Chapter 2
Chris
“Ineed to put in my two weeks’ notice.”
The words a new business owner wanted to hear. I took a deep breath when I heard my marketing manager, Ryan’s voice. Closing my eyes, I tried to convince myself that this was a dream because Ryan wouldn’t leave me hanging one month before the resort was due to open. He wouldn’t do that to me. So those words must have been a figment of my imagination.
“Chris?”
Damn it. It wasn’t a dream.
“Ryan,” I sighed, setting my pen down on top of my business planner. It was marked to shit. Every single day was packed full, and almost every hour of every day, Ryan was next to me. “Please, do not give your two weeks. We open in a month. Give me a month, and then you can go.” I wasn’t a man to beg, but hell, at this point, I’d plead with Ryan and give him whatever he wanted. There was no way I could find another such excellent marketing manager in time.
“I have to, Chris,” Ryan flattened his hands on his thighs as he sat down in the chair in front of my desk. “I got a call from the hospital back home. My father had a heart attack last night.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, and that was when I saw how exhausted, stressed, and worried he was. He hadn’t shaved this morning, so he had stubble on his cheeks, and then he had dark circles around his eyes from the lack of sleep. “He hasn’t woken up yet. I need to make sure I’m there, so when he wakes up, I can get him into rehab. I love this resort, and you know I believe in it, but my family comes first.”
“You're a good son.” I tried to hide my panic the best I could. On the inside, I was freaking the hell out. It was a hectic time with the holidays, and New Year’s was right around the corner. New Year’s was D-day. Opening day. “Call me when you get things figured out. Maybe there will still be a place for you here. You have to let me know.”
“I’m sorry to do this to you, Chris.”
“I know,” I gave him a small smile. I understood Ryan’s situation, but it still left me in a shitty one. “Good luck to you,” I stood and offered my hand, and Ryan did the same, giving it a good shake before he headed out the door. I sat with a hard plop and ran my hand over my mouth.
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath. What was I going to do? My legs started to shake as anxiety started to wrack my body. I needed to catch some snow. I stood, forgetting the planner on my desk and everything else I needed to do and snatched my snowboard from the wall along with my gear. It was the one thing that calmed my nerves and cleared my head.
When I opened the French doors that led from my office outside, the cold Breckenridge, Colorado air hit my face. It burned my lungs and made my eyes water from the immensity of the cold. I loved it. The feeling lasted for a moment, a split second, before my body adjusted, and there wasn’t another feeling in the world that compared to it.
The stress started to dissipate when I caught sight of the snowcapped mountains in the distance. Fresh powder spanned across for acres from the snowstorm we’d had the night before. Perfect for snowboarding. I had always been an avid lover of the sport. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t had a board under my feet. I competed professionally, even made the Olympics for a while, but it wasn’t my scene. I preferred other kinds of competitions. I made sure to post my journey on Instagram too. I had a lot of fans, which was why I knew the resort would do well because I already had a good base. Well, I thought it’d do well, but maybe being Insta famous wasn’t enough?
I was pretty settled financially because of my success with snowboarding, which was why I could dip my hands in a few cookie jars. I had scholarships I had created, I was still supporting my sister's education while she studied to become a nurse, and I’d renovated this old resort. A little voice in the back of my head wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew with this project, though. Especially since my marketing guru just quit.
The thought had me raging. I jumped off the deck onto the snow, my boarding sliding effortlessly over the white fluff. I cut through the frozen debris, spraying out on either side of my broad like wings. My adrenaline pumped. Warmth spread through my veins, and when I hit a massive jump, I spun in the air, watching the ground beneath me circle.
There wasn’t a better feeling in the world.
I landed with a soft thud, letting natural gravity take me down the mountain. Snowboarding always helped with clearing my mind, and once I jumped a few hills, my mind started to think of replacements for Ryan. I needed to contact Ben, my best friend, who also owned ten percent of the resort. He didn’t have a significant role in the place; it was just an investment for him since he stayed busy running the bar in town.
