Page 348 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
I grimaced. I knew that she didn’t mean to make it sound like it was my fault that she was going to have to possibly stay out here longer. But I couldn’t help feeling like she was saying that if it wasn’t for me, then the board of directors wouldn’t have lost even more confidence in Ian that day. Even though I knew that, yeah, Ian should have done the responsible thing and either come to get me on one of his days off or else just called me or something.
Not that I would have picked up the call if he had tried. Yet another thing to feel guilty about. Ian had just been trying to do a nice thing for me, to basically show that he did support Bailey and I, and this time I had been the one being a dick in response.
“So you still don’t know how long you’re going to be here?” I asked Bailey, trying not to sound too upset over that.
Bailey sighed. “Honestly? No. And I really wish that I could tell you.” She paused and then slowly reached across the table and caught my hand. “But I really did miss you, Adam.” There was a raw honesty in her voice and in her gaze that took my breath away.
I had to smile gently in response. “Well, I’m glad that I can be here, then.” I cleared my throat, trying not to let things get too mushy. “So are you busy this weekend?”
Bailey grinned. “I think I can take a little time to show you around,” she said. “Have you ever been to Vegas before?”
I shook my head. “Never,” I admitted.
“We’re going to have fun,” Bailey promised me, and I could tell from the way that she said it that she didn’t just mean that we would have fun taking in the sights. She frowned. “Where are you staying, anyway? And is Ethan with you?”
“Nah, Ethan’s staying with his grandfather this weekend,” I said. “He probably would have loved to come, but…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain that I didn’t really want the boy getting too close to her before I knew whether or not Bailey was truly coming back to Park City. And I was starting to wonder if I would believe it until I knew that she had booked a return flight.
Bailey grinned at me again, though. “So I’ve got you all to myself this weekend,” she practically purred.
I laughed. “Guess so,” I said. “And Ian gave me a place to stay. At one of your casinos.” I pulled the key out of my pocket. I had tried to pay him back for the flight down, but he had refused. Accepting the room key, though, knowing that they weren’t losing anything on it, was easier.
Bailey peered at the key and then grinned. “Oh, nice,” she said, her eyes glinting. “Maybe we should go check it out after this. Just to make sure that it’s going to, you know, work for you this weekend.”
I could tell that wasn’t what she meant at all, and I smirked at her. “Now Bailey, I might start thinking that the only reason you want me here is so that you can sleep with me,” I teased.
She shrugged unrepentantly but her thumb brushed across my knuckles. “I missed you,” she said again, the words given even more weight this time.
I squeezed her hand lightly, hoping she realized just how much I felt the same.
CHAPTER 54
BAILEY
Dinner with Adam was just so easy. We didn’t talk about anything too deep. We didn’t put labels on our relationship, and he was careful not to ask me to define when, exactly, I’d be headed back to Utah. But for all of that, it felt like something had really shifted between us in the short time that he’d been there in Vegas.
It was enough that he had even come there to Vegas. That he had dropped everything in Utah and flown out here for the weekend. Sure, that might have been at Ian’s prompting, but I knew Adam well enough to know that he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to be. And I didn’t think he was just there because he didn’t want to work at the resort for the weekend.
No, he was here because he wanted to see me. Because he had missed me just as much as I had missed him. And that said more than any conversation with him could have.
We finished up our burgers and I drove him to the hotel that Ian had put him up in. It was one of our nicest places, and when Adam told me the room number, I had to grin. Not only was it one of the nicer casino hotels in town, but Ian had put Adam up in one of the nicest suites. One of the suites generally reserved for honeymooners, in fact.
I needed to remember to thank Ian for all of this. Oh, I still planned on having words with him about the fact that he had just taken off for the day without telling anyone. He had been highly irresponsible. But I was starting to realize just why he had done it.
He had brought Adam here for me. I didn’t need any further proof that Ian was, if not happy, then at least okay with the relationship that I was building with Adam. And to be honest, if Ian had told me that he was going to fly out to Utah to bring Adam out here for a weekend, I probably would have told him no.
Not that I didn’t want Adam here. But I knew full-well that I had heaped enough on Adam’s plate recently, and I didn’t want him to feel the stress of taking off two days when he could be working, or spending time with his son, just to see me here in Vegas. If anything, I should have been the one taking a weekend to fly back to Utah to see Adam.
Besides, I would have been worried. I wouldn’t have been sure if Adam would say yes, and I would have been too afraid even to open myself up to the chance that he might say no. I would have told Ian that there were a dozen things that Adam and I needed to talk about before we could discuss him coming out here to Vegas just to visit me for a couple days.
But now, here he was. He seemed happy to be here, happy to see me, and I couldn’t deny how glad I was that he was there. Damn the consequences.
We headed up to his suite, and I couldn’t help shooting him looks as we got onto the elevator. I wished that we were the only two people in there. I wanted nothing more than for him to push me back against the wall. I wanted him to kiss me until I was breathless, until I totally forgot where we were, until we had missed our floor without even realizing it because we were just so tangled up in one another.
Instead, there were three other people in there with us; a couple and another woman there on her own. But Adam did step close to me, putting an arm around me, his thumb stroking lightly across my hip. He grinned down at me when I looked up at him, and I could see the promise in his eyes. If I could only be patient.
We finally made it to his room for the weekend, and he unlocked the door with a flourish. I followed him inside and barely had time to toe off my shoes before he backed me up against the wall, his lips hot against mine. He pressed his firm body against me, and I could feel the heat of passion radiating off of him.
I giggled and turned my head to the side. “Don’t you even want to see what this place looks like?” I asked.
