Page 346 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Ian showed up at the mountain today,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to talk to Dad about this. I knew he had been happy when Bailey had come into my life. That he thought I needed a woman in my life again, even though he himself was a total loner. He would probably agree that I should go, that I should let Ian whisk me off to Vegas for the weekend so that I could see Bailey.
But I needed to discuss this with someone, and Dad was the only person here other than Ethan. And I didn’t really think the six-year-old would grasp any of this.
“What did Ian want?” Dad asked neutrally.
“He wants me to come to Nevada with him for the weekend,” I said, glancing at Ethan. I didn’t really want to say Bailey’s name in front of him. Fortunately, Dad seemed to get it.
“I can watch Ethan for a weekend,” Dad said, just like I knew he would.
I shook my head, though. The more I thought about this, the more the whole thing seemed like a terrible idea. If Bailey wasn’t planning on coming back, why torture myself with a weekend in Nevada with her? It was only going to make it more difficult when I eventually lost her. And I had to come back at some point. I certainly couldn’t just stay in Nevada.
“Nah, I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea,” I said to Dad. “Anyway, I’m going to head into the kitchen to get dinner started.”
I turned around and walked away, trying to put the idea of a weekend in Vegas out of my head. When I got into the kitchen, I glanced at the clock out of habit. Five-thirty. Ian had said to meet him at the airport at six.
For a moment, I paused, thinking about it again. Dropping everything to fly off to Nevada for a woman that I wasn’t even sure was really interested in me was madness. But at the same time, maybe I needed a little madness in my life. Things had been so structured ever since Beth had died. I had forced myself to follow a schedule, to do things a specific way. Maybe it was time to let go of a little of that control.
CHAPTER 52
BAILEY
I checked the time on my phone again, feeling more and more ticked off. I hadn’t seen or heard from Ian all day. He should have been there, helping out around the casino. I didn’t know what the hell he was up to instead, but I was ready to rip him a new one when he finally arrived.
The board of directors was looking for responsible behavior from him. They wanted to know that they could count on him to run things properly. And disappearing for whole days at a time, doing God knows what, was not a sign that he could run things properly.
I tried not to think about the fact that if the board of directors thought he was being irresponsible, they would ask me to stay there for longer than a month. That was a conversation that I didn’t want to have with them. I wondered what the hell Ian was even doing. He wasn’t answering my calls.
I stalked over to one of the managers. “Hey, have you seen Ian?” I asked, trying to sound pleasant when really, I wanted to knock some sense into my idiotic brother. Maybe this was his new form of lashing out over the fact that I didn’t want to stay here in Vegas. First, he had tanked the business, making all sorts of changes that he had no right to be making, and now he was going to go AWOL and get caught drunk off his ass at strip clubs or something.
We didn’t need any more bad press at the moment.
The manager looked uncomfortable, and I knew that my tone had been too harsh. But she just shrugged. “Haven’t seen him all day,” she said.
I rolled my eyes and stalked off, trying unsuccessfully to call him again. Still no response.
I finished with work for the day and headed home. If he was there, I was really going to chew him out. But when I got home, the house was just as silent and empty as it had been when I left that morning. No sign of Ian anywhere. “Where the fuck are you?” I muttered, wondering if I should start searching the city for him. I knew all of his favorite places, of course.
But I really didn’t want to go out looking for him. If he wanted to tank his job, well. This was the last time I would step in and help him. Seriously.
My phone rang. It was Ian. I scowled and answered it. “Where the fuck are you?” I snapped. “No one’s seen you around all day. And I swear to God, if you’re drunk, you’ve got another thing coming. I promised that I’d help you get back in the board’s good graces, and the investors’, but you can bet your sorry ass that that’s not happening if I find out you’ve been fucking around with your thumb up your ass all day.”
I was surprised to hear Ian laughing on the other end of the line. “Relax,” he said.
“This isn’t funny!” I snarled. “You can’t just not show up to work for a day without any warning. That’s totally irresponsible!”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Ian said, but he sounded more amused than contrite. “Can you come to the airport?”
“Why?” I asked suspiciously, even though I was already heading for my keys. Whatever the fuck he had done, at least I knew where he was now. Not that I really wanted to see him, after this little stunt.
“Just do it,” Ian said, hanging up the phone.
I rolled my eyes and headed for the airport. When I got there, I called Ian again. “Where are you?” I snapped. “Assuming that you’re here.”
“I left you a gift,” Ian said. “It’s at the bar. Flying Q’s.”
“Ian,” I started to say, but he hung up before I could. I grumbled to myself as I found a parking spot. I didn’t know what the hell he was playing at. Was he drunk? Was I going to have to carry him out of there? Or did he think that he could buy me a fucking vacation and we could just jet away for a weekend? We had responsibilities here. The casino didn’t shut down on the weekends, and that meant that unless he cleared things with everyone, he needed to be here. And at the moment, if he needed to be here, then I did as well.
Otherwise, I would have been back in Utah already.
