Page 321 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
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.
CHAPTER 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.
