Page 267 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
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.
Cover Designer: Kellie Dennis, Book Covers By Design
ONE SHOT AT LOVE
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.
CHAPTER 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.
