Page 311 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
CHAPTER 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.
