Page 347 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
I stalked into the airport, shooting murderous glances at anyone who happened to look at me. When I got to the bar, I looked all around for Ian, but I didn’t see him anywhere. Where the hell was he?
Then, I thought back to his words. He had said that he had left me a gift at the bar. Maybe if I asked the bartender, he would know something about it? When I saw Ian again, I was going to kill him.
I took two steps further into the bar and froze, suddenly seeing a familiar profile, albeit not the one that I had expected to see. Ian wasn’t at the bar. But there was Adam, sitting there nursing a beer and watching the hockey game on the screen behind the bar.
I did a double-take, sure for a moment that it couldn’t be him. I was imagining him, seeing who I wanted to see. It was a trick of the light, because like every other airport bar, Flying Q’s seemed to favor the sort of dim lighting designed to hide the signs of sleepless nights of travel, frizzy hair, and greasy foreheads.
But no, it really was Adam, I was sure of it. I took a step closer, and he seemed to feel my eyes on him. He turned towards me, smiling like he had been expecting me. And I suddenly remembered, again, what Ian had said. He had left a gift for me at the bar.
Was it possible that that’s where Ian had been all day? Arranging this little surprise for me? I would barely have believed it from him. I knew that he still wasn’t stoked about Adam’s and my relationship. But then again, the night before, he had seemed to accept things.
There was a big difference between accepting things and this, though.
I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes. I had missed Adam. There were so many things that I wanted to say to him. But more than that, it was so good just to see him. All my worries about us disappeared. Surely he wouldn’t be here if he thought we were just a fling.
I crossed the bar towards him and put my arms around him. He wrapped his arms around me in turn, nearly crushing me with the strength of his hug.
CHAPTER 53
ADAM
Somehow, I had forgotten just how beautiful Bailey was in the three weeks since I had last seen her. Had she always been so tall, so curvy, so drop-dead gorgeous? I was bewitched by those emerald eyes of hers, wanted nothing more than to kiss those lush pink lips of hers. I had known that I missed her, but seeing her now hit me like a punch to the gut, driving all the air out of me. God, I had missed her. More than I had even realized.
I could see the shock in her face when she saw me sitting there. Then something like relief, followed by an emotion that I couldn’t quite figure out. But the next thing I knew, she was there in my arms, her body pressed against mine. I laid my cheek against the top of her head, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume.
“Hi,” I said quietly.
Bailey laughed quietly. “Hi,” she said, finally pulling away from me. My body immediately missed the warmth of her pressed against me. “What are you doing here?”
I shrugged. “Ian brought me,” I told her. “But don’t worry, I’ve managed to do as much as I could around the resort so that they shouldn’t need me for the next couple days. And if anything goes wrong with the lifts or anything, I’ve made sure that the apprentice knows what he’s doing. And I’ve given him the number for one of the other lift mechanics over at another resort so that if he really needs help, we can get someone in as a stand-in. It wouldn’t be the first time.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway, hopefully nothing happens either way.”
Bailey shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t give a damn about what arrangements you’ve made at the resort,” she said, sounding almost shy. “I know that’s not good business practice. But I can’t tell you how good it is to see you right now.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I told her, grinning. Somehow, it was so easy to admit that to her.
“Hey, have you eaten already?” Bailey asked. “Do you want to get some dinner?”
“That sounds great,” I said.
“I know just the place.” I followed Bailey out to her car. She paused beside it. “Hey, is Ian with you?”
“Nah, he took off to give us a little alone time,” I told her. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if Ian wanted to give Bailey and I some alone time or if he just didn’t want to be around me any longer. He had warmed up considerably towards me since the last time I had seen him in Utah a few weeks ago, but it was nothing like the friendship that he and I had once enjoyed. Instead, it felt more stilted. Polite, but vaguely uncomfortable at the same time.
Bailey nodded and slipped into the driver’s seat, and I followed into the passenger’s seat, trying not to feel nervous. To my surprise, I wasn’t worried anymore about whether I had made the right decision in coming here. Those feelings had plagued me for the whole short flight, but the moment I saw Bailey, they seemed to have evaporated. It helped that she seemed so glad to see me too. Something about that settled something inside of me.
That said, I still felt nervous around her. This was my first relationship since Beth. If, indeed, relationship it still was. Ian seemed to think that Bailey wanted me here, and that gave me some hope. But I wondered what Bailey herself was thinking about us. Had she started to get used to the idea that maybe we were just a relationship of convenience in Utah, something that had only happened because we were attracted to one another and because we were in the same place at the same time?
And most importantly, was she ever planning on returning to Park City, or was she more than happy to be back here in Nevada with her brother and the casino business that she was familiar with?
“So how have things been going, anyway?” I asked Bailey as we sat down in the burger joint she had brought us to.
She sighed and shook her head. “Honestly, it’s been frustrating,” she said baldly. “I mean, the work isn’t all that difficult. I think things are going to be all right for Ian. It’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he just went a little overboard trying to make things better. He had all these ideas, and he just pushed them all through at once without thinking about how the changes would affect one another. And he didn’t listen to anyone else at the company in the process.”
“So things are back on track now?” I asked, trying to ask without asking if that meant that she would be back to Utah soon. But I guessed that Ian wouldn’t have brought me here to Vegas if he thought that Bailey would be seeing me soon anyway.
Bailey shook her head. “I mean, yes and no. Everyone seems a little worried that Ian is going to go back to making a bunch of changes the minute my back is turned, so I’m still working here. And they’ve asked me to stay here for another month, like I told you on the phone, but I have a feeling that when that month is almost over, they’re going to ask me for another month. They just don’t trust Ian at the moment.”
Her lips twisted, and she looked out over the restaurant, as though it was difficult to meet my eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Ian came out to Utah to pick you up today. But at the same time, it just proves to some of the others that he can’t totally be trusted to focus on what’s best for the company. He should have been there today. Or he should have at least, I don’t know, called in sick or something.”
