Page 276 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Something like that, I guess,” I said, frowning. Then, I shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t even know. I just felt like I had to come back here. I missed the snow, too.”
Kayla snorted. “Don’t say that too loudly,” she cautioned. “It’s been snowing like crazy this year. We get any more snow before Christmas and I think there’ll be a mutiny. Everyone fleeing down to Florida or something. Las Vegas, maybe.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “They work for a ski resort,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t everyone be happy for the snow?”
“Not when it means shoveling your driveway every damned day,” Kayla said, shaking her head. “So come on, who is this Peters? It’s not your brother, is it? Not that that would be bad. Just tell me it’s not, like, a crazy uncle of yours or something.”
“It’s not a crazy uncle,” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I’m the one who bought this place.”
“Get out!” Kayla said in surprise. “Seriously, you?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound too much like I was doubting myself. Who the hell did I think I was, swooping in here and buying up the whole resort? Someone like Kayla, someone who had grown up here, steeped in the lore of the mountains and the local town, should be the one running things. Not me. I didn’t know the first thing about this.
For the first time, I started to wonder whether maybe Ian had been right. Maybe I should have given this a little more thought before I had so recklessly purchased the place. What was I going to do now, anyway? I couldn’t very well back out of the sale, nor could I turn around and sell the place again after just having purchased it. The only people who would want to buy it, probably were those big conglomerates that I eschewed. And if one of them got their hands on the place, I knew it was never going to be like it had been back when I was a kid.
No, I had to stick it out. I might be feeling a bit out of my depth now, but that was just more fuel to learn everything I could about the operations of this place, so that eventually, I could really step up as a leader here. I could do this; I knew that I could.
I wouldn’t have bought the place if I thought that I was going to fail, after all. I knew business. And business was business. I just had to persevere.
“So if you’re the boss, does that mean that we can’t be friends?” Kayla asked, and I had to laugh.
“Of course not,” I told her. “Actually, I’m counting on you to show me all the best places around this town. It’s been a while since I was here.”
Kayla grinned and bowed sarcastically. “Your humble servant, as always,” she joked, and I laughed again.
“I’m going to go see where Ian ran off to,” I told Kayla. “But let’s get drinks soon. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Kayla said, giving me the thumbs up.
I headed outside and soon spotted Ian over near one of the lifts. He was chatting with someone I didn’t recognize. I started walking over to them, but before I could reach them, Ian led the guy over to me. “Guess who I found?” he asked.
I peered at the other man, trying to recognize anything about him. But his dark hair and rough five o’clock shadow didn’t tell me much. Except that, fuck was he attractive. Dressed in his plaid shirt, with his rough, unshaven look, he was almost a hipster. But he had a chiseled jaw and deep, ice blue eyes that nearly drowned me in their gaze. He looked relaxed, at ease with his surroundings, and I craved his easy confidence.
But I didn’t recognize him, not at all. I gave Ian a puzzled look, and he laughed.
“It’s Adam Katz!” he exclaimed, and my eyes widened even further.
Adam Katz. Wow.
Adam had been Ian’s best friend when we’d come up to Park City. Like with Bailey, they never seemed to realize that they’d spent any time apart. I’d been the victim of one too many of their pranks, and I’d learned to hide away when the two of them got together. But every once in a while, I had been able to catch Adam on his own, either around the resort or out in town. Like Ian, he never treated me like I was too much younger than him. And he could always make me laugh, even after my worst falls.
When I was younger, I’d had a bit of a crush on him. But he’d been engaged to someone else, and anyway, I’d still been such a child compared to him. Now, though.
I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. Adam looked amazing, and there was no denying that I was no longer a child. But he was married, and I wasn’t going to get in the middle of that.
Unless maybe he wasn’t married anymore? But I would never hope for that kind of unhappiness to befall him. I knew what our parents’ divorce had done to my mom and dad, and to Ian and I. Besides, I was going to have more than enough on my plate with taking over this resort. I wasn’t going to have any time to spare for romantic dalliances. Even if Adam had been available.
“So you’re still here,” I finally said. Then, I winced, knowing just how that sounded. I could tell that Kayla had been uncomfortable with me catching her at work at the resort like that, and there was no reason to assume Adam was any different.
Sure enough, he shrugged, crossing his arms in front of him. “Yeah,” he said, and I could hear the challenge in his voice.
“That’s great,” I hurried to say. “I just bought the place, and I’m sure that I can use someone like you. To… what is it that you do here?”
The words tumbled out of my mouth, and I was blushing by the time I was done. He might feel defensive about the fact that he worked there, but it was nothing to how embarrassed I felt at saying what I had just said. Here I was, hoping to take over this resort. And I couldn’t even manage a normal conversation with one of the workers.
Adam’s lips twitched with a grin, but thankfully, he didn’t laugh at me. “I’m your mechanic-slash-maintenance man,” he said.
“What exactly does that entail?” I asked, frowning.
