away let me know exactly what she was thinking.

I fought the urge to sigh again. Things had seemed so easy and self-explanatory before Ian had seen us. Well, not easy. But I had come to some kind of decision in my head. Despite the fact that she was my boss, despite the fact that I hadn’t been with anyone since my deceased wife, Beth… Now, though, the whole thing with Ian threw another wrench into the matter. I wasn’t sure that this was a good idea at all.

But I didn’t have a chance to tell Bailey that now. She pulled open the door to my office and headed out to find her brother. I trailed slowly after her, almost forgetting to grab my coat on the way out. I was going to need it, though, if I was relegated to fixing things not there in the base area for the rest of the day.

In my head, I scrambled my to-do list, trying to figure out what I even had to work on that day. There wasn’t much. I sighed and then shrugged. Might as well do what I could and then head home. I’d have to make up the hours some other time. I wasn’t entirely sure when that would be, since I already worked nearly every day of the week and there still always seemed to be more to do. But I’d figure something out.

I dickered around for most of the morning and then headed home. As I drove along, I started compiling a mental list of things that I could get done around the house that afternoon, with my unexpected time off. As with the ski resort, there seemed to be a never-ending list of things left to do. I had finally finished chopping wood for the winter and we had a great stockpile built. And Dad and I had finished reroofing the house recently too. But there was still plenty more to be done.

Including a deep clean of the whole place, I decided. That would be my focus for the afternoon. Ethan was still off at school, and Dad would pick him up for me on his way back from the grocery store, like he always did on Fridays. Then, I’d go take him off Dad’s hands a little earlier than usual.

I was deeply engrossed with cleaning the windows when the front door suddenly opened that afternoon. But I smiled when I heard Ethan chattering away. I glanced at my watch. Yes, it was really that time now. It was still a surprise, though. I would have expected them to go back to Dad’s place.

I hopped down off the stepstool that I’d been using and went into the hall. “Hey guys,” I said, wiping off my hands on my jeans.

Dad’s eyebrows knit together, but Ethan was the one to ask the question. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

I grinned at him. “I got done with work a little early today, so I’ve been cleaning up around here,” I explained. “Actually, there’s a basket of your toys in the living room; could you take it upstairs for me?”

“Okay!” Ethan said, running off to grab the basket.

“You got done with work early?” Dad asked after Ethan ran off. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I said, even though I wasn’t so sure. I coughed lightly. “Actually, Ian showed up unexpectedly and caught me kissing Bailey, so we decided it was probably a good idea for me to get away from the resort today, until Ian’s calmed down a little.”

Dad harrumphed but didn’t say anything in response to that. I could see the corners of his lips twitch, though. “I brought Ethan over here so we could play on the PowerBox some,” he said. “I hope that’s okay?”

Dad had given Ethan the new video game console as a Christmas gift recently, even though it hadn’t quite been Christmas yet. And to be honest, I hadn’t been particularly happy about the gift, but I had gotten over it by now and had agreed to let Ethan use the PowerBox as long as he followed the rules that we set with regards to how much time he was allowed to spend on it, what kinds of games he was allowed to play, and so on.

“That’s fine as long as he’s done with his homework already,” I said.

“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 mentioned 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.

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 local 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.

Bailey looked shocked. “No! Of course not!” she said immediately. “Actually, I’m doing everything I can to make sure that you keep your job.” She grimaced. “Look, I know that things have been weird and that I’ve kind of screwed with your finances by taking you off the schedule since Friday. But we’re going to do whatever we can to make that up to you, whether it’s a raise or a bonus or whatever. And if you need help getting caught up on work, I’m here to help, whatever I can do. Although…” She trailed off, sounding upset.

“What happened?” I asked worriedly. “You were supposed to call me if there was something that you needed me for.”

“I know,” Bailey said. “And I swear, that’s the plan. That’s still the plan.” She cleared her throat. “But there’s been kind of a problem. Ian hired this other company to do maintenance. They showed up yesterday afternoon, and I meant to get involved before all the contracts were signed and stuff, but I was helping out somewhere else on the resort and everything got signed.”

I stared at her, wondering if I had heard her correctly. She had said before that she was doing everything that she could to keep me in the job, but from the sounds of things now, I didn’t even have a job anymore. There was a whole company there to replace me now, with signed contracts and everything.

I knew that it wasn’t Bailey’s fault. She had done the best that she could. But my worst fears had come true; by kissing Bailey, I had given up everything that I had worked for over the years.

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Bailey said quickly. “The contracts that they signed with Ian won’t be worth anything once my lawyer gets involved, because Ian had no hiring power with the company. He isn’t an owner. Hell, he isn’t even an employee. He had no right to bring them in.”

I shook my head. “You can’t sue Ian, or anything like that,” I said. “He’s your brother.”

“He is,” Bailey agreed tersely. “But he can’t just walk in and take over my company just because he wants to look out for me, and if suing him is what I need to do to make him see that, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

I frowned down at my sandwich, trying to think of what to say in response to that. Ian and Bailey had always been close, I knew. And I knew also that everything Ian was doing, he was only doing it because he wanted to look out for Bailey. She was his younger sister, and… well, I couldn’t forget that he had asked me to look out for his sister too. I hadn’t. And so if I lost my job, it was my own fault.

“I just need a few more days to straighten everything out,” Bailey promised me. “A few more days and then everything will be back to normal.” She sighed and shook her head. “I really wanted Ian to stick around through Christmas, but to be honest, if this is the kind of shit that he’s going to try to pull if I let him stick around, then I’m not so sure that I even want that. Things were going really well before he showed up.”

I stared at her for a moment. There was so much that I could say in response to that. Did she want to talk about that kiss that she and I had shared? Had that been ‘going well’? But I didn’t have the guts to bring that up right now. What would I do if she told me that she wanted to be with me but that I could no longer continue working for Brooks Mountain? It would kill me, but I needed a job, and I couldn’t tie myself down to Park City without work.

“Maybe you should just listen to Ian,” I finally said, even though I hated to do so. I shook my head. “Look, Bailey, this job has been my whole life forever. But I don’t want to wreck things between you and your brother. And we all knew there were bound to be some changes with a new owner.” Of course, I had been more sure than anyone that my job was secure, just because it was such specialized work. But that was neither here nor there.

Bailey looked taken aback. “Adam, what do you want?” she asked. “Because what I want is to have you keep working for us.” She said it matter-of-factly enough that I could believe it was true. Almost.

I shook my head, though. “Bailey, what do you want?” I asked her, and I hoped she knew I wasn’t just asking about my job at the mountain.

Bailey laid both her palms flat on the table, a challenge in her eyes. “We’re not going to find a better maintenance man than you,” she said. “Not least of which because you’ve been working on these same lifts for years now, and that’s something that no one else if going to have.” She paused and then shrugged. “I need you, Adam. And I’m sorry that Ian seems to think that you’re replaceable or whatever, but I know what you’re worth to the resort, and I know that, that I need you.”

I heard that briefest of pauses in the middle of that last sentence, ‘I need you’, and I wondered if she was talking about more than just the resort. But I didn’t want to push things now. I was already on shaky enough ground because of one kiss. If I wanted to keep this job, I needed to make sure that things stayed strictly professional between the two of us.

Bailey might be willing to go up against Ian over the maintenance company, but that didn’t mean that my job wasn’t still at risk in the future. If I continued things with Bailey, who knew what Ian might do. I didn’t want to find out.

But then again, if I didn’t continue things with Bailey…

There was definitely a part of me that had missed her. A part of me that so appreciated having lunch with her right now. I wished that the afternoon could just continue for longer. That I could stay here with her, shoot the shit, hear all the latest happenings at the resort. It was one of the busiest weeks, the start of the holiday season, and I was sure there had been plenty of laughable happenings on the mountain in the days that I had been gone.

But I didn’t know how to ask her about any of that, and I didn’t know how to steer things around to us again.

Bailey, to my surprise, suddenly reached out and caught my hand, stroking her thumb over my knuckles. “We’ll figure it out,” she promised me, looking seriously into my eyes.

I didn’t know what to say in response to that, but I found myself nodding at her.

“How’s Ethan, anyway?” Bailey asked, changing the subject. “I’m sure he loves having you home more right now.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Actually, he’s been asking about you,” I said. “You told him that we’d go skiing together, and now that’s all that he can talk about. He can’t wait to see you again. Apparently, you made quite the impression on him.”

Bailey laughed. “Should I be sorry about that?” she asked.

I grinned and shook my head. “Nah,” I said, “it’s cute.” I paused. “But actually, he’s starting his winter break as of tomorrow, so if you wanted to go skiing at some point and that’s still on the table… Or well, maybe going skiing isn’t the best option since Ian is still at the mountain.” I fell silent, feeling silly for even suggesting it. I should have just told her that Ethan was fine, that he was looking forward to his break from school, and left it at that.

But Bailey was smiling at me. “Well, tomorrow’s Wednesday, right? That’s a slow day for the mountain anyway, even this close to Christmas. You should see our ski school logs for tomorrow; looks like hardly any guests.” She paused. “So why don’t I come over? See you and see Ethan, let you know how things are going, that sort of thing?” I could hear the hope in her voice, and I tried not to be surprised by it.

“That sounds like a plan,” I said, nodding at her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

29

Bailey

I was really glad that Adam didn’t seem upset about the news that Ian had hired a new maintenance team for the mountain. He just took it all in stride, even going so far as to ask me if that was what I might want. It wasn’t, it definitely wasn’t. But I was glad to hear him be so forgiving about the whole situation.

Not that I had really expected anything else from Adam. He was nothing if not kind and understanding. And the whole lunch had just made me want him more.

I wondered if Ian realized that the more he did to frustrate me, the more he was just pushing me right into Adam’s waiting arms. Ian had always been my best friend, my biggest help in business, and my role model. But since he had come back to Park City and basically tried to take over my business, there had been more and more space between the two of us. I just couldn’t handle him being there any longer, and I could tell that he was starting to realize that. There was a distance there that hadn’t been there before.

And the more I realized that he wasn’t my friend, at least not in this venture, the more I ached to have someone else fill the void of friendship that he had left. If that was Adam, well, Ian couldn’t exactly blame me. I knew that part of it was Adam just looking out for his job. And for the resort that he had worked for for so long. But there was a part of it that made me sure he was also looking out for me, that he was being friendly specifically to me.

I remembered just how cold and closed off he had been when I had first come back to Park City. He just wasn’t like that anymore. Maybe I had forced him to change. Maybe I had found a way to get Adam to open up to me. That was definitely the way it felt.

So when he told me during lunch that Ethan had been asking about when he and I could see one another again, I realized that I would do whatever it took to get to see him. I didn’t think that skiing was the best idea. What would Ian have to say to that? But I could go over to Adam’s house, since Ethan was on break from school and Adam didn’t have anything to do with the mountain at the moment.

Now that I was here, though, driving up the long driveway towards the wooden house, I couldn’t help feeling nervous.

I had wanted to talk to Adam about more during lunch the previous day. To tell him that even though I knew he probably regretted kissing me, since it meant that he had lost a whole week’s worth of work, basically, I didn’t regret it at all. In fact, I was more resolved than ever that I wanted things to work out between us somehow.

I wasn’t quite sure what that would look like yet. I knew that he was still Ian’s friend, or at least that he and Ian still had some things to resolve. And I also knew, more than ever, that things were likely to get complicated between us.

But at the end of the day, I was starting to realize just how difficult it was for me to stay away from him. Starting to realize that each new day when I didn’t see him around the resort was like a knife to the gut.

I still had Ian’s words echoing through my brain. He thought I deserved someone better. But the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that I didn’t want anything different, better or otherwise. Adam was passionate about his job, and about Ethan. He was hardworking almost to a fault, and even though he wasn’t always as communicative as I would have liked, I could tell that he was opening up to me, slowly but surely. I didn’t want to quit on that.

My worries vanished as I pulled up towards the house and saw Ethan on the front porch, waving happily at me. “Hey, Ethan,” I said when I got out of my car.

“Hi!” he said excitedly, still waving.

Adam came out onto the porch as well, grinning at me. “Hey, Bailey. Hope the drive was okay?”

I nodded at him. “Honestly, I think the plow trucks do a better job out here than they do around town,” I joked.

“We shoveled the driveway all by ourselves,” Ethan told me proudly.

“Well, you did a very nice job,” I told him approvingly. “I didn’t slip at all.”

Ethan giggled, and Adam grinned. “So do you want the full tour of the place?” he asked me.

“Sure,” I said easily, letting him lead me around the house, both inside and out.

“Gosh, the view out here is beautiful,” I said as we paused in the kitchen, looking out over the whole valley. I swear, you could see everything from there at the sink. I had never seen anything like it before.

Of course, you got a pretty amazing view from some of the places in Vegas. Either down the entire strip, or out towards the desert. But it was nothing like this. The mountains were beautiful, but that was just part of it. Not a skyscraper in sight, just rolling mountains and houses and strips of white that must have been ski resorts. And as the day faded towards sunset, twinkling Christmas lights started to dot the valley below us, lending a merry air to everything down there.

Adam smiled at my clear appreciation of the place. “It takes a certain type of person to be comfortable living out here,” he said. “We’re kind of in the middle of nowhere.”

“Kind of?” I teased. “There’s only, what, the one other house on this road?”

“Yup,” Adam agreed.

“And that’s Gramps’ place!” Ethan piped up excitedly.

I laughed and shook my head. “Of course it is,” I said. Adam looked defensive at first, so I hurried to explain. “I think it’s great that family is so important to you,” I said quietly. “And there’s a kind of beauty to the fact that you’re so disconnected to the rest of the world. It’s just you guys, and no one else. I like that.”

Adam stared at me for a moment and then glanced away, shrugging. “I don’t want just anyone knowing where I am or what I’m up to,” he said.

“I can understand that,” I sighed, looking out the window. I was thinking about Ian just showing up there in Park City like he had.

What might have happened this week if he hadn’t shown up like that, unexpectedly, walking in in the middle of Adam’s and my first kiss? If I was out in the middle of nowhere like this, not accountable to anyone except myself?

It would be lonely, that was the first thought to come to my mind. Except that as I looked over at Adam, I wondered if it would. Of course, if I was on my own, I would be lonely. But there were other kinds of family than the bond that I had with my brother.

Not that I was thinking that far ahead, as far as Adam and I were concerned. I knew we weren’t at that point just yet. No matter how comfortable it was, being here with Adam and Ethan, getting to see where and how they lived.

“Do you want to go grab some dinner together?” Adam asked suddenly, to my surprise.

“I want mac ‘n cheese,” Ethan piped up, and Adam laughed as he knelt down next to his son.

“You know Gramps makes the best mac ‘n cheese,” he reminded his son. He paused. “Maybe he could make you mac ‘n cheese while Bailey and I go out to dinner. What do you think of that idea?”

“We don’t have to,” I started to protest, but Ethan interrupted.

“Yeah!” he said, sounding totally on board with the idea. “But can we play on the PowerBox afterwards?”

“Sure thing, buddy,” Adam said easily, smiling up at me, a question in his eyes.

I grinned shyly back at him and shrugged. “I guess so,” I said. “Let’s go get dinner.”

30

Adam

I couldn’t help but feel nervous when Bailey came over, even though I was glad to see her again, and glad that Ethan got to see her again. I didn’t know what it was that had me so uncomfortable and uncertain about all of this. What did I think she was going to do? Of course, I knew that her family was rich, that she had probably grown up in a place five times the size of this. Easily.

But she was so down to earth, kind, friendly, and comfortable that I doubted she was going to point out anything like that. And in fact, she seemed totally enamored of the place, no matter how ‘quaint’ it might feel to me sometimes.

She grinned as she looked out the kitchen window, and I felt my heart break for a moment, remembering Beth’s smile the first time we had been there, before we had bought the place. She had loved that view out the kitchen window, and it was one of the main things that had sold us on this place over every other place that we had looked at.

But as heartbreaking as it was to see Bailey’s positive reaction to that view, it also helped to mend something inside of me. I might have lost Beth, but that didn’t mean that all the magic was gone out of that view, that no one was ever going to appreciate it again. I hadn’t really ever thought that with Beth gone, that was the end of the appreciation of that view over the valley but, well, the mind worked in strange ways.

All I knew was that seeing Bailey’s naked appreciation of the view did something to me, in ways that I couldn’t describe.

Which was how I found myself down on my knees suggesting that Ethan stay with his grandfather for the night while Bailey and I went out to dinner.

Dad gave me a knowing look when I dropped Ethan off a little while later, having cleared the plan with him over the phone. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just reached out to Bailey, shaking her hand. “Congrats on buying the resort,” he said gruffly.

She grinned at him, although I could see how brittle the grin was. I wondered if she was thinking about Ian’s interference with her job. “Thank you,” she told him simply.

“Do you have any suggestions for where to eat?” I asked her as we got back in my car.

She laughed. “You’re the one who knows this town,” she reminded me.

I snorted. “Fair point, but I meant more, any cuisine suggestions?”

“Burgers,” Bailey said decisively. Then, she looked shyly over at me. “If that’s okay with you? I don’t know why, I just have a hankering for a really good burger and a beer.”

“That sounds great,” I agreed. “And I know just the place.”

I took her to my favorite hole-in-the-wall bar. The place could get busy at times, but we didn’t have too hard a time finding a table since it was a Wednesday night, and we were able to hear one another talk still.

“This place is great,” Bailey said, smiling at me after we had ordered our burgers and beers. She looked around curiously. “This is what I’m still missing with this whole thing,” she mused. “I bought the ski resort, but I still don’t know the town at all. There’s a lot of local flair that I feel like I’m just missing out on.”

“You’ll get to know the place,” I said, not sure what made me so confident that she would. Hell, for all I knew, she was only going to stick around for the one winter, if that, and then head right on back to Las Vegas or on to somewhere else.

I tried not to let the thought of her leaving make me nervous. But regardless of whether we were in a relationship or not, I was starting to get used to seeing her around the resort, and I knew that I would miss her if she disappeared.

“I sure hope so.” Bailey sighed. Then, she smirked at me. “Guess all I have to do is keep hanging out with you, huh? You seem to know everywhere. And everyone.”

Was she implying that she wanted to keep going on these dinner dates with me? I definitely wouldn’t say no to that. But at the same time, I wasn’t forward enough to start flirting with her in response. I didn’t even know if this was a date, really, or if this was just, again, two friends getting dinner together. She probably had business matters that she needed to talk to me about, and she was sensitive enough not to do it in front of Ethan.

Either way, I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t get out much anymore,” I admitted.

Bailey cocked her head to the side. “Well, maybe we need to change that,” she said.

I shook my head. “It’s hard. With Ethan. And everything.” Even I didn’t know what I was trying to say with that ‘everything’, but Bailey nodded sympathetically.

“You know,” she said carefully, “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to bring Ethan to dinner with us sometimes. He’s fun. And I know that spending time with him is important to you.” She held up one hand before I could protest. “I know that you probably don’t want him getting too attached to me or anything. I get that.” She paused. “My parents are divorced, if you don’t remember, so I know I don’t totally understand what he’s going through, but I sort of do. Anyway, just throwing it out there.”

“I appreciate that,” I told her. And I really did. I wasn’t sure that I was ready to start bringing Ethan out with us yet. It would feel a little too much like family if I did, and I was trying really hard not to put too much pressure on this relationship.

Or was I trying really hard not to actually commit to something?

It might be the latter. There were still a lot of things that Bailey and I needed to discuss before we could even be in a relationship. Things were going to be complicated. She was my boss, and her brother didn’t exactly approve of us.

I wanted to ask her about Ian. To ask if he had cooled off at all yet. But I knew Ian well enough to know that he probably hadn’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know all the things that he had probably said to her.

“By the way, I’ll see you back at work tomorrow,” Bailey said, a small grin curling her lips.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Ian gone back to Vegas, then?”

“No, he’s still around,” Bailey sighed, pursing her lips. “But I did win the whole maintenance thing. Your job is safe, and Ian and I have come to a certain understanding.”

I shook my head. Of course there was plenty of work that I needed to do around the resort, but I wasn’t sure that going back there while Ian was still around was the best course of action. Bailey had won one battle with him, but it didn’t mean that she had won the war. And I had a feeling that Ian would be doubly pissed about her relationship with me, given that he had no way of removing me from Brooks Mountain now, not without her say-so.

“Don’t worry about Ian,” Bailey said, as though reading my thoughts.

“How can I not worry about Ian?” I sighed.

“Because I’m telling you not to,” Bailey said firmly. “He’s my brother, and the only reason he’s at all worried about who you’re with is because it’s me. That makes it my problem to deal with, not yours.”

I didn’t exactly agree with her, but I didn’t know how to argue with her either. Instead, I just sighed again and took a sip of my beer. “How have things been at the resort anyway?” I asked her. “Level with me, how much shit has piled up on my plate?”

Bailey looked hesitant and then shrugged. “There’s a few things,” she said evasively. “I’m sure Gretchen will have the full list for you as usual. I did what I could.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “How much did you do?” I asked her.

“There were a few things,” Bailey admitted. She grinned sheepishly. “I Googled a few things, actually. But I wouldn’t have actually done anything if I didn’t think that I could handle it. I learned that lesson the first time, when I knocked out the power at half the resort.”

I laughed and shook my head. “You should have called me,” I told her. “But I’m glad you could handle it.”

We continued chatting as we ate, and I was glad when the conversation turned away from Ian. I still couldn’t believe that it was so easy to chat with Bailey. In fact, the only people in my life who had ever been this easy to chat with were Ethan and…Beth.

So when Bailey asked if I wanted to go back to her place with her, it was too easy to want to say yes. Oh, she didn’t ask it like that, with the promise of something more. She just asked if I would come check on something at the resort, and once we were there, she asked me if I wanted to come in and see what she had done with the condo.

I cleared my throat. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I told her.

“Why?” Bailey laughed, putting a hand on my arm. “Are you afraid that you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me?”

I could feel myself flush, and I was glad that the parking lot was as dark as it was, lit only by a few lights near the condos. “No, of course not,” I said, and when I glanced over, I thought I saw a flash of disappointment on her face. “But isn’t Ian staying with you?”

“Oh no,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “He decided that it would probably be best for him to stay in one of the other condos for the week. I have the space, but it just has been, strained, I guess.” She frowned, gnawing at her lower lip for a moment.

I grimaced. “I’m sorry I put you in this position,” I told her quietly.

“What position?” Bailey asked in surprised.

“I should never have kissed you,” I said, even though the words, coming from my mouth, felt like they had jagged edges that tore me up even as I spit them out. “I should have been more professional. You’re my boss, and – “

Whatever else I was going to say, whatever other foolish excuses I could make for why I should never have kissed her, were lost as Bailey leaned across the truck and tugged me into a fierce kiss.

I groaned and threaded my fingers through her soft, blonde hair. Somewhere in the back of my head, the warning bells were still ringing, reminding me that there were a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t be doing this. I wasn’t ready for a relationship after losing Beth, let alone a relationship with my boss, let alone a relationship that Ian didn’t approve of, let alone a relationship with Bailey. But I just couldn’t stop myself.

Bailey carefully slid across the bench seat and straddled me, her body hot where it pressed against mine, every curve pushing into me. My hands slid lower until they caught at her hips, pulling her closer to me. She rocked down against me, and I was instantly hard in my jeans. I groaned again, head falling back against the seat with a muffled thud.

Bailey laughed breathlessly. “Now, will you just shut up and come inside?” she asked.

I knew all the reasons why we couldn’t do this, all the reasons why I should go home. But it was only too easy to agree.

31

Bailey

I knew that Adam and I hadn’t resolved everything yet. I could tell that he was still holding back. I knew that it was probably partly out of the pain of having lost the mother of his child. Maybe I should ask about her. So far, I had only heard of her from Ethan, and he hadn’t really told me much. But I couldn’t think of a way to ask, and anyway, it still didn’t feel like it was totally my business.

And there was of course the nagging question of Ian. He still wasn’t happy with me running the mountain on my own, and he definitely didn’t approve of me sleeping with one of my employees. We hadn’t spoken again about those terrible things that he had said about Adam that first day that he had found out, about how I deserved someone better than him. There were a million things that I wanted to say to defend myself, but I was afraid that if I brought up the topic of Adam at all, Ian and I were both sure to get too upset with one another and say things that we didn’t fully mean.

I might not agree with Ian on everything, but he was still my brother. I was sure that he would come around if I just gave him time. It was just a matter of keeping Adam and Ian away from one another until Ian had a chance to accept that this was the way things were going to be now.

For now, I tried to push all those thoughts out of my mind. It was surprisingly easy to do with Adam following me into my condo. I couldn’t help but shiver as I imagined the way his eyes would stroke down my body as he watched me climb the steps. How far would I get to take things, once we were inside?

The kissing in Adam’s truck had only awakened a deeper lust inside of me, one that I wasn’t sure I could slake on my own. Fortunately, as I ground down against him before, I had been able to feel just how aroused he was too. I wasn’t sure if we’d go all the way, but I definitely didn’t think he was going to leave before things got good.

Adam shut the door behind himself once we were inside, and I turned to grin up at him, waiting to see if he would make the next move. He grinned crookedly back at me, stepping forwards to back me up against the wall. My breath caught in my throat as I stared up into his dark, lustful gaze. “Thought you said something about wanting to show me the place,” he said teasingly. “Well?”

I blinked at him, my brain scrambling to keep up. All I could focus on was the close proximity of his body to mine, his heat radiating through his clothes as he pressed me back against the cool, white-washed wall.

“Um,” I finally said, gesturing vaguely down the hall. “Here’s the place.” I coughed lightly. “There’s a bed, you know.”

Adam laughed, and I had to grin crookedly at the silliness of my words. Of course there was a bed! But I couldn’t help feeling tongue-tied around him like this. I wanted this more than words could describe.

Thankfully, he cut off whatever other inane words I might have said, sealing his lips over mine in a bruising kiss. He explored my mouth thoroughly, until I was panting for breath, grinding down against his thigh where he had thrust it between my own legs. I whimpered as he drew back away from me, half afraid that he was going to remind me what a bad idea this was, that he was going to tell me that he needed to get home.

But Adam just smiled down at me, brushing his fingertips across my cheek as he arched an eyebrow at me. “You want to show me where that bed is?” he asked.

I nodded immediately, scrambling to bring him down the hall and into my bedroom. He rested a hand on my ass as he followed me inside, and I had to fight not to squirm at just that barest of contact.

Adam caught me by the shoulders and spun me around so that I was facing him. My mouth fell open as he kissed me again, his fingers working their way up under my shirt. He got my shirt off me and quickly followed it to the floor with my bra, leaving them in a messy pile as he backed me up towards the bed.

He lay me down gently on the bed, covering my body with his, and I helped him out of his own shirt, my fingers roaming across his bare, muscular chest and back as though I could memorize every inch of his body through touch.

We continued to kiss, and I wondered again how far things would go tonight. I didn’t want to hurry things, though. I was pretty happy just like this, his mouth hot against mine, his fingers lightly stroking my flushed skin. The embers of need were hot in my core, but there was a certain desire for intimacy that was already satiated by simply kissing.

Adam rested his forehead against mine, his fingers brushing back my hair. “Go easy on me,” he said huskily. “It’s been a while.”

I grinned at him, my hands coming down to rest on his hips. “For me too,” I admitted in a whisper.

Adam kissed me tenderly, his lips soft against mine. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said seriously.

“I want this,” I told him, sure he could hear the raw honesty in my voice.

There were a thousand reasons why this might be considered a bad idea, but right now, none of them mattered. Maybe they never had. I wanted this, I wanted Adam, and we would figure out a way to make things work. Even if it turned out we weren’t right for one another.

Adam slowly kissed his way along my jawline, nibbling at my earlobe and grinning against my skin when he heard the way that I gasped. His fingers slowly worked at my belt, and I, in turn, palmed at his hard cock through the denim of his pants. He rocked into my palm, his breathing gone momentarily unsteady. Slowly, we worked one another’s clothing off until we were both naked on the bed, bodies tangled together, skin pressed against naked skin.

Adam plunged his fingers inside of me, thumb teasing my clit as he delved into my slick hole. My legs fell open even wider to accommodate him, and I moaned out his name. For a moment, Adam froze, but then he groaned, pressing his forehead against my collarbone as he withdrew his fingers and pushed his hard cock into me.

His hips stuttered against mine, and I knew that this was going to be over all too soon for both of us. But I was already imagining the next time and the time after that. There were still ten-thousand reasons why this wasn’t the smartest idea, but we fit so perfectly against one another that I couldn’t imagine this being the last time we were together like this.

I pressed my heels down into the mattress and rocked up into each thrust, my fingers grasping at Adam’s shoulders for leverage as well. Adam continued to slam into me, and I could barely breathe with the force of lust spilling through my body. I sobbed his name, so close to coming but not quite there just yet.

And suddenly, Adam slowed down, leaving my body aching and desperate. My hips jerked out of sync with his a few times, and I grabbed at his hips, trying to get him to go back to the same rhythm as before. He only grinned down at me. “Wait,” he said, the single word deep with promise.

I took a shuddering breath and tried to counsel myself to patience, but it was so hard when each new movement that Adam made sent shivers of pleasure through my body. The pace of Adam’s thrusts began to build again, driving me back towards the edge. A further edge, really. I had never felt lust like this before, had never felt so totally overcome by a man before.

He pushed into me again and again, pulling almost all the way out with each new thrust so that I could feel the entire length of his cock, until I was keening with anticipation for when he would thrust back into me again.

Suddenly, heat burst through me, filling my whole body from head to toe to fingertips. I trembled as white spilled through my vision, feeling the heat arcing between our bodies as Adam gave two final thrusts and then came with a muffled groan. He leaned into me, and I could feel him twitching inside of me, even as my whole body shivered with overstimulation.

We collapsed down against the bed, both utterly spent, exhausted, pleasured beyond belief. Adam’s hand rested against my hip, still somehow strangely intimate even after everything else that we had done. After a moment, he rolled so that he was facing me, a grin on his face. I grinned sleepily back at him and wiggled over until I was in his arms, my face buried in the crook of his neck. I was slightly overheated, flushed with warmth and pleasure, sticky with sweat, but I still just couldn’t get enough of the feeling of his skin pressed against mine.

I had to smile when Adam lightly kissed my forehead. But then, I sighed. “Guess you probably have to go, huh?”

Adam huffed out a noisy breath. “Yeah,” he said, but he made no move to leave.

I could tell that he didn’t want to pull away from me, and I didn’t want him to either. If I could have my way, I would stay there in his arms all night. It was funny, really, because I had never been the clingy kind of lover. But there was something about being there, curled up in Adam’s arms, that just felt so nice. Comfortable. Safe.

“So what happens now?” I asked quietly. I immediately regretted the words, feeling foolish for even saying them. I wasn’t trying to have that sort of conversation now. I just wanted to revel in how good I felt. But something made me worried that if Adam walked out of there right now, before we had talked about whether or not this was going to happen again, then we might never make it back here.

After all, there were a dozen reasons for me not to get involved with Adam. Ian was just the tip of the iceberg. There was also the fact that it was the busy holiday season at the business that I had just bought. The business that he worked for. And I was sure that Adam had reasons of his own for why he shouldn’t be with me. It would be too easy never to make it back here again.

But Adam pulled back, looking seriously down at me. “You’re going to have to be patient with me,” he said slowly as he brushed back my hair, fingers lingering on my cheek. “But I don’t do this kind of thing with just anyone. I care about you, Bailey.”

I grinned at him, unable to keep the pleased excitement from my face. “Good,” I said quietly. I tilted my face up for one last kiss. “And I care about you too, which is why I’m telling you to get out of here. Go get Ethan from your dad’s place. But I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the hill.”

Adam laughed and kissed me again, chastely. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he agreed, the words a warm murmur against my lips. Yet again, there was the promise of more in the dark, lustful gaze that he sent my way as he pulled away. I smiled goofily, curling around a pillow as I watched him get dressed and go.

32

Adam

I found myself whistling as I made breakfast on Thursday morning and paused for a moment, surprised at myself. I couldn’t remember being in this good a mood since before Beth got really sick. Funny that one night with Bailey could be enough to totally turn my mood around like this.

And scary, if I was being honest. Things had gone well the night before, and I could tell that Bailey didn’t just want it to be a one-time thing. But there were all sorts of complications to our relationship, not least of which was her brother, who didn’t seem to want me to have anything to do with her. There were plenty of ways that we could screw up, end up going our separate ways. And what would happen to my mental state then, if I was this elated after just one night with her?

Still, I couldn’t stop the silly smile on my face, the continued whistling as I flipped pancakes. When Ethan came into the kitchen, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, he paused in the doorway, staring at me. Then, slowly, he smiled as well. “Guess you had a good date,” he said as he climbed up on his seat.

I sputtered at him. “It wasn’t a date,” I said, even though I didn’t know why I felt the need to defend myself to a six-year-old. Ethan gave me a knowing look and then rolled his eyes, and I laughed. “You’re too smart for a six-year-old,” I told him.

He rolled his eyes again. “I’m almost seven,” he reminded me.

“True,” I said, nodding at him. “Well either way, you’re still too smart.” I paused. “But I did have a really good night.”

“Course you did,” Ethan said, shrugging. “Bailey’s the best. Do you think we can go skiing with her now?”

“Soon,” I told Ethan, even though I still wasn’t sure that that was something that I should be promising him. It was enough for me to be allowed back to work. It was enough that Bailey had apparently gone head-to-head with her brother in an attempt to let me keep my job. I didn’t know how much I was really going to be able to be around the resort until Ian was gone. And even though I doubted Ian would say anything bad around Ethan, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted Ian to meet my son. Not just now, anyway.

But I did like the idea of the three of us going skiing together, and I was starting to realize that it was my dream as much as Ethan’s. I wanted to see Ethan get to know Bailey more. I wanted to spend more time with her.

My good mood lasted until I arrived at the hill. I had barely set foot in the lodge before I ran into Ian. I paused, tentatively smiling at him, wondering if maybe he had finally cooled off a little. We might have fallen out of touch recently, but once upon a time, we had been good friends. If we were going to see one another a bunch now that Bailey owned the lodge, I hoped there would be some way that we could salvage our friendship.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked.

Ian scowled at me, folding his arms across his chest. I tried not to grimace. Clearly, he hadn’t cooled off yet.

“Look, I’m sorry that you don’t want me dating your sister,” I said quietly. “I know that you’re just looking out for her. But I’m not going to dick her around, and I’m not trying to break her heart. I wouldn’t be with her if I didn’t really like her.”

Ian scowled at me, as though I had said exactly the wrong thing. “I’m not worried that you’ll break her heart,” he snapped. “She’s a big girl; she can handle herself. But you know as well as I do that she deserves someone better than you.”

“What?” I asked, genuinely shocked to hear him say that. I thought back over everything that I had ever done with Ian, every conversation that I could remember. I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, though. What had I ever done to make him think that I was a horrible person?

Ian narrowed his eyes at me. “Come on, Adam. You’re a maintenance man. That’s, like, one step up from a plumber. Barely. And rumor has it, you live out in the middle of nowhere in what basically amounts to a shack. Bailey deserves better than you. You know that as well as I do.”

I stared at him, surprise coursing through my veins. I started to defend myself and then paused, not even sure what to say. Because the truth was, everything that he had said was true. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought about that before, but in all my uncertainty about whether I was ready to get into a relationship again, all my worries about the fact that Bailey was my boss, I had never stopped to consider just how wrong we were for one another.

She and I were from two different worlds. She had grown up rich, coming to the resort on her family vacations. Me, I was from here, and I had never left. This was my hometown, and I had taken a trade job.

Bailey should be with someone who could give her the whole damn world, not just someone who could show her a little slice of this piece of paradise. She might be happy here at Brooks Mountain for the time being, but I didn’t even know if she planned to stay around there.

By next winter, she might be back in Vegas again, or somewhere else. I might never see her again. I could never compete with the whole world for her affection.

I swallowed hard, the words dying in my mouth. What could I really say to Ian? Granted, it was none of his business, really. If Bailey was interested in me, then that was her choice. But maybe Ian wasn’t telling me that I couldn’t be with Bailey. Maybe instead, he was warning me that I shouldn’t get too involved with her, that I shouldn’t let my heart get tangled up in interest for her.

Still, why did he have to say it like that? One step up from a plumber? Ian didn’t know half of the work that went into my job. He probably had no idea how ski lifts operated or how tricky they could be sometimes. But then again, did that really matter? All he knew was that Bailey deserved to be with someone who had money, who had a good life, who could give her everything that she wanted. All he knew was that she was educated and smart and deserved to be with someone who didn’t spend their whole life working with their hands and covered with grease.

And the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that he was right. I swallowed, still trying to think of something that I could say in response to him. But Ian just rolled his eyes. “Shouldn’t you get to work?” he asked, sounding impatient. “Or should I try to get Bailey to hire on the perfectly respectable crew that I tried to bring on before?”

“I’m going,” I muttered, moving to step around Ian.

Ian grabbed my arm as I turned to walk away. “One more thing,” he said, but whatever he planned to say, I never got to hear it. Just then, Bailey appeared, her hands on her hips. She barely glanced in my direction.

“Ian, can I see you in my office?” she asked, keeping her tone sweet. But I could hear the underlying frustration there, and I was sure that Ian could as well.

Ian glanced towards me, giving me a dirty look like he thought that I had planned this. But he nodded curtly at his sister. “Sure thing,” he said, leading the way towards her office.

Bailey finally glanced towards me, but I didn’t meet her gaze, still thinking about what Ian had said about her deserving better than me. For a moment, she hesitated like she wanted to say something. But what? She must regret this as much as I did.

We never should have gotten involved with one another. I didn’t know what kind of madness, or loneliness, had driven me to go against all my better judgement, but I knew that I had definitely made a mistake. If she somehow didn’t realize that now, then she would once she had talked to Ian some more.

I didn’t stick around to say anything to her, I just headed straight to my office and grabbed my tools. Ian was right, it was time for me to get to work. Because I was just a maintenance man, after all. One step up from a plumber.

I sighed and shook my head, wishing that his words didn’t hurt so goddamned much. But I knew what I was. It was really just a wonder that it had taken those words from Ian for me to remember it. Girls like Bailey deserved the handsome, worldly, rich guys from the movies. They should never hope to end up with someone like me. And I had been foolish to think otherwise, even for a moment.

33

Bailey

I barely managed to keep my temper in check as Ian and I walked to my office. I had kind of expected that he would have words with Adam if he saw him here. But I guess I had naively thought that it might take a little while longer for their paths to cross. Poor Adam. I didn’t know exactly what Ian had said to him, but Adam had looked pretty upset when I had walked into the lodge and seen the two of them going at it.

There was part of me that wanted to send Ian off to my office and stay with Adam to see if he was okay. But before I could say a single word to Adam, he brushed past me and headed towards his own office. I froze there in the middle of the lodge for a moment staring after him. Should I call him back? Or should I deal with the Ian situation first?

Suddenly, though, like a knife to the heart, I wondered if Adam really was upset about something that Ian had said to him. Maybe there was something else. Maybe he regretted sleeping with me and felt awkward at the fact that we had run into one another there in the lodge. Maybe he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.

After all, he had barely looked at me. I had been caught up in talking to Ian, but when I’d turned to look at Adam, he could barely meet my gaze. Maybe he didn’t want to be caught up in the drama that my brother seemed intent on causing. Or maybe he just wasn’t interested in being with me anymore. He had told me that I would need to be patient with him. He had clearly already been having some sort of reservations about the two of us.

