Page 325 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
Ian snorted. “Don’t be dramatic. I haven’t done that much. I just thought this place could do with a few changes. They’re all things that you can easily afford. Don’t worry, I crunched the numbers on all of it.”
I shook my head. “Ian, we can’t afford all of this,” I said. “I know it’s been a good year for us, but that doesn’t mean that we can spend every dollar that we earn.”
“I know you’re worried that next year won’t be as good, but that’s even more reason to make some changes now,” Ian explained. “What you’re worried about is that the skiing won’t be as good, so you won’t get as many skier visits. Right? So all you need to worry about is getting people out to the resort either way. Give them reasons to come here. If you put in some nicer lights in the conference rooms, you could hold more business meetings here, or small-scale conventions, or even wedding receptions. Serve up some better food and drinks in the lodge and suddenly you’re a high-class restaurant with an awesome view out the windows, designed to appeal to anyone in town rather than just skiers.”
I stared at him as though he had sprouted a second head. “That’s not what this place is, though,” I said. “This is a ski resort. And sure, we want to have restaurants and the condos and stuff like that, but we’re not trying to draw businessmen in here. We’re trying to draw in skiers. Through improvements that directly benefit the skiers here.”
It shouldn’t be that hard for him to understand, I didn’t think.
Ian shrugged, though. “Yeah, well, you’ve said yourself that it’s a good winter. Lots of profit already. So you can do a little bit of both. Improve the base area that you’ve already got, and put some of the extra money towards improving the skiing experience. Although I don’t really know what you’re going to do there. It’s not like you can get approved for expansions or any of that in a year.”
“There’s plenty of other stuff that we can improve beyond expansions,” I snapped, because I had been through all of this with various personnel at the mountain. We had already brainstormed and come up with some long-term goals as well as short-term goals. That was part of the problem with Ian just spending money left and right; we had already figured out right where we wanted out money going. And it wasn’t to cappuccino machines and fancy lightbulbs.
“Okay, but you’ve got a lot of money to throw around. Better to reinvest it than just pocket it. That’s just common business sense.”
“Yeah, but the thing is, even if we’re turning a huge profit right now, we kind of have to,” I reminded Ian. “This is the busy time of the year. But half the profit we’re making right now is earmarked for some lift improvements next summer as well as just keeping us operating through the summer as a sightseeing resort. This isn’t like a normal company where if you make an extra profit in one quarter, you can just pocket it.”
“I’m not recommending you pocket it,” Ian protested. “Like I said, I’m recommending that you reinvest it, just like you normally would in any other company. Make this place a little nicer, draw in a richer clientele, and they’ll be spending money left and right. Yes, on cappuccinos and other things that you’ve never sold here before.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do here, though,” I countered. “I don’t want this place to be the next hoity toity haven for the rich. I like that it’s comfortable and down-to-earth. I like that we sell the basics, comfort food, in the lodge. I like that – “
“But that’s so short-sighted!” Ian exploded. “You’re going to spend the rest of your time here barely scraping even, especially with your operations costs going up and up every year. With climate change, you can’t count on the snow coming every year. Eventually, you might not even get snow at all. And what are you going to do then?”
“If I wanted to run a restaurant, I would have bought a restaurant,” I said. I shook my head. “From now on, Ian, I don’t want you involved in Brooks Mountain at all. Not a single thing. And if I catch you using company funds or otherwise meddling in it again, I will take you to court over it. Mark my words.”
I was definitely pissed with him, and I wanted him to know it. I think we both knew that I could never take him to court, though. He was still my brother at the end of the day. Hopefully, he got the message and quit meddling, though. I didn’t know exactly what I would do if he refused to quit it.
Ian stared at me for a moment like he wanted to protest. Then, he narrowed his eyes, turned around, and stalked out of there.
I sighed and fell back in my chair, staring up at the ceiling and wondering how things had all gone so wrong so quickly. Had it really only been a few months since Dad had died? Ian and I had been closer than hell back then, and now? Well, now we could apparently barely be in one another’s presence. He seemed to think that everything that I was doing was wrong. And I couldn’t figure out where the hell my supportive and friendly brother had gone.
This wasn’t the Ian that I used to work with, that was for sure. He was way too impulsive, and he didn’t seem to be thinking things through. And the fact that he repeatedly went behind my back to do things to my business when he knew full well that he wasn’t even an employee here? That was just above and beyond.
Suddenly, I started to wonder if maybe Kayla had been right. Was the casino business having problems? Was that what had brought Ian here to meddle in things at Brooks Mountain? I didn’t really want to know. But suddenly, I realized that I had to know. If Ian was having problems, I wanted to figure out a way to help him. Especially if it meant that I no longer had to deal with his attempts to help me out with things I didn’t need help with at all.
My first order of business was to cancel half the orders that Ian had made. I couldn’t get a full refund on a lot of the stuff, but hell would have to freeze over before I agreed to put fancy cappuccino machines in our lodge here. I wanted to keep the rustic charm here, and Ian knew that. I still didn’t know what the hell he had been thinking.
With that finally done, I turned towards my computer, drumming my fingers against my desk for a moment as I warred with my indecision. Finally, I opened up a browser tab, looking for any news about the casino business. Honestly, I didn’t expect to find much. I thought I was going to have to call up my contacts with the company and check into things with them.
Instead, I found half a dozen news articles directly related to Ian and the investigation that the shareholders had launched against him. No one went so far as to say that he had misused company funds, but there were definitely more than a few shareholders who were pissed off with the way that he had carelessly blown through all their money. And same as with Brooks Mountain, it sounded like a lot of the stuff that the money had been spent on wasn’t anything that was really needed.
I swallowed hard, reading further. Then, I called up one of my friends who still worked for the company to get his take on things. When I hung up, I couldn’t seem to wipe the grim frown from my face. Kayla was right, it seemed. Things really were looking bad for Ian. At best, he was probably going to lose his job.
How had things gone so wrong in the mere months since Dad had died? But when I really thought about it, I remembered conversations that Ian and I had had before, about how if he was running the company, he would do things different. He had had too much respect for Dad to try anything while Dad was still alive, even when Dad had handed plenty of responsibility over to him. But with Dad gone, it seemed like Ian had decided that he could finally make all those changes that he’d always wanted to make.
And when things had tanked with the casino business, he had come up here to prove that he really did know a thing or two about business. I swallowed hard, mind whirring as I tried to figure out how to approach Ian about all of this.
But before I could form a plan of action, there was a light knock on my door. Adam peeked inside, and I glanced at the clock, surprised to find that the afternoon was already gone and that the resort was already shut down for the night.
“You ready to go?” Adam asked, his expression carefully neutral.
Suddenly, I regretted that I had asked him to dinner with me tonight. Forced him to dinner with me, was more like it. He clearly didn’t want anything to do with me. He was clearly uncomfortable. And I had so much else on my plate at the moment anyway. For a moment, I debated calling the dinner off. But I needed to talk about this with someone, and Adam was the best person for figuring out how to handle Ian. The two of them might not be close anymore, but they used to be friends.
And suddenly, it felt like I barely even knew my brother anymore. I could use another opinion.
Not only that, but I sure as hell needed to get out of there.
I nodded at Adam and stood up, grabbing my coat. “Yeah, let’s go,” I said.
