One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Read online

  It was only Monday, and I was already feeling fatigued just thinking about the busy week ahead of me. But that was life working for a ski resort. The only predictable thing about the work load was its unpredictability. There would be busy times where I was going out of my mind trying to get everything done, complemented by slow periods where there was literally nothing to do for days or even weeks at a time.

  Again, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Something about the unpredictability just suited me. That said, those busy weeks could definitely be a pain sometimes.

  “I just want to thank everyone for being here on such short notice,” Mike said when we were all sitting around the lodge. “And really what that means, is thank you to our department managers for getting everyone here on such short notice.” He paused. “I know that I could have sent out an email telling everyone this, but that’s not the kind of family that we are here at this resort. I have some news that I wanted to share with everyone as soon as possible, though.”

  Something clenched in my gut. What exactly was this news? From the way he was talking, it wasn’t anything good. But we were just going into the winter season, and this was one of the best seasons we’d had in a while in terms of snowfall. Surely we couldn’t be going out of business now?

  Things had been tough for ski resorts around the country for a while now. Between the unpredictability of the weather and the rising cost of equipment, it was tough to get people interested in skiing. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the ski movies these days were all about how sick skiing in the backcountry could be.

  I was all for skiing beyond the bounds of resorts every once in a while. But people seemed to forget that if resorts went out of business, new skiers would have no way to get their start. There was a reason that groomers existed, after all.

  “We’ve been bought,” Mike finally told everyone. I breathed an internal sigh of relief, even as I saw worry on the faces of some of the people around me. “For now, we’ll have to see what ideas the buyer has for the place.” He grinned. “All I know is that the buyer’s last name is Peters, and that doesn’t really narrow it down. But they’ll be here tomorrow. I don’t expect any major changes in personnel or otherwise, but I do want everyone to be on their toes today and tomorrow. I want everything to be as perfect as we can make it. Remember, service excellence, people!”

  There were nods around the room. Meanwhile, I was wondering whether this Peters could be one of the Peters that I knew. They used to come up to the mountain and stay in one of the condos regularly. But I doubted that this was them: I hadn’t seen them in years now. And besides, Peters was a pretty common name. There was no reason to think there was any connection at all.

  What I did know was that even if there were changes at the mountain, even if this Peters decided to implement personnel changes, my job was safe. There were only so many people in the whole country who were licensed to do maintenance on the ski lifts, and most of those people already had jobs for the winter. And it wasn’t like they could put in a new lift or condos now; they would need to wait until the snow melted for that.

  So although I supposed it was interesting to hear that the mountain had been bought, especially considering that I hadn’t realized it was even for sale at the moment, this meeting didn’t really affect me.

  Except that it had now cost me twenty-five minutes out of an already busy day. As soon as Mike gave everyone the all clear to leave, I was out of there, my mind already turned to my daily tasks. I didn’t give a shit who owned the mountain, really. Probably just some other yuppie with too much money, someone who didn’t understand the first thing about running a ski resort and who only cared for the bottom line.

  Nothing to worry about unless and until it affected my job.

  4

  Bailey

  Ian flopped across my bed, watching as I packed up the last of the things that I would bring with me to Utah. I couldn’t believe how quickly the sales had gone through. Of course, the condo itself, I’d expected to get my hands on, once I made it clear that I could pay for the whole place in cash. But I’d expected there to be a little more hemming and hawing over the mountain itself. The resort hadn’t even been listed as for sale.

  I’d made them an offer that they couldn’t refuse, though. And the more I chatted with the previous owners, the more sure I was that they’d been waiting for this day to come. Either because they didn’t want to be involved with the resort anymore or because they expected that they would be bought up by one of the conglomerate groups sooner or later, I couldn’t tell.

  It made me wonder if there was something wrong with the place. But I had gone through all the documents that I could get my hands on, and all I could see was that somehow, Brooks Mountain was still turning a profit despite being surrounded by some of the best skiing in Utah. Sure, some of the lifts might be a little old and outdated, and the lodge could also probably use a sprucing up. But I didn’t think for a second that I was buying some money pit.

  Instead, I was just glad about the deal that I’d managed to get on the place, even though it was a little scary to consider the fact that I was leaving Nevada so soon. The pieces were all in place, and I knew that it was time to go. If nothing else, I had to go check out the place that I had just bought.

  “Are you really sure about this?” Ian asked as he watched me.

  I smiled at him. “It’s the right decision for me,” I told him, wishing that I could feel as sure about the decision as I managed to sound. I shrugged. “Right now, I’m not tied down by anything here. And I just have this feeling, like I need to do something for myself for once in my life. See what I can do, out there on my own.”

  Ian frowned. “You know that you never have to prove yourself to me,” he said.

  “I know,” I said honestly. “Actually, I feel more like there’s something that I have to prove to myself. If that makes sense.”

  “I guess so,” Ian sighed. “But I sure am going to miss having you around here.”

  “You’ll just have to come visit me in Utah,” I said confidently. “Think about it, we can go skiing and, I don’t know, whatever you want.”