I sighed, wishing that I could follow Adam and talk things through with him. But he had made it very clear that he didn’t want to talk to me, at least not right now. And I had a feeling that if I didn’t head into my office and talk things over with Ian, then he would come looking for me, and I didn’t want him and Adam anywhere near one another again.

I shook my head and stalked off towards my office. “Everything okay?” Kayla asked as I walked near her.

I rolled my eyes and grimaced. “I’ll tell you later,” I told her.

She gave me a sympathetic look but didn’t say anything else as I headed towards my office, trying to put my thoughts about Adam out of my head. Right now, it was Ian that I needed to focus on.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, frowning at Ian. “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked him. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t want you meddling in things around here.”

Ian raised an eyebrow at me, holding up both his hands. “I know you want me to stay out of the business,” he said. “I still think that we could do some really great things together, but I respect that. I didn’t realize you were banning me from the resort though. Or is it Park City?” He said the last teasingly, but I met his gaze flatly, not in the mood to kid around.

He sighed. “Bailey, it’s almost Christmas. I know you’re mad at me for stepping on your toes, but I didn’t think you wanted me to go back home. I thought we could spend the holidays together here. I just came up today to go skiing, and I was in the lodge looking for you because I hoped you might join me. I wasn’t looking for Adam or anything; I just happened to run into him.”

I frowned at him, but I could already feel my suspicions easing. I sighed. “I do want you to stay for the holidays,” I admitted. Ian might have exhausted my patience ever since he came back to Park City, but he was still my brother. And this was the first holiday since Dad had died. I wanted to spend time with the family that I had left. I knew that I would regret it otherwise.

I just didn’t know what he had against Adam. “What were you and Adam talking about anyway?” I finally asked. “He didn’t look happy.”

Ian shrugged. “I don’t know what’s up with that,” he said. “Maybe he has a lot of work to do and he was just feeling frazzled. I actually stopped to ask if he needed any help with anything, but he brushed me off. So I asked if he wanted to get beers later. That’s when you walked up.”

I thought back over the scene from before. I could imagine Adam brushing off Ian when he offered his help around the resort. After all, I knew how Adam could be about his work. It was the whole reason why he wouldn’t let me hire someone to help him out around the resort. And really, hadn’t Ian been trying to help before, when he had hired the other maintenance company? He was right; the resort really was getting busier, and it would ease Adam’s job a lot if he could focus on the lifts instead of having to deal with everything around the place.

Maybe I’d been too hard on Ian. I still wasn’t happy about those things that he had said about Adam not being good enough for me, but maybe I had overreacted about everything else because of that.

“I really want to make sure that everything is okay,” Ian said quietly. “But I know I overstepped. And I’m sorry.”

I stared at him for another beat and then smiled, shaking my head. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “And I’d love to go skiing with you, but I have a few things that I need to do around here first. Maybe after lunch?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ian said, grinning at me. He slung an arm around me for a moment. “I’m going to head out there, but I’ll come track you down in a little while.”

“Don’t wear yourself out too much,” I taunted him.

Ian laughed and gave me a little push. “Speak for yourself, Ms. Businesswoman,” he joked, before heading outside.

I exhaled noisily and shook my head. Everything about Ian’s story sounded true enough. And in spite of his recent actions, I didn’t think that he would lie to me. Besides, I had already wondered if maybe Adam’s earlier silence had more to do with me than it had to do with anything that Ian might have said to him.

Still, there was a nagging feeling inside of me that I hadn’t heard the whole story. I shrugged to myself. I had wanted to talk to Adam anyway. It shouldn’t be too hard to track him down. I wasn’t sure it was right for me to talk to him about our relationship while we were there at the mountain. After all, we were going to need to set certain boundaries. But as his boss, I should probably know if something was bothering him, shouldn’t I?

I headed out of my office, pausing when I saw Kayla. “Hey,” I said. “Any idea where Adam headed off to?”

“Think I saw him going over towards the condos with his toolbox,” she said. “Everything all right?”

“Just one of those mornings,” I said, rolling my eyes. And it really was: I was already starting to feel emotionally exhausted, and it wasn’t even ten-thirty yet. But things would be better once I talked to Adam, I was sure. I shook my head. “Thanks, Kayla,” I told her. “Full recount later.”

“I’m counting on it,” she said, grinning at me.

It wasn’t too hard to find Adam over at the condos, up on a ladder as he fiddled with the heat coils meant to melt the snow off one section of the roof so that icicles and dangerous icy patches didn’t form as the sun hit it.

“Adam?” I called from the bottom of the ladder, shading my eyes as I looked up towards the sun.

I couldn’t see his face very well from that angle, but he was definitely looking down at me, and he sounded normal as he said, “What’s up?”

“Just wanted to make sure that you’re okay,” I said, feeling foolish for asking. Maybe I had been too hard on Ian before, when he just wanted to help, and maybe now I was blowing things out of proportion with Adam too. Maybe he was feeling totally fine, and fine about us, he just didn’t want to be too friendly with me while we were at work. That was for the best anyway, I was sure.

“Yeah, fine,” Adam said shortly. “Just working away. Did you need something?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I just…” I trailed off before I repeated that I just wanted to make sure that he was okay. Clearly, he was. “It’s good to see you back at work, that’s all,” I told him, even though I wasn’t sure that that was something that I was allowed to say out here, where anyone could overhear it.

Adam merely grunted in response, and I took that as my cue. “Well, if you need anything from me, let me know,” I told him.

“I will,” he said, turning back to his work.

I walked back inside, trying to shake the feeling that he was being distant to me. He was just trying not to be too obvious about us while we were at work. That was probably a good thing. That was the responsible thing, really.

Still, I found myself thinking about him all day, wondering if he was taking on too much work given the time that he’d been gone earlier in the week. I went skiing with Ian for the afternoon, and I couldn’t stop thinking about skiing with Adam and Ethan and how much I really wanted to do that at some point. I wanted to spend more time with Adam, that was it.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling this interested in someone before, but instead of scaring me or otherwise bothering me, I honestly felt excited by it. So I caught Adam as he was on his way out that night. “Hey,” I said, grinning at him.

He paused, staring at me for a moment. I blushed, patting my hair. It was probably going wild from being under my helmet for the afternoon. “Did you go skiing?” Adam finally asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, Ian and I went,” I admitted. “It was a good afternoon.”

Adam nodded slowly back at me, shifting back and forth from foot to foot. He glanced around like he was worried one of the other employees would see us and put two and two together. But nearly everyone had gone home by then.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner before you go home for the night,” I said, wondering if he would calm down a little once we were in private. I knew that he had told me I would need to be patient with him, and I sort of wondered if I was the first person that he had dated since Ethan’s mom. His nervousness was honestly kind of cute, actually.

But for now, he shook his head. “I have to get back to Ethan,” he said.

“Oh, of course,” I said, trying not to feel disappointed. I knew exactly what I was getting into with him, after all. I wanted to spend more time with him, but I had to respect the fact that he had a life as well. I smiled at him. “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Adam nodded at me. “See you tomorrow,” he agreed. For a moment, he hesitated, almost like he wanted to say something else. Or kiss me goodbye, maybe? But then, he glanced around again, gave an aborted wave, and left.

I grinned after him, unable to help it. If he was this nervous around me, it meant that he cared about me, didn’t it? And even though I knew that I needed to stay focused on my job, even though I knew that Ian hadn’t quite come around to my relationship with Adam just yet, things felt good between us, and it was nice to think that he cared.

34

Adam

I managed not to run into Bailey on Friday. Not that I was avoiding her. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about what Ian had said to me about her deserving someone better. I was busy anyway. Maybe if I just gave it a little time, she would come to her senses, or get interested in something or someone else, and we would never have to have the awkward conversation about how she didn’t really want to be with me.

I sure hoped so, anyway.

I mean, I didn’t. If I had my way, I would have taken Bailey up on that dinner on Thursday, and maybe something more. Oh, I had to get back to Ethan, that was true. I couldn’t stay the night there. But he and his grandfather had been playing video games when I got back. They would have been fine for another hour or so. Longer, maybe. I knew that Dad was, in his silent way, happy to think that I might have found someone again.

Sometimes, I wondered why he was so okay with being alone but didn’t seem to support the same thing for me. But then again, I was a lot younger than he had been when he and Mom split up. And although I took after him in a lot of ways, he was a lot more of a loner than I could ever be.

Anyway, I made it through Friday at the hill, working my way through my checklist and not really interacting with anyone. It was a surprisingly productive day, so much so that at the end of it, I was surprised to see there wasn’t much left on my list. I headed in to talk to Gretchen about it, and she told me to take Saturday off. When I pointed out that I’d already had a bunch of days off earlier that week, she shrugged and reminded me that it was nearly the holidays. She suggested spending a little time with Ethan and maybe going skiing.

So that’s what Ethan and I ended up doing on Saturday morning. Even though it was a weekend during the holiday season, we basically had the place to ourselves: a lot of people were just arriving that day and planning to stay the whole week for Christmas. Or coming later, so that they would be here for New Year’s Eve. The snow was great, the sun was shining, and after Ethan got over his initial pout about the fact that we weren’t at Brooks Mountain and skiing with Bailey, he got properly excited and we had a great time together, father and son.

There was a part of me that felt kind of bad that we were at one of the other resorts in the area. But I wasn’t sure what to do about the Bailey thing, and I knew that if Ethan and I went to Brooks, we would have to talk to her. Ethan wouldn’t let me avoid her there. Not only that, but we might run into Ian. Better that we just avoid both of those situations. Plus, it had been a while since I had skied anywhere else.

I had to keep my phone on in case they called me in for anything at Brooks, but fortunately, if anything went wrong, they were able to handle it without me.

I tried not to think about the fact that there were apparently other mechanics willing to help out around the resort. Tried not to think about how Bailey could easily call one of them on my day off, especially on an unplanned day off like this one. Instead, I focused on having fun with Ethan. He was really starting to get the hang of parallel skiing on the intermediate slopes, and it was fun watching him rip down them.

We grabbed hot chocolate in the lodge in the early afternoon and headed home after that. Ethan chattered the whole way about how much fun it had been to ski somewhere new and explore trails that he had never been on before, and I couldn’t help but pat myself on the back for the idea. Even if that hadn’t exactly been the logic behind my decision to take us away from our usual resort for the day.

Dad stopped by while I was making an early dinner. “Hey,” he said as I greeted him at the door.

“Gramps!” Ethan said, rushing into the hall and skidding in his socked feet. “We went skiing today! It was so much fun.”

“Oh, really?” Dad asked, raising an eyebrow at me. In a low voice, he asked. “No work again?”

I lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “Finished up everything yesterday,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. Of course, I had been wondering if part of why Gretchen wanted me out of there was because of the tension between Ian and I. She had to know about it; Bailey would have had to explain taking me off the schedule.

Suddenly, I wondered just how she had done that. Had she told everyone why Ian was pissed at me? Did everyone know about us? Not that there really was an us. But now, I had to wonder about my job security. If everyone knew about Bailey and I, the budding relationship that could never develop into more, then she might feel too awkward if I told her that it wasn’t a good idea for us to be together. She might feel like I was deliberately scorning her in front of everyone. And she might fire me.

I wanted to think that she wouldn’t do that, but I also knew that Ian was pushing to have me replaced anyway. She might side with her brother if she was angry enough at me. All it would take was one signature on a contract to hire another maintenance company.

I never should have gotten involved with my boss. The owner of the mountain. I had known that from the start, but I had been too cocky, thinking that my job was safe. Now, I couldn’t help but feel worried.

I could see from the way Dad was eyeing me that he could see something on my face. He clearly wanted to ask about it, but then he glanced down at Ethan. I could see him decide not to have this conversation in front of my son, and I couldn’t say how much I appreciated that.

Dad knelt down next to Ethan. “I didn’t get to go skiing today, but I did clean out the garage, and I found something I thought you might like,” he said, holding out an old BB gun towards Ethan.

Ethan’s eyes got big. “That’s so cool!” he said. But then, he looked up at me. “Am I allowed to have this?” he asked, and I couldn’t help laughing.

“I think I was younger than you when Gramps gave me that,” I admitted. “But there’s going to have to be some rules to go along with it. Just like everything else.”

“No playing with it before I do my homework and I can only play for so much time?” Ethan guessed.

“Sort of,” I said, kneeling down. “But there’s some safety things as well, okay? And I have to show you how to use it first.” I wasn’t sure if a BB gun was the best gift for Ethan. I could remember all the stupid things that my friends and I had done when we were younger, after all. Not only that, but I knew that it was a different world today than it had been when I was growing up. There were so many scary things on the news about gun violence, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to put Ethan in a position where the other parents might hear about this and think that he was destined to be a problem.

But I did like the idea that with this gift, Ethan would be outside playing, rather than inside with the game console or the computer. And besides, Dad’s house and mine were the only two out here. Ethan wouldn’t be allowed to take the BB gun away from the house, and the chances of him really getting into trouble out here were slim.

Not only that, but it would have been a little difficult to tell Ethan that he couldn’t have it, since I remembered that Dad had trusted me with a BB gun when I was a kid. And I did trust Ethan to be careful with it and to understand the responsibility that went along with having a BB gun. He was a good kid, just like Dad had reminded me when he gave Ethan the PowerBox. He hadn’t questioned my rules at all with regards to the gaming console, so I had no reason to believe he would with this, either.

Plus, there was a part of me that recognized the sentimentality of this gift from Dad to my son. Dad likely remembered when he had first given it to me and how he had watched me practice with it for hours and hours, shooting at cans and other small targets that Dad set up for me. He was trying to give a gift that would help me bond with my son.

I appreciated that.

“Uh huh,” Ethan said, nodding his head and giving me the most serious look that he could manage at his young age. “I’ll be careful.”

I smiled at him. “I know you will be, buddy.” I glanced at my watch. The lasagna I had carefully assembled wouldn’t be done for a little while longer, so we had some time now. I was sure that he was eager to try out the new gift, and I was sure that Dad would want to see him as well.

“Why don’t I go see if I can find some empty cans?” I suggested. “We can have a quick lesson now before dinner.”

Ethan cheered, and I saw Dad’s approving nod. He stuck around to watch us as well, and I tried not to feel nervous, trying to remember if I was passing on all the advice that Dad had given to me once upon a time. Dad clapped a hand on my shoulder as we watch Ethan square up to shoot for the first time, though, having gone over all the safety procedures with him, and I knew that that was the closest to affirmation that I could get from him.

Ethan managed to hit the can on his third shot and quickly put the gun down before throwing his hands in the air and cheering. I had to smile at that. “Good job, buddy,” I told him.

“Why don’t you go set up a couple more of them?” Dad suggested.

Ethan nodded and scampered off to set up the other cans. Dad turned to look at me. “So, still not at work,” he said quietly.

I shrugged. “I was yesterday and the day before,” I said.

Dad shook his head. “I think that whatever you did to make Bailey upset, you should apologize,” he said gruffly. He grinned crookedly. “Even if you don’t think that you did anything wrong. That’s something that I learned a long time ago with your mother.”

I paused for a second. Dad rarely ever mentioned Mom. I knew that they had had their difficulties, but sometimes it felt like Mom had never even existed. I wondered what things would have been like if they had managed to make things work. If Mom hadn’t run off to make art down in New Mexico. But I supposed I would never know. Maybe that was part of why Dad just didn’t want to talk about her.

Still, he had brought her up. “Do you ever wish that things had worked out differently for you and Mom?”

Dad watched Ethan for a moment in silence, and I wondered if he would choose not to even respond to my question. If maybe I had just ruined the easy camaraderie that we had finally managed to put together recently. But then, he shrugged. “Do you ever wish that things had worked out differently for you and Beth?” He held up a hand to stop whatever I might have said to that. “I know the situations were different. But all I’m saying is, life has its way with us, whatever we might hope for. All we can do is take advantage of the chances that we’re given.”

I sighed and Dad turned to look at me, his bushy eyebrows knitting together. “Whatever you did to Bailey, as long as she’s in your life, you still have a chance,” he said. “Just think about it.”

I shook my head. “It’s not like that, Dad,” I said quietly. Because it wasn’t. This wasn’t a matter of apologizing to Bailey or about fixing things with her. For a moment, I let myself imagine that it was. But it hurt, imagining that I could be with Bailey. I knew that I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

“What happened between the two of you?” Dad asked, and I could tell that he was perplexed.

But I just shook my head. “Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “It’s nothing.” Fortunately, Ethan ran back towards us just then, and Dad let the matter drop.

35

Bailey

I was surprised to not see Adam around the resort at all on Friday. At first, I wondered if something had happened to either him or Ethan. Maybe one or both of them was sick again? But when I checked the logs at the end of the day, I saw that he had been there. I just hadn’t seen him at all.

I felt disappointed in that, and I tried not to let it get to me. I doubted that he was avoiding me. He was probably mostly out working on the lifts, up in places where our paths wouldn’t cross. He had a job to do, and I couldn’t expect to see him every single day.

But at the same time, there was a part of me that was surprised he didn’t stop by to find me at some point during the day, just to say hi at least. Was that a silly thing for me to wish for? Probably. But I found myself wanting that all the same. As it was, I kept thinking back to the way that things had been on Thursday, how short his answers had been when he was talking to me. Maybe there was something wrong, and maybe he was avoiding me.

But that wasn’t fair, I knew. He was nervous around me, and he was probably still nervous around Ian. In fact, Ian’s continued presence around the lodge might be just what had kept Adam from dropping in to see me.

I knew that Ian had said that they might go for beers, and it sounded like he was really trying to smooth things over. But Adam might still feel uncomfortable since he had been caught kissing me. Things would probably feel more normal once Ian was back in Las Vegas.

And so even though I definitely wanted my brother with me for the holidays, there was also a part of me that kind of wished the holidays would just end soon. Not least of which because the resort was getting busier by the day.

I spotted Ian in the lodge on Saturday morning and brought a coffee over to him. He was just finishing up a phone call, and when he hung up, I could see that he looked tired. “Is everything okay?” I asked him.

Ian shook his head. “It’s just some stuff with the casino business,” he said. “I won’t bore you with it.”

I frowned. “You know, as much as I want you here for the holidays, it’s okay if you need to head home and sort some things out,” I told him. “Things are busy here through Christmas, but I know things are busy down there as well. Especially in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve.”

“No, it’s fine,” Ian said tersely. “I’ve got everything handled.”

I bit back a retort about how I had everything handled here and didn’t need him anymore. That wasn’t what this was about, I reminded myself. Ian had backed off with trying to help around the resort, and now he was just there as my brother. Oh, he was still checking up on me and keeping tabs, making sure that I was bringing in a good profit. And he’d suggested a few ideas for various improvements, a couple of which were things that would kill the resort’s charming feel, in my opinion. But he’d been a lot better, and I was grateful for that.

My phone rang, and I slipped it out of my pocket, surprised to see that it was Kayla. I looked around but didn’t see her in the lodge. I answered it. “Hey, what’s up?”

“So, I totally meant to ask you this yesterday,” Kayla said, laughing a little. “Today’s my day off, and I was thinking that I could totally use a spa day, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me?”

I thought through my schedule for the day. But I didn’t really have all that much that needed to get done right then. We had done a great job preparing for all the guests to arrive, and I was confident that the rest of the resort employees could handle things if I wanted to take a day off. And I hadn’t really taken much time off since I had bought this place. I could definitely use a day to just chill and hang out with Kayla. And a massage, I could use one of those too.

“That sounds great,” I said to Kayla. “But are we going to be able to get in to a spa with no notice? It’s the holidays, after all.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Kayla said. “I know some people. It’s not that big of a town. And besides, today is, like, the day when everyone is going to be arriving. Tomorrow is the day they’ll actually start doing things.”

“Okay,” I said, shrugging. “Where should I meet you?”

“I’ll text you the address,” Kayla promised me.

I got off the phone and smiled at Ian. “Kayla and I are going to have a spa day,” I told him. I held up a hand as he opened his mouth. “And please don’t tell me that it’s not responsible to take off from work at the drop of a hat. I’ve barely taken any time for myself since I first came out here, and I don’t have anything pressing to do today.” I didn’t know why I was trying to defend myself to him anyway. It only validated his feelings that he had some right to tell me how to do business, I was sure.

But Ian grinned at me. “I was just going to tell you to have fun,” he said, spreading his hands.

I thought I could see the glimmer of something else in his eyes, but I left it at that. “Enjoy the skiing,” I told him. “I’ll see you later.”

Later, as I sank into a hot tub next to Kayla, I groaned, feeling the tension slipping away from my back and shoulders even more than it had during my massage. “This was the best idea,” I said to Kayla.

She grinned at me. “Yeah, I try to come here around this time every year,” she said. “I know I don’t have to deal with as much stress at the resort as you do, but it’s definitely still so busy all the time. It’s nice to unwind a little.”

“Definitely,” I said fervently. I shook my head. “To be honest, a lot of my stress right now is Ian.” The words slipped out before I knew it, but I knew Kayla wouldn’t judge me.

In fact, she giggled. “Yeah, he’s not exactly the cool older brother that I remember him being,” she said. “Maybe it’s just that we’re grown up now, but he really seems, I don’t know, intense?”

“Yeah,” I said, sighing. “I know he’s just looking out for me, but sometimes, I just want to shake him. Like, he hardly tells me anything about the casino business, just tells me that he has it all under control, but then he wants to turn right back around and try to take over my own business? After he originally told me he didn’t think it was a good idea for me to buy the place?”

I shook my head. “But I’m glad he’s here. It’s good to see him. It’s just, I can’t help thinking that things will be easier once he’s back in Nevada.”

“So you can have a little more alone time with Adam?” Kayla asked, her eyes twinkling with laughter.

I grimaced and stared down at my hand as I brushed it along the surface of the water. “We had sex,” I admitted. “We went for dinner the other night and then he came over to my place for a little while. And of course he had to get back home to Ethan, but then, I don’t know, I just thought that things were going better than they were.”

“What do you mean?” Kayla asked in surprise.

“He’s been avoiding me, or something. I haven’t seen him. I mean, it hasn’t been very long, this all just happened on Wednesday. But Thursday, he barely gave me the time of day. And I didn’t see him at all yesterday. I don’t know if it’s the Ian thing or what.”

Kayla frowned, considering her words carefully. “You have to remember that you’re the first woman he’s even looked at since Beth,” she finally said. “I mean, I think so anyway. I don’t know him all that well. No one does. Or not anymore; he used to be different, back before.” She shrugged. “But anyway, what does that have to do with Ian? Does he know about the two of you?”

“Oh, he knows,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Or rather, he suspects a lot more is going on than there actually is. He caught us kissing and totally chewed me out for sleeping with one of my employees. I don’t know why he doesn’t just go back to Vegas anyway. He’s got shit to do with the casino there, I know it. And as much as I want him here, I just didn’t even expect he’d be able to take the time off for the holidays, and now he’s coming on so strong. You know?”

Kayla looked uncomfortable, and I frowned at her. “What’s up?” I asked her. “What do you know?”

Kayla shook her head but then sighed. “I didn’t want to say anything,” she said. “I wasn’t supposed to hear this. But he was talking to someone on speakerphone one day in your office and I went looking for you and happened to hear part of the conversation. Um.”

“Go on,” I said, nodding encouragingly, even as my mind was reeling through different scenarios as to what she might have heard.

“Honestly, it sounds like things with the casino aren’t going so well at the moment,” Kayla finally said, and I could tell she was definitely reluctant to tell me anything.

As for me, I was shocked. “How is that possible?” I asked. “I mean, I’m not part of the company anymore. I still have some investments there, I guess, but I don’t follow all the news. But when I left, things were on the up-and-up. Getting better all the time.” I frowned, still puzzling over this news. Kayla must not have heard right, though. She had misunderstood something. “What exactly did they say?”

Kayla made a face and then shrugged. “Honestly, it sounded like Ian’s made some really bad calls with the company. Like he’s buttered up the wrong people and that sort of thing. I don’t know. But you may want to check with the casinos and just, I don’t know, make sure everything is going okay.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that,” I groaned. “Not after I was so adamant that Ian had to stay out of my own business and quit checking up on me.”

“That’s your call,” Kayla said. “Just, I don’t know if Ian is really here just because he wants to check up on you. And if he’s been a little intense lately, there may be a reason for it. I guess. I don’t know. But you may want to talk to him, at least.”

I snorted. “I can just imagine how that conversation would go,” I said, thinking it over. No, Ian would never suffer to let me ask how the casino business was really going. And if I said anything about this supposed phone call, he would totally fly off the handle.

Besides, Ian couldn’t really be doing as badly as Kayla seemed to think. He had had quite a bit of responsibility in the company even before Dad passed away, and he wouldn’t have changed anything too radically since the funeral. I didn’t think so, anyway. Kayla must have just misunderstood something about the conversation.

Although, she was right. If Ian wasn’t doing well with the casinos, it could explain a lot of his behavior lately. The way he felt he needed to take over here, like he had something to prove. The way he felt the need to assert his position as my older brother and protector. The snippiness with everyone, from myself to Adam to other people around the resort. The fact that it didn’t seem like he really had a timeline on his return to Vegas.

So many things that could be explained away if the casinos weren’t doing well. But no, it couldn’t be that. He was just trying to help me out, and coming on a bit too strong in the process. He had chilled out the past few days, and things were going to get better from here. I firmly believed that.

36

Adam

By midway through the next week, I could barely believe that I had thought I was all caught up on my duties, enough so that I had been able to take last Saturday off. Once the tourists had really started arriving in droves, it seemed like everything went to hell, and fast. From blown lightbulbs to malfunctioning appliances, from finicky lifts to broken snowmobile belts, it seemed like every time I turned around, there was something else wrong.

Right now, it was the lights in one of the conference rooms. We were due to have a group of ski instructors from all around the country convene in there that afternoon for some indoor training followed by outdoor training the next three days. But at the moment, half the lights weren’t working. I finally managed to narrow it down to the fact that one of the bulbs had blown; apparently, this place was wired like a Christmas tree so that if one bulb went out, the rest wouldn’t light either.

Stupid lighting. I made a mental note to put it on my long-term task list, but I knew that I probably wouldn’t get to something like that until the resort shut down in the spring. Too much traffic in the conference rooms otherwise, and the last thing I needed was to blow the electricity in half the lodge while I fiddled around with rewiring.

I carefully pulled down the blown bulb and set it off to the side, wiping my hands off on my jeans before reaching for the new bulb. I frowned down at the box and then shook my head. I had been surprised to see the new bulbs that had been put away in the supply closet, and not just because my whole system was screwed up. But these were much nicer bulbs than normal, and from a different company than we normally stocked them from.

Curious, I had looked at the sign-off for the order and saw that Ian was responsible for them.

But hey, it wasn’t my job to say anything. My job was just to get those lightbulbs fixed as needed. So that’s what I did right now. I was just coming down the ladder to try the lights when Bailey walked in. For a moment, I froze, startled. But then, I forced myself to smile at her. Whatever else had gone on between us, she was still my boss.

“Just getting these lights working for this afternoon,” I told her, gesturing up towards the ceiling. “You mind hitting that third switch from the left?”

Bailey hit the switch, and all the lights in the room came on. I nodded. “All set,” I said, putting the old bulb into the box that the new bulb had come in. “You getting everything set up for this afternoon?”

Bailey shook her head, coming over and hopping up on a table near me, studying me. “You’ve been avoiding me,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m right here,” I pointed out. “I’m not hiding.” That didn’t exactly counter her accusation, but what was I supposed to say? The truth was I hadn’t exactly been avoiding her. But I had definitely been keeping to myself over the past few days. It was just easier that way. I had a lot to focus on, and I was trying not to get too wrapped up in my thoughts about her.

Because the truth was, the more I tried to stay away from Bailey, the more I just wanted to see her again. I wanted to take her out to dinner again, I wanted to have that ski date with her and Ethan like we had talked about. There was so much that I wanted. But I couldn’t have any of that. Not while Ian was here, and not after he went back to Vegas either.

He had been right. Bailey and I just weren’t meant for one another. And I wasn’t about to commit to something that could never last. Bailey just didn’t understand what she was getting into in the first place. She was just having a little fun, playing as the owner of a ski resort, but then she would eventually leave. I couldn’t let myself go to pieces when she left. I couldn’t let her play with my heart like that.

“It’s been really busy,” I said to Bailey, to cover up the accusatory silence she was fixing me with. I gestured towards the lights. “Think this is the fifth project I’ve finished up this morning, actually.”

Bailey sighed. “I know it’s been busy. But how many times do I have to remind you that I can help out with some of this stuff? Changing lightbulbs is in my wheelhouse.”

“Sure, but I didn’t know that it was a blown bulb when I first came in here,” I said, shrugging one shoulder. “Anyway, I’m not sure you could have reached these ones, even on a ladder. They’re pretty high up there.”

“Ian could have,” Bailey maintained stubbornly. “You could have told me what needed to be done and I could have found someone to do it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, even though I knew that I would never ask for her to get me help, no matter how long my list of tasks got. “How long is Ian sticking around, anyway?”

Bailey sighed and shrugged, kicking her feet a little. “I honestly don’t know,” she said. “Why, is he still giving you a hard time?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. Now that it was clear to him that I wasn’t pursuing his little sister anymore, Ian had kept his distance. He hadn’t gone back to being friendly with me, but he at least wasn’t seeking me out to have words with me about how my job was just one step up from a plumber’s.

“That’s good,” Bailey said. “He’s quit interfering in the business too, so I don’t know, I’m kind of just enjoying having him around.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. I hadn’t intended to say anything to her about the more expensive lights, but Ian had just signed off on them a couple days ago. It didn’t really sound like he was keeping from interfering in the business.

“What’s that look for?” Bailey asked, while I was still trying to figure out a tactful way to tell her that.

I shrugged and held up the box. “These lights are way more expensive than what we normally order, and they weren’t ordered in bulk through the supplier we normally use,” I finally told her. “Ian’s the one who signed off on them, just a few days ago. I don’t know where he got them from or anything.”

Bailey made a face. “Seriously?” Then, she shook her head. “Thanks for telling me.” She paused. “Adam, you know – “

Whatever she was going to say, I could tell that it wasn’t about the lightbulbs, or about her brother. I quickly interrupted her. “You know, I have a bunch of other things on my list for this afternoon. But I’ll definitely let you know if I need help with any of it.”

Bailey frowned at me and stood in front of me as I started to make a hasty exit. “Wait,” she said imperiously. “Look, I get that you don’t want to talk to me about this” – she gestured between the two of us – “here, but we clearly need to talk. Let’s go to dinner tonight.”

“I’m not sure I can do that,” I said quickly, shaking my head. “I have to get Ethan. And I promised him that we would have, um, pizza for dinner.” I knew that Bailey would hear the hesitation, that she wouldn’t believe me.

And sure enough, she stared at me for a moment, and I could practically see her discard all the different things that she wanted to say to me. Finally, she shook her head a little. “Can you ask your father to watch him for the evening?” she asked. “I’m not really asking you. I’m telling you, as your boss, that we are having dinner together tonight.”

I stared at her for a moment, wanting to protest. But really, what was I supposed to say? If I told her that it was short notice and that I couldn’t do it tonight, then she would ask me about tomorrow or the next night. I was going to have to have this conversation with her at some point; I couldn’t put it off forever.

Besides, there was a part of me that wanted to hear her out. To hear what she was thinking about this whole thing. Why was she still so concerned about if I was avoiding her or not? Hadn’t she woken up to realize how wrong we were for one another yet? There was a part of me that just wanted to spend more time with her. Surely Ian couldn’t be upset about it if she was the one insisting that I go to dinner with her. After all, if she was invoking the fact that she was my boss, who knew what the consequences could be otherwise. She might even fire me.

I hoped that that wasn’t what she was thinking, but I didn’t want to ask her about it. Anyway, asking her what the consequences would be would only make her more certain that I was avoiding her for some reason. I didn’t want to upset her.

I doubted Ian would care about my reasons for going, though. He would rather I was fired, anyway; he had made that clear when he tried to hire a maintenance company to replace me before. So that meant that if I didn’t deal with Bailey tonight, I’d be stuck avoiding her retribution later in the week, but if I did go to dinner with her tonight, I’d have to face up to Ian again. Catch-22.

But Bailey nodded at me, as though things were decided. “I’ll see you later,” she said, turning to walk out of the conference room while I just stared after her.

I sighed and ran a hand back through my hair. Then, I pulled out my phone and called Dad. “Hey, I was wondering if you could watch Ethan for a little longer tonight,” I said. “Sorry, but I have a work thing that I have to attend.” I didn’t want to tell him that I was going to dinner with Bailey.

I still remembered his conversation with me last weekend, about how I should apologize to Bailey and make things right with her. He was clearly rooting for things to work out between the two of us. I didn’t want to tell him about the real problem, the fact that Bailey was so far out of my league, the fact that as Ian had pointed out, she deserved much better than me. Dad had always been glad that I took to skiing when I was a young kid, but I think sometimes he wished that I had been a little less interested in it, that I had managed to start a better life for myself. I didn’t want him to remind me that I was smart, that I could have done anything with my life.

This was the life that I wanted. Beth had always accepted that. I had never had a problem providing for Ethan, and I liked my job a hell of a lot more than I would have liked some office job. If this meant that I couldn’t have Bailey, then I supposed that was the price that I had to pay.

Not a conversation I wanted to have with Dad. But he took what I said at face value. “No problem,” he said. “I’ll get him fed and everything, and if you’re late getting back home, I’ll make sure his homework’s all done and that he gets to bed early.”

“Perfect,” I said, even though there was a part of me that almost wished he would say he couldn’t watch Ethan that night and that I would just have to come straight home. I knew, logically, that that wouldn’t solve anything. Bailey would just want to see me on a different night if I put forth that excuse. But it would have given me more time to think about what I was going to say to her.

I needed to just pretend like everything was normal, I decided. Like I hadn’t been avoiding her. But like our one night together had been just that; one night together. This was a ski town full of seasonal workers. There was no ‘forever’ here.

“I’ll be home as early as I can,” I promised Dad before hanging up. I forced myself to go about my afternoon tasks as though the conversation with Bailey had never happened, as though the thought of dinner with Bailey that night wasn’t hanging over me with every new thing that I did.

I just had to act normal. Do my best to keep my job, and hope that it all worked out in the end.

37

Bailey

I glumly walked back to my office on Wednesday afternoon. I had really hoped that Adam would agree to dinner with me without me having to invoke rank. But it was hard not to see his hesitation as just another sign that he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. I didn’t know where things had gone wrong, but he was definitely avoiding me. I had barely seen him since we had slept together, and I didn’t know what to do about that.

Of course, there wasn’t really any reason for our paths to cross regularly around the resort. He didn’t need me around to keep him on track with work. That’s what Gretchen was for. And he certainly didn’t need my help, even though I could tell that he was driving himself into the ground with each passing day. He had too much on his plate, and I almost wished that I hadn’t stopped Ian from hiring that maintenance crew to help him out.

But until he told me that he couldn’t keep up with all his work, there wasn’t much that I could do about it.

I was sure that he and I needed to have a little talk, though. I just didn’t understand what had gone wrong. I had thought, last Wednesday night, that things were good between the two of us. And it wasn’t even that I was that desperate to have sex with him again. I just wanted to make sure that he was okay. Something was off, and I wanted to know what it was.

I hadn’t worked so hard to get him to open up to me just to ignore him as soon as he shut me out again.

For now, I headed back to my office, resigned to my apparent afternoon task; going through the expenses and seeing what the hell Ian had been up to. That didn’t cheer me up at all either.

I had thought that Ian was keeping out of my business here. He was still hanging around, and he wasn’t skiing all day every day. It wasn’t like I was going to kick him out, though. I still hadn’t talked to him about Vegas. I still hadn’t done what Kayla had recommended and talked to other people who still worked for the casinos to see what was up.

Was it possible that Ian had screwed things up there and was basically in exile here? Sure. But I doubted it. He was just hanging out until the new year really got under way. That was all. It had to be.

But I hadn’t realized he was actually still meddling in anything to do with the ski resort. Adam wasn’t the only person to mention certain strange purchases that had been made, though. I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Now.

I poured over the business receipts, growing more and more upset and worried. Adam was exactly right; the new lightbulbs that had been ordered had been extremely expensive compared to the ones that we normally bought. I knew that he had used at least one of them already, and I wondered about the rest of them. Was there any chance that we could send them back?

Probably not.

There were also a couple new cappuccino machines. Some new merchandise from a different supplier than we usually worked with. A bunch of little things that added up to one big chunk of our profit that had been eaten up. And sure, it had been an amazing year thus far. But because of that, we had already planned a bunch of improvement projects that all our extra profit would be going towards. Given that some of those projects had already been announced to our season pass holders, we couldn’t really go back on any of that now.

And anyway, Ian had no right to be ordering all of this stuff and making all of these changes. I sat there fuming over it for a moment and then stalked off to go find him and drag him back to my office. I almost wanted to ream him out in front of everyone, just so that everyone would know that he had no right to be doing any of the stuff that he’d been doing lately.

But this was my brother, and I couldn’t do that to him. Besides, most of the people out in the lodge at the moment were our customers, getting ready to head home for the day, taking their boots off and sipping at warm-up hot chocolates. I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of all of them.

Put simply, though, I was livid. “What the hell have you been doing with my business?” I snapped the moment the door was closed behind the two of us.

Ian raised an eyebrow at me. “Your business?” he echoed.

“Yes, my business,” I snarled. “I’m the one who bought this place, remember? And I thought you understood that I didn’t want you involved in it anymore.”

Ian sighed. “Come on, Bailey. I’m just trying to help.”

“Help with what, exactly?” I asked archly. “Driving us into bankruptcy?”

Ian snorted. “Don’t be dramatic. I haven’t done that much. I just thought this place could do with a few changes. They’re all things that you can easily afford. Don’t worry, I crunched the numbers on all of it.”

I shook my head. “Ian, we can’t afford all of this,” I said. “I know it’s been a good year for us, but that doesn’t mean that we can spend every dollar that we earn.”

“I know you’re worried that next year won’t be as good, but that’s even more reason to make some changes now,” Ian explained. “What you’re worried about is that the skiing won’t be as good, so you won’t get as many skier visits. Right? So all you need to worry about is getting people out to the resort either way. Give them reasons to come here. If you put in some nicer lights in the conference rooms, you could hold more business meetings here, or small-scale conventions, or even wedding receptions. Serve up some better food and drinks in the lodge and suddenly you’re a high-class restaurant with an awesome view out the windows, designed to appeal to anyone in town rather than just skiers.”

I stared at him as though he had sprouted a second head. “That’s not what this place is, though,” I said. “This is a ski resort. And sure, we want to have restaurants and the condos and stuff like that, but we’re not trying to draw businessmen in here. We’re trying to draw in skiers. Through improvements that directly benefit the skiers here.”

It shouldn’t be that hard for him to understand, I didn’t think.

Ian shrugged, though. “Yeah, well, you’ve said yourself that it’s a good winter. Lots of profit already. So you can do a little bit of both. Improve the base area that you’ve already got, and put some of the extra money towards improving the skiing experience. Although I don’t really know what you’re going to do there. It’s not like you can get approved for expansions or any of that in a year.”

“There’s plenty of other stuff that we can improve beyond expansions,” I snapped, because I had been through all of this with various personnel at the mountain. We had already brainstormed and come up with some long-term goals as well as short-term goals. That was part of the problem with Ian just spending money left and right; we had already figured out right where we wanted out money going. And it wasn’t to cappuccino machines and fancy lightbulbs.

