Page 282 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Do you work here year-round?” Bailey asked curiously. “I mean, you must get some time off at certain times of the year, right?”
I finally looked over at her. “You know, this would be a lot easier to straighten out if you left me alone to do my work,” I said. I didn’t mean to be so rude to her, but I didn’t really want to talk to her about my personal life either. I knew that Ian remembered Beth, or at least remembered that there had been a Beth. I wondered if Bailey did as well and assumed that she did. She hadn’t been that young.
Which meant it was only a matter of time before Bailey asked about her. And the last thing I wanted right now was to talk about my deceased wife, or Ethan, or anything else related to those topics. Bailey was just my boss, and even though this resort operated more or less like a family, she was still an outsider. I wasn’t interested in opening up to her.
Bailey looked taken aback by my abruptness, but then she nodded at me. “Right, I’ll get out of your hair. Kayla was actually giving me a tour of the resort before and introducing me to some people, so I guess I’ll get back to that. But I’ll see you around.”
“Sure you will,” I said, already intent on my work again. I refused to turn and watch her leave, even though in my mind, I was already picturing those round hips of hers swaying as she walked away.
I pushed those thoughts aside. She was just my boss. And anyway, I had enough on my plate at the moment without thinking about a relationship with someone. Let alone with my boss.
It took me a little while, but I finally got lighting restored in all parts of the base area, plus put the lightbulb back into the hallway of the new condos. I wasn’t entirely sure why they had taken it out in the first place since it was working just fine, but I didn’t plan on asking Bailey to explain.
I also redid a few of the labels on the breaker switches. Not because Bailey had told me that she didn’t understand them, but just because I was always tailoring my system to work even better the next time. That was all.
I headed into the main lodge just as the skiers were starting to come off the mountain for the day. “All finished?” Kayla asked, grinning at me.
“All finished,” I agreed.
“Excellent,” Bailey said, appearing from the direction of the kitchen. She wiped off her hands on an apron, and I wondered if she realized that she had a smudge of flour on one cheek. Interesting. I wondered what she had been doing back there. Not that I would ask, of course. I didn’t want her to start thinking that I wanted to be friends with her or anything.
I mean, friends wouldn’t be that bad. But I just didn’t want her to get the wrong impression. To think that I was interested in her.
She grinned at me. “Join me for dinner.” The way she said it, it wasn’t really a question. I glanced around to see what Kayla’s reaction to that was, but she was off chatting with a couple of the guests.
I looked back at Bailey and shook my head. “I –” Then, I glanced past Bailey to where she was gesturing and realized that she already had food out on the table waiting for us. It was nothing special, just the normal food that the lodge served; hearty and warm, perfect for these chilly winter days.
For a moment, I still hesitated. I didn’t want to hurt Bailey’s feelings. There was a part of me that still remembered the young girl that she had been. Witty and charming, a real riot to be around. Would it really kill me to open up to her a little? To become friends with her? Surely I was allowed to have friends, even if I never wanted anything more again.
And Dad was perfectly capable of feeding Ethan. In fact, I had left instructions with him for dinner in case my work ran late. So there was no reason not to join Bailey. Other than that weird little flip in my gut as I looked at her.
I cleared my throat. “All right,” I told her, moving matter-of-factly past her to seat myself at the table. “By the way, you’ve got flour on your cheek. The left one.”
Still trying for casual, I only saw her flush out of the corner of my eye as she hurriedly swiped at her face with her apron. I couldn’t help grinning. I wondered if she knew how cute she was or if she was so wrapped up in acting like the perfect, powerful businesswoman that she didn’t think about things like that.
But I sure noticed. Oh, how could I not?
CHAPTER 10
BAILEY
When I told Kayla I wanted to help out back in the kitchen, and to invite Adam to join me for dinner, she rolled her eyes knowingly. “I told you not to get too interested in him,” she reminded me, but the way she said it told me that she knew I couldn’t help it.
I wanted to ask her about Adam. He had to be in a relationship. Or have been in a relationship. I thought back to when we had last been here, but I couldn’t remember him hanging around with anyone other than Ian during that time. Still, I didn’t ask Kayla about it. It was one thing for her to know that I was interested in him. It was another thing entirely for me to actually start talking about it.
I was still new here, and I wanted everyone to know that even though I wanted this place to be just as chill as ever, I was a professional. And that meant I couldn’t go mooning after my maintenance guy.
Besides, this dinner wasn’t about any of that. It was just a way of saying thank you to Adam for coming in on his day off. And a way to help him out a little. I could tell that he was busy, maybe too busy. When he said that he was doing errands on his day off, I looked a little closer at him and could see the dark smudges beneath his eyes, like he was perpetually tired. Anything that I could do to help him, I wanted to know it. Letting him off the hook for cooking, at least for one night, was the first thing that came to mind.
I had to admit, though, I was pretty excited to have him join me. I hadn’t really missed him; we had never been close friends or anything. But I had always liked his energy and youthful spirit, and there was definitely something about him that intrigued me.
At first, though, I couldn’t think of where to start the conversation. Earlier, in the utility room, he’d been so short with me. It was clear that he didn’t really want to talk about himself. But I didn’t want to just start talking about myself.
To my surprise, Adam rescued the conversation. “So whatever possessed you to buy this place, anyway?” he asked bluntly.
I shrugged and took a bite of my meal as I thought of a way to answer that. Finally, I decided just to be honest. “My dad died a little over a month ago, and I came into my inheritance,” I admitted. “And I just needed a change. I quit working for the casino business earlier this year, and I’ve just been kind of adrift ever since. I needed to get out of Vegas for a bit.”
“Huh,” Adam said, but he didn’t sound disinterested. “I’m sorry to hear that about your father.”
