Page 362 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
Thankfully, Bailey didn’t seem upset when I dropped her off at her mountain condo. In fact, she was yawning by the time we were leaving the ice cream place anyway. “It’s been a busy few weeks in Vegas,” she admitted as I drove her home. She smiled softly over at me. “But man is it good to be home.”
Home. I liked the sound of her calling this place home. She hadn’t been there for very long, but now that I thought about it, it didn’t feel as much like home when she was gone.
Which was crazy, because I had lived here for my entire life. Ethan and I had a home. We were all that each other needed. Except.
Maybe that wasn’t entirely the case anymore.
Hence my nervousness today and the fact that I kept forgetting various bits of my ski gear. It was almost like my brain was trying to sabotage this outing before it even began. I shook my head at the very thought of that. If I was missing anything when we got to the slopes, I was sure that I could find a replacement, either in my work gear or in the rental shop. There was nothing to worry about.
I picked up Ethan at school and drove him over to the mountain. I hadn’t seen Bailey yet that day; she had told me to take the morning off. She wanted to get caught up on all the paperwork first, and she didn’t need me for that. Of course, I was even more nervous as I thought about her going through the comments from our customers. I wondered if she would say anything about the changes that I had made in her absence. I started to wonder if maybe I had overstepped a little.
But when we reached the mountain, Bailey was waiting for us in the lodge, and she was all smiles. “Lunch,” she said, gesturing towards the picnic that she had laid out on one of the tables.
Ethan cheered when he saw the grilled cheese and French fries. He gave Bailey a quick hug and then sat down at the table. Bailey sat down as well, raising an eyebrow inquisitively at me. I shook my head and forced myself to smile. To take a deep breath, to calm down a little.
Ethan and Bailey chatted about his school while we ate. Then, it was time to put on our ski things. “Shoot, I forgot my poles in the car,” I realized as we started to get our gear on.
“Go ahead and grab them,” Bailey said. “I can finish getting Ethan ready.”
“Are you sure?” I asked uncertainly. Not that I didn’t want to leave Ethan alone with Bailey, but I didn’t want her to have to get him into all of his gear. “I can just ski without poles today.”
But Bailey was already kneeling in front of Ethan, nudging me out of the way. “Go ahead,” she said. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”
“Okay,” I said, slowly smiling at her.
By the time I got back to the lodge, she and Ethan were all ready to go. Ethan proudly showed off the stickers that Bailey had given him. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help grinning. “If you’re going to keep hanging around with him, you’d better not spoil him rotten,” I teased Bailey.
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I couldn’t believe how adorable she looked like that, dressed in all her ski gear, like a real snow bunny. “I don’t think you get a say in whether or not I’m going to spoil him,” she said.
I laughed and shook my head. “Let’s go skiing,” I said.
As we rode up the chairlift together, Bailey pulled her phone out of the inside pocket of her coat. “We need a picture,” she declared, turning the camera so that it was pointed at us. I grinned and slipped an arm around Ethan, leaning in so that she could get us all in the frame. “What a great picture,” Bailey said, smiling as she looked down at her screen.
“Can you ski all the runs on the mountain?” Ethan asked Bailey.
“I can, but maybe not well,” Bailey told him. “I have a hard time with the bumps and the trees. I can get through them, but it’s not pretty.”
Ethan giggled. “I’m the best bump skier in my club,” he bragged.
“I bet you’re pretty amazing,” Bailey said seriously. “Go easy on me so that I can keep up, all right?”
“Okay!” Ethan promised her.
I had to admit that as I watched them together for the rest of the afternoon, I found myself falling more and more in love with Bailey. She was so patient with him, listening as he babbled away on the chairlift and grinning good-naturedly as he told her all about what he was working on with his ski club.
Ethan was always a pretty friendly kid. But around Bailey, he just blossomed. And I knew, right then and there, that I had been selfish in not wanting to open up our lives to anyone else. Ethan needed more than just me and his grandfather in his life. He needed someone like Bailey.
At the end of the day, we stopped in the lodge for hot chocolate. While I got the drinks, Bailey helped Ethan out of his ski boots and ski gear. I brought the mugs back to the table and plunked down next to Bailey on the bench. She leaned into me.
“This was fun,” she said, smiling at me.
“It was,” I agreed, grinning right back at her.
“Can we ski again tomorrow?” Ethan asked excitedly.
Bailey laughed. “I thought you were telling me all about the cool science project you get to do tomorrow,” she reminded him, before I could even say anything.
Ethan’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah!” he said. “Well, maybe Thursday. Or this weekend.”
