Page 334 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Yeah!” Ethan said excitedly, carefully setting the gun down and taking the apples from me. He raced off to set them down at the other end of the makeshift shooting range then came running back over to me, a big grin on his face.
Just then, I heard a car turn into the driveway. “Hold on just a second, buddy,” I said, frowning and wondering who it was. We didn’t get a lot of traffic out here since we were at the end of the road, and not a busy road at that. It wasn’t like anyone would drive all the way out here even to ask us those nagging political questions. But every once in a while, someone got lost and ended up out here.
When I turned towards the road, though, I was surprised to see Bailey’s car pulling up. She shut the engine off and got out, and Ethan cheered, racing over to give her a big hug. Bailey laughed, hugging him back. “Hey, Ethan,” she said. She smiled at me, but I could see something tentative in the expression, like she thought I’d be mad at her for coming there. “Hey, Adam.”
“Is there something wrong at the resort?” I asked automatically, pulling out my phone. But I didn’t have any missed calls.
Bailey shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “I just wanted to talk to you about something. Sorry to come over here on your day off.”
I frowned, trying to think of what she wanted to talk to me about. Was this it, was she going to fire me now? I glanced towards Ethan, hoping that she wouldn’t fire me in front of him at least. If we were going to have to move, I wanted to know all the facts first. I didn’t want to worry him.
Ethan tugged at Bailey’s hand. “Come and see, come and see,” he said, pulling her over towards his BB gun. “You have to be really careful,” he said seriously, showing her how to work the gun and explaining all the different safety rules that I had told him. “But then, you can aim it like this and then shoot.” Ethan frowned and shrugged when his shot hit the dirt in front of one of the apples. “I missed.” He cocked his head at Bailey. “Do you want to try?”
Bailey smiled down at him. “Sure,” she said, carefully taking the BB gun from him. She aimed it down the field and easily shot one of the apples.
“Wow!” Ethan said excitedly. “You’re the best!”
Bailey laughed and handed the gun back to Ethan. “Lots of practice,” she said seriously. “My brother used to have a BB gun just like that when I was a kid, and sometimes I would borrow it. I wanted to be just as cool as he was.”
Ethan giggled. “Bet you’re cooler,” he said.
I glanced at my watch. “Hey, Ethan, if you’re going skiing with Jack, you’d better go get your things together,” I said.
“Okay!” Ethan said happily, putting the gun down and darting towards the house.
Bailey smiled after him while I shoved my hands in my pockets. Then, she turned her attention back towards me. “There’s something that I wanted to talk to you about,” she said.
“Right,” I said. “Look, Bailey, I’m sorry about what I said yesterday, but I need to make sure that Ethan’s got everything that he needs. Otherwise, he’ll forget socks or something.” I couldn’t meet her gaze. There was so much more that I needed to say to her, but the words just wouldn’t seem to come out.
Bailey smiled softly at me. “Hey, don’t worry about yesterday,” she said gently. “I’m sorry if Ian said anything that made you feel like you didn’t deserve to, I don’t know, have an opinion on anything. I know he’s been kind of a dick lately.”
I didn’t know what to say in response to that. I couldn’t exactly agree with her, even if that was the truth. I glanced towards the house again, and she sighed. “I probably should have called before I just showed up like this. I know you’re busy. But I’m kind of on a tight schedule at the moment.”
I frowned at her, wanting to ask just what was going on.
“Are you skiing with Ethan this afternoon?” Bailey asked before I could.
I shook my head. “Nah, Jack’s older brother is going to go with them,” I said.
“But you’re going to drop them at the resort?” Bailey pressed.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “Why?”
“Can you stop by my office while you’re there?” she asked.
“I’ll be at work again tomorrow,” I told her, but when she frowned and started to protest, I shook my head. “Fine, I’ll see you in a little while,” I said, wondering just what it was that she needed to talk to me about that was so pressing. I was either getting fired or she wanted to talk about us, and I wasn’t sure which I was more worried about.
Bailey nodded and went back to her car, giving me one last, long look before she started the ignition and drove off, presumably back towards the resort. I frowned after her and then shook my head. I really did need to make sure that Ethan had everything that he needed. We swung by Jack’s house on the way to the resort and I picked up the other boys. It was a bit chaotic when we got to the resort, making sure that they all had everything they needed for an afternoon of fun. But finally, they were on the lift headed up to ski.
I sighed and turned back towards the lodge, heading in to talk to Bailey. I would much rather just put this off, maybe tell her that I had forgotten or that something else had come up. But I knew she wouldn’t let me get away with that. Anyway, better to just get this over with. I had to admit, I was pretty curious.
I knocked on the door to her office and Bailey called for me to enter. I hesitated before shutting the door behind myself. If I was getting fired, I didn’t really want anyone to overhear. But at the same time, shutting the door behind us made things feel so personal and private, and that made me think of the last time we had been together in the privacy of her condo.
Not that I would dare do anything like that here. Ian had already walked in on us kissing; he would kill me if he walked in on something more than that. I didn’t need anyone else around the resort seeing it either.
I sat down across from Bailey at her desk as she smiled at me. “I’m going to have to go back to Nevada for a bit, but I wanted to talk to you before I left,” she said.
I stared at her, shocked into silence. “Why?” I finally asked. And what’s more, why was she telling me this now, in private, rather than telling all the employees at one of the all-staff meetings? This was definitely something that everyone else deserved to know.