  “It’ll be cold,” Ian said balefully. “Maybe I’ll wait until spring. Or summer.”

  I laughed. “Suit yourself,” I said, even though I was really hoping that he would get out to visit. To be honest, the only thing that was keeping me from feeling one-hundred percent excited about this new life that I was building for myself was the fact that Ian wouldn’t be coming up to Utah with me. I knew that I couldn’t ask him to do that. His life was here. And anyway, asking him to come with me would, in some ways, defeat the purpose of my going.

  But at the same time, there was definitely a part of me that wished I could have my brother at my side through all of this. He and I had never been apart for more than a few days at a time, and the idea of not seeing him again until next summer was scary.

  Of course, if he really didn’t come visit me until next summer, then I would probably come back here for a visit at some point. I might have poured most of my liquid funds into the ski resort and the condo, but I still had enough to live comfortably on. And there would be more where that came from if the ski resort continued to turn a profit, which it no doubt would in a year like this with great snow.

  Ian carried my suitcase downstairs and loaded it into the back of the car while I ran around the house trying to figure out what I had forgotten. But I was pretty sure I had everything that I needed. Anything that I didn’t have, I’d just have to buy while I was in Utah. I took a deep breath and headed down to the garage.

  Ian drove me to the airport, and I tried not to feel too upset about everything that I was leaving behind. It was hard not to feel suddenly sentimental about the neon lights of Vegas, the palm trees, the sand. But I knew that I was making the right decision for myself. And besides, I couldn’t even remember the last time that I had gone out in Vegas proper. I wasn’t leaving behind anything that I couldn’t d
o without.

  When we got to the airport, I gave Ian a huge hug. I was surprised when he opened the trunk to reveal two suitcases. “That’s not mine,” I said, pointing at the green bag that he set down on the curb.

  “I know,” Ian said, a grin playing on his face. “And I guess now is the time to give you your early Christmas present.” He held up his phone, and I saw a mobile plane ticket with Ian’s name on it. I couldn’t help shrieking with glee.

  “You’re coming with me!” I threw my arms around Ian again, and he laughed as he braced himself.

  “I could tell that this was important for you,” Ian said as I broke away. “And the more I thought about it, the more sure I was that this was what Dad would have wanted.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Plus, I figure I need to make sure that you’re okay with running this business. It’s a big challenge, you know.”

  I laughed. “Remember, I graduated business school at the top of my class,” I reminded him. “Not to mention all the real-world experience I got with the family business.” I paused. “Speaking of which, I thought you didn’t have any more vacation time this year and that you couldn’t come with me.” It was my turn to narrow my eyes at him.

  He shrugged. “Rick and I figured out a way to make things work,” he said. “I’ll have to do some work from home while we’re in Utah, but we’ll still have plenty of time to hang out.”

  I grinned and shook my head. “I can’t believe you’re coming with me,” I said.

  Ian smiled impishly. “I have to go park the car in long-term parking, but I’ll meet you inside. We’d better go get these bags checked in or else neither of us will be going anywhere!”

  He was still smiling as we boarded our flight, sitting next to one another. “I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about this,” he said. “I’ll miss the heat down here, but this could be really fun.”

  “Skiing all day, drinks by the fire pit for après, and hot tubbing beneath the stars?” I said, shaking my head. “It’s going to be amazing.”

  “Wonder if we’ll bump into anyone we know,” Ian mused.

  “Like people from the business?” I asked, frowning as I thought about it. Dad probably wasn’t the only person from Hartland who had a timeshare in Park City, come to think of it. I would have been too young to recognize any of them when we came here as kids, but Ian was right, there was a chance that we might run into some of my former coworkers here now.

  But it wasn’t like any of them would say anything about me buying the resort. It was a business venture; that was all that there was to it. It wasn’t like I had said, upon leaving the family business, that I was never going to work again.

  Ian shook his head, though. “No, I meant people we know from before, from when we were up here as kids. Like, what was the name of that kid from next door, Mason? Maybe he’ll still be around.”

  I laughed. “If he is, I hope he isn’t working for the resort,” I said. “I still remember him as that kid who you challenged to a contest to see who could shove the most bread up their noses.”

  Ian grinned. “He was so proud when he won,” he recalled. “But to be honest, thinking back, I’m really not sure that it was ever something to be proud of.”

  I giggled. But then, I shook my head. “I doubt we’ll see anyone we knew,” I said. “Probably those families got older and stopped going back, the same as us.”

  “Probably,” Ian said, shrugging his shoulders. “Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see.”

  “Definitely,” I said, settling in for the short flight.

  5

  Adam

  I was going over some of the plans for the base area when Kayla came over to me. “Aren’t you on your lunch break?” she asked, sitting across from me at the table.

  I took a bite of my soup and nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that work stops for me,” I told her. “You know that.”

  Kayla shook her head. “You’re going to run yourself into the ground before we even get to the holiday season,” she chided.