I bet he could help find another marketing manager. I made a mental note to call him and see who he could find. With that, I bent my knees more and caught more speed. A low whoosh was all I could hear as my board cut and sliced. Snow hit my jacket, and a few flakes hit my goggles, but it was nothing I couldn’t manage.
As I was dancing down the mountain, my mind started to try to come up with other solutions for my life problems as well. I wished I had someone to help me with my brother. My mom left us when I was little, my dad drank until his liver failed and caused his death, and it was up to me to protect and care for my little brother and sister. My sister was independent. I didn't have to worry about her much, besides the men chasing after her. She was gorgeous, of course, adding to my stress levels.
My brother, on the other hand, seemed like a lost cause. He was addicted to drugs. No matter how many times I sent him to rehab, he fell into the same bad crowd with the same bad habits. I was counting down the days until I had to send him back to rehab. I hoped the last time would truly be the last, but with an addict, one never knew.
It was exhausting trying to save someone who didn’t want to be saved. Was it selfish for me to be angry at him? Was it wrong of me to want to turn my back on him some days? While the anger wanted to win, I knew I couldn’t let that happen. Mom turned her back, and dad did too, and while my brother had turned his back on me, I was going to be better than all of them.
I was going to prove that no matter what that I was there.
I’d always wanted to prove to the world that I was nothing like my father, and I was always antsy about my brother—scared the press would find out. I wanted my shitty childhood to be left in the past. I'd proven myself in school as an excellent student, and I'd gone onto making a big name for myself on the snowboarding circuit. Still, it made me nervous to think that anyone would discover my past. The shitty apartments. The bottles that were strewn everywhere. Me having to cook dinner for my brother and sister, as my father wouldn't get off the couch. We'd lived in horrible neighborhoods in shitty apartments. Even when I’d gotten a scholarship to attend the fanciest high school in NYC, we’d lived in a dump. I’d never let any of my friends go near my home.
I came to a stop at the bottom of the mountain and tilted my neck back to see the resort on top, slightly fogged by the clouds and promise of more snow. This place was a dream I didn’t realize I had until I saw the run-down building and ski−lifts. I imagined competitions being held here, people from all over the world coming to my resort to relax. I even had a spa that I knew women (and men) would love after a long day boarding.
This would be great. Time would tell, but my gut told me it was going to be a success. I was stable—for the first time in my life, I wasn’t traveling for competitions all the time or jumping from trailer to trailer like my father had us do because he never could afford to pay rent. I created my stability, but if I wanted to be honest with myself, I wanted someone to share it with.
I walked over to the ski−lift and turned it on, sitting on the newly replaced seats with better safety bars and cushioned chairs. My legs dangled off the seat, my board dangling in the sky, clipped to my snow boots. As the lift climbed higher, the ground moved further away, and the mountains got closer. This had to be what heaven was like.
Maybe you’ll meet the woman of your dreams here to share heaven with.
I snorted at that pesky little voice. The press had always loved to call me a playboy, but I’m anything but. I never cared for bouncing around from woman to woman. Yes, I was known for dating models, but that was easy to do when I was in the limelight. I had beautiful women after beautiful women lined up wanting to date me, but I had yet to find one I fell in love with. I kept it simple. Falling in love with the women was never an option because one, I never got too deep when it came to matters of the heart. Two, the women were so shallow it was easy not to fall in love with them. It was always sex and fun. It never went further than that. I never wanted to make false promises as my mother did to my father. Destroying someone’s heart? That would be the worst thing I could ever do, and I wanted to make sure that never happened.
At the same time, it didn’t mean I never yearned for someone to make me want to go further. Deep down, my heart wanted connection; my soul wanted to find its other half. It was lonely some days. It would be nice to have someone next to me while we ran the business together. That was the ultimate dream.