“Okay, but you’ve got a lot of money to throw around. Better to reinvest it than just pocket it. That’s just common business sense.”

“Yeah, but the thing is, even if we’re turning a huge profit right now, we kind of have to,” I reminded Ian. “This is the busy time of the year. But half the profit we’re making right now is earmarked for some lift improvements next summer as well as just keeping us operating through the summer as a sightseeing resort. This isn’t like a normal company where if you make an extra profit in one quarter, you can just pocket it.”

“I’m not recommending you pocket it,” Ian protested. “Like I said, I’m recommending that you reinvest it, just like you normally would in any other company. Make this place a little nicer, draw in a richer clientele, and they’ll be spending money left and right. Yes, on cappuccinos and other things that you’ve never sold here before.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do here, though,” I countered. “I don’t want this place to be the next hoity toity haven for the rich. I like that it’s comfortable and down-to-earth. I like that we sell the basics, comfort food, in the lodge. I like that – “

“But that’s so short-sighted!” Ian exploded. “You’re going to spend the rest of your time here barely scraping even, especially with your operations costs going up and up every year. With climate change, you can’t count on the snow coming every year. Eventually, you might not even get snow at all. And what are you going to do then?”

“If I wanted to run a restaurant, I would have bought a restaurant,” I said. I shook my head. “From now on, Ian, I don’t want you involved in Brooks Mountain at all. Not a single thing. And if I catch you using company funds or otherwise meddling in it again, I will take you to court over it. Mark my words.”

I was definitely pissed with him, and I wanted him to know it. I think we both knew that I could never take him to court, though. He was still my brother at the end of the day. Hopefully, he got the message and quit meddling, though. I didn’t know exactly what I would do if he refused to quit it.

Ian stared at me for a moment like he wanted to protest. Then, he narrowed his eyes, turned around, and stalked out of there.

I sighed and fell back in my chair, staring up at the ceiling and wondering how things had all gone so wrong so quickly. Had it really only been a few months since Dad had died? Ian and I had been closer than hell back then, and now? Well, now we could apparently barely be in one another’s presence. He seemed to think that everything that I was doing was wrong. And I couldn’t figure out where the hell my supportive and friendly brother had gone.

This wasn’t the Ian that I used to work with, that was for sure. He was way too impulsive, and he didn’t seem to be thinking things through. And the fact that he repeatedly went behind my back to do things to my business when he knew full well that he wasn’t even an employee here? That was just above and beyond.

Suddenly, I started to wonder if maybe Kayla had been right. Was the casino business having problems? Was that what had brought Ian here to meddle in things at Brooks Mountain? I didn’t really want to know. But suddenly, I realized that I had to know. If Ian was having problems, I wanted to figure out a way to help him. Especially if it meant that I no longer had to deal with his attempts to help me out with things I didn’t need help with at all.

My first order of business was to cancel half the orders that Ian had made. I couldn’t get a full refund on a lot of the stuff, but hell would have to freeze over before I agreed to put fancy cappuccino machines in our lodge here. I wanted to keep the rustic charm here, and Ian knew that. I still didn’t know what the hell he had been thinking.

With that finally done, I turned towards my computer, drumming my fingers against my desk for a moment as I warred with my indecision. Finally, I opened up a browser tab, looking for any news about the casino business. Honestly, I didn’t expect to find much. I thought I was going to have to call up my contacts with the company and check into things with them.

Instead, I found half a dozen news articles directly related to Ian and the investigation that the shareholders had launched against him. No one went so far as to say that he had misused company funds, but there were definitely more than a few shareholders who were pissed off with the way that he had carelessly blown through all their money. And same as with Brooks Mountain, it sounded like a lot of the stuff that the money had been spent on wasn’t anything that was really needed.

I swallowed hard, reading further. Then, I called up one of my friends who still worked for the company to get his take on things. When I hung up, I couldn’t seem to wipe the grim frown from my face. Kayla was right, it seemed. Things really were looking bad for Ian. At best, he was probably going to lose his job.

How had things gone so wrong in the mere months since Dad had died? But when I really thought about it, I remembered conversations that Ian and I had had before, about how if he was running the company, he would do things different. He had had too much respect for Dad to try anything while Dad was still alive, even when Dad had handed plenty of responsibility over to him. But with Dad gone, it seemed like Ian had decided that he could finally make all those changes that he’d always wanted to make.

And when things had tanked with the casino business, he had come up here to prove that he really did know a thing or two about business. I swallowed hard, mind whirring as I tried to figure out how to approach Ian about all of this.

But before I could form a plan of action, there was a light knock on my door. Adam peeked inside, and I glanced at the clock, surprised to find that the afternoon was already gone and that the resort was already shut down for the night.

“You ready to go?” Adam asked, his expression carefully neutral.

Suddenly, I regretted that I had asked him to dinner with me tonight. Forced him to dinner with me, was more like it. He clearly didn’t want anything to do with me. He was clearly uncomfortable. And I had so much else on my plate at the moment anyway. For a moment, I debated calling the dinner off. But I needed to talk about this with someone, and Adam was the best person for figuring out how to handle Ian. The two of them might not be close anymore, but they used to be friends.

And suddenly, it felt like I barely even knew my brother anymore. I could use another opinion.

Not only that, but I sure as hell needed to get out of there.

I nodded at Adam and stood up, grabbing my coat. “Yeah, let’s go,” I said.

Adam followed me wordlessly out to the parking lot.

38

Adam

I frowned as I followed Bailey out towards the parking lot. I was trying to figure out what was going on in her head. Earlier in the day, she had been so adamant that she wanted me to go to dinner with her tonight, but now, it almost seemed like I was the one dragging her out. There was something going on in that head of hers, something that I couldn’t quite figure out.

We were almost at the parking lot when I finally grabbed her arm and drew her to a stop, staring worriedly down into her eyes. “Are you all right?” I asked her.

Bailey sighed and rubbed at her temples. “Look, I know this was all my idea in the first place, but is there any way that I could take a raincheck? I don’t really want to go out tonight.”

I stared at her for a moment. I would have expected to feel elated at the fact that she was letting me off the hook so easily. Of course, I had no doubts that she would want to reschedule this, but even a little more time to plan what I would say to her would help. But instead, I just felt even more worried about her. I knew that I wasn’t her only friend there. If something was really wrong, she could talk to Kayla.

But she had been alone in her office, and I knew that Kayla had gone home a little while ago. She clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever this was with Kayla. And I suddenly knew that I couldn’t let her just stew in her own thoughts all night.

So she didn’t want to go out to dinner? “Why don’t we stay in?” I suggested. “Let’s go back to your place and I’ll cook you a nice meal and you can just relax a little. I know things have been busy lately.” I said that last hoping that maybe I would get some clue out of her reaction. Maybe she was just tired. But she looked preoccupied more than tired.

She gave me a surprised look and then smiled faintly. “I’d really like that, actually,” she sighed.

I nodded and followed her towards her condo. When we got there, she tossed her keys on the table and kicked off her shoes, padding into the kitchen and pulling open the fridge. “I honestly don’t even know if I have anything to make a meal out of here,” she said, laughing self-consciously.

I caught her by the shoulders and spun her towards the living room, giving her a little push. “I’ll figure something out,” I told her. “And if I can’t, then we’ll, I don’t know, order a pizza or something.” I pulled a beer out of the fridge and opened it, putting it in her hand. “Now, go and relax.”

Bailey’s smile was a lot more solid that time, and I mentally congratulated myself on getting that much out of her at least. “Thank you, Adam,” she said quietly, heading towards the other side of the counter and hopping up on a stool where she could watch me while I cooked.

I began pulling various things out of her fridge, okaying them with her as I went. Slowly, I started to put together a nice Asian stir fry and some rice. “It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll be warm at least,” I said as I cooked.

“Honestly, I’m just glad not to have to worry about anything right now,” Bailey admitted. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I know I’m the one who invited you out to dinner, and this isn’t what I planned for tonight.”

I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I actually kind of like cooking. It’s peaceful.”

Bailey hummed in response. I wanted to ask her what was going on, but more than that, I wanted to keep her mind off of it, I decided. Whatever it was, she would no doubt tell me about it when she was good and ready to. Or she would decide that Kayla really was the person that she wanted to talk to about whatever it was.

Honestly, it was sort of a relief to be here in the privacy of her condo for dinner. No chance that anyone would see us here, and maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with Ian in the aftermath after all. I could dream, anyway.

To keep her mind off whatever it was that was bothering her, I found myself chattering away almost as much as Ethan tended to, telling her all about my week and some of the sillier tourists that I had seen recently. Soon, I got an actual laugh out of her, and I found myself grinning in response.

Maybe she and I could work through things. Forget all about the fact that we had slept together and just be friends. I realized that I would really like that. I would have to be careful not to make this anything more than that, because she deserved much more than I was capable of giving her, but if I could manage to tread that line carefully, there was no reason that we couldn’t be friends.

Ian would probably be grateful if it meant that I was back to looking out for his sister here rather than trying to sleep with her.

I set a bowl down in front of Bailey with a flourish. “Dinner is served,” I told her. “You want me to grab you another beer?”

“No, thanks,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “Still working on this one.”

I sat down across from her at the counter and took a bite of my own stir fry, nodding approvingly as I chewed it.

Bailey laughed. “You look so full of yourself,” she said. But when she took a bite, she smiled. “This is pretty good, though. Not that your ego needs any stroking.”

I shrugged unrepentantly. “Hey, I haven’t made this in a while. Beth and I used to have this a lot when we first moved in together. Couldn’t afford much else.” The words rolled easily off my tongue, and I could see Bailey’s eyes widen a little.

“Beth was your wife?” she asked quietly.

I nodded slowly. But Bailey, although she was clearly filing that information away in her head, didn’t ask me anything else about her. I exhaled in relief.

Then, I laid both my palms flat on the counter. Time to ask her the difficult questions. “Bailey, what happened this afternoon? Is something wrong with the resort?”

Bailey looked surprised and then shook her head. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s just something that I have to figure out.”

I frowned, wanting to ask her more about it. But I wasn’t sure what to say. It wasn’t like I had any right to ask her to open up to me, not when I was being so careful not to open up to her and tell her all about my insecurities and uncertainties. Not when I wouldn’t even tell her what Ian had said to me last week about not deserving to be with her.

No, I couldn’t ask her to spill her worries to me, as much as I wanted to fix everything for her. If she wanted to sort through things on her own, I had to respect that. So I let her change the topic of conversation to something else.

But I couldn’t help spending the rest of the night wondering if I had done the right thing in suggesting this. I had meant for it just to be two friends hanging out, trying to get Bailey’s mind off whatever it was that was bothering her. I mean, she had been the one to ask me to dinner in the first place, and that as my boss.

This felt date-like, though, in ways that I couldn’t describe. It was like we were getting to know one another, with the promise of more than friendship at the end of things. And that feeling only intensified later, as I stood at the counter doing the dishes.

Bailey laughed and tried to grab the saucepan out of my hands. “Come on, you don’t have to do that,” she insisted. “You already did the cooking. Let me wash up. Please.”

I shook my head. “I was the one who suggested that I cook,” I reminded her. “That means this is all my responsibility. Now, you go relax again.”

Bailey finally managed to wrestle the pan away from me, her fingers curling around my wrist. I froze and then looked slowly over at her. She tugged me off balance and into a kiss.

For a moment, I couldn’t help but kiss her back. It was Bailey, after all, and even though I knew logically that I shouldn’t be kissing her, that didn’t mean that I didn’t want her. I moved my lips gently against hers, my tongue twining with hers. But as she pressed herself up against me, I suddenly pulled back.

“Bailey, you know this isn’t a good idea,” I sighed, but it was hard to really pull away from her. I found myself resting my forehead against hers, my fingers resting against her hip, thumb rubbing small circles against her bare skin just above the waistband of her jeans.

Bailey sucked in a quick breath and looked like she wanted to say something, but then, she shook her head, looping a hand around the back of my neck and kissing me again. This time, I didn’t protest. She needed this, and I knew that I did as well. It might be a mistake, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t already crossed that line.

And besides, it was Bailey. How was I really supposed to say no to her, when her lips were pressed against mine and her scent was in my nostrils? I wanted this too damned badly to tell her no. There was no logic involved.

39

Bailey

I was surprised when Adam suggested that he come over to my place and cook dinner for me. I couldn’t help but feel touched by the gesture. He clearly could tell that there was something wrong, and he wanted to be there for me. Suddenly, I wondered if he really had been avoiding me all week or if that had just been my imagination. Maybe he really had just been busy.

Or not. But either way, he was here for me now, and that was all that I could ask for.

I couldn’t seem to think of a way to bring up the Ian conversation, though. At first, I’d thought that Adam could help me figure out what to do in that situation, but the more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Ian had been downright mean to Adam when he had caught us kissing. He and I might have been alone and behind closed doors when Ian said that thing about Adam not being good enough for me, but it made me wonder how close of friends they had ever really been. Maybe they had just been friends because they liked to pull the same kinds of pranks. Maybe they had never really known one another that well at all.

And besides, I couldn’t help but think that the Ian situation was something that I needed to figure out on my own. He was my brother, after all. It was my fault that he was causing trouble for the resort. As the owner of the company, I had to figure out a way to deal with that. If I couldn’t handle those sorts of problems, I didn’t deserve to be running the company.

Not only that, but there was a part of me that felt ashamed for Ian. He should know better. Dad had trained us to be so much savvier as businesspeople. The mistakes that Ian had made were pretty basic; it was like he didn’t understand anything about running a company. Which damned well wasn’t true, I knew. He had a good head on his shoulders, and he had plenty of experience. He just had a little too much pride. He had tried to change too many things too quickly.

I didn’t want to tell a near-stranger all about Ian’s problems. There had to be some way for Ian to get things back on track, the way that things were meant to be. I should talk to him about it before I went blabbing about the family troubles to everyone else at the resort. I owed that to Ian.

So when Adam finally asked about it, I brushed him off. It really wasn’t important. I had managed to send back most of the stuff that he had bought for the resort, so really, this wasn’t an issue with the resort. It was more an issue with Ian’s employment and the casino business. I should keep it that way.

I was glad to have Adam there with me, though, even if I didn’t want to really talk about any of it with him. I knew that I didn’t want to be on my own tonight, thinking about all of this. And Kayla would have wanted to talk things to death. She would never have let me get away with saying that I would handle things on my own. It was one of the things I loved about her, but it was also something that made nights like this difficult; I just didn’t want to talk about it with her.

So it was good to have Adam there, a rock-solid presence. Couple that with the fact that his simple dinner had been delicious, plus he had come out of his shell even more and actually talked to me about his week and everything that was going on in his life? Well, it was a pretty good evening in the end, I had to admit.

Maybe not the evening that I had planned for us. I had planned to talk to him about why he was so uncomfortable and awkward around me now. But I could see, now, that it really was just about being out in the resort, where anyone could see us. In here, in private, he was just as charming and friendly as ever. So maybe we didn’t need to have that conversation after all.

Of course, it threw me a little when he told me that this was a bad idea. I wanted to say something, to explain all the reasons why he was wrong. But then again, if he really didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be here, my mind insisted. He would have stepped back away from me, or even left. He certainly wouldn’t have kissed me back.

So I went in for another kiss, and even though I could still sense a slight hesitation there, or a nervousness maybe, Adam leaned into me, his fingers touching my bare skin and sending a shiver shooting down my spine.

To be honest, I was nervous as well. The last time had been so good but so overwhelming at the same time. I didn’t know if this could live up to the same again. Maybe last time had been a fluke. Or maybe it had just been the newness of it all. It had been a while since I had had sex before, and it had been a while for Adam as well. The first time back was bound to be incredible and amazing and overwhelming.

But as I led Adam to my bedroom, his fingers on my body still sent electric currents of pleasure pulsing through me. He stripped me down carefully, his eyes hungry as they roved over my skin. He pushed me down on the bed and climbed on top of me, laying a trail of kisses down the entire length of my body.

I groaned as he tugged my panties off with his teeth, the same teeth that he raked lightly across my skin moments later, raising goosebumps. He kissed my folds, making me arch against the sheets, desperate for more of the sweet sensation. His tongue flicked out, sliding across my clit and then darting inside of me. He began to work me open with his tongue and his fingers. I gasped and tangled my fingers in his hair.

He spread my legs open even wider and settled between them, giving me barely a moment of warning before he thrust fully inside of me. But I was slick and ready, my body needing that pleasurable intrusion more than the very air that I breathed. He rocked into me in a frenzied manner, unable to hold himself back.

And as for me, I clung to him, letting him use me, wordlessly begging for more and more. Things between us had been so shaky ever since Ian caught us kissing, but right now, they felt utterly right, as my world narrowed down to just the two of us, him and I. How could I possibly want anything else?

He pushed my legs up and back, until I was practically bent in half, giving him even deeper access into my pussy, until it felt as though he was impaling me on his length. It was all too much and yet so perfect at the same time; he somehow knew exactly what I needed and gave it to me beautifully.

I screamed out his name as I climaxed, my whole body jerking as my brain got trapped in an endless loop of pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. I might even have blacked out for a second, because when I came back to awareness, Adam was pulling out of me, lowering my legs back to the bed, collapsing at my side.

I groaned and reached for him, barely cognizant of where I was. I curled into his warm side, still trying vaguely to piece together how we had ended up here again.

Right, dinner. A dinner where I had meant to ask him, more as a friend than anything else, what he would do about the Ian situation. I didn’t regret that things had ended up here, but now that I was thinking about Ian again, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the casino business.

I didn’t want to spoil the moment. I wanted to lay here and appreciate Adam’s warm, bare skin as it was pressed against mine. To appreciate the way that I could hear his heartbeat beneath my cheek. To appreciate the way he lazily swirled his fingers across my lower back.

But instead, I kept thinking about how frustrating that afternoon had been. I could feel myself getting tenser and tenser.

“Adam?” I asked suddenly, as I lay there pressed against his chest, his arms wrapped loosely around me.

“Hmm?” he hummed in response, sounding almost as though he had been half-asleep there in my bed.

“If something was wrong with one of your siblings that they kind of deserved, would you still help them out?” I asked. Maybe not the best way to word things, but I didn’t know what else to say.

“I don’t have any siblings,” Adam said.

“Well, imagine that you did,” I said impatiently. “If you had a sibling and they had done something that they should have known not to do and created a whole mess for themselves, would you leave them to deal with the consequences or would you try to help them out?”

Adam shifted against me. For a moment, I thought that he might ask something about Ian. I hadn’t exactly been subtle in my inquiry. But then, Adam just shrugged. “Family comes first. Always. Of course I would help my sibling.”

He said it as though it was just that simple. And even though I knew that it wasn’t, I also knew that Adam was right. Ian might deserve the consequences of his actions. He should never have made all those changes and spent all that money. And I was still a little mad at the way that he had tried to interfere with the resort. But at the end of the day, he was my brother, and I couldn’t turn my back on him and leave him to his fate. I had to help him.

Now, I just had to figure out how.

40

Adam

I knew that I couldn’t avoid Bailey for another day. She had realized that I was avoiding her before; of course she had, she was smart enough to figure it out, and it wasn’t like the resort was that big. And besides, I knew that she and I had to talk. Better that we do it here, while we were at work, rather than in private.

Put the two of us in private and things seemed to keep happening between us. It was like we were magnets, both just unbelievably drawn to one another.

I hadn’t meant to let last night go where it had ended up going. I just wanted to cheer Bailey up, because I could tell that something had happened during the afternoon to put her in a sour mood. I had meant to stop her when she first kissed me. But I just couldn’t hold myself back. And the sex had been just as good as before. Maybe even better.

But it couldn’t happen again. I couldn’t let her start thinking that she was getting attached to me, because she and I just couldn’t be together. I had to make sure that she knew that. We needed to have a talk about things.

I was still trying to figure out how to broach the subject with her, though. For now, I figured if I stuck to the dirtiest tasks on my list for the day, she wouldn’t come looking for me. So here I was, in the dusty room that housed the resort’s water heaters, plugging away at a little drip that I’d noticed a few days prior. I was up to my elbows in grease when Ian walked in.

His look said it all; of course I could never be good enough for his sister, looking like this. But he didn’t mention Bailey at first. Instead, he said, “You don’t have to worry about those.”

“Uh, it’s kind of my job,” I said, unable to keep the confusion from my voice. “There’s a drip; I’m the maintenance person. Unless you’ve hired someone else to look at this?” I didn’t mean to say that last, and especially not in such a snide tone of voice, but I just couldn’t help it.

I had been puzzling all morning about what Bailey had said the night before about a sibling that was in trouble. I had been half asleep when she had said it, my brain scattered in the wake of some serious bliss, but thinking back now, I recalled every puzzling word. Was Ian in some kind of trouble? It had to be something back in Vegas; that would explain his extended trip here.

But I couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble he could have gotten himself into. Maybe drinking and partying, or something like that? But there were plenty of CEOs who were like that, who barely did any of the work for themselves. That wasn’t necessarily trouble, that was just bad business. And anyway, I didn’t know how Bailey could possibly help him out with that.

I was starting to wonder just what the hell he was doing here in Park City, though, and how long he would be staying. My job was difficult enough without having to deal with his interference. I had enough stress without worrying that he was going to replace me as soon as he had a chance to.

Like now, apparently.

Ian narrowed his eyes at me. “Watch your tone,” he snapped. “I can get you fired.”

I wanted to say something about how he didn’t own the business and how he couldn’t really fire me, but then I realized that that wasn’t what he had said. He hadn’t told me he would fire me, he told me that he could get me fired.

And I was sure that he could, when it really came down to it. Bailey might be interested in me for the moment, but Ian was her brother, and she would never go against him, even if she thought that he was in the wrong.

“Anyway, you don’t need to worry about these things,” Ian repeated. “I’ve got new water heaters coming in. Ones that don’t leak.”

I stared at him for a moment, flabbergasted. I knew we were turning a decent profit that winter, but that still didn’t mean that new water heaters were something we could afford. Especially not since the old water heaters were perfectly fine. In need of a little fixing up, maybe, but still plenty serviceable.

“Ian, I don’t think we need new water heaters,” I protested. “Seriously, I can get these things fixed in an afternoon. The only reason I haven’t gotten around to them yet is that I didn’t think it was a very pressing issue in comparison to some of the other things that I’ve been working on.”

“I don’t think this resort pays you to worry about whether or not things need to be replaced,” Ian said loftily. “If I tell you not to bother fixing these, then you don’t need to bother fixing these.” He paused, glaring meaningfully at me. “I’m not asking you to stop. I’m telling you.”

I stared at him for a moment and then pushed away from the water heaters, wiping off my hands on a rag. “Fine,” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. “You want to replace something that’s working perfectly fine, then you can be my guest.”

“Tone,” Ian reminded me condescendingly.

“What the hell is your problem with me?” I finally snapped. “Look, I get that you don’t want Bailey to end up with someone like me, but I’m just trying to do my goddamned job. And last I checked, you aren’t the owner of this resort, so you don’t really have a say in how I do that job. If Bailey doesn’t want me working on the water heaters, then she can tell me that. But it’s honestly none of your goddamned business.”

I couldn’t help exploding like that. Of course, I remembered that he could still get me fired, but I was starting to wonder if that would be for the best after all. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand to have him lurking around the resort, ready to call me out for just about anything, making me feel like I was somehow doing everything wrong.

I had had this job for years now, and I didn’t exactly need him telling me how to do things, especially not if it meant that two days later, Bailey might turn around and undo everything that her brother had done. It was all starting to be too much.

Between my stress over my job and my stress over the conversation I had to have with Bailey later that day, I just snapped. I couldn’t help it.

Ian stared at me for a moment, a scowl on his face. Then, “Find something else to do,” he said, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly, as though he thought that I might not understand him otherwise, as though I was an idiot. “And if I see you talking to my sister again, I’m going to make sure that you don’t work in this state again.”

I blinked in surprise at him. At first, I wanted to laugh off his threat. Make sure that I didn’t work in this state again? How could he possibly do that? But then again, this was Ian Peters, who headed up a very powerful company that drew in a lot of rich clients. Rich clients like the ones who owned the ski resorts here in Utah. If he wanted to use his connections to make sure that I couldn’t get work as a maintenance man anywhere else in the state, he damned well could do that. I would bet on it.

I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to move at all, let alone move out of Utah. I had lived here for my whole life, and this was home. But if I couldn’t get work, I would have to move. I didn’t want to do that to Ethan. I didn’t want to do that to myself.

So I nodded curtly at Ian and grabbed my toolbox, mentally scratching the leaking water heater off my list. And adding ‘install new water heaters’ to my list for later in the week. That was sure to be a nightmare at this time of year, with the condos nearly full with guests, all of whom probably wanted to take hot showers at some point. But hey, if that’s what Ian wanted me to do, then I guess that was what I was going to do.

I nearly ran into Bailey as I stomped off towards my office, deciding to take an early lunch just so that I could calm down a little.

“Whoa,” she said in surprise. “What’s up? What happened?”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it,” I managed to grit out through my teeth.

“Did Ian say something to you?” Bailey asked worriedly.

I laughed bitterly, unable to help it. “So what, you realize that he’s a problem, but you don’t want to do anything about it? Fucking typical.”

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 with 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.

Of course, I knew all of that was my own fault. He and I had been friends before. He had seemed genuinely happy to see me again the last time that he had been here, when Bailey had first bought the resort. He had asked me to look out for her. To help her out.

I had betrayed that trust. It was only right that he was pissed at me. I probably owed him a little help. But I didn’t really want to chat with Bailey in private about all the shit that Ian had done back in Vegas, whatever it was. I didn’t want to be in private with her at all. That was dangerous.

“Honestly, I think it’s better if you don’t know anything about the casino industry,” Bailey was trying to say. “I need an outsider’s perspective, someone who can look at things objectively and with different eyes.”

I shook my head. “Look, Bailey, I’d love to help,” I told her. “But I really don’t think I’m the right person for that. I’m just a mechanic.”

Bailey looked taken aback, and I could tell that she wanted to say something about that, but I interrupted her this time, glancing pointedly at my watch. “I really need to get some work done,” I told her. “But if I can help you with anything else, let me know.”

For the second time in as many days, I walked away feeling like an asshole. I didn’t want to upset her. But I also didn’t want to get too close to her. It would only end in heartache for both of us. Ian had been right all along; I didn’t belong in their world. And my lack of knowledge about the casino business was only the tip of that iceberg.

43

Bailey

Adam was the person I really wanted to talk to about Ian’s issues, but he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in talking about that. I hated those last words that he had said, about how he couldn’t help me figure it out since he was ‘just a mechanic’. That was a little too close to what Ian had said when he had told me that I shouldn’t be with Adam, and it made me wonder if Ian had said something similar to Adam at some point.

But there was no way to ask Adam about it without repeating all the terrible things that Ian had said to me, and I didn’t want Adam to think that I was the one who felt that way about him. Because I didn’t give a shit that Adam worked a blue-collar job. He was good at what he did, and he was one of the most hard-working people that I had ever met.

Besides, Adam wasn’t giving me much time to talk about anything with him. For the second time in two days, he hurried away from me, leaving me aching with all the things that I wished that I could say to him, about how sorry I was about all of this, and about how much I wanted to make things right between us. Things had been off ever since Ian had caught us kissing, and I hated that.

I wanted to tell Adam that Ian had agreed to quit meddling in our relationship. That we could really work things out. But I didn’t have a chance for that now.

I sighed and shook my head. Another time, I promised myself.

For now, I headed out to talk to Kayla about Ian’s situation and see if she had any insight into it. After all, she had been the one to tip me off to it in the first place.

She shrugged when I asked her what she would do in my situation. “Well, I assume that you still have contacts with the business, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “But I can’t, like, get one of them to take over Ian’s job. I’m not trying to get my brother fired. And even having one of them step in as an advisor or something wouldn’t work. Ian’s used to having the power now, and it would seem like a massive slight for someone to have to supervise his decisions.”

“Oh no, of course not,” Kayla said, shaking her head. “That’s not what I was suggesting at all. I just figure, someone in that company probably knows exactly what it’s going to take to get the investigation dropped, right? So if you can talk to them and figure out what they want, then you’ll know exactly how to proceed. Or at least, you’ll kind of have the starting point. If you decide not to just do what they want, you’ll at least know where the negotiating table is.”

“That’s a good point,” I said slowly, already thinking through who the best person would be to talk to about that. Kayla was right, I knew; what better way to know what they were looking for than to just ask? It was something that I probably wouldn’t have thought of on my own, but Kayla had always been blunter than I was. Sometimes, bluntness was exactly what was called for when it came to business.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay?” I told her.

“Sure thing,” Kayla said easily. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” I said, grinning crookedly at her. “And thanks for all your help around here. I owe you about a dozen bottles of wine, I’m pretty sure.”

Kayla laughed. “Let’s have another girls’ day soon,” she said. “We’ll set something up after the holidays are over.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I told her.

I headed into my office to make the phone call. I couldn’t help feeling nervous about it. What if whatever they were demanding was too much? What if they never wanted Ian to come back to work? That casino was his whole life; he, unlike me, had never dreamt of quitting and going into some other business. And besides, I knew what it meant to him, being part of the family business. He would feel like a failure if he was forced out of it.

What’s more, I didn’t know if the head of the board of directors, Bill, would even agree to talk to me about this. I wasn’t part of the business anymore, and there wasn’t all that much that I could promise him. It wasn’t like I could force Ian to bend to their wills; he was my older brother, and he was the one who had gotten into this mess in the first place.

But I had to try. I had promised Ian that I would do my best to help him, and as Kayla had pointed out, this was the most logical starting point.

“I have to tell you,” Bill said gravely when I told him why I was calling, “the guys are all extremely upset with Ian.”

“I’m sure they are,” I said. I knew the kind of havoc he had wreaked trying to make changes here at Brooks Mountain, so I could only imagine the kinds of things he had done with the casino business, with no one to really check his power. “But we can fix things, I’m sure.”

“I don’t know if we can,” Bill said grimly. “We’ve alienated a lot of our regulars. Ian was so set on bringing in new customers that he was willing to make whatever changes he thought needed to be made. But our regulars come here expecting certain things from us. There’s an image associated with our brand. And it’s not a bunch of rich youngsters throwing parties in the middle of the casino floor or puking in the club bathrooms.”

I winced. I could imagine just the kind of people that Ian had been trying to appeal to, and knew just how obnoxious that would have been to a lot of our regulars. Ian had tried to remake the whole image to be young and hip and fresh, but he’d lost a certain amount of class in the process.

It was sort of the same thing that he’d been trying to do here at Brooks Mountain, when I thought about it; trying to bring in rich new folks at the risk of alienating the down-to-earth locals and vacationers who had been our staple clientele for years.

“We can fix things,” I repeated, more firmly this time.

“If you say so,” Bill sighed. “But honestly, I think that if you want to fix things, you’re going to need to come back here to Vegas to put in a certain amount of work yourself. Show your face to the regulars, apologize to them, help come up with ways to bring them back to the tables here.”

I frowned, twisting my chair back and forth for a moment. This was the busy season for a ski resort, although things were starting to wind back down to normal levels again. Still, I hadn’t planned to return to Vegas this season. I didn’t want everyone here thinking that I was one of those bosses who would only be there every so often, as it suited me.

But at the same time, Ian’s life and livelihood was on the line. If Bill was sure that my presence back in Vegas was what it would take to get the casino business back on track, then I had to take that at face value. And I knew that I had a responsibility to my family. Like Adam had said, family always came first. I couldn’t run my own business at the expense of my blood. Everyone here would just have to understand that.

Still, I hesitated. I wanted to believe that I could trust Ian being here in Park City while I headed back to Vegas to straighten things out, but I remembered the conversation that I had had with Adam the previous day, and the things that I had promised everyone that morning in the all-employee meeting. I had said that Ian wasn’t going to cause trouble around the resort anymore. I had promised that that situation was handled.

I couldn’t take a chance of Ian messing with things while I was gone.

“Bill, I know that you guys don’t really want to deal with Ian at the moment, but he’s going to come back with me,” I said firmly. “He and I will meet with the regulars together and see if we can straighten things out. I think that’ll be best for the long-term.”

Bill was silent for a moment. Then, he sighed. “A lot of our regulars aren’t going to want to see him,” he said. “But you’re probably right that it’s better for the long term. If they can see that he really does want to get to know their wants and needs, then they might even be willing to allow for some changes to the place.”

I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see it. “I’ll book our flights this afternoon,” I promised, already trying to think of a way to explain things to Ian.

He wasn’t going to get to make all the changes that he wanted to make. And what’s more, he was going to have to deal with me being there to help smooth ruffled feathers, even after I had refused to allow him to have any say in what happened here with my business.

I hoped he didn’t feel like I was trying to take things over from him, because that was the last thing that I wanted. No, if I had my way, I would stay right here in Park City through the entire winter season. But it didn’t seem like that was an option.

I spared a moment to think about Adam. I hated the idea of hitting the pause button with him now, when things were already so uncomfortable between the two of us. I was afraid that if I headed off to Nevada now, leaving things as they currently were, then we would never be able to build a relationship between the two of us.

But Adam knew the importance of family. He had been the one recommending that I help Ian in the first place. He would understand if I had to go off to Vegas right now. When I came back, when the Ian situation was settled, then we would have plenty of time to get back on the same page with our relationship.

44

Adam

I smiled as Ethan jumped up and down with glee at having finally managed to shoot down one of the cans that we had set up at the far end of the yard. I had spent the week working hard to get caught up on everything on my list of tasks. The busier I’d been, the less I’d had time to think about Bailey. And with Ian finally agreeing not to interfere around the resort, it meant I knew exactly what my tasks were and wasn’t trying to plan for weird things like replacing all the water heaters in the middle of the busy season.

I had gotten a surprising amount done, and I had been able to take another Saturday off to spend a little extra time with Ethan. That morning at breakfast, he’d asked if we could go skiing with Bailey today, of course. But it was easy enough to redirect his enthusiasm towards practicing with the BB gun that Dad had given him, especially when I reminded him that he was going skiing with one of his friends that afternoon. He didn’t want to wear himself out with us.

I wasn’t really in the mood for skiing that morning. I didn’t really want to be anywhere near the resort at the moment; every time I went there, I seemed to end up twisted in knots over the Bailey situation. And focusing on what he was doing with the BB gun and whether or not he was using it safely kept my attention away from my own thoughts of Bailey.

It was a win-win.

To tell the truth, I was still feeling guilty about the way that I had blown her off the day before. I had tried to apologize to her at the end of the day, to tell her that if she needed help thinking of some way to help him, I was at her disposal. But when I had gone to her office, she had already left for the day. I had thought about calling her or texting her, but the latter seemed too cold and I had a feeling that if I tried to call her, I was just going to end up totally tongue-tied and saying something stupid.

Anyway, I’d see her around the resort tomorrow and talk to her then. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t going to see her again.

“Nice shot, buddy,” I said to Ethan. “Hey, do you want to see what it looks like when you shoot an apple? These guys are pretty rotten.”

“Yeah!” Ethan said excitedly, carefully setting the gun down and taking the apples from me. He raced off to set them down at the other end of the makeshift shooting range then came running back over to me, a big grin on his face.

Just then, I heard a car turn into the driveway. “Hold on just a second, buddy,” I said, frowning and wondering who it was. We didn’t get a lot of traffic out here since we were at the end of the road, and not a busy road at that. It wasn’t like anyone would drive all the way out here even to ask us those nagging political questions. But every once in a while, someone got lost and ended up out here.

When I turned towards the road, though, I was surprised to see Bailey’s car pulling up. She shut the engine off and got out, and Ethan cheered, racing over to give her a big hug. Bailey laughed, hugging him back. “Hey, Ethan,” she said. She smiled at me, but I could see something tentative in the expression, like she thought I’d be mad at her for coming there. “Hey, Adam.”

“Is there something wrong at the resort?” I asked automatically, pulling out my phone. But I didn’t have any missed calls.

Bailey shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “I just wanted to talk to you about something. Sorry to come over here on your day off.”

I frowned, trying to think of what she wanted to talk to me about. Was this it, was she going to fire me now? I glanced towards Ethan, hoping that she wouldn’t fire me in front of him at least. If we were going to have to move, I wanted to know all the facts first. I didn’t want to worry him.

Ethan tugged at Bailey’s hand. “Come and see, come and see,” he said, pulling her over towards his BB gun. “You have to be really careful,” he said seriously, showing her how to work the gun and explaining all the different safety rules that I had told him. “But then, you can aim it like this and then shoot.” Ethan frowned and shrugged when his shot hit the dirt in front of one of the apples. “I missed.” He cocked his head at Bailey. “Do you want to try?”

Bailey smiled down at him. “Sure,” she said, carefully taking the BB gun from him. She aimed it down the field and easily shot one of the apples.

“Wow!” Ethan said excitedly. “You’re the best!”

Bailey laughed and handed the gun back to Ethan. “Lots of practice,” she said seriously. “My brother used to have a BB gun just like that when I was a kid, and sometimes I would borrow it. I wanted to be just as cool as he was.”

Ethan giggled. “Bet you’re cooler,” he said.

I glanced at my watch. “Hey, Ethan, if you’re going skiing with Jack, you’d better go get your things together,” I said.

“Okay!” Ethan said happily, putting the gun down and darting towards the house.

Bailey smiled after him while I shoved my hands in my pockets. Then, she turned her attention back towards me. “There’s something that I wanted to talk to you about,” she said.

“Right,” I said. “Look, Bailey, I’m sorry about what I said yesterday, but I need to make sure that Ethan’s got everything that he needs. Otherwise, he’ll forget socks or something.” I couldn’t meet her gaze. There was so much more that I needed to say to her, but the words just wouldn’t seem to come out.

Bailey smiled softly at me. “Hey, don’t worry about yesterday,” she said gently. “I’m sorry if Ian said anything that made you feel like you didn’t deserve to, I don’t know, have an opinion on anything. I know he’s been kind of a dick lately.”

I didn’t know what to say in response to that. I couldn’t exactly agree with her, even if that was the truth. I glanced towards the house again, and she sighed. “I probably should have called before I just showed up like this. I know you’re busy. But I’m kind of on a tight schedule at the moment.”

I frowned at her, wanting to ask just what was going on.

“Are you skiing with Ethan this afternoon?” Bailey asked before I could.

I shook my head. “Nah, Jack’s older brother is going to go with them,” I said.

“But you’re going to drop them at the resort?” Bailey pressed.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “Why?”

“Can you stop by my office while you’re there?” she asked.

“I’ll be at work again tomorrow,” I told her, but when she frowned and started to protest, I shook my head. “Fine, I’ll see you in a little while,” I said, wondering just what it was that she needed to talk to me about that was so pressing. I was either getting fired or she wanted to talk about us, and I wasn’t sure which I was more worried about.

Bailey nodded and went back to her car, giving me one last, long look before she started the ignition and drove off, presumably back towards the resort. I frowned after her and then shook my head. I really did need to make sure that Ethan had everything that he needed. We swung by Jack’s house on the way to the resort and I picked up the other boys. It was a bit chaotic when we got to the resort, making sure that they all had everything they needed for an afternoon of fun. But finally, they were on the lift headed up to ski.

I sighed and turned back towards the lodge, heading in to talk to Bailey. I would much rather just put this off, maybe tell her that I had forgotten or that something else had come up. But I knew she wouldn’t let me get away with that. Anyway, better to just get this over with. I had to admit, I was pretty curious.

