Page 272 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
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.
CHAPTER 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.”
