Page 314 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
ADAM
I couldn’t help but feel nervous when Bailey came over, even though I was glad to see her again, and glad that Ethan got to see her again. I didn’t know what it was that had me so uncomfortable and uncertain about all of this. What did I think she was going to do? Of course, I knew that her family was rich, that she had probably grown up in a place five times the size of this. Easily.
But she was so down to earth, kind, friendly, and comfortable that I doubted she was going to point out anything like that. And in fact, she seemed totally enamored of the place, no matter how ‘quaint’ it might feel to me sometimes.
She grinned as she looked out the kitchen window, and I felt my heart break for a moment, remembering Beth’s smile the first time we had been there, before we had bought the place. She had loved that view out the kitchen window, and it was one of the main things that had sold us on this place over every other place that we had looked at.
But as heartbreaking as it was to see Bailey’s positive reaction to that view, it also helped to mend something inside of me. I might have lost Beth, but that didn’t mean that all the magic was gone out of that view, that no one was ever going to appreciate it again. I hadn’t really ever thought that with Beth gone, that was the end of the appreciation of that view over the valley but, well, the mind worked in strange ways.
All I knew was that seeing Bailey’s naked appreciation of the view did something to me, in ways that I couldn’t describe.
Which was how I found myself down on my knees suggesting that Ethan stay with his grandfather for the night while Bailey and I went out to dinner.
Dad gave me a knowing look when I dropped Ethan off a little while later, having cleared the plan with him over the phone. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just reached out to Bailey, shaking her hand. “Congrats on buying the resort,” he said gruffly.
She grinned at him, although I could see how brittle the grin was. I wondered if she was thinking about Ian’s interference with her job. “Thank you,” she told him simply.
“Do you have any suggestions for where to eat?” I asked her as we got back in my car.
She laughed. “You’re the one who knows this town,” she reminded me.
I snorted. “Fair point, but I meant more, any cuisine suggestions?”
“Burgers,” Bailey said decisively. Then, she looked shyly over at me. “If that’s okay with you? I don’t know why, I just have a hankering for a really good burger and a beer.”
“That sounds great,” I agreed. “And I know just the place.”
I took her to my favorite hole-in-the-wall bar. The place could get busy at times, but we didn’t have too hard a time finding a table since it was a Wednesday night, and we were able to hear one another talk still.
“This place is great,” Bailey said, smiling at me after we had ordered our burgers and beers. She looked around curiously. “This is what I’m still missing with this whole thing,” she mused. “I bought the ski resort, but I still don’t know the town at all. There’s a lot of local flair that I feel like I’m just missing out on.”
“You’ll get to know the place,” I said, not sure what made me so confident that she would. Hell, for all I knew, she was only going to stick around for the one winter, if that, and then head right on back to Las Vegas or on to somewhere else.
I tried not to let the thought of her leaving make me nervous. But regardless of whether we were in a relationship or not, I was starting to get used to seeing her around the resort, and I knew that I would miss her if she disappeared.
“I sure hope so.” Bailey sighed. Then, she smirked at me. “Guess all I have to do is keep hanging out with you, huh? You seem to know everywhere. And everyone.”
Was she implying that she wanted to keep going on these dinner dates with me? I definitely wouldn’t say no to that. But at the same time, I wasn’t forward enough to start flirting with her in response. I didn’t even know if this was a date, really, or if this was just, again, two friends getting dinner together. She probably had business matters that she needed to talk to me about, and she was sensitive enough not to do it in front of Ethan.
Either way, I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t get out much anymore,” I admitted.
Bailey cocked her head to the side. “Well, maybe we need to change that,” she said.
I shook my head. “It’s hard. With Ethan. And everything.” Even I didn’t know what I was trying to say with that ‘everything’, but Bailey nodded sympathetically.
“You know,” she said carefully, “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to bring Ethan to dinner with us sometimes. He’s fun. And I know that spending time with him is important to you.” She held up one hand before I could protest. “I know that you probably don’t want him getting too attached to me or anything. I get that.” She paused. “My parents are divorced, if you don’t remember, so I know I don’t totally understand what he’s going through, but I sort of do. Anyway, just throwing it out there.”
“I appreciate that,” I told her. And I really did. I wasn’t sure that I was ready to start bringing Ethan out with us yet. It would feel a little too much like family if I did, and I was trying really hard not to put too much pressure on this relationship.
Or was I trying really hard not to actually commit to something?
It might be the latter. There were still a lot of things that Bailey and I needed to discuss before we could even be in a relationship. Things were going to be complicated. She was my boss, and her brother didn’t exactly approve of us.
I wanted to ask her about Ian. To ask if he had cooled off at all yet. But I knew Ian well enough to know that he probably hadn’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know all the things that he had probably said to her.
“By the way, I’ll see you back at work tomorrow,” Bailey said, a small grin curling her lips.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Ian gone back to Vegas, then?”
