Page 355 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
But I knew that he wanted to get back to Ethan, and I was sure that Ethan wanted to see his father as well. It had only been a couple days, but to a kid, that was a long time. I remembered what it felt like to wait uncertainly to see a parent again, and I couldn’t do that to the little boy.
Besides, what did it really matter if Adam left now or later? It was going to hurt either way.
I sighed and rolled out of bed as well. “I wish we had more time,” I said. “But I’ll see you soon.”
Adam flashed a grin at me as he packed up his things, throwing them haphazardly into the duffel bag that he had brought with him from home. “Want to come with me to the airport?” he asked.
I remembered the last airport departure. That time, I had been the one leaving, departing Utah and headed here to Las Vegas. This time, it would be the other way around, with Adam departing Nevada for Park City. But I had a feeling it would hurt just as much. I had a feeling I would have to wipe away a few tears on the way home.
But I wouldn’t have missed the chance to say goodbye to him. Or rather, to say a quick ‘see you later’, because I knew that I was going to see him again. And soon.
And once I got back to the casino, I was going to have a long talk with Ian and see if we could come up with some way for me to leave a little earlier than the month that I had promised to the board of directors.
Sure enough, when we got to the airport and I watched Adam grab his things out of the back of the car, I had to blink back tears. He gave me a huge hug. “Don’t do anything crazy before you come back to Utah,” he said. “I know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I don’t think that holds true if you dye your hair purple or something.”
I had to laugh at that, glad that he had lightened the mood at least a little bit. I opened my mouth to respond and swallowed back the words that almost escaped; I love you.
I did love Adam. There was no question of that. And what’s more, his visit here had shown me that maybe, just maybe, he might love me as well. There might be a way for the two of us to make this relationship work.
I knew that if I said that I loved him now, things would probably feel better over the weeks to come, if I was still stuck here in Vegas. There would be no more of that questioning like there had been before his surprise visit. We would both know where we stood.
But on the other hand, I didn’t want him to think I was only blurting out the words because I was feeling emotional about his departure. I wanted to make sure that he knew just how special it was for me to say those words to him.
The other worry I had, that niggling doubt, was that maybe things were happening a little too fast. We had known each other for ages now, ever since I had visited Brooks Mountain as a kid. But this relationship was still relatively new. I didn’t want to say anything that would upset the balance. I knew that Adam had told me I would need to be patient with him in light of the fact that he had lost his first wife, Ethan’s mom. I didn’t want to say I loved him too soon and send him running for the hills.
Besides, I could tell that he had feelings for me. Did I really need to say anything out loud?
All these thoughts flew through my head in just a second, as I stood there in his arms. But in the end, I just smiled up at him. “Soon,” I promised him.
“Soon,” he echoed, nodding at me. Then, he turned and grabbed his bag, heading into the airport. Another moment later and he was gone. I knew it shouldn’t bother me, but I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed that he hadn’t looked back.
CHAPTER 59
ADAM
I couldn’t help but miss Bailey from the moment that I left Las Vegas. I wanted to look back and get one last good look at her as I walked into the airport, but I knew that if I did that, I would be tempted to never leave. Could I get rebooked on a later flight? Just to spend a little more time with her?
But the logical part of me knew that that extra time would only make it more difficult to leave. And anyway, I had responsibilities back in Utah that I needed to get back to. I had work at the resort the next morning, and I wanted to spend a little more time with Ethan before he went back to school the next day. I shouldn’t have taken off and left him for a whole weekend anyway.
I felt kind of guilty about that, I had to admit. Of course, I was sure that he had had fun spending the weekend with his grandfather. It wasn’t like I had dumped him on a stranger or forgotten about him. But I did try to spend a lot of time with him, and I felt like I had been shorting him lately, spending more time at work and now not even being around on the weekends at all.
That wasn’t fair to him. That wasn’t the way that I wanted to parent.
That said, it had been good to spend the weekend with Bailey. Really good, in fact. And it wasn’t just because we had had fun around the casinos. In fact, that was the least of it. But it felt like Bailey and I had talked about some of the things that had been bothering me since she had left Park City before. It felt like we were on the same page and ready to move forward with our relationship.
Not that things were going to be easy, with her here in Vegas for another few weeks to supervise Ian. And even though she had mentioned that she might try to talk to the board of directors again about leaving a little sooner than they had originally wanted her to, I knew Bailey’s work ethic as well as she knew mine. If she thought that they needed her there, then she was going to stay there and support her brother, no questions asked.
I wanted to call her the moment that I landed in Utah, just to hear her voice. But I didn’t want to seem too over-the-top. We might have admitted that we had feelings for one another but it seemed like admitting something more to call her now. I did shoot her a quick text to let her know that I had landed safely and was on my way back home.
When I got to the house, Ethan and Dad were in the kitchen just sitting down to dinner. Dad got up to make me a plate as well. “How was your trip?” he asked.
“Really good,” I admitted, unable to keep the smile from spreading across my face.
Dad raised an eyebrow at me, looking surprised. But he covered it with a smooth nod. “I’m happy for you,” he said. Fortunately, he didn’t talk to me about it more while Ethan was in the room.
I still wasn’t sure how to approach that conversation with my son. Originally, I hadn’t wanted him to get too close to Bailey because I hadn’t been sure what she was looking for. I didn’t want Ethan to get too attached to her if she wasn’t going to stick around.
But it was hard to keep Ethan from getting to know her, since it was impossible to keep Ethan away from the mountain, and since Bailey had proven, in the time since she had become owner of the resort, that she wanted to be as involved in everything on the mountain as possible. And what’s more, Bailey had proven that she was great with Ethan. Even though Ethan didn’t know that she and I were in a relationship with one another, he was getting attached to her, wanting to spend more time with her and wanting to go skiing with her.