I knocked on the door to her office and Bailey called for me to enter. I hesitated before shutting the door behind myself. If I was getting fired, I didn’t really want anyone to overhear. But at the same time, shutting the door behind us made things feel so personal and private, and that made me think of the last time we had been together in the privacy of her condo.

Not that I would dare do anything like that here. Ian had already walked in on us kissing; he would kill me if he walked in on something more than that. I didn’t need anyone else around the resort seeing it either.

I sat down across from Bailey at her desk as she smiled at me. “I’m going to have to go back to Nevada for a bit, but I wanted to talk to you before I left,” she said.

I stared at her, shocked into silence. “Why?” I finally asked. And what’s more, why was she telling me this now, in private, rather than telling all the employees at one of the all-staff meetings? This was definitely something that everyone else deserved to know.

Unless what she was saying was that I was the reason that she had to go back? Did she feel like I had been causing too much drama between her and Ian, and she wanted to get away from me for a little while? I grimaced at the very thought of that.

“Ian’s in some trouble with the casino, like I said,” Bailey said, shrugging. “I talked to Bill, the head of the board of directors, and he thinks that it would be better for me to come back and smooth some of the ruffled feathers. I used to do a lot of the PR work for the company, so these are guys that I know pretty well. Our regulars.” She shook her head. “It’s not really any of my business since I’m not part of the company anymore, but I don’t want Ian to lose his job, and this seems like the only way to help him out.”

“So you’re going to Vegas,” I said, trying to keep my tone neutral. “When?”

“Tomorrow, actually,” Bailey said. She made a face. “To be honest, I really don’t want to go. I feel like I’m just starting to find my rhythm here, and I don’t want everyone to think that I’m only going to be here when I don’t have other things to do elsewhere. This is my whole focus.” She sighed. “But like you said before, family comes first. If Ian’s in trouble, I have to help him out. I couldn’t handle myself otherwise.”

I stared at her for a moment and then slowly nodded. I had been the one to tell her that she needed to help out Ian. So if that meant she was headed to Nevada, well, that was my own fault.

There were a dozen questions I wanted to ask. Not least of which, when would she be back? But she probably didn’t know the answer to that. Hell, she might not be planning on coming back. If the only way to ensure that the business was going to be okay was to have her back as part of the business, there would probably be some people who didn’t want her to leave again, who would only agree to smooth things over with Ian if Bailey remained there at his side to temper him.

So what Bailey was really saying, the reason that she wanted to do this in private, was that she wasn’t coming back and that we had to forget about anything that had ever happened between us. This was goodbye, basically.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course, I had expected her to leave sooner or later. It was part of why I didn’t want to get involved with her in the first place. It was just what Ian had told me before; Bailey and I were from different worlds. She had about a dozen projects on her plate, different things that all needed her attention. She had the whole world at her feet. And I just had this, my job at Brooks Mountain and my life here in Park City. I couldn’t keep up with someone like her. No sense in even trying.

I shrugged at her. “Well, I guess I hope you have a good trip,” I said, trying not to sound bitter. I started to get to my feet, but Bailey shook her head.

“That’s not all,” she said. I slowly sat down again, even though every bone in my body was telling me to get out of there before she really crushed my heart. I hadn’t realized just how much I wanted her, just how much I had expected things to get better between us once Ian went back to Nevada. I had set my expectations way too high, I saw now.

But I couldn’t bring myself to walk out of there. Call it masochism, maybe, but I couldn’t walk away from Bailey when she was looking at me with that earnest look in her eyes.

45

Bailey

I still had mixed feelings about leaving the resort. I had talked to Ian about everything the night before, though, and he’d seemed surprisingly relieved to hear that I would be coming back to Vegas with him.

“I hate to say it,” he said, “but I feel like part of why things got so crazy is that I lost my best sounding board.” He smiled crookedly at me. “Have I ever told you how much I appreciated being able to run through business things with you before?”

I laughed and shook my head. “You still can, silly,” I told him. “I’m only a phone call away, whenever you need me.”

“I know,” Ian said. He shrugged. “I guess I was just worried that you’d be so busy with things here that you wouldn’t have time to hear all the crazy plans that I had for the casino business.”

“I’ll always make time to hear your crazy plans,” I promised him. I paused. “To be honest, I’ve missed having you here too. I know I didn’t really give any of your ideas the time of day, but you really were trying to help. And I do think that you’re right about some of the stuff. We need to step up our game in a couple areas. If we could get the restaurant to be more of a staple and things like that, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about where our winter profits were going, because we’d know that we would have a little more profit coming in during the summers. Things like that.”

“I shouldn’t have just stepped in like I did, though,” Ian said, grimacing. “If you had done that to me, I probably would have bought you a one-way ticket back home and never talked to you again.”

I laughed. “You wouldn’t have done that,” I said confidently. “But you definitely wouldn’t have been too happy with me.” I shrugged. “But either way, I want to make sure you know, I’m not planning on taking over the casino business. I don’t even really want to be back on official payroll or anything. As far as I’m concerned, my position is here in Utah.”

“With Adam?” Ian asked shrewdly.

I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I’m not really sure where we stand at the moment. But maybe.”

Ian nodded. “Well, I’ll be glad to have you in Vegas for a bit,” he said. I could tell that there was probably a part of him that hoped that once I got back to Nevada, I would forget all about Adam and move on to someone else. That wasn’t going to happen, but I didn’t push it for now.

It was difficult now, though, to tell Adam that I was leaving. And the next day, at that. I wished that I could put it off, spend a little more time here before I left. But I knew that the sooner the Ian situation was resolved, the sooner I could come back here. Now was the perfect time to go, too, while things were getting less busy by the day. I’d be back before things got busy again at the start of February for the Winter Festival, I hoped.

I could see Adam wasn’t happy about the fact that I was leaving, though, and it killed me to have to leave him. I wished that I could ask him to come with me, but I knew that even if he might possibly have agreed to that, it just wasn’t possible. I needed him here; there was no one who could take over his job here. And more than that, there was Ethan. I couldn’t ask Adam to leave his son behind for however long it took to sort things out in Nevada. Nor could we bring Ethan with us.

But it didn’t make this any easier.

If I had my way, if I had my way… Well, Adam and I would have been in a relationship. I would have stayed the whole winter here in Park City, and he and I would have gotten closer and closer, spending the long, cold nights curled up together on the couch, watching bad movies and waking up together in the mornings. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet, anyway.

“I need a favor from you,” I said to Adam.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“You know everyone here,” I said slowly. “And you know how things are supposed to run.”

“I guess so,” Adam said, shrugging and looking uncomfortable.

“No, come on. You were the one to tell me about all the whacky stuff that Ian ordered and everything,” I said.

“That’s just because my job involves all those things,” Adam said, frowning.

“Yeah, well. Look, I just need someone to keep an eye on the place while I’m gone. Keep me in the loop about everything. And I know that’s a huge favor to ask you on top of all the work that you already do, but I’d pay you extra to write up a weekly report for me. And of course you’d get a little raise if you were running the all-employee meetings and stuff.”

Adam stared at me and then shook his head. “I’m not the person you want for that,” he said immediately.

“Why not?” I challenged.

“Uh, because you already pay someone to be the general resort manager?” Adam tried, sounding like he could barely believe we were having this conversation.

I shook my head. “I know that,” I said. “But I’m not looking for some cut-and-dried feedback about bottom lines and company morale. I want to know what’s really happening around here. If people are upset with the way things are being run, I want them to be able to air those grievances. Now, I’d love to be here so that people can bitch to me about whatever’s bugging them, but that’s not possible right now. So I need someone checking in with people on my behalf.”

“Kayla would be better at that than me,” Adam said, shaking his head.

“Maybe,” I said. “But Kayla’s a little too emotional, herself. I want someone who’s going to be able to calm people down, let them know that their griping has been heard, and that things are going to be fixed as soon as possible. Or else someone who can explain to them why things are done the way that they are.”

“Still doesn’t sound like something you’d want me for,” Adam said. “Look, I don’t have any sort of business skills. I can’t tell them why things have to be done a certain way.”

I snorted. “Bullshit,” I said. “You’re smart. And you know how this place should run. And I saw the notebook on your desk with all your ideas for long-term improvements for the resort. Hell, you’re probably the person who should be running this place full-time, not me.”

Adam stared at me for a moment. “You’re really serious about this,” he finally said, and I could hear the surprise in his voice, like he could barely believe it.

But I nodded gravely at him. “Honestly, I was thinking about this even before I found out that I was going to have to go to Vegas,” I told him. “I’ve seen you with everyone around the resort. Hell, I’ve seen you with Ethan. You’re good with people. And I know it’s some extra work and a lot of extra responsibility. If you don’t want that, let me know. But don’t try and tell me that you can’t do it, because we both know that that’s a lie.”

Adam was still silent for a long moment, and I felt my hopes start to wilt. I had a feeling that he might not want to help me out with this. I’d spent half the night trying to come up with some way to get him to agree to it anyway, but the only surefire way I could think of was to remind him that I was the boss.

I didn’t want to feel like his job was on the line if he didn’t agree to help me out, though. I knew that I was asking a lot of him, and more than that, I knew that if I forced him to help me out, I was only going to make things worse in the long run. He would resent me as a boss, and he would never want anything to do with me in a more intimate way in the future.

And I hated the thought of either of those things.

I knew that he and I were already on thin ice. I didn’t know what exactly Ian had said to him, but from the surprised look that Adam had given me when I hinted at it, I could tell that there had been something. And even if there hadn’t been, well, it was no secret that Ian had tried his best to sabotage Adam’s job ever since he had come back to Park City. Adam had been worried about getting involved with me in the first place, and I had only given him a dozen reasons not to want to be with me anymore.

And now, I was asking him to add even more to his crazy workload, all so that I could take time off to deal with a personal problem. It just wasn’t fair to him at all.

Still, I sighed minutely. “Sorry,” I told him. “I shouldn’t have asked, I know that. I just didn’t know who else I could rely on.”

Adam stared at me for a long moment and then cleared his throat. “No, I’ll do it,” he told me. “I’m not making any promises about how it’ll go, but if this is what you want, then I’ll do it.”

Relief coursed through me. “Thank you, Adam,” I said quietly.

He nodded at me, then raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that all?”

I stared at him for a beat. Then; “I’ll miss you,” I blurted out.

Adam stared at me for a moment, his lips quirking up into a smile. “I’ll miss you too,” he said quietly, getting to his feet.

I got to my feet as well, coming around the desk towards him. “I wish that things hadn’t gotten so weird,” I said. “And I’m sorry for that. I know the drama was all my fault.”

Adam cocked his head to the side for a moment. “Not all of it,” he finally said. He shrugged. “I’ve got a bunch of baggage as well.”

“Are we okay?” I asked, even though I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to hear his answer. Not that the question was all that specific. It wasn’t like I had asked him if we were in a relationship or anything. He could say yes and simply mean that, yes, he was willing to keep working for me.

But Adam stepped closer to me, pulling me close with an arm around my waist. He kissed me deeply, his lips plying mine until I was breathless. But I didn’t dare pull away from him, not even to catch my breath. He nuzzled his nose against mine. “We’re okay,” he whispered quietly. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

I nodded, eyes closing for just a moment. If I had my way, I wouldn’t be leaving. But Adam had been patient with me for this long. Maybe leaving wasn’t the worst thing. Especially if it meant that I could come back and focus more of my attention on us.

46

Adam

Bailey smiled at me again. “You really didn’t have to drive me to the airport,” she said. “I could have taken a cab.”

I shrugged and glanced over at her as I flicked on my blinker to change lanes for the departures section of the airport. “I know you could have,” I said. “But I didn’t have that much to get done this morning, and this could have been a long cab drive for you. Plus, I never know if I trust the way those guys drive. You know, they’ll give just about anyone a job as a cabbie. I don’t think there’s any sort of driving test. Which there probably should be, given the amount of snowy, winter driving they have to do out here.”

Bailey looked like she was trying not to laugh as she reached over and lightly squeezed my thigh. “I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at once,” she said teasingly, and I fought not to feel embarrassed.

It wasn’t that I was feeling particularly chatty that morning. But I was feeling nervous. After the kiss in her office the previous afternoon, I had hightailed it out of there before things could get too heavy. I knew that I probably shouldn’t have kissed her. But I hadn’t been able to stop myself. And besides, I had a feeling that she was going to find someone she was more interested in when she went back to Nevada. So really, that kiss was just a way of saying goodbye. Reminding myself of what I could never actually have.

I hated to think of it that way, but it was the truth. This was goodbye, and it wouldn’t do to treat it otherwise.

Somehow, though, I was only now starting to realize just how much I cared for her. I hated the idea of her ending up with someone else. Who would it be? Some smooth-talking businessman? One of their regular clients at the casino, a guy with more money than he knew what to do with? Someone who had never had to work a day in his life?

Definitely not someone like me, either way. And the truth was, I would be happy for her, if she found the right guy. She deserved so much more. I just wondered if I would ever get to see her again. Maybe she would find another project more suitable for her. She clearly planned to be gone for a while, if she was worried about finding someone to be her liaison here, in case anyone had problems with the way that things were going.

It was funny, really. It wasn’t like the previous owners had really been too involved. Life would go on like it always had. But I was already imagining what it would be like in the lodge, without Bailey’s smiling presence. It would feel like something was missing, I was sure.

Stupid as that might be. She had barely spent any time there at all; that place had been going for a lot longer than she had been the owner of it. And not only that, but we didn’t really need her to help with running things. So she wanted me to write up weekly reports for her? I would do that at least until her interest started to wane. I doubted it would take too long.

I pulled up to the departures drop-off area and got out to help Bailey with her bag. She laughed and batted my hands away. “Come on, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “I barely packed anything; I’m not going to be gone for that long.”

“Do you already have your return ticket?” I asked in surprise. She hadn’t mentioned anything about that the previous day, and I thought that she would have told me if she was only going for a short time. She had made it sound like she didn’t know exactly what she needed to do or how long it would take. But now she seemed so sure that it would only be a short time.

Bailey grimaced and shook her head, though. Just as I had suspected. “No. But I figure if I tell everyone that I’m only there for a week or two at the most, then we can get everything done and I can get back here.”

I could hear in her voice, though, that she didn’t actually believe it would be that easy. She knew she could be there for a while. Packing light was just optimistic.

Or rather, she probably had no reason to pack any other way; it wasn’t like she was going to need all her heavy winter gear when she got to Vegas. It could get a little chilly there in the winter, especially when the sun went down, but it didn’t get nearly as cold as Utah, and she definitely wasn’t going to be skiing or anything like that.

For a moment, I wanted to ask if she was going to miss the snow. But that was silly to ask, and anyway, she probably needed to go catch her flight.

But still, she lingered there. “I just wanted to say thank you again for everything,” Bailey said seriously. “It means a lot to me, knowing that I can count on you around the resort. And with everyone else.”

I shrugged. “Just doing my job,” I said, trying not to be awkward.

“I know,” Bailey said, looking like she was going to say more. But then, she shook her head. “Anyway, I’ll be back as soon as I can. But maybe we can chat while I’m gone? Like on the phone or through the computer or something. I know you’re going to be busy. And I mean, I will be too…” She trailed off, looking sheepish.

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. More than anything, I wanted to kiss her, but I was still thinking of the kiss the previous day as a goodbye kiss, and I didn’t know if I could go through another one of those without stupidly blurting out my feelings for her.

My feelings for her. Oh man, what a mess. I had never meant to get this tangled up in thinking about her. But I couldn’t help it, I liked her. She wasn’t Beth, but she sure was special. Hard-working, good at what she did, empathetic, and sweet. She had Ethan and I both wrapped around her little finger. And the fact that Ethan liked her so much only moved her even higher in my esteem.

But I couldn’t have her. I knew that. I was almost hoping that she would find someone else in Vegas and never come back, even if it meant I had to have an altogether too difficult conversation with Ethan about it.

“Have fun in Vegas,” I told her. “And if you want to, you know, date other people while you’re there, I hope you know that that’s fine with me. I don’t care what you do.” The words came out all wrong, but I was surprised to see anger flicker across Bailey’s face.

“Why, because ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’?” she asked scathingly. “I’m not that kind of girl. I’m not going to go out and get drunk and sleep with a bunch of strangers just because it’s Vegas. Some of that novelty kind of wears off once you’ve lived there. And to be honest, I was never all that interested in that in the first place.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, wincing. Jesus, it was as though I had called her a whore. I really hadn’t meant to insult her. “I just meant, if you find the right guy there, you know like a businessman or something, you don’t have to wait to tell me about him face-to-face. In fact, if you’re coming back here, I’d rather know that ahead of time, before, I don’t know, I run into him at the resort or something.”

Bailey stared at me. “If I find the right guy,” she said flatly. Then, slowly, she grinned at me. “If I find a businessman or something?”

I pressed my fingertips against my eyelids, sighing heavily. “Look, I know you deserve someone better than me. You and I come from different worlds, Bailey. And what we’ve had here, it’s been nice, but I get it. You’ve got to go back to the world you came from. Call this a winter fling or something. Don’t worry; you’re not the first person to dabble in the joys of the seasonal lifestyle before going back to the real world.”

Bailey blinked and then grabbed my lapels, pulling me into a rough kiss. Our teeth clacked against one another’s, and I probably could have made her let go of me if I had really wanted to. But I was so surprised by that reaction to what I was saying that I just let her go with it for a moment.

When she pulled back, she was staring fiercely into my eyes. “Adam, this wasn’t some stupid seasonal fling,” she said. “And I don’t know who the hell told you that you weren’t good enough for me, or that we were from different worlds, although I have my suspicions, but I don’t give a damn about any of that. I’ve never been interested in the businessmen or the guys around the casino. Half of them are too cocky, or too stupid, or too boring. And the rest are just jerks. I like you. And there’s no such thing as ‘better’, as far as I’m concerned.”

I stared dumbly at her, still trying to process her words. But I didn’t even know where to begin.

Bailey laughed and shook her head. “This is supposed to be the point where you tell me that you like me too,” she suggested. “Or maybe kiss me again. But if you’re not going to do that, the least you could do would be to promise me that you’re not going to find some other seasonal fling to take your mind off me for the rest of the winter. I’m asking you to wait for me. Because I sure as shit am going to be saving myself for you.”

I continued to blink at her, wondering if she could really be saying what I thought she was saying. “What about Ian?” I asked.

“I wanted to tell you this days ago, but when I told him that he needed to lay off with interfering with the mountain, I also told him that he’d better quit interfering with you and me,” Bailey said. “He’s not super stoked about us still, but he’s just looking out for me.”

She paused, looking uncertain. “And I know that he’s been causing a lot of drama between us, and I know it’s not really fair for me to ask you to just deal with all of that. I hate that he’s made you feel like you’re not good enough for me. But he’ll come around. And if he doesn’t, I really don’t care, because I want to be with you anyway. So he’s just going to have to deal with it.”

I frowned, wanting to argue. But it was hard to do so when she sounded so damned sure of herself. She wanted this. And I wanted this.

So I did the only sensible thing; I pulled her into another kiss. This one was gentle and sweet. I pressed my lips to hers, brushing my tongue lightly across her lower lip, practically begging her to let me deepen it. She complied, tilting her head to the side as she opened her mouth to me. Our tongues twisted with one another’s and she moaned, the vibrations instantly shooting through my body as light pulses of lust.

We made out for a few long minutes, neither of us willing to let the other person go. I finally broke the kiss, nuzzling along her jawline. “I wish you didn’t have to leave right now,” I said quietly, the words spilling from me before my brain had caught up to them. An embarrassed look crossed my face. What a silly thing to say.

But Bailey sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to leave either,” she said. “And honestly, if Ian hadn’t taken the earlier flight, I might be tempted to just stay here. But this is the last flight tonight, and all the flights are pretty much booked up at the moment since everyone is going home after the holidays.” She leaned into me. “But I’ll be back. As soon as I can.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said seriously. I wanted to kiss her again, but I knew that she really did need to catch her flight. And if I didn’t let her go soon, I wasn’t going to at all. “Ethan still wants to ski with you, so make sure you get back while there’s still snow on the ground,” I warned her.

Bailey laughed. “One or two weeks. Maximum,” she reminded me, and this time, it almost sounded like a vow. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Good,” I said, finally letting her go.

She smiled up at me, and I could tell that there was more that she wanted to say. But then, she bent down and grabbed her bag. “Well, I should probably get going,” she said, all businesslike once again. “But I look forward to seeing the weekly reports from you.”

I snorted at the overly-professional goodbye and lifted a hand in farewell. “I’ll call you,” I promised her.

Bailey nodded, giving me one last quick hug before she turned and walked briskly into the airport. She didn’t look back. I didn’t expect her to.

I hated to watch her walk away like that, but I felt reassured that she would be back soon. I smiled a little too myself. What a cheesy goodbye. Almost like something out of a movie. I got in my car and drove back to Brooks Resort, trying not to think too much about it.

That afternoon, we were scheduled to have an all-employee meeting. And now, given that I was Bailey’s eyes and ears on the ground, I knew that I needed to attend. I wondered what Mike wanted to talk to everyone about, anyway. We had just had the other all-employee meeting about Ian last Friday, and I thought we had gotten everything out of the way then.

Mike nodded at everyone as we filed into the room. “I just wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page,” he said as we took our seats. “It’s been a pleasure having Bailey around here since the acquisition, but now that she’s moved on to other projects – “

“Wait,” I interrupted, unable to help myself. I fought not to feel embarrassed as everyone turned to look at me. “She hasn’t really moved on to other projects. She just has to take care of some stuff back home. But she’s planning on being back in a week or two, she said.” I looked around the room, hoping that Kayla would back me up.

Mike cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She’s taken herself off general payroll and cleared out her office,” he said, shrugging apologetically. “As far as I know, she considers her work here done, is confident that we can run things in her absence, and isn’t planning on coming back. Now…”

He started talking about how we shouldn’t be worried, that basically things were going to go back to being done just the way that they had been under the previous owner. But I could barely hear him. Bailey had told me that she was planning on coming back. That it would just be a week or two. That she was going to save herself for me. That couldn’t have all been lies, could it?

But I had to believe Mike if he told me that she was off payroll and out of the picture. She and I had been avoiding the difficult conversations ever since she had bought this place, and there was no reason to think that things had changed now. Maybe that was the deal that she had struck with Ian; I could keep my job here if she got the hell away from here?

I remembered what Ian had told me before, about how if he saw me talking to Bailey again, he would make sure that I would never work in this state again. I got to keep my job here, but Bailey wasn’t allowed in Utah anymore. Was that how it was? I didn’t like to think that was the case, but it did make a certain amount of sense.

Whatever had happened, whatever the reasons for Bailey’s quick departure and lies about her return, I couldn’t help but feel my chest constrict. I knew that I never should have gotten involved with her in the first place. I had given her too much of myself, without even clarifying whether we were in a relationship or not.

And we never had been. Just like I’d tried to say at the airport, this was just some seasonal fling. And now it was over, having not even lasted the season.

What more did I really expect?

47

Adam

It had been two weeks since Bailey, the new owner of Brooks Mountain Resort here in Park City, Utah, had gone back to Las Vegas. In that time, there had been quite a few changes to the way that things were running. She had originally left Mike, the general manager, in charge of things in her absence, and everyone had expected things to continue to operate just the way that they had before Bailey had bought the place, since the mountain’s previous owners had been pretty hands-off.

But then Mike had gotten into a skiing accident, and although fortunately he was mostly okay, he had given himself a nasty concussion and torn some ligaments in his knee, and after the surgery, he was on strict orders for bed rest.

Somehow, I had been the person who stepped up to be in charge of things.

Oh, I knew how it had happened. There had been a long conference call with Bailey, me, and the heads of the various departments around the mountain. She told them that she had already entrusted to me the task of writing her weekly reports. But now, somehow, I was running the weekly meetings and really running the place in her absence.

What was stranger, though, was the fact that I kind of enjoyed it.

I never would have foreseen myself in any sort of managerial role. I mean, I was sort of a one-man department, as the mountain’s sole mechanic and maintenance person. Gretchen was my liaison with the rest of the mountain, though, writing down complaints from the guests and things like that. So technically, she was kind of my manager in all but title.

I had generally kept to myself, working hard to clear my task list each week. There was plenty for me to do around the resort. But I guess the fact that I went all around the resort, working in the condos and on the lifts, among other things, was something that made me stand out for this position, as far as Bailey was concerned.

That and the fact that I had been there for a while now. I definitely wasn’t one of the seasonal workers who came in for a few months at a time and then left again. I was here year-round, and had been for my entire life. My whole life was invested in the resort.

And that was what made it easy to accept the position Bailey had asked me to take. It had nothing to do with the kisses that we’d shared while she was here in Park City. It had nothing to do with her promise, when I dropped her off at the airport, to save herself for me.

Because the more time that passed since her departure, the more I realized I had been stupid to expect anything from her. She was gone, and she wasn’t coming back. Oh, she was still the owner of the resort, and that meant that she would probably be back at some point, just to check on her investment and see how everything was doing. But she had taken herself off the payroll like she wasn’t planning to actually work there anymore, and she hadn’t booked a return ticket.

When she had initially left, she had promised me that she was only going to be gone for a week or two. Just long enough to sort out her brother, Ian’s, situation with the family casino business. But it had been two weeks, and there was still no sign of her return. I had to get over that naïve hope that I’d had that she and I could make something work between the two of us.

I didn’t know who I had been trying to kid, anyway. I wasn’t fully over Beth, my deceased wife, and I never would be. Hell, every time I looked at our son Ethan, I had to think about her. I could see so much of her in the young boy; her curiosity, her chattiness, her easy amusement. I knew she would have been proud of the comments on Ethan’s report card from the first half of the school year. I could practically smell the decadent holiday cookies that she would have spent the month of December concocting.

I wasn’t ready for a new relationship, and I probably never would be. And even if I had been, Bailey deserved someone better than me. She was smart and rich and well-traveled. She shouldn’t tie herself down with some blue-collar mechanic who had barely ever left Utah.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job and my home and everything that I had built in my life. But that honestly made it even worse. I wasn’t going to try to better myself to be with Bailey. I was who I was, and it just wasn’t enough for her.

But for now, looking around the conference and counting all the familiar faces, it was time to turn my attention back to the resort. “Thanks for coming to the weekly meeting, everyone,” I said, nodding at the rest of the staff. “And now that we have the holiday season fully behind us, I just want to thank everyone again for all the hard work and long hours that you all put in during the busiest busy season that we’ve ever had.”

There were some laughs around the room, and I grinned at them, scanning the list in front of me to remind myself of what I had planned to talk about that day. I moved easily through the agenda, fielding questions when they came up, and then turned the floor over to everyone else for general comments and queries on things that I hadn’t mentioned.

Jen, one of the front desk assistants stood up. “Just wanted to let you know that a couple of the heaters in the lodge seem like they’re on the fritz,” she said. “We’ve had a couple guest complaints about draftiness.”

I frowned and jotted a note for myself, nodding at her. “I’ll check it out,” I promised her. “As soon as this meeting is over, in fact.” I didn’t have any idea what the problem could be, and I only hoped that it wasn’t anything too time-consuming to fix.

I didn’t want to admit that I was stretching myself too thin, but to be honest, I kind of was. Bailey had hired me an apprentice to help me out around the resort with the basic maintenance stuff, something that I had begrudgingly accepted. I liked having full control of how things were taken care of around there, but at the same time, I knew there was no way that I could take on the administrative duties that Mike had been managing, plus write those weekly reports for Bailey, plus get done everything that I normally did around the resort. So it only made sense for me to get a little help.

Another reason that I should probably just have said no to Bailey in the first place. But it was damned difficult for me to tell her no about anything.

Still, the easier the heating fix was, the better. For a moment, I almost wished that Ian was still running around, interfering with Bailey’s running of the resort. He probably would have just ordered new heaters, and the problem would have been solved. Except that then, I’d be in charge of changing out the heaters in probably every building in this place, I thought to myself, a crooked smile on my face.

“Anything else?” I asked, looking around the room. But no one spoke up. I nodded. “All right, then. Get back to work, you lazy bums!”

There was more laughter, and everyone dispersed. I was headed towards the door myself when Kayla caught my arm. “Hey,” she said. “Just wondered if you’d talked to Bailey lately.”

“Regarding what?” I asked. “I mean, I’ve talked to her a few times. Why?” I didn’t mean it to sound rude, but I didn’t know how much Kayla knew about Bailey and I. Not that Bailey and I had really had a chance to talk about ‘us’ since she had gone to Vegas. She was up to her neck in work with the casino, and I had my hands full here as well. We had chatted a few times, but our personal chats had been limited to a few quick minutes before we’d segued into talking about more important things, like the resort.

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.

Beyond that, he and I had always been close. Hell, we’d even lived together for most of our lives. He didn’t want me to leave. And he definitely didn’t want me to leave so that I could run another business and fall in love with someone he didn’t approve of.

So I appreciated what he had said, and it helped me to smile and shake my head. “Nah,” I told him. “I’m not exactly happy to be stuck in Vegas through the winter, but I promised you I’d help you out, whatever it took. If they need me here, then they need me here.”

Ian clapped me on the shoulder. “I appreciate that,” he said honestly. “Let me take you out to dinner tonight.”

“Deal,” I told him, grinning for real. “But you’re paying.”

49

Adam

Ethan skipped into the kitchen on Tuesday morning just in time for breakfast. I got him seated at the table with a bowl of steaming oatmeal and a glass of milk. “Can Charlie come over after school today?” he asked. Charlie was his best friend from the ski club.

I frowned. “We’ll have to talk to his mom when we see her after ski club,” I said. “But you know you’re probably going to be pretty tired, and you still have that science project that’s due on Thursday.”

Ethan sighed. “I want to show him the BB gun, though,” he said. “Gramps and I were practicing yesterday while you were still at work and I’m getting super good at shooting the cans down.”

“That’s awesome, buddy,” I told him, smiling. “I’m glad you’re still having fun with that. But like I said, maybe not today. But what if we talked to Charlie’s mom about having him come over on Friday after ski club and staying the night?”

“Okay,” Ethan said, and I could tell that he wasn’t thrilled by that suggestion. Friday was a long way away, as far as he was concerned. But he started chattering about his science project as he ate his breakfast.

My phone rang as we were finishing up, and I answered immediately when I saw that it was Bailey. “Hey, Bailey,” I said.

“Hello,” she said, sounding surprised that I had answered so quickly.

“Can I say hi?” Ethan asked, having heard Bailey’s name. “Please, Dad, can I say hi?”

I laughed. “Ethan wants to say hi,” I informed Bailey, passing the phone over to him.

“Hi Bailey! When are you coming back to Utah?” Ethan asked immediately.

I couldn’t hear Bailey’s response, but I felt my heart twist a little. I knew that Ethan really liked Bailey. It was another part of the reason I just had to keep hoping that she was still planning on coming back. It was another part of the reason why I never should have gotten involved with her in the first place.

I knew that Ethan needed a female role model in his life. I was glad that he had taken to Bailey so quickly. But at the same time, it just made things all the more complicated. If Bailey didn’t come back to Utah, Ethan was going to be devastated. I didn’t know how to deal with that.

I took the phone back from Ethan. “Sorry about that,” I said to Bailey.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said easily. “You know I love chatting with Ethan. He’s a great kid.”

“So what’s up anyway?” I asked, pinching the phone between my shoulder and my ear as I carried the breakfast dishes over to the sink and started washing up. I hadn’t heard back from her after I had called the previous day, but I was surprised that she was calling me first thing in the morning in response. But then again, I knew she had been busy there. Maybe this was the only time she had before she was in meetings all day.

“I have some bad news, actually,” Bailey told me, and I froze, slowly shutting off the water and straightening up.

“Yeah?” I asked, worried. Something to do with Ian, or something to do with the resort? Jesus, what if she not only wasn’t coming back but was also going to sell the place or something? Maybe one of those power-hungry ski corporations had made her an offer that she couldn’t refuse. We were still just getting used to her being the new owner; if someone else bought it now, there was no telling what changes they might make.

But for better or worse, it was nothing like that.

“I’m going to have to stay in Nevada for a little longer than planned,” Bailey said, as though I hadn’t already figured that out. She had told me one or two weeks maximum, and those two weeks had come and gone. I already knew that she was staying there longer.

I just didn’t know when she was coming back. But I held back on asking, not sure how to phrase the question so that it wouldn’t sound too needy. I knew that she had business that she was taking care of there, and I couldn’t ask her to drop everything and come back just because I missed her. I didn’t even know how to turn it into a joke about Ethan missing her.

I really was in over my head. I was only starting to realize just how much so.

“I had a meeting with the board of directors yesterday. That’s actually what I was stepping into when you called. Sorry I didn’t get back to you.” Bailey sounded a bit frazzled, and I wondered if I was the only one with too much on my plate at the moment. It made me wish that there was something that I could do to help her out.

And it only emphasized, yet again, how wrong I was for her. She deserved to be with someone who could understand her business woes and help her figure out ways to solve them. That wasn’t me.

“Anyway, the board wants me to stay here and keep an eye on Ian for another month, just to make sure that he doesn’t do anything stupid. I tried to tell them that Ian and I have made a plan and everything, but they’re afraid that the minute I leave, Ian’s going to go rogue again. And if it was just them, it would probably be fine; I could tell them to just get over themselves. But they’re talking about the investors possibly losing confidence in him and pulling out. So I really have to stay.”

From the way that Bailey said it, I wanted to believe she really didn’t want to stay there. But who knew. Again, I wanted to ask if she was ever actually going to be coming back. Then again, I didn’t exactly want to hear the truth if she was planning on staying there in Nevada.

“So,” Bailey said, “basically what I’m saying is that I need you to keep holding down the fort until I get back. I know it’s a lot to ask. I hope things are going well?”

“Things are fine,” I said, still trying to process the rest of it. Still trying to hold back the question about whether or not she was ever going to come back.

“Well, good,” she said. She paused, and I thought she might say something more, maybe about us. But instead, she just said, “We’ll talk more soon. I have to get to work. But thanks for everything.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, feeling slight disappointment course through me. I hung up the phone and got Ethan off to school. Then, I headed to work.

I couldn’t help missing Bailey’s presence around the lodge as I walked in. I couldn’t help feeling stretched too thin as three different people came up to me and told me about customer complaints that morning.

And I couldn’t help feeling that maybe I was doing something that I didn’t want to do for a woman I wasn’t even sure would ever be coming back.

Just when I thought my morning couldn’t get any worse, my phone rang again. This time, it was a call from Ian. I could only imagine what he might want to say to me right now. He had been pissed when he found me kissing his sister in my office. He had done his best to sabotage my job before he’d gone back to Nevada with Bailey to sort out the problems at his own business.

Bailey had assured me, before she left, that Ian had come around, and that although he wasn’t happy to think of Bailey and I as a couple, he had agreed to stay out of things. But still, what the hell was the dick doing calling me now?

I didn’t bother to find out. I ignored the call. I had enough other things to deal with right now.

50

Bailey

I could feel Ian’s eyes on me as I finished up work at the casino on Wednesday evening. We were working on a new promotion to bring people into the casino, trying to build a new group of regulars to supplement the ones that we had managed to win back in spite of the damage Ian had done to the business’ reputation. Things seemed to be going well, although our numbers still weren’t what they had been before.

But that was none of my concern, really. Things had turned around enough that Ian would be able to keep his job, at least until he screwed up again, and my work here was done. If things continued to improve or not, that was up to him. This was his business, after all.

Yet here I was, apparently stuck here for another month.

“Hey,” Ian said, coming over to me. His brows knit together. “You know, I can tell that you aren’t as interested in this as you were in the ski resort.”

I grimaced. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m doing my best.” I was surprised that he had seen through me, because I’d thought that I was hiding it well enough. But the truth was; “You know that this isn’t what I want to do with my life. I can’t honestly say that I do want to be here.”

“I know,” Ian sighed. “You’re just here because I fucked up.” He shook his head. “Dinner? Sorry I had to bail on you last night, but Bill wanted to chat to me about some stuff. Work meeting.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, waving away his apologies. “But yeah, let’s get dinner. Where do you want to go?”

We headed to an Italian place that Dad used to bring us to all the time. I smiled across the table at Ian. “A little comfort food?” I joked. “How did you know that that was what I needed?”

Ian shook his head. “Look, if you don’t want to stick around for another month, you don’t have to,” he said. “I can tell how bummed you’ve been ever since your meeting with the board yesterday.”

“I can’t just leave,” I protested. “I mean, you’re right, I’m pretty bummed. I thought I was this close to heading home. I told everyone right from the start that I was only going to be here for a couple weeks. But if it’s a matter of the investors pulling out if I leave? I couldn’t do that to you.”

“I’m the one who got myself into this mess,” Ian reminded me. “I know that I shouldn’t have done what I did with the casino. It was reckless. But I legitimately did think that I was making things better in the long run.” He paused, clearing his throat. “But my reasons for doing it don’t matter. The point is, I’m the one who fucked up. You shouldn’t be punished because of that.”

I shrugged. “It’s not really a punishment,” I said. “Honestly, there are some perks to being here. I get to spend more time with you, for one.” I grinned crookedly. “I just wish it could have come after I was a little more settled in Utah. As it is, it feels like I just left. I didn’t have time to miss things yet!”

Ian laughed, but I could see the concern in his eyes. “I just… I really appreciate you sticking around to help me fix things,” he said. “But I don’t want you to feel like you’re trapped here. You can leave if you want to. We’ll figure something out.”

I sighed. “I miss Utah,” I said simply. “But it’s one month. Even if I were to sell off the resort, I own the condo there, and I don’t anticipate that changing anytime soon. I can always go back some other time. No real reason for me to abandon you now.”

“Are you thinking about selling the resort?” Ian asked in surprise. I could hear hope there, plain in his voice, and I couldn’t help sighing again.

“I did think about it a couple times,” I admitted. “Not seriously. But I know that Bill and the others wish that I was still around here for the long-term. And to be honest, I just feel a lot more competent here. I know what I’m doing. I know the industry. I’m still just getting to know the ski industry. That said, I just like the ski resort a lot more.”

“You never really wanted to work here,” Ian said, nodding. He glanced down at his food. “And I guess you probably miss Adam as well?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said frankly, even though I wasn’t sure that I wanted to have this conversation with Ian. He would probably just try to convince me that I was stupid for missing Adam when Ben was practically throwing himself at me.

But to my surprise, Ian nodded. “I’m sorry that I dragged you away from him. And that I did everything I could to screw things up for you while you were there.” He paused. “I’m not going to lie, I still think you could do better. But part of why I was so frustrated to find out you guys were together was that I was really hoping that you were going to get sick of Utah and come back here to the casino business.” He grinned crookedly at me. “But that’s never going to happen, is it? Even if Adam wasn’t in the picture.”

I shook my head slowly. Suddenly, Ian’s motives for trying to drive me away from Adam made a lot more sense. “Even if Adam and I don’t work out long term, I’m pretty happy in Park City,” I explained. “I mean, you’ve seen what it’s like doing business there. It so much calmer than working here. It’s less fake. I don’t have to deal with all the stupid glitz and glam. The stuff that I hate.”

Ian laughed. “Come on, you’re great at schmoozing people,” he said.