  I shrugged, not sure what she expected me to say in response to that. Drop everything and have a proper lunch? I didn’t have time. I hadn’t managed to get everything crossed off my list the previous day, just as I’d feared, and there had been a couple unexpected things added to my list for that day as well. I was swamped in work, basically, and I barely had time to breathe, let alone eat.

  Kayla was great, always good for a laugh, but she worked as one of the front desk assistants, on a team of people, and she really didn’t understand the idea of a working lunch. Everywhere else on the mountain, things ran on a specific schedule and people went out for lunch or ski breaks. There was no one to really cover for me while I ate, though, and the best way to get ahead was to plan my lunch time with things like this; getting ready for the afternoon’s work. Any little thing that I could do to get ahead.

  “Are you coming to the afternoon meeting with the new owner?” Kayla asked.

  I nodded as I took another bite of my soup. “Gretchen wants me there,” I said, and I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes.

  Kayla laughed. “Why the look?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Got enough on my plate at the moment without wasting time in meetings,” I said.

  “Aren’t you curious about who it is, though?” Kayla asked.

  “If they had enough money to just up and buy this place with no warning, they’re probably a dick,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, agreed,” Kayla said. “I’m just wondering how many times this new owner is going to get in over their head this winter. You know what people like that are like. They won’t understand when we say that we can’t put in a new ski lift in the middle of a season, that kind of thing.”

  “They’ll be sure there’s a more efficient way to run the existing lifts too,” I added, shaking my head. “A way that doesn’t involve there being lift operators, probably.”

  Kayla laughed. “Yeah, next thing you know, we’ll be importing robots from Asia to take over all our jobs. And then when that doesn’t work and they still have to keep all of us on payroll, this new guy will bail.”

  “It’s sad because it’s so true,” I said, grimacing. “But at least if they decide to go the robot route, I’ll still have a job as a mechanic. Speaking of which…” I looked pointedly at my plans, and Kayla shook her head.

  “Don’t work too hard,” she cautioned me as she got to her feet.

  “If I didn’t, this whole place would shut down,” I reminded her.

  She shook her head again and left. I glanced at my watch and hurriedly finished my lunch so that I could stay on schedule. Hell, maybe I could get ‘so engrossed’ in fixing the old four-person chairlift here at the base that I could ‘forget’ all about the meeting with the new owner that Gretchen wanted me to go to.

  She was sure to give me shit for it afterwards, but she’d get over it, and it would be worth it if I could fix the stupid starter. Lately, it seemed like every time we had to do an emergency stop on the lift, which was frequently since this lift served all the beginner terrain on the front side of the resort as well as taking more seasoned skiers up to the other lifts, the thing stalled out for more and more time on the restart.

  This afternoon, we had closed down the lift and provided alternatives for our guests, but since it was a Tuesday, things weren’t too busy anyway. I had free reign to do whatever work I needed. I was just swinging down the ladder from the bull-wheel, ready to test-start the lift and stop it a couple times, when I heard someone calling my name.

  I turned around to see a man whom I hardly recognized at first. Then, I took a closer look. “Ian?” I asked in surprise. I probably wouldn’t have been able to recognize the other man at all if it hadn’t been for Mike saying the previous day that the new owner of the resort was a Peters. But Jesus, it had been a long time since I had seen Ian Peters.

  “Shit, are you the new owner of the resort?” I asked, suddenly putting two and two together.

 
Ian laughed. “Nah, I’m still in the casino business,” he said, shaking his head. “Things are going pretty well for me down in Vegas.” He shrugged deeper into his coat. “Plus, it’s too damn cold here.”

  I snorted. “This is a balmy afternoon,” I told him. In fact, I was stripped down to just a flannel and a t-shirt, but then again, I was up in the stuffy upper part of the lift, working hard with my tools to get everything in perfect running order again. “So, what the hell are you doing here?”

  Ian shrugged. “Just came up for a couple weeks, like we used to do. Haven’t seen you in forever, though. Actually, weren’t you just about to get married last time I saw you?”

  I tried not to wince. “Uh, yeah, sounds about right,” I told him. Ian and I had been surprisingly close whenever he came up to Park City to visit. Inseparable, really. Always up to some sort of prank or other antics. I knew that Ian’s dad had had money, but he always seemed so down-to-earth compared to some of the other kids that came through there.

  Ian had been shocked when I’d told him, at twenty, that I was planning on marrying Beth. But I couldn’t imagine my life with anyone else. And now, well. Things were different. That was life.

  “And what, you’re still kicking it around Park City?” Ian asked.

  I shrugged, only realizing as I did so that I had grease all over both my palms. And probably my face too, because I knew that I had swiped at beads of sweat more than once while I was working up there. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m maintenance and mechanics. Whatever they need, really.”

  “Huh,” Ian said, and I could tell from the way that he said it that he wasn’t too impressed with me. He probably knew I wasn’t getting rich working for a resort like this. But fortunately, he didn’t say anything disparaging about it. “Actually, my sister Bailey is the one taking over the resort. So I guess she’s your new boss.”