Page 320 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
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.