“Honestly, yeah,” I said, shrugging. “And I’m sure I’ll find ways to use that with the resort. But it just feels a lot more genuine, you know? Plus, it’s a challenge. Here, I guess I kind of know exactly what I’m doing. Dad practically raised me into my job with the casino business. I feel like I could do it in my sleep. There’s nothing exciting about it. But with the resort, it’s different.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Ian said reluctantly. He shook his head. “I mean, like I said before, I can tell that you were happier there.” He paused. “And Adam is part of the picture, I guess.”

“He is,” I said, nodding. I shrugged. “To be honest, we haven’t talked as much as I wish we would since I’ve been here. He’s so damned hard to get to open up, and I don’t know if it’s just that he hates talking on the phone or what, but he really only wants to talk about the business stuff. And that’s just making me miss him more.”

“Have you tried telling him that?” Ian asked.

“I don’t know how,” I sighed. “If he’s having second thoughts about us, I don’t want to push him away even more.”

“If he’s having second thoughts, then he’s an idiot,” Ian said succinctly, and I had to grin at him.

“Yeah, I hope it’s nothing like that,” I said. “I’m sure he’s just busy. I’ve put a lot on his plate since Mike had his accident. But I can’t wait to get back there and talk to him in person again. I miss him.”

Ian was quiet for a moment, considering me. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you care about someone this much before,” he finally said. Then, he grinned teasingly. “You know, other than yours truly.”

I laughed. “You’re my brother; I’ll always care about you more than anyone else,” I said. Then I frowned. “But yeah. Ian, I really like him. And Ethan. I want to be with them. Or at least, I want to see where things could go. I don’t know how things will work out long term, but I want to explore this relationship. And I know that you’re not exactly thrilled with that, but for right now, that’s just the way things are.”

Ian nodded at me. “Then I won’t get in the way of that,” he said. “Except, you know, with the fact that you’re stuck here for another month because of my stupidity.” He smile, and I laughed again.

51

Adam

I was talking to some customers at the resort on Friday when I looked up and blinked in shock. Ian? What the hell was he doing here?

I tried to focus on the rest of what the customers were telling me about some flickering lights in one of the condos. They were both being a bit over-dramatic about it, telling me that it had felt like the start of a horror movie the night before when they had first noticed the issue. I had to fight not to roll my eyes. But I was the maintenance man and current acting-head of the resort, which meant that it was my job to listen to their complaints with a straight face and assure them that we would do everything we could to fix anything that went wrong.

Yet another thing on my list of tasks for the day. I had been hoping that I could take the next day off to spend some time with Ethan, but I was starting to wonder if that would be possible at all. There were too many things to do.

And now Ian was here.

I finally managed to satisfy the couple with assurances that I would get things fixed and throw in some free spa time as well. It still galled me that I had to give out freebies like that, but Bailey had told me not to be stingy about that kind of stuff, so I was trying to be better about offering it. If it meant our customers walked away satisfied, then that was a good thing. And right now, if it meant that they left me well alone, even better.

I turned towards Ian. I didn’t really want to talk to him, but I knew that I couldn’t just ignore him. Bailey hadn’t told me that her brother would be dropping by, so I had to assume that she didn’t know he was here. It made me wonder just what he was doing here. Had he come to kick my ass for some imagined slight to his sister? Or because I refused to take his calls?

Whatever it was, I didn’t need this right now. But there was no escaping it.

“How’s it going?” Ian asked as he walked over to me.

I shrugged one shoulder. “Well, it’s going,” I said, not sure what exactly to say to him. I felt totally on edge. Ian had tried to tamper with things even when Bailey had been there. Now that she wasn’t there and he was, who knew what kinds of things he might try to pull. And it would be my responsibility to stop it since I was the one in charge right now.

I could feel a headache coming on, and he hadn’t even done anything yet. That I knew of.

“Look, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Ian said. “Could we head into your office? I’d rather not be interrupted, and I also think the less people who see me here, the better.”

I stared at him for a moment and then nodded slowly, leading the way back to my office.

Ian grinned as he sat across from me. “So, seriously, how are things going? I know Bailey’s been putting a lot on your plate lately. But she said something about hiring you a helper or something?”

“An apprentice,” I corrected. I shrugged. “It’s fine. He’s fine. He does things the way I tell him to.”

“That’s good,” Ian said. He paused. “Look, I know I’m probably the last person that you want to see right now. I fucked up. I shouldn’t have been so tough on you, and I shouldn’t have done what I did with the casino.” He cleared his throat. “To be honest, I was hoping that Bailey would come back to Vegas to stay. You know, come back to the family business and everything. I know that she was miserable there, but I don’t know, I thought that she would realize that this wasn’t everything that she wanted and would head home.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, wondering suddenly if he was here to tell me that that was exactly what had happened; that Bailey had decided that she didn’t want to be in Utah anymore and Ian was here to let me know that she wasn’t coming back after all.

Or worse, what if she had decided to let him have Brooks Mountain while she went back to Vegas and ran the casino business? If that was the case, I’d be out of a job by the end of the day, I was sure of it.

But Ian shook his head. “Honestly, I was jealous that you got to have her. That you were pulling her away from me. That’s why I was so hard on you. I thought that you were the reason she wasn’t going to come back home. And I’m sorry that I was such a jerk to you over it. It was totally uncalled for.”

I nodded slowly. “I appreciate the apology,” I finally said, because what the hell else was I supposed to say? There was a part of me that wanted to throw him out right now, or to list off all the ways that he’d been a jerk. But that wasn’t going to help anything.

There was also a part of me that wanted to ask if he knew when the hell Bailey was coming back, or if she really was planning on coming back. Maybe Ian was just here because he already knew that he had won. But I didn’t ask.

“Bailey doesn’t want to be in Nevada,” Ian said, surprising me. “You should see her around the casino. I mean, she does everything that she needs to do, and she charms the pants off everyone in the process. But it’s not like when she was working here. She’s just not passionate about it. She really wants to come back.” His mouth twisted. “I don’t know if she’s told you, but the board of directors wants her to stay in Nevada for another month.”

“Yeah, she told me,” I said.

“So I want you to come to Nevada with me,” Ian said.

I stared at him in shock, wondering if I had really just heard those words come out of his mouth. Was I really supposed to believe that Ian had gone from hating my relationship with his sister to wanting to improve it? That would be an extremely sudden change of mind. But he looked dead serious.

I shook my head. “I’m currently in charge of things at the resort here,” I reminded him.

“I know,” Ian said. “But I’m sure we could find someone to take things over for you. Just for a weekend. Bailey would really love to see you.”

“If she wanted me to come to Nevada, she could ask me herself,” I said.

Ian shook his head. “You know Bailey,” he said. “She’s got herself tied into knots over you guys. She’s afraid that you might say no.” He grinned at me. “She really seems to like you. Fuck if I know why.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you don’t want us together, then why are you here?” I asked bluntly.

“Because,” Ian said, shrugging. “I owe my sister one. I owe her big time. And I need to make things right. She’s been there for me, and I need to do something for her. Besides, like I said, I was too hard on you before. If Bailey really likes you so much, we need to put the bad blood behind us.”

I continued to stare at him. Take off to Nevada for the weekend? I was sure that Dad could watch Ethan for the weekend. And I was sure that the other employees here at the resort could handle things in my absence. There was nothing about the administrative stuff that couldn’t wait until Monday. And my apprentice knew enough about the general maintenance and lift operations already that he could handle things on his own, or at least follow my instructions over the phone if worst came to worst.

Not that I expected anything would go wrong. I’d put in a lot of time over the holidays making sure that everything was running smoothly, and especially since Bailey had gone to Nevada. I’d put in a lot of hours trying to forget about the fact that she was gone.

It was entirely possible for me to take off for the weekend. Ian was handing me the golden ticket.

And it would undoubtedly be good to see Bailey again. To talk to her in person. To confirm that she really was intending on returning, or to try my damndest to change her mind if she wasn’t.

But what if she wasn’t planning on coming back and my showing up in Nevada ruined things between us? What if Ian was really doing this as a ploy to get me away from my job, to prove to Bailey that the resort didn’t need me? Or what if Bailey and I really had been just some seasonal fling that now was over?

Ian got to his feet. “Look, it’s your decision,” he said. “And I’m not trying to pressure you either way. But I really do think Bailey would be happy to see you. If you want to come, meet me at the airport this evening at six.” With that, he left me alone to my thoughts.

I stared at the wall for a long time, trying to figure out what to do. I forced myself to go back to work, forced myself to focus on all the things that I had to do. Before I knew it, I had finished everything on my list. If I did leave for the weekend, things would be fine without me.

But should I really leave for the weekend? I still couldn’t decide.

I headed home. “You look distracted,” Dad said, peering at me as I walked into the living room where he and Ethan were watching a movie. “What’s up?”

“Ian showed up at the mountain today,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to talk to Dad about this. I knew he had been happy when Bailey had come into my life. That he thought I needed a woman in my life again, even though he himself was a total loner. He would probably agree that I should go, that I should let Ian whisk me off to Vegas for the weekend so that I could see Bailey.

But I needed to discuss this with someone, and Dad was the only person here other than Ethan. And I didn’t really think the six-year-old would grasp any of this.

“What did Ian want?” Dad asked neutrally.

“He wants me to come to Nevada with him for the weekend,” I said, glancing at Ethan. I didn’t really want to say Bailey’s name in front of him. Fortunately, Dad seemed to get it.

“I can watch Ethan for a weekend,” Dad said, just like I knew he would.

I shook my head, though. The more I thought about this, the more the whole thing seemed like a terrible idea. If Bailey wasn’t planning on coming back, why torture myself with a weekend in Nevada with her? It was only going to make it more difficult when I eventually lost her. And I had to come back at some point. I certainly couldn’t just stay in Nevada.

“Nah, I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea,” I said to Dad. “Anyway, I’m going to head into the kitchen to get dinner started.”

I turned around and walked away, trying to put the idea of a weekend in Vegas out of my head. When I got into the kitchen, I glanced at the clock out of habit. Five-thirty. Ian had said to meet him at the airport at six.

For a moment, I paused, thinking about it again. Dropping everything to fly off to Nevada for a woman that I wasn’t even sure was really interested in me was madness. But at the same time, maybe I needed a little madness in my life. Things had been so structured ever since Beth had died. I had forced myself to follow a schedule, to do things a specific way. Maybe it was time to let go of a little of that control.

52

Bailey

I checked the time on my phone again, feeling more and more ticked off. I hadn’t seen or heard from Ian all day. He should have been there, helping out around the casino. I didn’t know what the hell he was up to instead, but I was ready to rip him a new one when he finally arrived.

The board of directors was looking for responsible behavior from him. They wanted to know that they could count on him to run things properly. And disappearing for whole days at a time, doing God knows what, was not a sign that he could run things properly.

I tried not to think about the fact that if the board of directors thought he was being irresponsible, they would ask me to stay there for longer than a month. That was a conversation that I didn’t want to have with them. I wondered what the hell Ian was even doing. He wasn’t answering my calls.

I stalked over to one of the managers. “Hey, have you seen Ian?” I asked, trying to sound pleasant when really, I wanted to knock some sense into my idiotic brother. Maybe this was his new form of lashing out over the fact that I didn’t want to stay here in Vegas. First, he had tanked the business, making all sorts of changes that he had no right to be making, and now he was going to go AWOL and get caught drunk off his ass at strip clubs or something.

We didn’t need any more bad press at the moment.

The manager looked uncomfortable, and I knew that my tone had been too harsh. But she just shrugged. “Haven’t seen him all day,” she said.

I rolled my eyes and stalked off, trying unsuccessfully to call him again. Still no response.

I finished with work for the day and headed home. If he was there, I was really going to chew him out. But when I got home, the house was just as silent and empty as it had been when I left that morning. No sign of Ian anywhere. “Where the fuck are you?” I muttered, wondering if I should start searching the city for him. I knew all of his favorite places, of course.

But I really didn’t want to go out looking for him. If he wanted to tank his job, well. This was the last time I would step in and help him. Seriously.

My phone rang. It was Ian. I scowled and answered it. “Where the fuck are you?” I snapped. “No one’s seen you around all day. And I swear to God, if you’re drunk, you’ve got another thing coming. I promised that I’d help you get back in the board’s good graces, and the investors’, but you can bet your sorry ass that that’s not happening if I find out you’ve been fucking around with your thumb up your ass all day.”

I was surprised to hear Ian laughing on the other end of the line. “Relax,” he said.

“This isn’t funny!” I snarled. “You can’t just not show up to work for a day without any warning. That’s totally irresponsible!”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Ian said, but he sounded more amused than contrite. “Can you come to the airport?”

“Why?” I asked suspiciously, even though I was already heading for my keys. Whatever the fuck he had done, at least I knew where he was now. Not that I really wanted to see him, after this little stunt.

“Just do it,” Ian said, hanging up the phone.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the airport. When I got there, I called Ian again. “Where are you?” I snapped. “Assuming that you’re here.”

“I left you a gift,” Ian said. “It’s at the bar. Flying Q’s.”

“Ian,” I started to say, but he hung up before I could. I grumbled to myself as I found a parking spot. I didn’t know what the hell he was playing at. Was he drunk? Was I going to have to carry him out of there? Or did he think that he could buy me a fucking vacation and we could just jet away for a weekend? We had responsibilities here. The casino didn’t shut down on the weekends, and that meant that unless he cleared things with everyone, he needed to be here. And at the moment, if he needed to be here, then I did as well.

Otherwise, I would have been back in Utah already.

I stalked into the airport, shooting murderous glances at anyone who happened to look at me. When I got to the bar, I looked all around for Ian, but I didn’t see him anywhere. Where the hell was he?

Then, I thought back to his words. He had said that he had left me a gift at the bar. Maybe if I asked the bartender, he would know something about it? When I saw Ian again, I was going to kill him.

I took two steps further into the bar and froze, suddenly seeing a familiar profile, albeit not the one that I had expected to see. Ian wasn’t at the bar. But there was Adam, sitting there nursing a beer and watching the hockey game on the screen behind the bar.

I did a double-take, sure for a moment that it couldn’t be him. I was imagining him, seeing who I wanted to see. It was a trick of the light, because like every other airport bar, Flying Q’s seemed to favor the sort of dim lighting designed to hide the signs of sleepless nights of travel, frizzy hair, and greasy foreheads.

But no, it really was Adam, I was sure of it. I took a step closer, and he seemed to feel my eyes on him. He turned towards me, smiling like he had been expecting me. And I suddenly remembered, again, what Ian had said. He had left a gift for me at the bar.

Was it possible that that’s where Ian had been all day? Arranging this little surprise for me? I would barely have believed it from him. I knew that he still wasn’t stoked about Adam’s and my relationship. But then again, the night before, he had seemed to accept things.

There was a big difference between accepting things and this, though.

I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes. I had missed Adam. There were so many things that I wanted to say to him. But more than that, it was so good just to see him. All my worries about us disappeared. Surely he wouldn’t be here if he thought we were just a fling.

I crossed the bar towards him and put my arms around him. He wrapped his arms around me in turn, nearly crushing me with the strength of his hug.

53

Adam

Somehow, I had forgotten just how beautiful Bailey was in the three weeks since I had last seen her. Had she always been so tall, so curvy, so drop-dead gorgeous? I was bewitched by those emerald eyes of hers, wanted nothing more than to kiss those lush pink lips of hers. I had known that I missed her, but seeing her now hit me like a punch to the gut, driving all the air out of me. God, I had missed her. More than I had even realized.

I could see the shock in her face when she saw me sitting there. Then something like relief, followed by an emotion that I couldn’t quite figure out. But the next thing I knew, she was there in my arms, her body pressed against mine. I laid my cheek against the top of her head, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume.

“Hi,” I said quietly.

Bailey laughed quietly. “Hi,” she said, finally pulling away from me. My body immediately missed the warmth of her pressed against me. “What are you doing here?”

I shrugged. “Ian brought me,” I told her. “But don’t worry, I’ve managed to do as much as I could around the resort so that they shouldn’t need me for the next couple days. And if anything goes wrong with the lifts or anything, I’ve made sure that the apprentice knows what he’s doing. And I’ve given him the number for one of the other lift mechanics over at another resort so that if he really needs help, we can get someone in as a stand-in. It wouldn’t be the first time.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway, hopefully nothing happens either way.”

Bailey shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t give a damn about what arrangements you’ve made at the resort,” she said, sounding almost shy. “I know that’s not good business practice. But I can’t tell you how good it is to see you right now.”

“I’ve missed you too,” I told her, grinning. Somehow, it was so easy to admit that to her.

“Hey, have you eaten already?” Bailey asked. “Do you want to get some dinner?”

“That sounds great,” I said.

“I know just the place.” I followed Bailey out to her car. She paused beside it. “Hey, is Ian with you?”

“Nah, he took off to give us a little alone time,” I told her. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if Ian wanted to give Bailey and I some alone time or if he just didn’t want to be around me any longer. He had warmed up considerably towards me since the last time I had seen him in Utah a few weeks ago, but it was nothing like the friendship that he and I had once enjoyed. Instead, it felt more stilted. Polite, but vaguely uncomfortable at the same time.

Bailey nodded and slipped into the driver’s seat, and I followed into the passenger’s seat, trying not to feel nervous. To my surprise, I wasn’t worried anymore about whether I had made the right decision in coming here. Those feelings had plagued me for the whole short flight, but the moment I saw Bailey, they seemed to have evaporated. It helped that she seemed so glad to see me too. Something about that settled something inside of me.

That said, I still felt nervous around her. This was my first relationship since Beth. If, indeed, relationship it still was. Ian seemed to think that Bailey wanted me here, and that gave me some hope. But I wondered what Bailey herself was thinking about us. Had she started to get used to the idea that maybe we were just a relationship of convenience in Utah, something that had only happened because we were attracted to one another and because we were in the same place at the same time?

And most importantly, was she ever planning on returning to Park City, or was she more than happy to be back here in Nevada with her brother and the casino business that she was familiar with?

“So how have things been going, anyway?” I asked Bailey as we sat down in the burger joint she had brought us to.

She sighed and shook her head. “Honestly, it’s been frustrating,” she said baldly. “I mean, the work isn’t all that difficult. I think things are going to be all right for Ian. It’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he just went a little overboard trying to make things better. He had all these ideas, and he just pushed them all through at once without thinking about how the changes would affect one another. And he didn’t listen to anyone else at the company in the process.”

“So things are back on track now?” I asked, trying to ask without asking if that meant that she would be back to Utah soon. But I guessed that Ian wouldn’t have brought me here to Vegas if he thought that Bailey would be seeing me soon anyway.

Bailey shook her head. “I mean, yes and no. Everyone seems a little worried that Ian is going to go back to making a bunch of changes the minute my back is turned, so I’m still working here. And they’ve asked me to stay here for another month, like I told you on the phone, but I have a feeling that when that month is almost over, they’re going to ask me for another month. They just don’t trust Ian at the moment.”

Her lips twisted, and she looked out over the restaurant, as though it was difficult to meet my eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Ian came out to Utah to pick you up today. But at the same time, it just proves to some of the others that he can’t totally be trusted to focus on what’s best for the company. He should have been there today. Or he should have at least, I don’t know, called in sick or something.”

I grimaced. I knew that she didn’t mean to make it sound like it was my fault that she was going to have to possibly stay out here longer. But I couldn’t help feeling like she was saying that if it wasn’t for me, then the board of directors wouldn’t have lost even more confidence in Ian that day. Even though I knew that, yeah, Ian should have done the responsible thing and either come to get me on one of his days off or else just called me or something.

Not that I would have picked up the call if he had tried. Yet another thing to feel guilty about. Ian had just been trying to do a nice thing for me, to basically show that he did support Bailey and I, and this time I had been the one being a dick in response.

“So you still don’t know how long you’re going to be here?” I asked Bailey, trying not to sound too upset over that.

Bailey sighed. “Honestly? No. And I really wish that I could tell you.” She paused and then slowly reached across the table and caught my hand. “But I really did miss you, Adam.” There was a raw honesty in her voice and in her gaze that took my breath away.

I had to smile gently in response. “Well, I’m glad that I can be here, then.” I cleared my throat, trying not to let things get too mushy. “So are you busy this weekend?”

Bailey grinned. “I think I can take a little time to show you around,” she said. “Have you ever been to Vegas before?”

I shook my head. “Never,” I admitted.

“We’re going to have fun,” Bailey promised me, and I could tell from the way that she said it that she didn’t just mean that we would have fun taking in the sights. She frowned. “Where are you staying, anyway? And is Ethan with you?”

“Nah, Ethan’s staying with his grandfather this weekend,” I said. “He probably would have loved to come, but…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain that I didn’t really want the boy getting too close to her before I knew whether or not Bailey was truly coming back to Park City. And I was starting to wonder if I would believe it until I knew that she had booked a return flight.

Bailey grinned at me again, though. “So I’ve got you all to myself this weekend,” she practically purred.

I laughed. “Guess so,” I said. “And Ian gave me a place to stay. At one of your casinos.” I pulled the key out of my pocket. I had tried to pay him back for the flight down, but he had refused. Accepting the room key, though, knowing that they weren’t losing anything on it, was easier.

Bailey peered at the key and then grinned. “Oh, nice,” she said, her eyes glinting. “Maybe we should go check it out after this. Just to make sure that it’s going to, you know, work for you this weekend.”

I could tell that wasn’t what she meant at all, and I smirked at her. “Now Bailey, I might start thinking that the only reason you want me here is so that you can sleep with me,” I teased.

She shrugged unrepentantly but her thumb brushed across my knuckles. “I missed you,” she said again, the words given even more weight this time.

I squeezed her hand lightly, hoping she realized just how much I felt the same.

54

Bailey

Dinner with Adam was just so easy. We didn’t talk about anything too deep. We didn’t put labels on our relationship, and he was careful not to ask me to define when, exactly, I’d be headed back to Utah. But for all of that, it felt like something had really shifted between us in the short time that he’d been there in Vegas.

It was enough that he had even come there to Vegas. That he had dropped everything in Utah and flown out here for the weekend. Sure, that might have been at Ian’s prompting, but I knew Adam well enough to know that he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to be. And I didn’t think he was just there because he didn’t want to work at the resort for the weekend.

No, he was here because he wanted to see me. Because he had missed me just as much as I had missed him. And that said more than any conversation with him could have.

We finished up our burgers and I drove him to the hotel that Ian had put him up in. It was one of our nicest places, and when Adam told me the room number, I had to grin. Not only was it one of the nicer casino hotels in town, but Ian had put Adam up in one of the nicest suites. One of the suites generally reserved for honeymooners, in fact.

I needed to remember to thank Ian for all of this. Oh, I still planned on having words with him about the fact that he had just taken off for the day without telling anyone. He had been highly irresponsible. But I was starting to realize just why he had done it.

He had brought Adam here for me. I didn’t need any further proof that Ian was, if not happy, then at least okay with the relationship that I was building with Adam. And to be honest, if Ian had told me that he was going to fly out to Utah to bring Adam out here for a weekend, I probably would have told him no.

Not that I didn’t want Adam here. But I knew full-well that I had heaped enough on Adam’s plate recently, and I didn’t want him to feel the stress of taking off two days when he could be working, or spending time with his son, just to see me here in Vegas. If anything, I should have been the one taking a weekend to fly back to Utah to see Adam.

Besides, I would have been worried. I wouldn’t have been sure if Adam would say yes, and I would have been too afraid even to open myself up to the chance that he might say no. I would have told Ian that there were a dozen things that Adam and I needed to talk about before we could discuss him coming out here to Vegas just to visit me for a couple days.

But now, here he was. He seemed happy to be here, happy to see me, and I couldn’t deny how glad I was that he was there. Damn the consequences.

We headed up to his suite, and I couldn’t help shooting him looks as we got onto the elevator. I wished that we were the only two people in there. I wanted nothing more than for him to push me back against the wall. I wanted him to kiss me until I was breathless, until I totally forgot where we were, until we had missed our floor without even realizing it because we were just so tangled up in one another.

Instead, there were three other people in there with us; a couple and another woman there on her own. But Adam did step close to me, putting an arm around me, his thumb stroking lightly across my hip. He grinned down at me when I looked up at him, and I could see the promise in his eyes. If I could only be patient.

We finally made it to his room for the weekend, and he unlocked the door with a flourish. I followed him inside and barely had time to toe off my shoes before he backed me up against the wall, his lips hot against mine. He pressed his firm body against me, and I could feel the heat of passion radiating off of him.

I giggled and turned my head to the side. “Don’t you even want to see what this place looks like?” I asked.

“I’d like to fuck you right here in the middle of the hall,” Adam said honestly. “I’ll see the bed sooner or later, I’m sure.”

I wanted to laugh, but instead I moaned wordlessly as his lips found the sensitive skin at the side of my neck, sucking and nipping at it until I was practically shivering in desire. True to his word, he started to strip me down right there, like he wanted to take me there in the middle of the hallway. Like he couldn’t manage to keep his hands off me for long enough to move anywhere else.

But suddenly, I had an idea. I pulled away from him, catching his hands before he could protest and leading him away down the hall towards the doors that opened out onto the balcony. He raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t ask what I was doing. As for me, I couldn’t help thinking about the first dream that I had had about the two of us, back in Utah, not long after I had bought Brooks Mountain Resort.

I led him out to the hot tub out on the balcony and slowly started stripping off my clothes. He groaned and hurriedly stripped down as well, joining me after a moment in the hot tub. I pulled him close against me, kissing him until my body temperature felt hotter than even the temperature of the water.

Adam’s hands slipped lazily across my slick skin as he hungrily pulled me against him again. One hand came up to cup one of my breasts while his other hand slipped in between my legs. I groaned and rocked down onto his fingers, letting them slip inside of me. He fingered me for a long time, his lips still pressed against mine, his tongue twisting with mine.

I pushed him back so that he was sitting on one of the bench seats in the hot tub and then straddled him, guiding his hard dick to nudge against my entrance. He pressed up inside of me, and I gasped, grabbing at the edge of the hot tub for leverage so that I could push myself down onto his length. It hadn’t even been that long since the last time we had had sex, but it still felt so new and amazing to have him fully sheathed inside of me. I worked my body against his, drawing him ever deeper into me even as the walls of my pussy tightened with each new pulse of lust that shot through my body. I knew it was only a matter of time before I came, but I didn’t pull back, didn’t try to slow things down. Instead, the higher my lust spiked, the quicker I moved my body against his, until my hips were snapping down against his quickly enough that I couldn’t even catch my breath anymore.

Adam brought his hand up to cup my cheek, the gentle move incongruous in comparison with everything else that I’d experienced thus far, but still somehow perfect. I gasped as each new thrust drove the air out of my lungs, my body quivering as my pleasure crept higher and higher.

Adam’s lips found the side of my neck again, and he nipped at the skin there, biting and sucking until I was sure that there would be a mark. A mark that would probably be impossible for me to hide from Ian and all of the other people who worked there at the casino. But I couldn’t be bothered to care. I wanted this, more than I could ever put into words.

And Adam, for his part, seemed to know exactly what I needed. He continued to give it to me, varying the rhythm to leave me breathless and wanting and then speeding up to get me to moan out his name. Until suddenly, my body couldn’t handle the strength of my lust anymore. I came, clinging to him, sighing out his name into the evening’s cool air.

I could feel Adam spill as well, his release shooting into me as I gave two final thrusts against his hot and heavy cock. He wrapped his arms around my lower back, holding me close, his lips finding the mark that he had left on my neck before and giving it the gentlest of kisses.

I leaned into him for a long moment, never wanting this to end. But finally I pulled back away. Adam grinned at me. “Hi,” he said, nuzzling his nose against mine. And I had to giggle.

I didn’t know how to put my feelings into words. I had already told him that I had missed him while I was here and he was back in Park City. But this was more than that. Being right here, in his arms, was where I had wanted to be ever since I had left. It was just what I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about.

Oh, I had responsibilities here. Things that I couldn’t forget about. But the whole time that I’d been here, I’d been remembering the feeling of Adam’s arms around me. And that had worried me, to a certain extent. I had thought that maybe I was making too much of what we had. That he just wanted it to be a seasonal thing. That he wanted to forget about me. But now that I was back here, I knew that I had been right.

This was right. And there was nothing that would make me believe otherwise.

I grinned at Adam and shrugged a little, and he laughed. “Do you want to go inside, before we turn into prunes?” he asked.

“Probably,” I sighed, but I lay against him for another few beats. And his arms only tightened around me.

55

Adam

I woke up early on Saturday morning, just like I would have if I was going in to work on the mountain. But as soon as I opened my eyes to the suite in Las Vegas, I remembered that I wasn’t in Park City at the moment and wouldn’t be headed in to work at Brooks Mountain again until Monday.

I rolled to the side and found Bailey still sleeping next to me, her face looking sweet and innocent in slumber. There was a faint smile on her lips, and I wondered what she was dreaming about. Or if she was dreaming at all. Maybe the smile was just her body’s response to the sex that we’d had the previous night, out in the hot tub, before tumbling into bed together. As for me, I definitely felt languid, loose, and sated.

I stretched a little, unable to tear my eyes away from Bailey. There was a part of me that had almost expected her to sneak out the night before, while I’d still been sleeping. I didn’t know why I had thought that, when the previous times we had slept together, I had been the one who needed to leave. I had needed to get back to Ethan.

But this time, I could take all the time in the world just to laze there in bed watching her, curling my body around her. Well, maybe not all the time in the world. But we had two days together.

I had to remember to thank Ian for that.

I should have thanked him the day before, at the airport. But I’d still been so surprised about it all. And nervous. What if Bailey didn’t want to see me here? What if she had already found someone new that she was interested in? And why was Ian really doing this? Was it really because he thought that he owed Bailey something, or did he know something that I didn’t?

I had sat there in the airport waiting for Bailey to arrive, sure that I had made a mistake. That I should just get on the next flight back to Salt Lake City and forget about the whole thing. In fact, I had even looked up when the next flight out would be. I could get on one that night. It would cost me a lot of money, money that I didn’t really want to spend, but it was feasible.

This was worth it, though. Being here, next to Bailey. I pressed my body close against hers, careful not to disturb her as she continued to sleep. She was warm against me, her bare skin soft against mine, and I smiled as I brushed my lips tenderly against her shoulder.

I loved her. I realized it then, with a clarity that startled me. It wasn’t just that I liked her, and it definitely wasn’t just that I was attracted to her. No, I loved her, in a way that I hadn’t loved anyone in a very long time.

There was a reason that she made me so nervous. A reason that it was so hard to even contemplate the idea of her not coming back to Park City eventually. I knew that she was doing what she needed to do right now, here in Vegas. And I knew just how difficult it would be to leave behind everything that I had ever known, my home. I knew I would never want to uproot Ethan, and especially not to take him to a place where there was barely any skiing at all.

But I also knew that if that was what I had to do, then I would do it. I didn’t have a choice, really. I loved Bailey.

Bailey shifted against me, blinking open her eyes. For the briefest of moments, I wished that I was there inside her head. Maybe last night, she had just been caught up in the moment. Surprised to see me. Maybe she didn’t actually want me there in Vegas with her. I knew that she already felt like Ian was too controlling, trying too hard to insert himself into her life. Maybe I represented everything that she hated about that.

But when Bailey saw me there, curled up against her, she smiled and snuggled against me. “Good morning,” she murmured.

I kissed her forehead. “Good morning,” I said in response, unable to help the way my arms tightened around her. “You hungry?”

“Starving,” Bailey said. But she curled closer to me. “I don’t want to get out of bed, though.”

“We don’t have to,” I said, grinning at her. I rolled slightly away so that I could grab the binder off the bedside table. “Ian mentioned something about room service?”

Bailey groaned in appreciation, pushing herself up against the pillows. “That sounds perfect,” she said, peering over my shoulder at the menu. I picked up the phone to put in our order and then put the binder back on the nightstand. Then, I rolled on top of Bailey and made out with her as we waited for the food to arrive. She had just slipped her hand down below the sheets when there was a knock on the door. I pulled away with a muffled groan, but I couldn’t help grinning when I saw the decadent spread that was wheeled in for us.

“So what do you want to do today?” Bailey asked as we dug in to our feast.

I shrugged as I chewed a mouthful of pancakes. “I don’t know, what do I want to do today?” I asked her. “I’ve never been to Vegas before. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Hmm,” Bailey said, looking thoughtful. “How long do I have to show you everything?”

“Just today and tomorrow morning,” I admitted, already feeling regretful. I knew that I needed to get back to Utah, to the resort and to Ethan. But I already hated the thought of leaving Bailey again. Even if we got a chance to talk while I was here, and took some of the uncertainty out of our relationship.

Or maybe, especially if we got the chance to talk while I was here. Knowing that we were in a relationship, that we both felt the same way about one another and were just waiting for her return to Utah? That was going to make leaving all the more difficult. If we could close that chapter now, it would be easier.

But that was the cowardly thing to do. And I had never wanted to be a closed-off hermit, hiding my feelings from someone because I thought that they might not reciprocate.

Besides, from Bailey’s reaction at seeing me here in Vegas, I had to assume that she liked me as much as I liked her. Maybe even loved me as well.

Bailey sighed and leaned into me for a moment. “I wish you could stay longer,” she said. “I know you have things that you need to get back to. Like the resort. Thank you again for taking things over for me while I’m gone.” She paused, nudging her eggs around on her plate. “But I wish that you could be here. Or that I could be back there.” She wrinkled her nose. “Really, I just wish that I could be back there.”

“Soon,” I promised her, even though I knew it wasn’t up to me. I was relieved to see the way that she smiled at me, though. She really was planning on coming back to Utah, then. A weight lifted from my heart.

“Anyway, we have a lot to do if you only have a couple days here,” Bailey continued. She glanced over at the clock and giggled a little. “Especially since we’ve already wasted nearly half the day!”

“It’s only ten,” I pointed out, shrugging. “We have plenty of time.”

Bailey looked back at me, eyes twinkling. “Yeah, but I need a shower. And I assume you want one as well. And we might as well shower together. So there goes quite a bit of time already.”

I smirked at her. “Fair enough,” I said, liking how natural things felt between us. We were on the same page. And it was great. I wasn’t even sure that Beth and I had ever clicked this perfectly.

“So what is there to see in Vegas other than casinos, anyway?” I asked Bailey as we continued to eat.

“Oh, we’ll start with the casinos and see what else we have time for,” Bailey said.

“I don’t know, I’m not much of a gambling man,” I protested. I knew that while I was in Vegas, I probably had to see at least some of the spectacle of the place. But to be honest, the longer I sat here next to Bailey, the more I wanted to just keep her there in bed with me for the entire weekend. I didn’t want slot machines and stupid card games to get in the way of that.

Bailey laughed as though she had expected me to say that. “Don’t worry,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “I think I can figure out a way to make gambling fun for you.”

Sure enough, as we walked into the casino later, her dressed in a cute green dress she had changed into when we stopped by her place as she led me towards the blackjack table, I had to admit that I was more interested in this than I ever would have imagined. There was something sexy about watching Bailey, so confident and comfortable here as she greeted the dealer. And that grin that she flashed over at me?

I suddenly wondered just what I had gotten myself into.

56

Bailey

No matter how much help I and the dealer tried to give to Adam, he still was pretty terrible at blackjack. But he was game enough to keep playing. And from the heated looks that he kept shooting me, I could tell that part of it was because I was the one sitting there near him, my legs artfully arranged to show off their length.

There was no mistaking the fact that he’d rather take me back upstairs and strip me down. And the thrill of this, teasing him like this, having that kind of power over him? Well, it turned me on as well. But I didn’t want to end the tease just yet.

I leaned over towards Adam as the dealer shuffled the cards. His shoulder felt warm beneath my hand as I steadied myself against him, my lips just brushing his ear. “You bored?” I asked him.

Adam grinned and shrugged. “Thought you were going to show me all that Vegas had to offer,” he teased. “And so far, all I’ve seen is this one blackjack table. And the bedroom.”

I laughed and straightened up. “Let’s go, then,” I suggested. There was plenty more that I wanted to show him.

I didn’t know why I wanted to show him around so much. Well, part of it was that I wanted to show him off. I knew people here in Vegas, and they knew me. I had seen the way Matt, the dealer, had looked at us in surprise as I walked up on Adam’s arm. He had given Adam a once-over, and I could tell from his expression that he knew just how attractive Adam was. And he approved of that.

I wanted everyone to know that I was with Adam. That he had flown all the way out to Vegas to be with me. Oh, they might not all know the full story about Brooks Mountain Resort and the fact that Adam was the mechanic there. Probably best that they didn’t, really. But I wanted everyone to know that I was taken.

Because I really was taken. I had known that I had missed Adam, in the time that I had been here in Vegas. Seeing him again had only made me realize how much. And waking up next to him that morning? I couldn’t quite put a name to the expression that I had seen in his eyes, but I knew that it was reflected back at him in my own gaze.

There was no way that I was letting him go.

So I wanted to show him everything that there was to see here in Vegas. This might not be my whole life anymore. I still couldn’t wait to get back to Utah. But this place was a part of me. It had made me who I was in so many ways, especially when it came to business. I wanted Adam to know all of that.

Besides, it was kind of fun to have fun with Adam there. I never really got to experience Vegas like everyone else. Normally if I was at the casinos, it was because I was working. I wasn’t just out to gamble and have fun. I had forgotten some of the charm of the place. The way time just seemed to pass as you wandered through the elaborate hallways of the different casinos, marveling at the architecture, the shops, the glitz and the glamor.

Adam laughed and shook his head as we wandered. “This place is just nuts,” he said, craning his neck to look up at the high, painted ceilings.

“It is,” I agreed. “Honestly, even I am afraid that I’ll get lost here sometimes. I know that’s crazy, but it just feels like there’s always more to discover.” I shrugged and leaned into him. “Vegas is such a love-it or hate-it kind of place, but for me, I definitely love it. I guess I’m biased, though.”

“I don’t know if I love it,” Adam admitted, looking down at me. “But today has definitely been fun.”

“Worth leaving Utah for?” I joked, and Adam laughed.

“Oh yeah,” he said, and I knew he wasn’t just saying that because of the tour of the city that I was trying to give him.

We wandered in silence for a bit down fake cobblestoned streets, and I couldn’t help sneaking glances up at Adam, watching his expression. He looked fascinated and amused, and I counted that as a win.

“Come on, let’s get ice cream,” I suggested, steering him towards one of my favorite places.

Adam raised an eyebrow at me. “Shouldn’t we eat some proper food?” he asked. “Lunch? Or dinner?” He frowned, glancing at his watch. “This place is kind of like the Twilight Zone,” he said. “You can’t even tell what time of day it is here.”

“All the better to keep people in here,” I pointed out. “If you don’t realize just how much time you’ve spent in here, then you don’t realize that it’s time for you to leave. Besides, the passage of time would kill the fantasy of it all.”

Adam snorted. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” He looked around. “I can’t imagine living in a place like this.”

I tried not to feel disappointed at that. Did he think of me differently because I had lived here for so long? Did he look down on people like me? “Well, if you live here, to be honest, you probably don’t come out to the casinos all the time. I mean, there are some people who do. But it just kind of becomes the same after a while, you know? And I’ve never really been interested in gambling. Ian does more of that than I do.”

“I didn’t mean it like it was a bad thing,” Adam said hurriedly, like he was afraid that he had offended me. “I just meant that I can’t imagine living here. But I’m sure most of these people can’t imagine living like I do either.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

Adam shrugged. “I’m way out in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “I mean, I’m not. The town isn’t that far away. But you’ve seen where I am. It’s just Dad and I out there. And Ethan. If we want to go anywhere else, we have to drive. Most people just don’t want to live like that.”

“I guess not,” I said slowly, shrugging my shoulders. “Honestly, I can’t wait until I’m back in Utah. Things just seem so much more relaxed there. So much more real.”

We were still lingering outside the ice cream shop. After a moment, Adam seemed to finally realize it. He grinned and steered me inside. “I guess I’m on vacation,” he said. “If I want to eat ice cream for dinner, then I can do that.”

I laughed. “That’s the spirit,” I said.

We got ice cream and sat down at one of the wrought-iron bistro tables with a good view of the ‘street’. It might be a random Saturday in January, but there was still plenty of foot traffic strolling by us.

“So, you can’t wait until you’re back in Utah?” Adam asked slowly. His tone was carefully measured, and there was something in the way that he was carefully not looking at me, staring down into his ice cream as he stirred it around with his spoon, that told me there was a certain subtext to what he was saying.

“I’m coming back to Utah,” I said quietly but firmly. I set my ice cream down on the table, reaching over to catch his hand. “I know that it hasn’t exactly been fair, me dumping all this work on you. Or asking you to wait for me. Especially since I haven’t been able to tell you when I planned on coming back. I know it’s been difficult. But I am definitely coming back.”

I saw relief break across Adam’s face, and my heart twisted in my chest. Here I had been, wondering if he was even interested in me anymore, if there had been something about the fact that he had asked me if this was just some seasonal fling, what he and I had. I hadn’t thought that he might be doubting us just the same way. I hadn’t thought about the fact that I had done nothing but give him things to doubt since I had come here to Vegas.

“All right,” Adam said. He took a bite of his ice cream, and I could tell that he had something that he wanted to say. I waited patiently. “It’s not the work that really bothers me,” he finally said slowly. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly love taking over the weekly meetings and that kind of stuff. I’m a lot happier working with my hands than I am doing basic administrative stuff. But that’s all fine.”

He paused again and then took a deep breath. “But I’ve missed seeing you around. And not knowing if you were really coming back…” He trailed off.

“I told you that I was coming back,” I reminded him, even though I knew that wasn’t exactly fair. I had told him that I was coming back, and he had told me that he would wait for me. But that had been one of those dramatic moments while we were at the airport, while we were losing one another. And things had changed. I hadn’t really trusted what he had told me either.

Adam sighed and smiled at me. “I know you told me that you were coming back,” he acknowledged, nodding at me. “But there were a few people at work who didn’t believe you were. Something about you taking yourself off payroll. And Kayla says that she’s barely heard anything from you.”

I winced. How to explain this? “I took myself off payroll because it’s not fair for me to be taking in money from the resort when I’m not actually working there,” I said, shrugging. “And besides, we’ve taken a bit of a cut on our profits lately because of Ian. I managed to return most of the stuff that he had ordered, but there were some deposits or percentages of certain payments that the mountain couldn’t get back.”

“You’re not responsible for that,” Adam protested.

“I know I’m not,” I said. “At least not entirely. But I am responsible for making sure that we go through with all the investments that we’ve already promised to our customers. And the only way that we’re going to be able to do everything that I want us to do is to make sure that we keep things operating in the green.” I shrugged. “Anyway, I hate to say it, but it’s not like I need the money. I put a lot of my money into buying the resort and my condo, but I’m not exactly in a tough place right now.”

“And I guess the casino is paying you for the work you’re doing to help Ian,” Adam surmised, nodding. He sighed. “That makes me feel better.”

“I’m sorry I made you worry,” I said quietly.

Adam grinned ruefully at me. “Also not your fault,” he said. “Not entirely, anyway.” He took a deep breath, looking down at his hands. “I just care about you. You probably already know that, but I’m not sure you know how much.”

“How much?” I asked softly, barely daring to hope for the answer.

Adam laughed, looking quickly up at me. “I miss Utah,” he said. “But I realized this morning that if you needed to stay here long-term, or if you didn’t want to come back at some point? Well, I’d stay here with you. I’d do whatever it took.” He paused. “I know I told you before, and I’ll tell you again; you’re going to have to be patient with me. I was sure that after I lost Beth, I was never going to be able to care about anyone like that again.”

He swallowed. “You can’t imagine what it feels like, watching someone you love slowly wither away into nothing. She got sick, and then she got sicker. And the whole time, I couldn’t help but think that it was all my fault. I know, logically, that it wasn’t. But if I had just noticed the signs sooner, if I had been around to help out with Ethan more, maybe she would have gotten checked out sooner and maybe things would have been different.”

He took a deep breath. “I spent the final months of Beth’s life closing myself off to everyone. Refusing to ever feel that kind of hurt again.”

“But you’re not closed off with Ethan,” I reminded him quietly.

Adam looked surprised for a moment. “No, I’m not,” he finally said. “You’re right. And out of everyone in the world, Ethan is the person I would most hate to lose.” He grinned ruefully at me. “But you’re creeping up there, I have to admit.”

I laughed, my heart soaring. That was as close to admitting he loved me as he could manage, I was sure. And it made my own pulse quicken in response. I had already told him, back at the airport before I left Park City, that I cared about him. But I was starting to realize that I cared about him even more than I had realized. And it sounded like maybe, just maybe, he felt the same way about me.

“I’m kind of worried that I’m never going to be as great as Beth was.” I blurted out the words before I had even given voice to that mild jealousy inside of my head.

Adam looked taken aback. I expected him to brush it off, to voice some quiet platitude to make me feel better. I knew that Beth must have been so important to him. That she would always be important to him, whether she was here or not. She lived on in Adam’s memories, and in Ethan.

It was part of why relationships had always made me nervous. I knew that my parents would always love one another, even though they were separated. And I knew that it made every other relationship difficult for them. There were always those comparisons between what you had now and what you had had before. How could I possibly measure up to someone that Adam had chosen to be the mother of his first child?

But Adam didn’t patronize me. Instead, he nodded seriously. “That’s a fair worry,” he said. “And to be honest, I’m really worried that I’ll do something careless to make you feel like you’re second-best.” He paused, and I tried not to let those words hurt me. Did he think that I was second-best? Was he just making do with me because he couldn’t have Beth any longer?

He wasn’t finished yet, however. “I love Beth, still. But you’re so different from her, in so many ways. There isn’t really a comparison there. And I don’t want you to ever feel like you need to live up to who she was. You’re so special in your own way, Bailey.” He shook his head. “Honestly, I didn’t think that I was ever going to be able to open myself up to anyone again, but with you, it was like I never even had a choice. You make me want to be the best person that I can be, all for you.”

I stared at him for a moment, shocked to hear that. Of course, on some level, I had known that that was how he was feeling, but I hadn’t really expected to hear him say that. Not just yet, anyway. I couldn’t help feeling moved by it. I reached out to tangle my fingers in his, squeezing lightly. “I’m coming back to Utah,” I promised him, wondering if he could hear how choked with emotion my voice was in that moment. “We’re going to figure this out.”

I didn’t know how we were going to make things work. I knew that he kept cautioning me that I would need to be patient with him, and I knew that he would need to be patient with me as well. I hadn’t ever been in a relationship like this before. Not a relationship that really felt like it might last.

Not only that, but I didn’t know how we were going to manage to keep things going while I was here in Vegas. I knew that he couldn’t stay here with me for the next few weeks, as much as I might like that. He had responsibilities back in Park City, with the mountain and with his son. I had responsibilities here; the board of directors wanted me to stick around for a little while longer to keep Ian in check.

And the whole reason Ian had brought Adam out here was to thank me for helping him save his job. Speaking of which, I needed to remember to give Ian a call and thank him for this. I still could barely believe what he had done.

But I had a feeling Ian wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t hear from me until Monday when Adam was on his way back to Utah.

For a moment, I wondered if I should feel guilty about taking a whole weekend to disappear with Adam. I should still be making sure that Ian was okay, that he was doing his work as usual. Especially after he had taken the previous day off, maybe I should check in with the board and make sure that they were still happy with the current arrangements.

The casino business kept going, at all hours of the day, every day of the week.

But Ian would tell me if he needed my help for anything. And I had earned a weekend off, I was pretty sure. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and just smiled at Adam. He smiled right back at me.

57

Adam

I blinked my eyes slowly awake, frowning when I reached towards the other side of the bed and didn’t find Bailey lying there. I sighed and lay back against the pillows, trying not to feel disappointed. I had imagined another morning like the previous one, with the two of us in bed for half of the day together. But Bailey, it appeared, had slipped out before I had even woken up.

I knew that I couldn’t blame her for that either. She had work. I appreciated the fact that Ian had brought me here as a surprise to her. It showed that he supported our relationship, and it was fun to give Bailey a surprise like that. But at the same time, I shouldn’t have expected her to drop everything to be with me. I knew she was under a lot of pressure here, just like I was back at Brooks Mountain. If our positions had been reversed, there would have been plenty of stuff that I needed to get done over the course of the weekend, and spending time with Bailey would have…

Just then, Bailey walked in off the balcony, though, dressed in only my shirt. She grinned at me when she saw that I was awake and pounced on the bed next to me. “Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she was actually still here. “What were you doing out there?” I asked.

Bailey wrinkled her nose. “Sorry, my phone rang a little while ago. A work thing. I didn’t want to wake you up. But anyway, it’s all sorted out now.”

I grimaced. “I understand if you need to get back to work today,” I said, even though the thought of losing those precious hours with her physically hurt me.

Bailey looked shocked that I would even suggest that she get back to work, though. “What? Waste your last day here? No way!” She shook her head emphatically. But then, she frowned. “Unless you’re trying to get rid of me? Are you sick of me already?”

It was my turn to stare at her in shock. “Definitely not,” I said firmly. “I just know that I’ve dropped in unexpectedly, and you probably have a ton of things that need to get done. That’s why they have you stuck here, after all, isn’t it?”

Bailey grinned. “Well, lucky for you, I’m not the owner of this business. Ian is. So if something needs to get done this weekend, then he can damn well handle it on his own.” She sighed and flopped back on the bed. “I’m willing to give them a few weeks of my presence here, if that’s what it takes for Ian to keep his job. But this isn’t my full-time job. They can’t demand that I be there every hour of every day. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that Ian needs to take the reins again.”

She glanced over at me and giggled. “You’re probably thinking that I’m shirking my duties, huh? I know you have a stronger work ethic than me. Than anyone I know, really.”

I stared at her for a moment. Her naked breasts were just peeking out from the unbuttoned collar of the shirt. Her hair looked rumpled from sleep, but her eyes were bright and full of laughter. I didn’t think I had ever seen a woman look that sexy before.

I rolled on top of her suddenly, pressing my mouth insistently against hers. I nudged a leg between hers, my arms coming around her body as it arched up off of the sheets. She moaned, the vibrations sending sparks of lust coursing through my body. We kissed until there was no more air between us. Then, I grinned down at her.

Bailey sighed softly against my lips, her arms tightening around my body. “Do you really have to go back to Utah?” she asked quietly.

I brushed my fingertips along her cheek, wishing that I could say otherwise. But I sighed as I nuzzled her jawline. “You know I have to,” I told her.

“I could find someone else to step in at the resort. I know you don’t like all the things that you’ve had to do lately, anyway. I’m sure Gretchen or someone could handle it. Or maybe Mike is all better by now and ready to take over again.” There was a hopeful note in Bailey’s voice which made my heart wrench as I rolled away to the side.

“You know the work isn’t the only reason I have to get back,” I said carefully. “Ethan needs me.”

It was that tricky kind of conversation. I didn’t expect her to really understand it, even. As far as she was concerned, probably, Ethan was doing fine with his grandfather, and there was no reason for me to hurry back. She had never had kids, and she probably didn’t understand what it was like.

But Bailey surprised me, as she so often did. “I know, I know. Ethan needs to have his dad around. I remember how hard it was for me to leave my dad here in Vegas when Ian and I went back to living with our mom.” She paused and then snuggled in close to me. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t even ask about it. It’s selfish of me. But I just want to keep you all to myself.”

“It has been nice, the past couple days,” I admitted.

To be honest, before Bailey came along, I had sort of forgotten how challenging it was to balance a relationship’s needs once you had a child. Beth and I had eventually figured out a rhythm once we had Ethan, but for the first couple years, it had been a near-constant challenge to figure out when we had time for one another.

And then the balance had shifted again once Beth got sick. Especially in those last few months, I knew that I had been far more focused on Beth and the relationship that she and I had than I was on Ethan. I just didn’t have enough time for him, between all the doctor visits and everything else she needed.

For the first time, I wondered if that was a huge part of the reason why I had closed myself off to everyone except for Ethan once Beth was gone. Maybe I had felt guilty about leaving him with Dad so much during those last few months, and maybe I had been afraid to get involved with someone who would take me away from him again.

Of course, my reasons for closing myself off didn’t really matter anymore. What was done was done, and the only way to move on was to move forwards.

I wanted this relationship with Bailey. We were going to have to find our own sort of balance and compromise. But at least I already knew that Bailey and Ethan got along well. Maybe all three of us could find a perfect balance together. But that would have to wait until Bailey was back in Utah with us. I couldn’t very well pull Ethan out of school and ski club in the middle of the season.

Bailey trailed her fingers across my bare chest, carefully not looking at me. “I’m going to do what I can to see if I can come back to Park City a little bit earlier than the board really wants,” she said slowly. “But maybe you could at least come visit me again, if it’s going to be another few weeks or so? And you could bring Ethan with you next time. I’d love to see him, and there’s all sorts of stuff that we could do around here with him. Maybe even a day trip to the Grand Canyon.”

“That would be fun,” I said, my mind already running wild with the possibilities. But to be honest, at the end of the day, I just couldn’t wait for her to get back to Utah. I shook my head. “This is my bit of selfishness, I guess. I know that I told you yesterday that if you needed to stay here in Vegas for the time being, then I would figure out a way to be here. But I just keep picturing us in Utah. You know, curled up on the couch by the fire, a nice blanket over the top of us, a movie on TV. Just quiet nights together. The three of us.”

I was surprised to hear the words slip out of my mouth. I’d never really been much of a romantic; I was normally too practical for that. But I did like the mental image I had of us.

And from the way that Bailey smiled at me, I could tell that she liked it as well. “That sounds cozy,” she said, pressing up against me and lightly laying her head on my shoulder.

Eventually, though, I sighed, glancing at the bedside table. “I think I need to pack,” I said, though I didn’t make any move to get out of bed. “I need to get to the airport soon.”

Bailey pouted, her arms holding me close. “I don’t want you to go,” she said petulantly.

“I don’t really want to go,” I admitted softly. “But we’re going to see each other soon, aren’t we?”

“As soon as possible,” Bailey agreed. But she didn’t sound any happier about the prospective of me leaving.

I tugged her closer, kissing her softly. “Then maybe I just have to give you a reason to hurry,” I suggested, and she moaned, deepening the kiss.

“Please,” she whispered quietly, and that was all the invitation that I needed.

58

Bailey

I hated the fact that Adam was leaving. I knew why he had to go back to Utah. In fact, I could barely believe I had tried to ask him to stay. Not because I didn’t want him to stay. But I knew just how selfish I was being, even asking him. I was the one who should be headed back to Utah. I should be rearranging my life to be with him, not the other way around.

Instead, though, I had shown up in Utah, basically made promises that I couldn’t keep, and dragged him all the way to Vegas just to spend time with me. Although Ian had been the one doing the dragging, I supposed.

But Adam didn’t seem to mind. He couldn’t stay there in Vegas, but he seemed like he really wanted to make this work. I thought back to what he had told me the previous evening, about how he hadn’t felt like this about anyone in a long time.

And I loved him. I knew that for a fact.

I loved the way he kissed me right now. The way he pushed me back against the soft sheets and covered my body with his. I loved the way his talented fingers roved across my skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. I loved the way he grinned down at me, his eyes dark and full of lust.

He had promised to give me a reason to hurry back to Utah, as though I needed any more reason to want to be back there. I missed him, and I missed my job, and I missed Ethan and Kayla and everyone else. I missed skiing, and surprisingly enough, I missed the cold and the snow.

I had loved the thought of Adam and I curled up on the couch with a blanket thrown over us while a fire raged in the fireplace and snow drifted slowly to the ground outside. I had loved the promise of a future together.

I knew that I needed to get things straightened out here in Nevada. I hated that I had been pulled out of bed that morning to talk business with some of our investors over the phone. We had scheduled a meeting for later, but I was never going to get those minutes back, when I could have been lying there in bed next to Adam.

Of course, I got this now. But he had to leave for the airport soon, and it felt like those earlier minutes had been wasted.

I didn’t want to work for the casino. I hadn’t wanted to, not for a long time now. I knew I needed to help Ian keep his job. He was my brother, after all, and I loved him. But I needed to get what I wanted as well. And right now, it seemed like everything I wanted was in Utah.

It was hard to keep thinking, though, when Adam was intent on giving me more and more reason to head back to Park City as soon as possible.

He was teasing me, I suddenly realized, as he slowly kissed his way down my body. There was laughter in his eyes as he gazed up at me. I refused to give in and beg, at least for now. Let him do his worst, if that’s the way that he wanted to play. I had a feeling it wouldn’t take long before we were both desperate for him to be inside of me.

But he took his sweet time, working me over until I was trembling against the sheets, my hips giving little aborted thrusts as he worked his fingers inside of me. His lips brushed against my lips, my jawline, my cheek. He nibbled at my earlobe and I couldn’t help gasping as I arched against him. His answering laugh rumbled through his chest beneath my fingertips.

He dragged his lips down my body, nipping and sucking at my skin, showing me pleasure that was stronger than anything I had ever felt before. I gasped as he tongued along the cleft between my legs. He licked my clit and then nuzzled lower, his tongue pressing inside of me, joining his fingers inside of my needy core. He sucked at my velvety folds, stimulating me in the most intimate of ways.

I tangled my fingers in his hair, head falling back on another breathy moan as he fluttered his tongue and dragged the pads of his fingers along my inner walls. He ravished me for what felt like forever, and even though I was increasingly desperate for something more, there was also a definite part of me that never wanted him to stop what he was doing right now.

When he pulled back and away, I sobbed, hips jerking unsteadily in response. He stilled me with the gentlest of touches, smiling crookedly down at me as he pumped his cock a few times before thrusting it into my wet and waiting pussy.

He fucked me until I was breathless, crying out his name, so close to coming that I was almost in tears. But I held back, watching his face, noting how close he, himself, was getting. Let him tease me, then; I wouldn’t come until he did.

He dragged his thumbs across my nipples, and I bit at my lower lip as my pussy clenched tightly around his full length. Again and again, he slammed into me, and I could tell from how frantic his movements were that this was finally getting to him as well, that he could barely hold back, that soon enough, he would be on the brink as well.

He groaned, pressing his whole body into mine, as though we could mesh into just one person like this. His thrusts became choppy and primal, and even though I wanted nothing more than to watch his face as he was overcome with pleasure, I found my own eyes slipping shut as well at the strength of the emotions coursing through me.

Three more rapid thrusts and that was it for both of us. We came together, fingers grasping at sweaty skin, mouths open on noisy moans of lust. Adam pressed my body even further back into the sheets, but I welcomed the weight of him against me as I wrapped my legs around his muscular form.

We panted there for a long time, drifting in utter satiation. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, laughing a little. “Fuck, I think it gets better ever time,” I joked.

Adam laughed as well, falling off to the side. “Then you’d better not hurry back to Utah,” he teased. “Otherwise, I think you might just kill me.”

I grinned at him and wiggled closer, facing him. But suddenly, Adam swore. “I’m going to miss my flight if I don’t hurry up,” he said, leaping out of the bed. He paused for a moment, looking back at me.

I wanted to grab his arm and pull him back into bed with me. To cuddle against him and beg him not to leave, or at least not yet. I could get him booked on a later flight. I could pay the airline change fees.

But I knew that he wanted to get back to Ethan, and I was sure that Ethan wanted to see his father as well. It had only been a couple days, but to a kid, that was a long time. I remembered what it felt like to wait uncertainly to see a parent again, and I couldn’t do that to the little boy.

Besides, what did it really matter if Adam left now or later? It was going to hurt either way.

I sighed and rolled out of bed as well. “I wish we had more time,” I said. “But I’ll see you soon.”

Adam flashed a grin at me as he packed up his things, throwing them haphazardly into the duffel bag that he had brought with him from home. “Want to come with me to the airport?” he asked.

I remembered the last airport departure. That time, I had been the one leaving, departing Utah and headed here to Las Vegas. This time, it would be the other way around, with Adam departing Nevada for Park City. But I had a feeling it would hurt just as much. I had a feeling I would have to wipe away a few tears on the way home.

But I wouldn’t have missed the chance to say goodbye to him. Or rather, to say a quick ‘see you later’, because I knew that I was going to see him again. And soon.

And once I got back to the casino, I was going to have a long talk with Ian and see if we could come up with some way for me to leave a little earlier than the month that I had promised to the board of directors.

Sure enough, when we got to the airport and I watched Adam grab his things out of the back of the car, I had to blink back tears. He gave me a huge hug. “Don’t do anything crazy before you come back to Utah,” he said. “I know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I don’t think that holds true if you dye your hair purple or something.”

I had to laugh at that, glad that he had lightened the mood at least a little bit. I opened my mouth to respond and swallowed back the words that almost escaped; I love you.

I did love Adam. There was no question of that. And what’s more, his visit here had shown me that maybe, just maybe, he might love me as well. There might be a way for the two of us to make this relationship work.

I knew that if I said that I loved him now, things would probably feel better over the weeks to come, if I was still stuck here in Vegas. There would be no more of that questioning like there had been before his surprise visit. We would both know where we stood.

But on the other hand, I didn’t want him to think I was only blurting out the words because I was feeling emotional about his departure. I wanted to make sure that he knew just how special it was for me to say those words to him.

The other worry I had, that niggling doubt, was that maybe things were happening a little too fast. We had known each other for ages now, ever since I had visited Brooks Mountain as a kid. But this relationship was still relatively new. I didn’t want to say anything that would upset the balance. I knew that Adam had told me I would need to be patient with him in light of the fact that he had lost his first wife, Ethan’s mom. I didn’t want to say I loved him too soon and send him running for the hills.

Besides, I could tell that he had feelings for me. Did I really need to say anything out loud?

All these thoughts flew through my head in just a second, as I stood there in his arms. But in the end, I just smiled up at him. “Soon,” I promised him.

“Soon,” he echoed, nodding at me. Then, he turned and grabbed his bag, heading into the airport. Another moment later and he was gone. I knew it shouldn’t bother me, but I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed that he hadn’t looked back.

59

Adam

I couldn’t help but miss Bailey from the moment that I left Las Vegas. I wanted to look back and get one last good look at her as I walked into the airport, but I knew that if I did that, I would be tempted to never leave. Could I get rebooked on a later flight? Just to spend a little more time with her?

But the logical part of me knew that that extra time would only make it more difficult to leave. And anyway, I had responsibilities back in Utah that I needed to get back to. I had work at the resort the next morning, and I wanted to spend a little more time with Ethan before he went back to school the next day. I shouldn’t have taken off and left him for a whole weekend anyway.

I felt kind of guilty about that, I had to admit. Of course, I was sure that he had had fun spending the weekend with his grandfather. It wasn’t like I had dumped him on a stranger or forgotten about him. But I did try to spend a lot of time with him, and I felt like I had been shorting him lately, spending more time at work and now not even being around on the weekends at all.

That wasn’t fair to him. That wasn’t the way that I wanted to parent.

That said, it had been good to spend the weekend with Bailey. Really good, in fact. And it wasn’t just because we had had fun around the casinos. In fact, that was the least of it. But it felt like Bailey and I had talked about some of the things that had been bothering me since she had left Park City before. It felt like we were on the same page and ready to move forward with our relationship.

Not that things were going to be easy, with her here in Vegas for another few weeks to supervise Ian. And even though she had mentioned that she might try to talk to the board of directors again about leaving a little sooner than they had originally wanted her to, I knew Bailey’s work ethic as well as she knew mine. If she thought that they needed her there, then she was going to stay there and support her brother, no questions asked.

I wanted to call her the moment that I landed in Utah, just to hear her voice. But I didn’t want to seem too over-the-top. We might have admitted that we had feelings for one another but it seemed like admitting something more to call her now. I did shoot her a quick text to let her know that I had landed safely and was on my way back home.

When I got to the house, Ethan and Dad were in the kitchen just sitting down to dinner. Dad got up to make me a plate as well. “How was your trip?” he asked.

“Really good,” I admitted, unable to keep the smile from spreading across my face.

Dad raised an eyebrow at me, looking surprised. But he covered it with a smooth nod. “I’m happy for you,” he said. Fortunately, he didn’t talk to me about it more while Ethan was in the room.

I still wasn’t sure how to approach that conversation with my son. Originally, I hadn’t wanted him to get too close to Bailey because I hadn’t been sure what she was looking for. I didn’t want Ethan to get too attached to her if she wasn’t going to stick around.

But it was hard to keep Ethan from getting to know her, since it was impossible to keep Ethan away from the mountain, and since Bailey had proven, in the time since she had become owner of the resort, that she wanted to be as involved in everything on the mountain as possible. And what’s more, Bailey had proven that she was great with Ethan. Even though Ethan didn’t know that she and I were in a relationship with one another, he was getting attached to her, wanting to spend more time with her and wanting to go skiing with her.

Now that it was clear that Bailey was going to be in my life, at least for the time being, if not long-term, I had to think about what I wanted to do about what I wanted to tell Ethan. It wasn’t something that I’d ever had to think about before. Beth and I had been married before Ethan was born, and I hadn’t dated anyone since I had lost her. I had never expected to date anyone again, even though Beth had told me before she died that she wanted me to be with someone who made me happy, someone that I could share the rest of my life with.

Instead, I had tried to close myself away and deny the fact that I needed anyone. And I supposed when it really came down to it, part of what I loved about Bailey was that I didn’t need her, and she didn’t need me. She was independent, and she let me do things my own way. But somehow, our lives just seemed to fit together as perfectly as our bodies did.

It was a strange and heady feeling, and I was powerless to stop it.

Something of that must have shown on my face when Dad asked about Bailey, because after dinner, while Ethan was getting his things ready for school and ski club the next day, Dad caught my arm. “You’re getting serious with her, aren’t you?” he asked in a low voice. But he didn’t seem worried about it, just curious.

I nodded slowly. “I really like her. Love her, actually,” I admitted, shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t know how to describe it. She’s definitely not Beth, but I guess I don’t need another Beth in my life now.” I paused, scuffing a foot on the floor. “This sounds really bad, but if I met Beth again now, I’m not even sure that we would be together. I’m just not the person that I was back then.”

“Death can change a person,” Dad said sagely, nodding at me. “I’m not the same person I was when I met your mother either, remember. And sometimes, I do wonder if it would be better if that’s who I was now. But at the same time, you can’t hang on to the past forever. Humans are born to change.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, nodding. I wasn’t sure what else to say, though. Sometimes I forgot that Dad’s loss of my mother would have affected him in some of the same ways as my loss of Beth. Granted, he hadn’t had to watch his loving wife get sicker and sicker until the end came for her. But despite Dad’s gruff exterior, I knew that he wasn’t made of stone either. He had loved my mom once. He still did, I was pretty sure.

So if there was anyone who even kind of knew what I was going through, it was probably him.

“Is she coming back to Utah now?” Dad asked.

I sighed and shook my head. “I wish,” I said. “Apparently the board of directors at her family’s company wants her to stick around Vegas for a little while to keep her brother in check. They don’t like what Ian’s done with the company since his father’s death.” I made a face. “And you know Bailey, she just can’t tell them no. Especially not when it’s Ian’s job that’s on the line.”

Dad grimaced. “Have you talked to her about how difficult it is for you, not knowing when she’s coming back?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’ve talked about it. And I do believe that she’s going to come back. I just wish it were sooner.” I paused. “And I’m still kind of worried that I’m going to go back to the mountain tomorrow and Kayla or someone is going to say something about her not coming back again and I’m just going to…lose it. Lose my faith in her return or something. I know that’s not fair.”

Dad shrugged. “It’s easier to believe that she’s not coming back,” he pointed out. “Harder for you to trust her. But you know that you have to trust her, if you want things to work between the two of you.”

“You’re right. And I know it. I know I can’t let anyone get in my head, but like you said, it’s just hard for me to trust her. Especially after everything with Beth.” I paused. “And that in itself isn’t fair. First of all, Bailey isn’t Beth. And second of all, it’s not like Beth ever lied to me or anything. I just feel like we promised one another forever and I didn’t get that.”

There was nothing that Beth had been able to do about it, of course. I knew that if she had had her way, she would have gotten better. She never would have gotten sick in the first place, even. But I couldn’t help feeling like towards the end, she had kind of given up. And I knew that she had been in a lot of pain. That the only reason she hadn’t wanted Ethan there in the hospital with her was because she didn’t want him to remember her like that. That she couldn’t handle our tears and so it was too hard to have us there with her.

But at the same time, it felt like that forever had been cut short. And what if that happened again, this time with Bailey? What if it didn’t matter what she wanted, if the company and the universe and whatever else conspired to keep her there in Vegas while Ethan and I stayed here in Park City?

I had told Bailey that we would figure out a way to work things out. That maybe I would move to Nevada just to be with her. But could I really do that, if it came down to it? It would mean pulling Ethan away from his school and his friends, from his favorite sport and his favorite season. I had a responsibility to the boy. Even more than the responsibility that I had to myself or to Bailey.

I just had to hope that Bailey would come back. That she would figure out things with the casino business. Ian had told me that he could tell that Bailey wasn’t happy there in Nevada. And she had reminded me that she had quit working for the casino business even before she had hatched the idea of moving to Utah and buying a ski resort. She didn’t want to be there.

But she wasn’t there now because she wanted to be there. She was there because she had responsibilities as well. And maybe our different responsibilities would keep us from putting together lives that could mesh with one another’s.

“My stuff’s all ready!” Ethan announced as he skidded into the kitchen in socked feet. He was already dressed in his pajamas and ready to go to bed.

Dad looked like he wanted to say something more on the Bailey subject, but I just gave him a small shrug. “Thanks again for looking after Ethan while I was gone,” I said. “I guess I should get his stuff double-checked and get him into bed.”

Dad nodded slowly. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. He knelt down in front of Ethan, giving him a little fist bump. “See you Tuesday,” he said.

“Uh huh!” Ethan chirped.

Dad let himself out while I led Ethan upstairs.

“Is Bailey back yet? Will she be at the mountain tomorrow?” Ethan asked as I checked through his ski gear.

I glanced over at him and sighed. “No, she’s not back just yet,” I told him.

Ethan frowned. “Doesn’t she want to come back?” he asked.

“Of course she does,” I said. I tried to think of some way to explain things to him. “Her brother still needs her help in Nevada. Because she’s so good with business.” That was sort of the truth, at least.

“I can’t wait until she comes back,” Ethan continued. “I want to go skiing with her!”

“I know you do, buddy,” I said. But it wasn’t like I could promise him that we would definitely get to ski with her this winter. What if Bailey didn’t make it back until the spring? The business would keep on running without her. As much as she seemed like she wanted to get back, there was no real pressing reason for her to need to come back as soon as possible. And maybe the longer she stayed in Nevada, the more she would realize that that really was where she belonged.

I hated the thought of that. But I knew that if she never did come back, then I couldn’t exactly hold it against her.

As I came back downstairs, though, I couldn’t help thinking about how quiet it was in the house. I found myself imagining what it would be like to have Bailey there with me, maybe curled up on the couch in the living room even now, a blanket over her lap and a book in her hands.

I shook the thought out of my head. She wasn’t even back in Utah yet. I couldn’t let myself get too attached to a future with her. Who knew if I would ever get the forever that I was promising myself.

60

Bailey

When I got to the casino on Monday morning, I was surprised to see that Ian was already there. Not only that, but he was actually working, chatting with a couple of the shareholders and sharing a laugh with them. As I walked over, William beamed at me. “Ian’s got some really great ideas for this place, you know,” he said, clapping my brother on the shoulder. “Ideas that are a lot more solid than the last ones.” He turned back to Ian. “Get that proposal written up and I’ll approach the board with it,” he promised.

“I’ll do that,” Ian said gravely, nodding his head.

I fought the urge to groan as the two other men walked away. “Already back to making changes to the place?” I asked, trying not to sound too accusing. But it was hard not to be frustrated with him. The whole reason that I was still stuck here was to make sure that Ian wasn’t making too many changes to the company and digging it down into a deep hole again. It had taken enough work to undo everything that he had done wrong before. If the board of directors continued to mistrust my brother, I wasn’t sure that I could keep Ian’s job safe for him.

And more than that, I wasn’t sure that the board would ever agree to let me go back to Utah.

Of course, at the end of the day, I was a grown woman and capable of making my own decisions. If I really wanted to go back to Utah, then I could do that. Hell, I could leave right now if I wanted to. But Dad had worked hard to build this empire before he died. I couldn’t live with myself if I just let it crumble now that he was gone. This was his legacy. This was the family business.

Besides, the business connections that I had made here were pretty powerful. What if I let all of them down and it impacted my new business with Brooks Mountain? I didn’t want to ruin the family name or turn away the types of investors that could really help out with the resort in the future. That was just bad business.

But Ian looked excited. “I think this one could really be a good one,” he said. “I don’t want to give away the surprise just yet, but trust me, I think you’re going to agree with me.” He paused, looking abashed. “Anyway, I’m going through the proper channels this time. Michael has promised to put the idea in front of the board. Just to be on the safe side, we think it’s better if I’m not the one introducing another change. But we’re going to vote on it, and I’ve agreed that if everyone isn’t on board with it, then we won’t make any changes.”

I blinked at him in surprise. “Wow,” I said, grinning at him. “Sounds like you’ve actually learned your lesson.”

Ian rolled his eyes at me, but the fond smile remained on his face. “I’m trying,” he agreed, nodding. “I know that I didn’t do things the right way before. But I’m not going to screw things up again. I promise.”

“Sounds like I’ll be back to Utah in no time,” I joked.

Ian laughed, but I could see in his eyes that he wasn’t super happy about that prospect. “I’m going to miss you,” he sighed. “But I guess you have to go back, don’t you?”

“My business is there,” I reminded him.

“And Adam,” Ian agreed, nodding.

“And Adam.” I paused. “Thank you again for flying him out here this weekend.” I couldn’t help how tentative the words were. I knew that Ian had taken pains to show me that he was okay with my relationship with Adam. That he accepted that we wanted to be together. It was a big change from before. I knew he still, in his heart, probably thought that I deserved better. He had always been too protective of me.

But at the end of the day, I was with Adam, and I wanted Ian to know just how much I appreciated the fact that my brother had flown Adam out to visit me that weekend. I just wasn’t sure how much to share with him.

“Did you have a good weekend?” Ian asked, and I slowly smiled.

“Yeah,” I said. “He’d never been to Vegas before. To be honest, I kind of forgot how fun it can be to go to the casinos and not think about work for a little while. To just have fun and kind of experience the glamor of it all.”

Ian snorted. “So you ready to start working here for real, then?” he asked, but I could tell that he was just teasing. It was such a change from how he had been before.

I shook my head. “I’ve got business back in Utah,” I reminded him. I grinned. “Actually, I think the sooner I get back, the less likely Adam is to quit. I don’t think he really likes being in charge of everything. I wish there was someone else that I could trust to handle things, but he’s doing better than he knows, I think. I keep getting glowing reviews from the other employees. He’s apparently doing an amazing job.”

I trailed off, blushing. I couldn’t help waiting for Ian to make some disparaging comment about how Adam couldn’t possibly be doing that well since he was just a tradesman. Or something like that.

“I bet he’s great at it,” Ian said, to my surprise. “He’s always been charismatic.”

I bumped my shoulder against his. “Not unlike a certain someone else that I know,” I said.

Ian grinned and then paused. “You really like him, don’t you?” he asked quietly.

“I love him,” I corrected quietly, unable to keep the challenge from my voice.

Ian nodded but didn’t say anything more about it. He glanced at his watch. “I’m happy for you,” he said, sounding distracted. He smiled apologetically at me. “Actually, I have a meeting that I need to step into, if that’s okay?”

I raised an eyebrow at him, thinking through the shared calendar that we had put together. “Who with?” I asked, not remembering seeing anything on the schedule for the morning. But the board of directors wanted me to be there with Ian while he talked to most of our important clients, just in case, so I supposed I was going to have to accompany Ian now.

“It’s with the board of directors,” Ian said, and I blinked in surprise. A secret meeting with the board? What did they want to talk to Ian about? Had they purposefully tried to exclude me?

They weren’t going to fire him, were they? They had to know that I would protest the idea of firing him. He was doing a lot better. Maybe they were trying to keep me from making a scene.

Ian grinned as though he knew just what I was thinking. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m the one who asked for the meeting. They kind of scheduled it last minute, so that’s why it’s not on the calendar.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, still feeling like I had been caught flat-footed by it all. “Well, I guess we should go, then. Where are we meeting them?”

But Ian shook his head. “You don’t need to come with me,” he said. “There’s just something that I want to talk to them about. And I want to do it on my own.” He paused. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate all the help that you’ve been giving me. But I need to start asserting myself again if I want to have any chance of proving to the board of directors that you can go back to Utah.”

He grinned crookedly at me. “And as much as I don’t want to let you go back to Utah, because it would be great to have you here with me again, I understand that that’s not totally possible. So I need to get my act together.”

I nodded slowly. “Honestly, I wanted to have a talk with the board as well,” I admitted. “I know I should just be grateful that I got to have Adam here with me this weekend, but it’s only made me want to spend more time with him. I want to go back to Utah. So I’m hoping that the board will be reasonable and let me leave a little sooner.”

I don’t know what I expected from Ian. Of course, he was as anxious to get back to being in charge of his own business as I was anxious for him to take over again. I knew it must gall him to have his younger sister here to look out for him, after all. He liked having me here, but he didn’t like that his company was worried to let him take over again.

But I didn’t expect him to nod in agreement. “So actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to the board about,” he admitted. “Maybe you should come with me after all. Basically, I just wanted to point out that the longer you’re here and doing business with our clients, the more used to your presence they’re going to get. And the more of a change it’ll be when you leave again. But they can’t keep you here forever.”

He shrugged. “I know that I messed things up before, but I’m not going to do that again. And I’m ready to make sure that everyone knows that.”

I laughed. “All right, let’s go,” I said.

“Let me do the talking,” Ian said confidently as he led me to one of the conference rooms.

Inside, I was more than happy to sit back and watch as Ian chatted with the board. He had regained his confidence, but he also was deferent in a way that he wouldn’t have been before.

“I’m ready to take the reins back,” he said. “And more than that, I’m ready to see my sister go back to doing what she loves doing. You know as well as I do that she isn’t happy working for this company anymore. She’s been wonderful in helping us get things back on track, but she has her own company to run back in Utah, and it’s not fair to pull her away from all of that. She shouldn’t be stuck here because of my mistakes.”

He glanced over at me, and I smiled at him, grateful to hear him talk about me going back to Utah. He really understood that that was where I wanted to be, and he was willing to let me go back there.

Even though he knew that as soon as I was back there, I would be back with Adam. That was as close to approval as I could expect to get at the moment. That meant even more than his flying Adam here to Nevada for the weekend, really.

“As you know, I’ve been working mostly on my own this weekend, and I also chatted with a few of the shareholders this morning,” Ian continued. “I’m ready to take things back over and do things right this time. Of course, Bailey will still be in close contact. I’ll run things by her before I make any major changes in the future. And I’ll continue to run things by the board as well, to get the proper approval before I do anything. But it’s time for me to assume a leadership position again.”

There was silence in the room. I looked around, trying to gauge the board’s reactions. Would they agree with Ian that it was time for him to take things over again? In reality, this was the same conversation that I had had with the board before, telling them that I was ready to leave. But maybe it would mean more to them coming from Ian. He certainly looked like he was poised and ready to assume his role again.

Finally, I was relieved to see a couple of nods. “Bailey will need to be in close contact,” the board agreed, and a few of the members exchanged glances. “However, as long as she’s in daily contact to weigh in on decisions, I see no reason why she shouldn’t be allowed to go back to Utah.”

I stared at the board, hardly believing what I had just heard. A broad grin broke out across my face. “Thank you so much,” I said. “I’ll definitely be around if you need me for anything.”

It was an easy promise to make, after all. I got to go back to Utah, now instead of in a few weeks as originally planned. By this time tomorrow, I could be back in Adam’s arms.

That thought made me feel surprisingly nervous. What if things weren’t as good once I was back? What if by the end of the season, we had seen too much of one another and realized that we were never all that interested in one another to begin with?

But with that nervousness came a thrill as well. I got to see Adam again. To explore this relationship with him. Things were going to be okay for Ian here in Nevada, and I got to go back to running the business that I wanted to run.

I could barely believe it.

61

Adam

My first task on Monday morning was to talk to Kayla and Gretchen about what had happened while I was gone. Michael’s health was still causing him some trouble, so he couldn’t quite take over running the business yet. I hadn’t realized how much I was pinning my hopes on his being back to work on Monday, when I returned. I had to fight not to groan when Kayla told me that the reins were still in my hands.

“I’m just ready to go back to being unnoticed,” I admitted to Kayla after she had caught me up on the weekend’s news. We had broken some of our records for number of skier visits in the month of January as well as number of skiers on the hill for one day. And not only that, but in spite of how busy it had been over the weekend, it sounded like things had run really smoothly. The comments box was full of compliments for how well our staff had handled the business.

That was a relief. But not only that, it made me proud of a couple of the changes I had made in how things were run. Some of our staff had managed to fill in roles that we wouldn’t normally have had them in. They were just changes that made sense to me, like having our marketing team double as happy on-snow ambassadors, cheering up people who were sick of waiting in lines. We’d even had one of them dress up like our snowman mascot and entertain the kids out at ski lessons.

It was those personal touches, I knew, that made people want to come to Brooks Mountain, after all. And it was those personal touches that Bailey was trying to preserve as owner of the resort. I had a feeling they were all changes that she would have been on board with.

People were downright peppy when I went into our morning meeting. Hal clapped me on the shoulder. He was the head of the ski school and not someone that I normally had to interact with. But he seemed pretty happy with me right now. “Your plan worked,” he said. “I can’t believe how many people we have returning to ski school today after the weekend. And it’s a Monday!”

I blinked in surprise. “Shouldn’t they be headed back home to get their kids back in school?” I joked. It wasn’t like it was the holidays anymore. “If they’re still here, they were probably planning on staying anyway.”

“Believe it or not, we’ve actually had a record number of people extend their stays in the condos,” someone else chimed in. He shrugged. “I guess they were impressed with how things went over the weekend and weren’t ready to leave yet. One missed day of school won’t hurt the kids.”

I shook my head, at a loss for words. “Well, I guess that’s great,” I said lamely.

Kayla laughed. “It’s amazing, really. We’ve already been having a stellar year, and this is just more icing on the cake.” She leaned in close to me. “I know you’re ready to go back to being unnoticed, but have you realized how happy people are with you in charge? That translates into company morale, which translates directly into making our customers happy. I hope you realize that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

I wasn’t doing anything that anyone else couldn’t do. It wasn’t that I was particularly good at this job or anything. It was more just that I had been at the resort for longer than most people, and I knew how things could run most smoothly. That was it.

There was definitely a part of me that hoped that Bailey would appreciate the effort that I was putting in, though. That she would appreciate the small tweaks that I had made to how things were run. And I kind of thought that she would.

Not only that, but I was getting better at handling the customers. In the past, I tried to avoid them as much as I could. Of course, it wasn’t always possible. People recognized that I worked for the resort and asked me questions about various things. But I was never the first person in the line of duty when it came to calming down our customers or changing their frustrating days into better ones.

Now that I was acting head of the resort, though, all those complaints came to me. And I was getting better at handling them.

First, I had to listen. Ninety-nine percent of people who had a complaint weren’t, it seemed, looking for someone who was going to make things better. They wanted you to listen as they complained. They wanted to know that they were heard and that their business was valuable. And if you threw in some vouchers or whatever at the end, then they were over the moon about staying at the resort, even if they still had the same problem from before.

Like this guy, named Mr. Hadley. “I’m just frustrated with the way that you have the ski school set up at the moment,” he said. “We have a ski-in-ski-out property for a reason. We can drop the skis on the snow at the start of the day and get the kids into them, and then they ski straight over to their lessons, and I never have to juggle all their skis. I have three kids, you know, all taking lessons, and now you’re asking me to take off their skis and carry them over there so you can check their ski passes and then get them up the hill and back into their skis for their lessons.”

“I know it’s inconvenient,” I said sympathetically. “And I know that of course you know how important it is for them to have their lift passes in their pockets first thing in the morning. But unfortunately, some of the other parents, especially ones who aren’t familiar with our program, either forget their kids’ ski passes or else they have them in their pocket and leave their kids without the passes. That’s a big problem for us, because we want to make sure when the classes get over to the ski lifts, everyone is ready to go.”

“I understand that,” Mr. Hadley said, “but then maybe you should have more than one gate that the kids can go through. Like one that’s on the snow so that we can just ski right through it like we would for a lift.”

“That would be nice,” I said. “The trouble is that then we have this giant piece of metal machinery right here at the bottom of the ski run where it becomes an inconvenience, not to mention a safety hazard, for everyone skiing down, particularly at the end of the day when we’ve cleaned up all of the ski school fencing that you can see right now.

“I totally understand your frustration, though, and we’re looking into getting some handheld scanners to make the process run a little more smoothly for you in the future. But for now, why don’t I go ahead and get you guys hooked up with free ski locker storage down here in the base area? I know it doesn’t solve everything, but we do have wagons that you can use through the base area so that you don’t have to juggle all their skis.”

I didn’t know if that was exactly how Bailey would have handled the situation. I hadn’t seen enough of how she handled the business before she had gone back to Nevada. But I knew that we rarely filled all of the available locker spaces, especially not now that we were through the busy holiday season and not into spring break time yet. So it was an easy way to diffuse the situation.

“Would we be able to store the boots in there as well?” Mr. Hadley asked, but I could tell that I had already won him over. “Having them walk all the way over here in their ski boots isn’t going to save us any time.”

“They definitely can,” I promised. “Not only that, but each of the lockers has a built in boot-dryer so their boots should be nice and toasty and easy to put on first thing in the morning.”

Mr. Hadley nodded. “I appreciate that,” he said. “Do I need to walk over there with you now?”

“Nope!” I told him. “I’ll just take your contact information right now and get them all set up for you, and at the end of the day, you’ll just need to give them your name.”

It was yet another thing that I needed to do that day, on an already busy day, but I knew that this sort of customer service was important so that we could keep people like Mr. Hadley coming back and putting his kids in our ski school.

I took down his information. “And remind me of your name again?” Mr. Hadley asked.

“Adam Katz,” I said, holding out my hand for him to shake. “I’m currently the acting manager of the resort, so if you have any problem with the lockers this afternoon, you’ll be able to get in contact with me.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Mr. Hadley said, shaking his head. His demeanor was totally different from how it had been just minutes ago. “I can tell that you have a good head on your shoulders and that I can trust you to make things right.” He grinned at me. “You’re definitely the right man to be acting manager of the resort, and I’ll make sure to pass that comment on at the end of my stay!”

“We really appreciate your visit, Mr. Hadley,” I said seriously. “And I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here in Park City.”

“I believe I will,” Mr. Hadley said before heading off in the direction of the lifts.

I exhaled heavily and took a quick look around for anything else that might be amiss. Then, I got on with my duties for the day, starting out with organizing the lockers for Mr. Hadley and his children.

The day passed quickly, and I was surprised to finally glance outside and see that it was getting dark out there and the lifts were shutting down for the night, staff streaming off towards their homes. I smiled a little to myself. I remembered my first season there at the resort. I had made quite a few friends amongst the staff, the kinds of guys that I could go out drinking with sometimes. But I hadn’t chatted with most of those guys in ages now. First, there had been my family, then Beth’s death, and now Ethan. But maybe it was about time that I started taking an afternoon for myself here and there.

I’d talk to Bailey about cutting back on my hours when she got back to work. Obviously it wasn’t something that I could do right now while I was in charge of everything, but things should be winding down as we headed towards the spring anyway.

I had just gotten home when my phone started ringing. I smiled when I saw that it was Bailey. “Hey,” I said to her, knowing she could hear the warmth in my voice. “How’s Nevada?”

“Actually, I’m not in Nevada,” Bailey said, to my surprise. And even though I knew that the phone call would probably have been just as clear if she was still in Las Vegas, there was something about the clarity that made it feel like she was speaking from right beside me. “I was wondering if you and Ethan could come to the airport.”

The grin on my face widened. I tried not to get my hopes up. She might not be back here for good. Maybe she just wanted to check up on the resort, or maybe she wanted to spend another couple of days with me.

But either way, I couldn’t help feeling excited at the thought of seeing her again that very night.

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” I promised her. I hung up the phone and headed into the kitchen, where Ethan was finishing up his homework with Dad’s help. “Ethan, get your shoes,” I said, beaming at him. “We need to pick someone up from the airport.”

I could tell by Dad’s smile that he knew just who I meant.

62

Bailey

If flying to Utah to run a ski resort had felt spontaneous before, it was nothing compared to the chaos of my hasty return flight. I had originally planned to hold off leaving until the next day at least. I knew that Adam could handle running the resort. And I wasn’t really too afraid that the board of directors would change their minds about letting me go. Ian could hold his own here in Vegas, and I had agreed to conference in for important meetings, plus do daily check-ups on him and his plans for the company.

But as I thought about putting off my departure for another day, I realized that I didn’t want to wait. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I had last seen Adam, but I didn’t want to wait anymore. I knew that he knew that I was planning on coming back to Utah, but I didn’t want him to have to worry anymore that I might change my mind. I wanted to be there.

Ian gave me a huge hug at the airport. “I’ll see you soon,” he promised. “I have to straighten things out with work for the moment and show them that I can be depended on, but I think I can plan another ski trip with some of the investors later in the spring, maybe.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, grinning at him. “And I’ll try to get back to Vegas for a weekend or so, too. As long as you promise not to tell the board that I’m coming back. I don’t want them trying to twist my arm to get me to stay.”

Ian laughed. “Deal,” he said, reaching out to shake my hand. “Now go and get your man!”

I laughed and turned towards the airport, ready to do just that.

I had barely had any time to pack anything. Not that I had much to pack. I hadn’t brought most of my stuff from Utah, since I didn’t need my snow gear here in Vegas even in the middle of winter. Besides, leaving my stuff behind before had made it feel like I definitely was coming back to Utah. Now, heading back to Park City, it felt like I was going home.

Which might be considered strange given how little time I had really spent in Park City in the scheme of things. But something about this just felt right.

That feeling only increased when I got off my flight and called Adam to ask him for a ride from the airport. He sounded only too happy to come and get me. But it was Ethan who flung himself at me first, when the two of them walked up to me.

“Bailey!” he cried, throwing his arms around my legs. “You came back!”

“Of course I did,” I said, smiling down at him and stroking his hair back.

“Just for a few days?” Adam asked quietly, his gaze searching my face.

I shook my head, unable to keep the smile off my face. “No,” I told him. “Ian and I talked to the board of directors. I still have to do some work with the casino company from here, checking in on Ian and video conferencing some of the meetings. But they’ve agreed to let me come back to Utah.” I paused. “I may still need you to help out with the more administrative things around the resort for now, though. If that’s okay?”

Adam grinned at me. “I think we can work out some sort of deal,” he said teasingly.

Relief washed through me. I relaxed further as he pulled me into his arms, lightly kissing me.

“Ew,” Ethan said from beside us, and I pulled away laughing even though I wanted nothing more than to deepen the kiss, to drag him home and have my way with him. Still, as we walked through the airport and Ethan slipped his hand into mine, linking Adam and I in a chain, I couldn’t help but feel like this was right where I belonged in that moment.

“Can we go skiing tomorrow?” Ethan asked as he skipped along between the two of us.

I glanced over at Adam to see his response to the question and winced when I saw that he was frowning. “It’s a school day tomorrow,” he reminded his son, and I realized that his worry about us skiing together didn’t have anything to do with my sudden return or some newly cold feet.

“But can’t I miss school just this once?” Ethan pleaded. “I’ll be really good and do extra homework the next day.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Adam looked over at me, then gave a rueful smile. Still, he shook his head. “Bailey just got back from Nevada,” he reminded Ethan. “I’m sure she has a bunch of work that she needs to do tomorrow. Plus, she probably wants to get settled in again.”

“I’m sure I can get by with one more day off,” I told Adam. “I hear you’ve been handling things even better than I could have. Sounds like you might deserve a vacation, and no one knows that I’m back to work yet.”

“I just took a vacation over the weekend,” Adam reminded me, but I could tell from the grin on his face that it was almost a done deal. If I really wanted to go skiing with Adam and Ethan tomorrow, then it would only take one more argument to sway him.

“You’ve been telling Ethan that we could all ski together for weeks now,” I reminded Adam. “Come on, it’ll be fun. We can at least do a half day and take the afternoon off, what do you think?”

Adam considered it for a moment. “Just the afternoon,” he finally said, nodding. “How’s that sound, buddy? I’ll pick you up from school at lunchtime and we can ski together for the afternoon?”

Ethan cocked his head to the side as he considered it, and I had to fight not to laugh when I realized that his ‘thoughtful’ look was exactly the same as his father’s. Finally, he nodded. “All right,” he said, reaching out a hand for his father to shake. “But we have to do a full day of skiing another time. Maybe on a Saturday when I don’t have school.”

“Deal,” Adam said, shaking his son’s hand.

“He’ll make a great businessman someday,” I joked. “He drives a hard bargain.”

Adam laughed and shrugged. “Well, as long as he doesn’t do anything crazy like deciding to move a whole state over to buy a ski resort,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

I had to laugh at that.

“I’m sure you probably want to get settled back in, but I was thinking that maybe we could go for ice cream,” Adam asked as we got in the car. He looked distinctively nervous.

I glanced back at Ethan, who looked excited at the prospect of ice cream. “Well how could I say no to that?” I asked, jerking my thumb back towards Ethan’s hopeful expression.

Adam’s eyes crinkled around the corners.

To be honest, I still felt nervous around him. I had thought that we had smoothed out the tension between the two of us when he was in Nevada, but it felt like a whole new thing, coming back here to Utah. Like we were starting another chapter in our relationship. A chapter that might lead us to a future together.

I didn’t dislike the thought of that. Actually, I liked that we felt even closer now than we had the morning before, in the suite in Vegas. But I was nervous that I might do something to screw it up. I knew Adam was nervous as well, and that just made me want to calm him down. But I wasn’t exactly sure what to do.

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” Adam admitted as he and I waited for the ice creams to be ready, while Ethan guarded our table near the windows.

I looked over at him in surprise, but Adam was carefully not looking at me. I thought back to our conversations in Nevada. I had assured him that I was coming back. But then again, logically it was one thing to believe someone. It was another thing to really trust them to do what they had promised you. And I knew that Adam had a hard time opening up to me and trusting me.

I couldn’t take that personally. But suddenly, I knew just how to calm him down.

I nestled in close to his side, wrapping an arm around his waist as I smiled up at him. “I could never leave you and Ethan,” I told him quietly.

Adam looked surprised for a moment, and then a slow smile broke out across his face. “It’s good to have you back,” he said, his voice just as soft as mine.

“It’s good to be back,” I promised him. Then, I smiled mischievously at him. “Even if it’s damned cold outside. Maybe we’ll just have to snuggle up by the fire like you promised me.”

Adam laughed. “Deal,” he said, leaning down to kiss the very tip of my nose. We grabbed our ice creams and took them back to the table, both Adam and I praising Ethan for the picture he had drawn of the three of us while he waited.

63

Adam

I dug through the things in the back of the car. “All right. Skis, poles, boots, socks, helmets, goggles. Gloves. Damn it, where are my gloves?”

I glanced at my watch. I was supposed to pick Ethan up from school in an hour. Plenty of time to get ready. But I couldn’t help feeling nervous. We were almost halfway through the winter season already, and I had spent plenty of nights getting Ethan ready for ski club. I had a mental checklist of what he needed by now. And to be honest, his stuff basically lived on the drying rack in the basement when he wasn’t wearing it.

It was my own stuff that was proving difficult to keep track of. I kept thinking that I must be forgetting something, going back through my stuff only to find that I was, in fact, forgetting something. Jesus. It wasn’t like this was my first time going skiing or anything. Not even my first time skiing that winter.

But I kept thinking about the fact that we were going skiing with Bailey, and that made all the difference.

I was still so shocked that she was back in Utah. I hadn’t really expected her to be able to work things out with the board of directors, or at least, not as easily as she made it sound like it had been. And what’s more, she said that she had approached the board of directors with Ian. That meant that Ian supported Bailey coming back to Park City. Despite the fact that he didn’t want her to be with me, or at least, not originally.

Of course, he had come out to Utah to fly me back to Nevada to see his sister over the weekend. I should have realized that that meant he supported our relationship. But I guess I had still been thinking that there must be some sort of catch, that he was trying to prove to Bailey and I that things wouldn’t work out for us long term. Like he was trying to show me once and for all that Bailey and I were from different worlds.

Instead, it seemed like he really did support this relationship. I made a mental note to thank him for whatever he had done in getting Bailey to be able to return to Utah.

I had wanted to ask her to stay over the night before, but I hadn’t been able to think of a tactful way to approach that topic in front of Ethan. He might still be young, but I had a feeling he would understand the significance of me having a ‘sleepover’. And I wasn’t sure I was ready for that just yet.

Thankfully, Bailey didn’t seem upset when I dropped her off at her mountain condo. In fact, she was yawning by the time we were leaving the ice cream place anyway. “It’s been a busy few weeks in Vegas,” she admitted as I drove her home. She smiled softly over at me. “But man is it good to be home.”

Home. I liked the sound of her calling this place home. She hadn’t been there for very long, but now that I thought about it, it didn’t feel as much like home when she was gone.

Which was crazy, because I had lived here for my entire life. Ethan and I had a home. We were all that each other needed. Except.

Maybe that wasn’t entirely the case anymore.

Hence my nervousness today and the fact that I kept forgetting various bits of my ski gear. It was almost like my brain was trying to sabotage this outing before it even began. I shook my head at the very thought of that. If I was missing anything when we got to the slopes, I was sure that I could find a replacement, either in my work gear or in the rental shop. There was nothing to worry about.

I picked up Ethan at school and drove him over to the mountain. I hadn’t seen Bailey yet that day; she had told me to take the morning off. She wanted to get caught up on all the paperwork first, and she didn’t need me for that. Of course, I was even more nervous as I thought about her going through the comments from our customers. I wondered if she would say anything about the changes that I had made in her absence. I started to wonder if maybe I had overstepped a little.

But when we reached the mountain, Bailey was waiting for us in the lodge, and she was all smiles. “Lunch,” she said, gesturing towards the picnic that she had laid out on one of the tables.

Ethan cheered when he saw the grilled cheese and French fries. He gave Bailey a quick hug and then sat down at the table. Bailey sat down as well, raising an eyebrow inquisitively at me. I shook my head and forced myself to smile. To take a deep breath, to calm down a little.

Ethan and Bailey chatted about his school while we ate. Then, it was time to put on our ski things. “Shoot, I forgot my poles in the car,” I realized as we started to get our gear on.

“Go ahead and grab them,” Bailey said. “I can finish getting Ethan ready.”

“Are you sure?” I asked uncertainly. Not that I didn’t want to leave Ethan alone with Bailey, but I didn’t want her to have to get him into all of his gear. “I can just ski without poles today.”

But Bailey was already kneeling in front of Ethan, nudging me out of the way. “Go ahead,” she said. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”

“Okay,” I said, slowly smiling at her.

By the time I got back to the lodge, she and Ethan were all ready to go. Ethan proudly showed off the stickers that Bailey had given him. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help grinning. “If you’re going to keep hanging around with him, you’d better not spoil him rotten,” I teased Bailey.

She stuck her tongue out at me, and I couldn’t believe how adorable she looked like that, dressed in all her ski gear, like a real snow bunny. “I don’t think you get a say in whether or not I’m going to spoil him,” she said.

I laughed and shook my head. “Let’s go skiing,” I said.

As we rode up the chairlift together, Bailey pulled her phone out of the inside pocket of her coat. “We need a picture,” she declared, turning the camera so that it was pointed at us. I grinned and slipped an arm around Ethan, leaning in so that she could get us all in the frame. “What a great picture,” Bailey said, smiling as she looked down at her screen.

“Can you ski all the runs on the mountain?” Ethan asked Bailey.

“I can, but maybe not well,” Bailey told him. “I have a hard time with the bumps and the trees. I can get through them, but it’s not pretty.”

Ethan giggled. “I’m the best bump skier in my club,” he bragged.

“I bet you’re pretty amazing,” Bailey said seriously. “Go easy on me so that I can keep up, all right?”

“Okay!” Ethan promised her.

I had to admit that as I watched them together for the rest of the afternoon, I found myself falling more and more in love with Bailey. She was so patient with him, listening as he babbled away on the chairlift and grinning good-naturedly as he told her all about what he was working on with his ski club.

Ethan was always a pretty friendly kid. But around Bailey, he just blossomed. And I knew, right then and there, that I had been selfish in not wanting to open up our lives to anyone else. Ethan needed more than just me and his grandfather in his life. He needed someone like Bailey.

At the end of the day, we stopped in the lodge for hot chocolate. While I got the drinks, Bailey helped Ethan out of his ski boots and ski gear. I brought the mugs back to the table and plunked down next to Bailey on the bench. She leaned into me.

“This was fun,” she said, smiling at me.

“It was,” I agreed, grinning right back at her.

“Can we ski again tomorrow?” Ethan asked excitedly.

Bailey laughed. “I thought you were telling me all about the cool science project you get to do tomorrow,” she reminded him, before I could even say anything.

Ethan’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah!” he said. “Well, maybe Thursday. Or this weekend.”

“We’ll talk about it,” I said, lightly squeezing Bailey’s thigh beneath the table.

It was kind of strange, having Bailey back in the lodge with me, there at Brooks Mountain. It made me more aware of all the hesitations that I had had in the first place. She was still my boss, and it looked like that wasn’t going to change any time soon. But right now, I didn’t care who saw the two of us together.

I was happy. Happier than I had been in a long time, even including the trip to Vegas last weekend. And I wasn’t going to let anything take that away from me.

64

Bailey

I couldn’t believe how much fun skiing with Adam and Ethan was. Of course, Adam was a much better skier than me, and even Ethan was more daring than I was. But they were both so patient with me. And it was a load of laughs, really. Ethan told me all about his classes at school, catching me up on everything new in his life since the last time I had seen him. And through it all, there was Adam. Even when he was just listening, his eyes seemed to constantly be on me.

I couldn’t remember ever seeing him look so happy and carefree before, not even when I had seen him away from work. Not even in Vegas the previous weekend.

I never wanted to lose this, I realized. No, I truly loved this man and his son.

“I’d invite you guys over for dinner, but I don’t really have anything in the house at the moment,” I apologized as we were finishing up our hot chocolate. “I need to do some grocery shopping now that I’m back.”

Adam winced. “I’m sorry if this afternoon took up too much of your time,” he said, sounding strangely formal.

I nudged him with my shoulder. “I had fun,” I said quietly, hoping he could see just how serious I was. I wouldn’t have traded that afternoon for anything in the world. I could always go grocery shopping some other day. These were the kind of moments that you had to hold on to while you had them.

He, of all people, should know about that.

It made me think of the early, early years with my family. Back when my parents were still together. I only had vague memories of those first few winter trips, but what I remembered was so wonderful. Mom bringing us a picnic lunch to share at the base of the ski resort. Ian picking me up at the end of the day when my ski school classes were over and convincing me to ski with him on runs that, in retrospect, I probably hadn’t been ready for yet.

Those trips had been over far too soon. I just hoped I got to spend more time with Adam and Ethan. Especially since I could tell that Adam was enjoying this as much as Ethan and I were.

Adam glanced over at Ethan and then back at me. I could see the uncertainty in his gaze, and I decided to push things a little. “Maybe we could go out to dinner together. The three of us,” I said.

“Don’t feel like you have to,” Adam said hurriedly. “I’m sure that Ethan has some homework from his morning classes that he needs to get done tonight.”

I frowned at him and then pulled him off to the side, out of earshot of his son. “Adam, did I do something wrong?” I asked him.

“What? No!” Adam said, looking shocked that I would even ask that. “I just want to make sure you know that you don’t have to spend time with us. That you can have a life. I’m sure Kayla probably wants to get drinks with you.”

“We’ll get drinks some other time,” I said, shrugging. “I live here now, remember?”

“Yeah, but…” Adam trailed off, looking sheepish. “Just, I know that it’s a lot to take in. To adjust to. Having a kid around all the time. I’m used to spending all my free time with Ethan, but there’s no reason why you should have to.”

I knew that I was looking at him like he had two heads. I shook my own head. “Adam, I like spending time with you. And I like spending time with Ethan. And I know that you can’t just abandon Ethan. I wouldn’t want you if you weren’t such a great dad, I don’t think.” I paused, trying to figure out how to say this. “I count myself lucky because I get to spend time with you and Ethan. You let me into your lives, and I know that that’s a big deal.”

Adam stared suspiciously at me. “You’re not just saying that?” he asked.

“If I didn’t want to spend time with you, I wouldn’t have agreed to go skiing with the two of you again sometime. I know Ethan takes things like that seriously,” I pointed out. “I wouldn’t have agreed if I didn’t like the two of you. So now, do you want to go get dinner together?”

Adam slowly grinned at me. “I’d like that,” he said, his nervousness evaporating. He twisted his fingers into mine and squeezed lightly.

We went to a kid-friendly pizza place at the end of town. In an echo of my earlier thoughts, I vaguely remembered coming here before with Dad and Ian. Now, the three of us sat at a booth in the middle of the restaurant, and while Ethan munched happily on a breadstick and drew pictures on his menu, I leaned closer to Adam, feeling his warm and solid weight.

“It’s good to be back,” I said.

“It’s good to have you back,” he said, looping an arm around my shoulders. He paused. “I bet it was nice being back home for a while though, wasn’t it?”

“I’m not going to lie, I did kind of get used to being warm again,” I joked. “And it was good to get to see Ian more. I know he kind of screwed things up at the mountain while he was here, but he was just doing what he thought was best. The same as he did with the casino business really.”

I paused, reflecting on that for a moment. Then, I shrugged. “At the end of the day, he’s still family. And I love him.”

But now, sitting here with Adam and Ethan, I started to wonder whether maybe it was time to start the next chapter of ‘family’ in my life. Because this certainly felt comfortable. And when I thought back over the whole afternoon, well, it felt like we belonged together. From helping Ethan into his ski boots to riding up the chairlift together to getting pizza now, it just felt right.

“What’s your favorite kind of pizza?” Ethan asked suddenly, peering over at me.

“Hmm, I think my favorite is probably barbecue chicken,” I said, looking down at the menu. “What’s your favorite?”

“Pepperoni and mushrooms!” Ethan declared. “Dad, can we get pepperoni and mushrooms? Please?”

Adam grimaced in apology to me. “Not everyone likes mushrooms on their pizza, remember?” he told Ethan. “If we want to get something to share, we might have to make some compromises.”

Ethan sighed. “No one ever wants pepperoni and mushrooms,” he said.

I tried not to laugh. “I don’t know many kids your age who like mushrooms at all, especially not on pizza,” I said.

Ethan shrugged. “They’re the best,” he said simply.

“Well, how about this,” I suggested, looking over at Adam. “We can get one big pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms on one half and whatever your dad likes on the other half? I’d eat some pepperoni and mushroom pizza with you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Adam interjected. “We can just get pepperoni and something else; he’ll like it just as much.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I don’t mind,” I insisted. “And anyway, it’s his favorite. I want him to have what he wants.”

Adam stared at me for another moment and then rolled his eyes fondly. “You’re spoiling him again,” he said.

“So what if I am?” I replied breezily.

Adam grinned and just shook his head.

We ate way too much pizza and still had more to box up at the end of the night, and I made Ethan shriek with laughter when I joked that I was going to take home all of the pepperoni and mushroom pizza because I liked it better than he did. Adam just watched the two of us, still looking a bit bewildered. But every time I caught his eye, he grinned at me.

I gave Ethan a quick hug when we got back to the condo and prepared to go our separate ways for the night. Of course, I wanted nothing more than to go home with the two of them. But I could tell that Adam was still a little shell-shocked at how well Ethan and I were getting along, and I reminded myself that he had already asked me multiple times to be patient with him. This was all new, and I could tell that although he was happy with the way things were going, he needed time to process it.

Ethan clung to me now, though. “I’m happy you’re back,” he said.

“Me too, kiddo,” I said seriously. “Me too.”

“I love you,” Ethan said as he pulled away. The words slipped so easily out of his mouth

I grinned down at him. “Love you too,” I said. “And see you soon, okay?”

Ethan nodded and climbed into the car while Adam pulled me close, his hands on my hips. “Sorry about that,” he said as he nuzzled my jawline.

I blinked in surprise and then shook my head. “You don’t have to apologize,” I chided. “I had fun today. With the skiing and dinner. Everything. Ethan’s great.”

Adam stared at me for a moment, and I could tell he was trying to decide whether to believe me or not. “All right,” he finally said. “But still, I’m sorry about the ‘I love you’ thing. He doesn’t really understand what it means.”

I snorted. “Adam, it’s fine. Really.” I paused, grinning at him. “Now I’m just waiting for a certain someone else to say it.” Adam grimaced and started to pull away, but I caught him before he could go very far. “Hey, I was just kidding. I’m sorry,” I said.

Adam shook his head. “Don’t be,” he said. Then, he sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, I’m just still…” Again, he trailed off.

“Trying to process,” I suggested. “I know. I can practically see the gears turning in your head. Just don’t think too hard.”

Adam chuckled and shrugged. Then, he leaned in and kissed me gently. It was a pretty tame kiss, all things considered, but then again, Ethan was right there in the car, able to see his dad’s every move. Adam was right, there were still certain things that I had to get used to with having a kid around all the time. But I didn’t mind it. In fact, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

We stood there for a moment, still pressed close to one another. Finally, Adam sighed softly. “Would it be stupid to say that I’m going to miss you?” he asked. Then, he looked embarrassed for having said that.

I grinned before he could backpedal. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” I promised him. “And every day for the rest of the season, I hope.”

“Good,” Adam said, sounding relieved. He smiled as he let me go. “I guess I should let you get inside before you freeze. But I’ll see you tomorrow.”

65

Adam

I had expected Bailey to have a more difficult time fitting into Ethan’s and my life. I don’t know why I had expected that. Maybe because I remembered how difficult things were when Beth and I first had Ethan. But of course, Ethan wasn’t a crying infant anymore. And not only that, but Bailey was fun in a way that I should have realized she would be.

She wanted to do everything with Ethan; go skiing, go to the zoo in Salt Lake, and really do anything that involved being outdoors. She wanted to spend time with us. Not only that, but she wanted to fit her schedule around ours. She had taken back over a lot of the work in running the resort, on top of the work that she was still doing for the Peters family business.

I could imagine just how much work she was doing at the moment, having taken on a lot of those same duties in running the resort while she was gone, on top of the other duties that I needed to do around the resort. In addition to all of that, she was trying to spend as much time as she could with us.

She and Ethan were getting closer and closer. And I couldn’t help but love watching the two of them interact with one another. I couldn’t help but…love Bailey. In everything that she did, she was just so sweet. Smart. Caring.

But I still couldn’t seem to tell her that.

I wanted to. I really wanted to. But something made me hold back each time. At first, I thought that maybe I wanted to save it for a special occasion. But then, I started to realize that it wasn’t that. I wasn’t waiting for the right moment. I was waiting more for the moment when I could trust this relationship, I supposed.

I didn’t want to say that I was still waiting for Bailey to leave. But I think there was a part of me that was expecting that. Holding back. Trying not to fall in too deep. Maybe it had more to do with what Ian had said to me before about not deserving someone like Bailey. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that I had already lost the first love of my life, my first wife.

I found myself getting more and more relaxed around her. But all the same, it was hard for me to commit to her as deeply as I wanted to.

Especially in the middle of the winter ski season, when there was still plenty of work for me to do around the resort.

And now, here we were, right back at the airport again.

“This is the last time. I swear,” Bailey sighed as she lugged her duffel bag out of my truck. “And seriously, just a week or two this time. Maximum.”

“You said that last time,” I reminded her, but I couldn’t help grinning.

“This time I mean it,” Bailey said. She smiled. “You’re welcome to come back to Vegas to drag me home again if you think that’s what’s needed, though.”

I laughed and put an arm around her. “Hopefully I won’t need to do that this time,” I said, squeezing her shoulder and trying not to let on how nervous I felt about her departure. I knew that she needed to go back and straighten out some final things with the family business. But at the same time, I selfishly wanted her to stay.

Bailey sighed. “I wish I could stay,” she sighed, as though she had read my thoughts. She leaned into me. “But I’ll be back before you know it. I just have this one last meeting with Ian and the head of the board of directors, just to follow up with everything.” She shook her head. “And hopefully at the end of this, I can quit working for the casino and get back to work with the resort the way that I want to.”

“I can’t wait,” I said quietly. I looked down into her eyes, brushing my fingers along her cheek. Then, I cleared my throat, remembering that Ethan was standing there next to the car with me. “We’re going to miss you.”

Bailey laughed and knelt down in front of Ethan. “I’m going to miss both of you too,” she said, giving Ethan a hug. “I’ll make sure to bring you back something cool.” She winked at Ethan while I groaned.

“Spoiling him,” I reminded her, grinning. It had been a common theme over the past month since she had come back from Vegas, but as she kept reminding me, I couldn’t really argue if she wanted to spoil him. Especially since, as she kept telling me, I didn’t do nearly enough to spoil the boy on my own.

We’d originally argued about that, actually. Or not argued, per se, but we had had a bit of a disagreement one day. I’d tried to tell her that I had certain rules as a parent. That I wanted Ethan to learn to work harder for what he wanted. That I wanted him to understand the simplicity of a good day spent outside, either skiing or working with his hands. Or something.

I was surprised to hear Bailey first say the same thing that Dad had said to me; Ethan was a good kid, and I shouldn’t be worried about the way that she wanted to spoil him. But then, she’d added something else; she wanted to do things outside with him, but at the same time, he should get to do whatever he wanted to do now while he was a kid.

It was something that made me think. I wanted Ethan to be happy, but sometimes, maybe I did treat him a little too much like an adult and less like a kid. And that was something that was different between Bailey and I.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it wasn’t just that Ethan needed a female presence in his life. It was more that he needed someone just like Bailey in his life. Someone who was going to be sweet to him and treat him like the kid that he was. Someone who was going to be warm and open with him. As much as I and his grandfather tried to be open with him, Dad and I were just a bit careful, I suppose.

So now, watching her say goodbye to Ethan, my heart hurt. I didn’t want her to leave, not for me and definitely not when it came to Ethan. I didn’t want him to miss her, and I would do anything I could to shield him from that. But Ethan seemed surprisingly okay with things. “I’ll see you soon,” he promised her.

Bailey laughed. “Very soon,” she agreed seriously. Then, she straightened up.

I gave her a hug and a quick kiss which she returned. “Soon,” I told her. And right then, the words bubbled to the surface; I love you. But still, I held them back. I didn’t want to say that to her now. If she didn’t come back, I would be gutted. The whole time she was gone, I would be wondering if maybe I had said something that I shouldn’t have, right then. I would be wondering what her real reaction to those words was.

I held back. She didn’t seem surprised, grinning a little as she leaned in for another kiss. As she pulled away and winked at me, I knew that she knew just what she had done. With that little kiss, she had kept me from feeling as though I had to say anything in response. She had kept me from feeling as though I needed to make an excuse.

I couldn’t begin to tell her how wonderful she was. She just got me in a way that no one ever had before. She didn’t take my inability to tell her that I loved her as a slight. Instead, it was a little secret between the two of us. She knew just how I felt about her.

I loved her all the more because of that.

Bailey headed into the airport, looking back over her shoulder to wave at the two of us, and it was all I could do not to go after her. There was a part of me that wanted to tell her that I didn’t want her to leave. That wanted to profess my love to her and tell her that I was afraid to lose her. There was a part of me that wanted to maybe pull Ethan out of school so that we could follow her to Vegas.

But I knew that Ethan and I belonged here. And I was starting to realize that Bailey did as well. She belonged at the resort, and she belonged by the fire with us. She belonged with us when we went skiing together, and she belonged with us when we did other things outdoors.

She belonged in our lives. In a way that I never could have expected.

“I miss Bailey,” Ethan said as he and I stopped for dinner on the way home.

“Me too, buddy,” I sighed, trying not to sound too sad at losing her. She would be back, I promised myself, even though just like with the first time, I was afraid that it might take a little while before we saw her again.

“When will she be back?” he pressed.

I didn’t know what to say to that. “I don’t know,” I finally settled on. “She needs to finish up some work, and she needs to chat with some people to make that happen. I’m sure she’ll be back as soon as possible, though.”

“Well yeah, she promised that,” Ethan said, rolling his eyes. “Duh.”

I grinned at him, unable to help it. “And until then, I guess you’ll just have to keep getting better at skiing,” I joked.

“Uh huh,” Ethan said. He cocked his head to the side as he picked up his burger. “Are you going to marry her?”

I stared at him for a moment, surprised by the question. Not that I should be. I knew that kids Ethan’s age asked questions like that all the time. They were inquisitive, and they didn’t understand that there were some things that an adult might like to keep private. They didn’t understand that questions like that could hurt a person.

How did I respond?

The truth was, when I thought about Bailey, it was easy to think about marrying her. She fit so perfectly into my life and Ethan’s life. She was there for us in ways that I never could have expected. At the end of the day, there was no one else that I could picture by my side, not now that Beth was gone.

She was different from Beth. But I was different from the man that I had been as well. And somehow, she and I fit together so perfectly.

“I don’t know,” I finally told Ethan in response to his question.

“But you love her, don’t you?” Ethan persisted.

Again, I had to stare at him for a moment, trying to figure out just what to say to him. Slowly, I nodded. “I do love her,” I admitted. I paused. “You love her too, don’t you?”

“She’s the best,” Ethan said simply. But he was frowning. “Did you tell her that you love her?”

“Not yet,” I admitted.

“Why not?” Ethan asked, sounding genuinely confused. And for his young mind, it probably seemed so obvious that I should tell her. After all, if I loved her, why not let her know that? Even he had managed to tell Bailey that he loved her. How did I explain to him that things could be so complicated sometimes in adult relationships?

But suddenly, Ethan grinned. “It’s a secret surprise,” he said confidently.

I nodded slowly. “It’s a secret surprise. For now,” I agreed.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell,” Ethan promised. He paused. “But maybe if you told her, she would stop going away.”

I sighed. “I know, buddy,” I said.

Of course, it was more complicated than that. Just because I told Bailey I loved her, it didn’t make her responsibilities to her brother and the family company magically vanish. But at the same time, I knew that Ethan was right and that I should tell her. Not only that, but I had the feeling that if I could just tell Bailey that I loved her, maybe I wouldn’t have to worry every time that she wasn’t going to come back. Maybe I wouldn’t have to worry that she would find someone else who would say those three words to her first.

I needed to talk to her. I needed to tell her how I felt.

But I needed to do that in person. Meaning that I had missed my chance for now and needed to wait until she was back from Vegas. No sweat, right?

I felt nervous already, and I knew that I was going to feel this way until she got back. But for the first time, I realized that the nervousness was actually more made up of excitement than fear. I knew that Bailey and I were on the same page and that she loved me. I wasn’t afraid that if I told her I loved her, she would leave me. Instead, I was more excited for the future that we would build together. Sure, it might be a little scary, but it was also a wonderful thing, to be at this place in a relationship.

I had to start treating it that way, rather than worrying all the time.

I smiled at Ethan, and he beamed toothily back at me. He didn’t know what was going through my head, but as far as he was concerned, I loved the same person that he loved, and all was right in his world. Maybe it really could be just that simple.

66

Bailey

I woke up early on Saturday morning, coming out of a sweet dream of Adam and I curled together in bed. I sighed to find that I was alone. It was silly, really. Even though Adam and I had gotten closer and closer over the course of the month, I was still waking up on my own most mornings. I knew that he had his routine with Ethan, and he was trying to keep things as normal as possible for the young boy. I respected that.

Besides, I got to see Adam all the time, and it wasn’t like we hadn’t had sex or anything. No, things had been going really well for us. And if he hadn’t said that he loved me yet, well, it was going to take time. I knew that he still missed his former wife like a toothache that would never go away, and he was scared to fall in too deep again. I respected that as well.

But still, I couldn’t help wishing that we could take that next step in our relationship. To really commit to one another and start building a future together. I couldn’t help wishing that I could wake up next to him every single morning, curled together beneath the soft flannel sheets in his simple bedroom, listening to Ethan playing quietly downstairs.

Right now, I couldn’t have any of that. I was here in Nevada again. Just for a short trip this time, I had promised Adam as well as myself. I just had to tie up a couple of loose ends. Make sure that Ian was doing all right and that the board of directors’ confidence in him was fully restored.

For the past month, I had been doing double-duty between my work for the casino, which seemed to be never-ending, and the work for Brooks Mountain, which of course was nuts at the moment as we headed towards spring and the time for some of those planned renovations to the mountain. It had been an even more prosperous winter than we had anticipated early on, and even with the huge amount that we were saving ‘for a rainy day’, there was plenty leftover to make a lot of much-needed touch-ups to the place.

Ian had actually helped me brainstorm some ideas when he had come out to visit recently. We weren’t getting fancy coffee machines or anything like that, but he had had some great ideas for how I could enhance the place while keeping its current charm.

It was that visit, more than anything, that had shown me personally that Ian was reformed and that he would think twice before making any huge changes in the casino business. It was that visit that had spurred me to return here to tie up loose ends and quit the casino business once and for all.

But it was just a short visit. I was already eager to get back to Utah and the two boys, Adam and Ethan, that I had left behind. Plus the resort, which felt more like home, somehow, than Vegas ever had.

I sat up quickly, ready to get a start on my day. Then, I ran for the ensuite bathroom, my stomach churning. I hunched over the bowl, a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead as my gut heaved. I frowned, wondering what the hell that was about.

I thought back to the flight. There had been a couple people coughing around me, but this didn’t feel like your average cold. I was a little tired and definitely nauseous, but I didn’t feel achy or congested or any of that.

So maybe food poisoning? Thinking back over the previous day, though, I didn’t think that I had eaten anything too suspicious. And anyway, wouldn’t food poisoning have bothered me over the course of the night, rather than as soon as I sat up that morning? I at least should have felt some hint of discomfort as I lay there in bed that morning thinking about my day.

What finally helped me put two and two together was the slightly crampy feeling in my lower stomach. Almost as though…

It hit me like a bolt from the blue. I had missed my period that month. Could it be possible that this weariness and the accompanying nausea were the first signs of pregnancy?

I felt a slow grin break out across my face. Pregnant. It was Adam’s, of course. A younger brother or younger sister for Ethan. I could picture us already. The four of us. A real family.

But maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Adam hadn’t even told me that he loved me yet. Were we ready to have a kid together? Would this make him panic, freak him out to the point that he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore? Maybe it would make his memories of his first wife all the more poignant. All the more painful.

I didn’t think that was the case, though. I knew, even though he hadn’t said it, that Adam loved me. We had talked about a future together, albeit in broad sketches rather than specifics. We had talked about all the things that we were going to do together that summer and into the fall. I didn’t think the news that I was pregnant was going to shake that up.

Of course, I needed to confirm things before I talked to him about this. No use getting too ahead of myself.

I flushed the toilet and headed back into my room to get dressed for the morning, even more ready to get all of this casino business over with. Now I had twice as much reason to get back to Utah. But I made a little detour on the way to the casino that morning, stopping off at a pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test. I just couldn’t wait to confirm if my suspicions were true.

I headed into the bathroom on my way into the casino. Maybe I shouldn’t do this here. Maybe I should wait until after my meeting. This could be big news. Did I really want to confirm that I was pregnant here and now?

But I couldn’t wait any longer, and I knew that with the meeting I had scheduled that morning, I didn’t have time to go anywhere else. It was now or never.

Besides, I thought, grinning to myself, this was the same casino that Adam and I had had a great day in, together. I had been here plenty of times on my own before that, but now, this place was kind of special to me in a way. What more fitting place was there to realize this news?

I was getting ahead of myself again. For all I knew, it was just a fluke that my period was late this month. Adam and I had been careful. Maybe it was just a touch of strange twenty-four hour sickness and nothing more.

For a moment, I paused, staring in the mirror at myself. What did I hope to see when I turned that stick over? One line or two?

I grinned slowly. I wanted a family with Adam. And even though I already felt like Ethan and Adam were family enough for me, even though I knew that Adam and I probably should have had more serious talks about the future before skipping ahead to this step? Well, if that test was positive, I knew for a fact that I was going to be over the moon about it.

Even if it wasn’t positive, I knew, right then in that moment, that I wanted to talk to Adam about having kids together. Giving Ethan a younger brother or sister. Sharing the ins and outs of parenthood with one another.

I looked down at the test in my hand and then hurriedly consulted the box one more time, just to make sure that I was remembering it correctly. I couldn’t help but grin. Pregnant.

Adam and I were having a baby.

I fought the urge to whoop and holler right there in the bathroom. I also fought the urge to pull out my phone and call Adam right away. No, this was something that I needed to tell him in person. I could already picture the stunned look on his face. But in my minds eye, he would be just as excited as I was about this new chapter in our lives. He would pull me close, hold me tightly. But carefully, respectful of the baby growing in my uterus already.

I glanced at my watch and then took a deep breath before heading out into the casino. Time for all of that later. For now, I had a meeting to be done with.

Ian gave me a quizzical look as I walked into the board room, and I knew that something of my earlier elation must have shown on my face. At some point, I was going to have to tell Ian that he was going to be an uncle.

I thought back to Ian’s previous frustration about my relationship with his erstwhile friend. He had thought that I could do better than Adam. But he seemed to have come around. I think it helped having him see the two of us together. He could tell how happy Adam and the resort in Park City made me. He could tell that this was what I wanted with my life.

And I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Adam, really. He was kind and caring, sweet and honest. Maybe the way that he lived was a bit simple, a lot less fancy than what I had been accustomed to here in Vegas. But at the end of the day, did I really need all of this glitz and glamor?

No, I was coming to realize. My favorite nights lately had just been nights spent over at Adam’s house, playing board games with Ethan before bed, and then cuddling with Adam on the couch. We could really talk with one another, about anything and everything.

Well, except for the fact that we loved one another. I had held off saying it, even though I’d been thinking it for a while now. I didn’t want him to feel pressured to say the same thing back to me. I wanted him to wait and say it when the time felt right for him.

But now, I felt just a moment of indecision. What if Adam hadn’t said that he loved me because he didn’t really love me as much as I thought he did? What if I was still just his rebound from Beth and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be with me long-term? I knew that he had said that he could never compare me to Beth, and that he wasn’t the same person now that he had been with her. But at the end of the day, maybe that meant that he didn’t really want to have me as part of his family.

No, I was just panicking. I squared my shoulders, and tried to focus on the meeting.

“As I’m sure you know, we’re really pleased with the way that things have been going over the past month,” Pat, the new head of the board of directors was saying.

There had been quite a bit of change in the personnel gathered here in this room. Some of them, I knew. Others, I had only met in passing the night before. Ian hadn’t changed too much about the way that things were run, but we’d both decided, over time, that he needed to run the business the way that he wanted to, more or less, without just keeping everything the same as when Dad had been at the helm. And the board of directors, once they heard some of Ian’s better ideas, agreed with that. The company had restructured to make room for more growth, and things were going well.

I was proud of Ian, I really was. And I was more than ready for him to take over the rest of the duties that I was still doing. Apparently, I had more to think about than just Brooks Mountain at the moment anyway. Not that I was going to tell all of them that right now.

“Now Bailey, I know that you’re here today to relinquish your duties here with us, but I think we have an offer that you can’t refuse,” Pat said, grinning at me. He gestured towards Ian. “As you know, we’re looking to put another of our casinos overseas. Your brother would like you to be head of operations there.”

I stared incredulously at Ian. Was that his way of separating me from Adam? Ship me off overseas? Pat handed me a contract to read over, even as he told me all about the position.

“And you’ll notice, of course, that the position comes with a substantial raise,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

I flipped through the contract feeling dazed. How could Ian do this to me? He had to know that I was going to turn it down. But as I tuned back into what Pat was saying, I realized that no, maybe I had it wrong; maybe Ian was actually looking out for me. Just like he always did.

The new casino would be in Europe, located near a ski resort. The salary was more than I could make in two lifetimes. Plenty of money for me to be comfortable. Plenty of money for me to be able to give my family whatever they wanted in life. I could picture it now; Ethan at some fancy international school, his younger sibling brought up speaking as fluently in five different languages as in English. Weekend trips to foreign countries, Christmas markets, a life of luxury.

Not only that, but Pat was careful to mention the relocation fees, as well as allocations for housing and more. Ian had cut me a deal that would allow me to bring Adam over there with me.

I thought about Adam’s simple life in Park City. Had he ever even been out of the country? Did he even have a passport? What would he think of all of this? I knew that he took pride in his job. But I was sure that we could find work for him over there. It definitely sounded like there were ski resorts in the area, and I was sure his skills as a lift mechanic and maintenance person would translate, regardless of the local language.

But was that really what I wanted for my family?

And what’s more, was it even possible? Heading up a new casino would be challenging work. Lots of long days, plenty of frustrating hours. Lots of time on my feet. The whole offer was put together before Ian and the rest of them knew that I was pregnant. I wasn’t sure that it would be the same if I told them that I was planning on having a baby.

Maybe now wasn’t the time for a baby. Maybe this was a sign from the universe that Adam and I should slow down anyway, that we should have some long and serious talks before we rushed into things with a new child and a family anyway. Maybe I should think long and hard about what I really wanted in life. My career had always been important to me. Should I throw it all away for the chance at a family?

I wondered what Dad would have said if he was there. He had focused so hard on his career, and it was part of what had driven a wedge between him and Mom. But at the end of the day, he had still always been there for Ian and I. Could I somehow have both things? Everything?

I could never make the decision on my own. I needed to talk to Adam.

“I know it’s a lot to think about,” Ian said quietly. He gave me a rueful smile. “Sorry to spring it on you with no warning, too. But I was afraid that if I gave you a heads up, before I knew what the company was really in a position to offer, then you wouldn’t consider the whole package.”

He paused. “I know you love the ski resort. But taking over this casino for now wouldn’t put any of that at risk. You could leave them to operate on their own for a couple years, just long enough for the casino to get off the ground, and then you could always return to it. Not only that, but we’re prepared to make certain allowances. Maybe give you a few weeks off here and there through the winter so that you could fly back and supervise things there, make sure it’s all up to snuff.”

My head was spinning. I stared down at the contract in front of me, eyes glazing over as they slid across those bold, dark-printed words. I knew that this was the offer of a lifetime. A new adventure. Hell, a paycheck sizeable enough that I could funnel a fair amount of money into improvements at Brooks Mountain over time. So many things to consider.

If Ian could have made this offer before I bought Brooks Mountain, before I went to Park City and fell in love with Adam, I knew that I would have jumped at it. Was it wrong for me to turn it down now just because my circumstances had changed a little bit?

I didn’t know what to say, but from the way the board of directors and Ian were starting at me, I could tell that they expected an answer.

Finally, I opened my mouth. “I’m going to need some time to think about it,” I heard myself say. Then, I turned and walked out of the room.

67

Adam

That burble of excitement was still with me on Sunday afternoon as I headed out to the airport. I had hoped beyond hope that Bailey would be coming back soon, but I hadn’t dared to hope that she would only be in Nevada for the weekend. Waking up to a text from her that morning, asking me to pick her up as soon as I was off work that evening, had made my day. I’d spent the entirety of Sunday trying to make things extra perfect around the lodge for her return.

Of course, that was my job anyway, and I doubted that she would notice that I had gone out of my way at all. But it gave me something to do, and anyway, there had been a few longer-term projects, like fixing all the shaky tables in the cafeteria, that I was happy to cross off my to-do list.

I scanned the crowd outside the airport, but I still didn’t see Bailey. I tried not to feel disappointed. Had something happened? When I checked the arrivals board, it said that her flight had landed. But maybe she’d needed to take a later flight to finish up some last-minute things?

Or maybe she just wasn’t coming back. I knew that that thought was crazy and unfounded. She had said that she was coming back. And she had come back before. I just had to trust her. But what if…

Suddenly she was there, right next to me, her arms around me. “Oh my God, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” she said into my shoulder.

I managed to get my arms around her as well. “Long flight?” I asked.

“I mean, you’ve been on this one. It’s only a short flight. But I couldn’t wait to get here, and I wasn’t feeling very well during the flight,” Bailey confessed.

I frowned down at her, worry pulsing through me. “Are you sick?” I asked her. She did look a little pale. Maybe this was why she had come back so quickly; had she gotten sick and cancelled all of her meetings for now? But that meant she was probably headed back to Vegas sometime soon. I tried not to sigh.

But Bailey’s face cleared, and she shook her head. “Let’s just go home,” she said cheerfully. She looked around. “Where’s Ethan?”

“One of his friends is having a sleepover tonight for his birthday, and to celebrate the three-day holiday weekend,” I explained.

It was another thing that had made that text from Bailey all the more significant that morning. Ethan was going to be out of the house until at least the eleven o’clock pickup the following morning, which meant that Bailey and I had the house all to ourselves tonight. If I was going to tell her that I loved her, this was definitely the time to do it.

Sure enough, Bailey grinned at me, clearly understanding the significance. “I hope you got that friend a really great birthday gift,” she teased.

I laughed and led her over to my car. “Come on, let’s go.”

Bailey was kind of quiet on the drive home, and when I glanced over, I saw that she still looked a little pale. I felt kind of bad, knowing that she wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t know why she was trying to hide it from me. But just because we were going back to my place, it didn’t mean that we had to do anything. I could pamper her a little, take care of her, make sure that she was all right. Maybe that was selfish of me and I should have just taken her home. But she seemed to want this as well.

When we got inside, I set the keys down on the hallway table and turned around just in time for Bailey to kiss me. “Have I mentioned that I missed you?” she asked, leaning in to me.

I laughed. “I missed you too,” I told her, holding her close. “But come on, how was your meeting? Are you free of the casino business once and for all?”

Bailey sighed, tilting her head up towards mine. “Can we not talk about that just yet? I just want to relax.” Her look turned sly. “And maybe show you how much I missed you.”

I tried not to feel worried at that. From the sound of things, she wasn’t out of the casino business after all. Did that mean more visits to Nevada? At best, it meant that she was still stretched thin between her work at Brooks Mountain and the work that she was doing for her brother’s company.

I felt an irrational flare of frustration at Ian for letting things happen this way. But of course, if Ian had had his way, he never would have had to call in his sister for help in the first place. I knew that. Still, I had it in my head that I should chat with him. Tell him how much Bailey was taking upon herself at the moment. Surely as her protective older brother, he could find some way to get Bailey to scale back the work that she was doing for the casino so that she would have more time for herself and for her own business.

But then again, Ian had to know just how things were going at the moment. He had been out here to visit the resort not too long ago, and now he had seen Bailey in Nevada just this weekend. He knew the kind of stress that she was under.

Before I could puzzle over that any longer, though, Bailey was tugging me imperiously down into another kiss. I pulled her close, kissing her with everything I had, hoping she could tell just how much I missed her, how happy I was to have her back. The kiss whispered a promise of the night to come. I knew that she was stressed out with all of her work stuff, and I could tell that she was feeling under the weather. I was going to pamper her, treat her like the wonderful woman that she was.

I thought back to the conversation that I had had before with Ethan. And my resolution. I pulled back, just far enough to speak the words against Bailey’s lips. “I love you.”

It seemed kind of anticlimactic now that I had said it. There were no flashing lights, the world didn’t end, nothing really changed. Except then Bailey smiled softly at me, her eyes warming, and that was all the response that I needed. “I love you too,” she whispered back.

She leaned into me for a moment, just pressing her body against mine. But having her there close to me, I was powerless to hold back. I kissed her again, and then a third time, even more fervently. She moaned as I nipped at her lower lip, her fingers coming up underneath my shirt to trace across my bare skin.

“I have some news for you,” Bailey announced as we broke apart for air. I nearly groaned. So now she wanted to talk about her meeting?

I kissed her again and again. There was a part of me, I realized, that wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the news. If she was going to have to go back to Nevada, even if it was just for a couple weekend trips like the one that she had just come back from, would I be okay with that? I mean, I would have to be. I couldn’t lose Bailey over something like that.

But what if it wasn’t just weekend trips? What if they wanted her back there for good? That wasn’t anything that I was ready to hear right now. I didn’t want to think about all of the logistics of our future just now. I wanted to revel in the fact that I had finally managed to tell her that I loved her.

This wasn’t the way I had anticipated the night going, anyway. I had cooked dinner for us already, and I had expected that we would sit down and chat, that eventually I would tell her that I loved her. That maybe we would curl up in front of the fire and trade steamy kisses on the couch before finally moving towards the stairs.

But right now, I realized that I wasn’t ready to hear about her trip, and I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off of her anyway. She didn’t seem to mind, though.

So I kept kissing her, and she forgot about her news at least for now. Bailey giggled as I led her towards the stairs. “All right, we’ll talk later,” she joked.

“Deal,” I murmured, kissing the shell of her ear.

68

Bailey

I could tell that Adam was nervous when I told him that I had some news. And I supposed he had a right to be. I had shown up at the airport looking a mess, no doubt, talking about how terrible my flight had been, then I’d told him that I didn’t want to talk about my trip, making him more nervous that something had gone wrong with it, and now I couldn’t seem to blurt out the news that I had.

I really wanted to tell him that I was pregnant. But I also just felt totally tongue-tied as I tried to think of how to tell him. What would his reaction be? Would he be excited or regretful? And what about the job offer? I still had to give an answer to Ian, Pat, and the board of directors. I wanted to talk things over with Adam first. But could I handle telling him about the baby and the job offer at the same time? It was all just too much to handle.

So it was kind of nice to let him just kiss my worries away. Especially since he had finally told me that he loved me. I didn’t want to taint that declaration of love with anything else. I knew how difficult it had already been for him to get to that point, and I didn’t want to heap anything else on him right now.

I let him keep kissing me, my passion spiraling higher with each successive brush of his lips against mine, and I let him walk me towards the stairs. We would talk later. With Ethan out of the house, we had all night.

Of course, there were plenty of other things that I wanted to do tonight, rather than talk. But maybe we could do a little bit of both. I just had to play my cards right. I grinned into the kiss, and I could feel Adam grinning right back at me.

I couldn’t help but feel giddy, perched on the precipice of an incredible future together with this man whom I loved so much. I might not know exactly what that future would hold just yet, but I had the feeling that we were one step closer to it, whatever it was.

I tripped my way up the stairs, Adam steadying me with every step, holding me close, his hands promising to never let me go.

In the bedroom, he stripped me down, his heated gaze roving over my body. His lips trailed across my skin, touching every inch as he laid me bare. He stripped down as well, as an afterthought, while I spread myself out on the bed, my eyes never leaving his.

Adam crawled on top of me, his lips still making their way across my body. He must have kissed every square inch of my skin, each tender touch driving me a little more wild with desire.

Impatient, I pushed at his shoulder until he flipped us around, and I gave him barely a second of warning before I was sliding down his length. I groaned at the perfect feeling of him sheathed inside of me, my hips shifting helplessly as I tried to concentrate on my breathing for a moment.

Adam grinned up at me, looking just as turned on as I felt. His fingers caught my hips and helped me to find the rhythm, while his own body undulated as he thrust upwards each time I lowered myself down onto him. I could feel him deep inside of me, so deeply that it was a wonder he even fit.

Especially with his seed already growing inside of me. A little baby, a boy or a girl. Adam didn’t know about that yet, but there was still something about this that felt more intimate than any love-making I’d ever had in the past.

Adam smoothed his hands down my back, holding me close as he sped up his thrusts, until I was gasping for air, shaking apart at the seams. I cried out his name as he suddenly slowed, the drag of his cock inside of me making me suddenly aware of every inch of his length and girth.

My whole body spasmed as I came, but he kept going, these slow thrusts that built and built upon one another until I felt like my whole body was just one raw nerve of pleasure.

The next time I came, it was at the same time as Adam. While he groaned and slammed into me one final time, I collapsed forwards, his cock nudging at the taut nerves inside of me as the angle changed. I gasped and clung to him, my whole body clenching and releasing, my vision swimming in darkness and I tried to get air back into my lungs.

Even though Adam looked just as fucked-out and barely cognizant as I felt, he gently lay me back on the bed, slowly kissing his way across my body again. I couldn’t really move, and his kisses didn’t make my insides quiver nearly as strongly as they had before, but I hummed appreciatively and reached out to tangle my fingers in his as Adam lay back on the bed.

My stomach growled while we lay there basking in the afterglow, and I winced. I hadn’t really eaten all day. Just some snacks. I knew that that wasn’t healthy for the baby, but I just couldn’t seem to keep anything down. I had read everything I could find online about morning sickness cures, but I hadn’t had a chance to try any of them out just yet.

To be honest, I was hoping that I would only have to deal with the nausea for a little while and then it would go away. But I was worried that I was going to feel like this for the whole pregnancy. Could I handle that?

I glanced over at Adam. With him by my side, I knew that I could handle anything. There was no question about it. And at the end of it, we would have a child. All the nausea in the world, even if it kept up for the entire nine months, would be worth it.

“I made dinner, you know,” Adam said, rolling over to face me. “I could bring a tray up here and we could eat in bed, if you don’t feel like moving.”

I winced and took stock of my body. I was still feeling a little off, and even though I knew that I had to eat something, I also wasn’t sure that I was really up to eating a whole meal. But if Adam had cooked for me, then I needed to explain to him why.

Slowly, I sat up. “Remember how I said before that I have some news?”

Adam sat up as well, looking wary. “Yeah?” he asked. He frowned. “You’re not headed right back to Nevada tonight, are you?”

I blinked in surprise and then shook my head. “No, definitely not,” I told him. I couldn’t think of any clever way to tell him, so finally, I just took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’m pregnant.”

Adam stared at me for a moment, shock written on his face. “Pregnant?” he asked faintly. “You think, or you know?”

I frowned, not sure what difference it really made. “My period was late, but I’ve been working so hard that I didn’t even really think about it. Then, while I was in Nevada, I woke up super queasy and put two and two together. And I did one of those home pregnancy tests. I know they’re not always super reliable, but well, I’m pretty sure. I’ve already scheduled a visit to my gynecologist for Thursday morning. I wanted it to be sooner, but it’s kind of last minute.”

The words were out of me in a rush, and Adam looked floored. Slowly, he pulled me into his arms, and I sighed as I rested my head against his chest. “Oh Bailey,” he said, and I was pretty sure that was joy in his voice.

Sure enough, when I pulled back to peer up at him, he looked over the moon. “You’re not mad?” I asked, though, just to be sure.

“How the hell could I be mad to know that the woman I love is pregnant with my baby?” Adam asked. “Unless you’re trying to tell me that it isn’t mine?” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he joked, and I exhaled a breathy laugh.

“Oh no, you are fully responsible for this,” I said. Then, I frowned. “Well, maybe not fully.”

Adam laughed as well, pulling me back into his arms as though he never wanted to let me go. “I’ve always wanted Ethan to have a younger brother or sister,” he mused. “Beth and I talked about that a lot. But we just weren’t ready at first, and then she got sick.” He was silent for a moment. “Are you mad?” he finally asked tentatively.

“I’m scared,” I admitted frankly. “I feel like I’m not really ready. I did a bunch of research today about, you know, things to expect when you’re pregnant, and there’s so much that I didn’t know about. But I think we can do this. Together.”

“We can,” Adam promised me. “I’ll be right here by your side, every step of the way.” He was quiet for a moment and then tilted my chin up so that I was looking at him. His eyes had never been more serious. “I love you.”

I grinned at him, leaning up to kiss him gently. Heat stirred in my belly again, even though I would have thought that we had fucked all of that out already. But no, I could never get enough of this man. And now, it sounded like he really was ready to commit to a future with me. “I love you too.”

Maybe I should have told him about the job in Europe as well, but we could figure out the rest later. I just wanted to be happy about the baby. I had been excited when I found out that I was pregnant, but I had been nervous as well. I hadn’t known what Adam’s reaction to the news would be. Now that I knew that he was on board, I felt like I could finally start to enjoy the idea of being a mom to a child of my own.

I grinned at him, and he grinned right back. Right then, it felt like my whole life was complete.

69

Adam

Bailey stirred against me on Monday morning, scrunching up her face as she yawned and then smiling sweetly at me. “Good morning,” she said, sounding like there was nowhere in the world that she would rather be.

I nuzzled her jawline. “Good morning, Mama-to-be,” I told her, and she giggled.

“You really are happy that I’m pregnant?” she asked, and I could hear just how worried she was.

I understood that, to a certain extent. I was worried as well. There was a lot of work that went into having a kid. I knew there would be plenty of sleepless nights, and plenty of tough days along the road ahead of us. But at the same time, it meant something to me, knowing that she would be there by my side through all of this. And at the end of it, we would share something truly wonderful; the miracle of that little baby’s firsts.

I kissed her to show her just how happy I was to learn that she was pregnant. Of all of the news that she could have told me the previous evening, this was really the best of what I could ever have hoped for. I was already looking forward to debating names with her, to building a cradle for our little one, to massaging Bailey’s feet at the end of long days, to going to the store half a dozen times for various things that she was craving, only to find her craving something else by the time I made it home.

Bailey leaned around past me suddenly, though, wincing when she saw how late it was. “I didn’t mean to sleep in so late,” she said. She yawned. “I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or the way that I’ve been working lately, but I just feel so tired all the time.”

“Probably the pregnancy,” I told her, shrugging. “And the, what, three orgasms last night probably took something out of you as well.”

Bailey grinned, blushing a little. “More than three,” she admitted, and I mentally gave myself a pat on the back. I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off her the night before, but I hadn’t realized I had gotten her quite that good. She deserved it, though. I hoped she knew that.

But Bailey still looked faintly worried. “Don’t you have to go pick Ethan up at some point?” she asked. “It’s almost noon.”

“I called in a favor,” I admitted. “I slipped out of bed a little while ago.”

“Oh,” Bailey said, frowning in puzzlement. “Is Ethan going to stay at his friend’s house for a little while longer?”

“I wouldn’t do that to Jake’s parents, after they hosted ten kids at their house for the whole night,” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I called my Dad and, uh, said that you had just gotten home last night. He didn’t need any more explanation.”

Bailey shook her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said.

“Dad loves spending time with Ethan,” I said. “And he heads into town for groceries on Monday mornings anyway, so it’s no big deal. Besides, I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

“Well, I appreciate that,” Bailey said finally, smiling at me. “I guess we should get dressed, though, before they get back.”

“Probably,” I sighed. I propped myself up on my elbows and watched as she pulled on her leggings from the previous day. But instead of the long sweater that she’d been wearing when she arrived, she grabbed one of my flannels out of the closet, fixing me with a look of challenge while she did up the buttons.

I laughed. “I am never going to stop you from looking sexy in my clothes,” I promised her.

We headed down into the kitchen, and I couldn’t get over how comfortable it was, having her there in my life. I had never expected to have anything quite like this again. I didn’t know how I had gotten so lucky.

“Hey,” I said, catching her hand as she went to sit down at the table. I gave her a long, drawn-out kiss, and I could feel her smile against my lips.

“Gross,” Ethan said as he walked into the kitchen with Dad just behind him.

Bailey and I sprang apart, and I could feel myself blushing. As if we were a couple of teenagers who had just been caught necking, rather than two fully-grown adults sharing a sweet morning kiss. I cleared my throat.

“Breakfast?” I asked everyone. I glanced at Bailey, remembering how she had confessed to feeling pretty nauseous the previous day. There was a bit more color in her face today, but I didn’t want her to overdo it. She had to eat, though. “Pancakes?” I asked her, figuring that they were probably basic enough that she might be able to keep them down. And they’d be filling as well.

“Sounds great,” Bailey said, while Ethan nodded emphatically.

“Dad, you’re welcome to stick around,” I added.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Dad said, sitting with Ethan at the kitchen table while I bustled around getting out everything that I would need.

Ethan kept everyone laughing with stories about his sleepover. I made a mental note to thank Jake’s parents again, because it sounded like they had put up with quite a bit of mischief from the boys the night before. I couldn’t help glancing over at Bailey. Ethan’s birthday would roll around soon enough. Would she help me plan a party for him?

But I knew the answer to that before the question had even fully crossed my mind. Of course she would. Bailey had made it clear that she was there. That she loved Ethan and I both, and that she wanted to be a family.

I couldn’t help the goofy grin that crossed my face. Dad caught me looking and raised an eyebrow at me. I glanced at Bailey just as she happened to glance my way. She nodded, like she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Hey, Ethan,” I asked trying to sound casual, “if you found out that you were going to have a little brother or sister, how excited would you be?”

Ethan’s eyes got wide as he looked back and forth between Bailey and I. Then, he got up on his chair and started jumping up and down and cheering. Bailey laughed. “Well, you asked,” she pointed out.

“Ethan, you know we’re not supposed to jump on the furniture,” I chided, but I couldn’t help laughing as well.

Ethan sat back down. “I’m going to teach them everything,” he declared. “Like how to draw and how to play PowerBox and how to shoot a BB gun and everything.” He continued babbling about all the things that he was going to do with his younger sibling, and I had to smile. Bailey was smiling as well, I noted, and it made something warm uncurl inside of me.

Dad nodded at me. “Congratulations,” he said to Bailey. But he grinned, and suddenly he looked a lot less stodgy and formal. “I’m the luckiest man, getting to have my son and my two grandchildren so close by.” He looked over at me. “Of course if you need any help with Ethan or anything else, you just have to holler.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said gratefully. I knew that Bailey and I could handle things on our own if we had to, but it was definitely a relief to hear that Dad planned to continue being around to help out as needed. Not only that, but I knew that even though he and I had never been very close, he already planned on being just as close to this newest addition to the family as he was to Ethan. That meant a lot to me.

I was nearly finished with the pancakes when Bailey’s phone rang. She frowned down at the screen and then looked up at me. Was that guilt in her expression? What was that about?

“I’ll be right back,” she said, before I could ask any questions. She slipped out of the kitchen. Ethan barely seemed to notice, still chattering away about how excited he was to meet his new baby brother or sister.

“It won’t be for a little while now,” Dad explained to him, shooting me an inquisitive look.

I shrugged in response and tried not to worry. Maybe there was more to the story than just the pregnancy. Bailey and I still hadn’t talked about how her meeting had gone, I suddenly realized.

I remembered what Dad had said before about how lucky he was to get to have his two grandchildren close by, and suddenly I felt sick to my stomach. Was that what Bailey was really worried about? Was she planning on moving back to Nevada? I knew that her job with the casino came with considerably less risk than owning her own company, especially a ski resort. I had always been lucky to live close to my dad; maybe Bailey wanted to raise her child closer to Ian. The two of them had always been close.

I took the last of the pancakes off the stove and, without a word, headed after Bailey. I needed to know what was going on. I could barely imagine moving to Nevada with Ethan, trying to settle in to a new life while Bailey swelled with a child inside of her. But if that was what she wanted, then we would have to talk about things. Bailey and I had been pretty lucky so far, but I knew that relationships were all about compromises.

I walked into the living room just as Bailey was hanging up the phone. “What’s going on?” I asked, and again, there was that guilty look.

“There’s something else that I needed to talk to you about,” Bailey said, sounding nervous. “The casino guys have really liked the work I’ve been putting in. And they’re trying to expand to some new territory overseas. They offered me the position as head of the foreign casino.”

I stared at her, trying to process the words. “So you’re moving to Europe?” I asked slowly, my mind whirling. That was even crazier than I had thought. Moving to Nevada was one thing, but moving to Europe would involve all sorts of changes. Changes that I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to force Ethan to go through. He was already going to have to get used to the fact that he wasn’t an only child; did Bailey think it was fair to force him to do that over in Europe, with none of his friends even on the same continent as him?

“They put together a great offer and everything,” Bailey was saying. “You know, we’d get Ethan into a great international school, and there would still be skiing, and the salary was honestly absurd, plus they’d help with all of the visas and other relocation things.”

“Right,” I said, the word coming out strangled. It sounded as though she was seriously considering this.

But Bailey took a deep breath. “I turned it down,” she said.

“What?” I asked blankly.

“That was Ian who called just now,” Bailey said. “He wanted to talk to me about what I was thinking. He wanted to know if I had talked to you yet and all of that.” She shook her head. “And I just realized that when I picture a future with you, it’s here. In Park City. It’s what you talked about back in Vegas: chilly winter nights snuggled together on the couch. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

I stared at her for another moment and then briskly crossed the room to her, pulling her into my arms and squeezing her tight. There wasn’t anything more perfect that she could have said. She wanted to be here with me, with us. This was the future that she had been dreaming about.

And it was the future that I had been dreaming about as well.

Epilogue

Bailey

10 months later

I smiled down at Carson as I rocked her to sleep, singing softly under my breath. Ethan hadn’t wanted to leave the room while his baby sister was still awake, and he had ended up falling asleep on the floor, curled into a ball, a smile on his face. I couldn’t imagine a sweeter picture of family than this.

It only got more perfect as Adam walked into the room and carefully sat next to me on the loveseat. Carson looked curiously at her father, and I imagined that she smiled. Of course, she was still too young to really smile, but I could tell she was and always would be daddy’s little girl.

She was perfect in every way.

“Want me to take over?” Adam asked softly. He still looked chilled, having just come in from outside where he’d been grabbing another stack of firewood, but he was always there to help out, all through my pregnancy and through the first weeks of baby Carson’s life.

I shook my head now, though. “She’s almost asleep,” I said quietly. Then, I nodded towards Ethan. “Unless you want to carry him upstairs.”

Adam grinned and nodded, walking over and scooping our son up off the carpet.

Our son. Over the past ten months, Ethan had really started to feel like he was as much my son as he was Adam’s. This felt like the family I had never really imagined I would get to have. I couldn’t get luckier than this.

Carson’s little eyes finally closed, and I carefully carried her up to her crib, laying her gently down on the flannel sheets. Adam joined me there a couple minutes later, stroking my back and then following me out of the room. He gave me a big hug. “You’re amazing with her,” he said softly.

“Mother’s intuition?” I asked, laughing. “Or is she just an easy baby?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Adam said, shrugging. “Ethan was a pretty easy baby as well, so I feel like I’ve just been spoiled.”

“Guess we probably shouldn’t have another one, then,” I teased. “I don’t know if we could get that lucky again.”

Adam grinned at me. “We’ll see,” he said. We had both talked about having another kid once Carson had grown up a little, but we hadn’t made any firm decisions yet. There were other milestones that Adam and I wanted to hit first.

Like our wedding. I stroked a finger over the engagement ring on my finger. It was getting loose now that I was losing the baby weight and bloating from my pregnancy, but Adam had assured me we would get it resized. He just hadn’t wanted to wait any longer before proposing to me.

I still remembered how excited he had been to ask me to marry him. About as excited as I had been to agree to it.

It seemed like all of the earlier nervousness between us had disappeared. We were both so happy to be together, and we fit together so perfectly. There was no arguing with it. It was meant to be.

“Do you ever regret not taking the job in Europe?” Adam asked suddenly.

I blinked at him in surprise. I hadn’t expected to hear him say anything like that. “Do you regret me not taking it?” I asked, frowning. “I know the money thing has been kind of tight lately, but I’ll be back to work at the resort soon.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Adam said immediately, shaking his head. “I was just wondering if you missed, I don’t know, the adventure of all of it.”

I stared blankly at him and then laughed, shaking my head. “The adventure of all of it?” I asked him. “Adam, we have an infant daughter. And there’s you and Ethan. And the resort. I’ve got plenty of adventure in my life at the moment, believe me.”

Adam looked unconvinced. “I know that you probably planned on, I don’t know, something more in your life,” he said.

I shook my head, though, cutting him off before he could give voice to any more absurd thoughts. “Adam, I am so happy here,” I told him. “I was thinking earlier about how perfect this is. Our family. I don’t need anything more than this.” I paused. “But if you’re really worried about it, maybe we can take a trip somewhere. Next summer, when things aren’t so busy around the resort, and when Carson is a little older.”

That would be a real adventure, I knew. Our first family vacation. I couldn’t imagine anyone I would rather share all of that with.

Adam finally grinned at me. “All right,” he said, pulling me into his arms again and kissing the top of my head. “How’s that ring fitting you anyway?”

“It’s getting a little loose,” I admitted. “I think I’m ready to trade it in for something else.”

Adam looked surprised. “I thought you loved it,” he said, sounding worried.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, after Carson’s face. Or yours. Or Ethan’s,” I said. I grinned at him. “But the reception hall called me today and told me that they had a cancellation. I already checked with Ian and your dad, and they’ll be able to make it. What do you say to getting married at the end of this month?”

Adam looked shocked and then ecstatic. “I’d say, I do,” he said, his voice deep with emotion.

“Good,” I said, nodding at him. “Because I do, too.”

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About the Author

Hey there. I'm Weston.

I'm a former firefighter/EMS guy who's picked up the proverbial pen and started writing bad boy romance stories. I co-write with my sister, Ali Parker as we travel the United States for the next two years.

You're going to find Billionaires, Bad Boys, Mafia and loads of sexiness. Something for everyone, hopefully. I'd love to connect with you. Check out the links below and come find me.

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The Parker’s Wicked Playground

One Shot at Love

Copyright © 2019 by Weston Parker

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are all either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.

First Edition.

Editor: Shauna Jones

Cover Designer: Ryn Katryn Digital Art