Page 93 of The Last Resort
He accepted Rachel’s gentle embrace with some reluctance. She was the first person he’d ever met who truly understood the challenge that all architects faced when it came to transforming their visions into something which worked in the real world.
She sees me better than I give her credit for, and she knows it.
Their lips met in an easy, languid kiss. It would be all too easy to change the subject, to move this moment to one of intimacy. To back her up against a palm tree and raise her dress past her hips.
And she’ll know what you are doing is really trying to avoid the tough questions.
He owed Rachel a lot, including a moment of vulnerable honesty. “I’ve always built things. When I was young, I had a Lego collection that every other kid on the planet would have killed to own.”
He’d had a privileged upbringing. One where his father had picked up the phone and called the owner of the biggest toy store in New York City and arranged a standing order for every new set of Lego which was released, to be delivered to their family home.
“Your poor parents, they must’ve got sick of finding sharp pieces of plastic under their feet.”
He shook his head. “No, mine were all kept in neat boxes.Color coded. Size coded. Use coded. I had a whole wall of plastic drawers with hundreds of pieces in each of them.” A laugh escaped his lips. “Jordan bought me a label maker for my fourteenth birthday, and I ditched my own party so I could get to creating tags.”
The old Matthew stirred from his slumber. “I’ve always wanted to design great buildings. To have people walk through them and sense the joy I had in creating them.” As their gazes met a spark lit in his heart. “I don’t mean just big empty spaces either, it’s the special details that people love.”
He eyed the makeshift model one more time. Could they build a world-class observatory at the site? And would people want to come just to see the night sky, or would it take more than just amateur star gazers to make the new resort viable?
Yes. If we do it right.
“Rachel, I think you might be onto something.”
Bending, he picked up some more stray sticks and leaves. Heading back to the model, Matthew worked to put his thoughts into reality. Rachel knelt on the sand beside him, adding her suggestions. “I see, so situating it further away from the main building will give the observatory a clearer night sky. Less overflow from the resorts lights.”
“Yes. But I’m thinking we need to go big with this whole thing. Have a proper science study aspect to the resort.”
The penny had finally dropped. Instead of just giving people the standard Aspen hotel, with its ski-in ski-out and après-ski vibe, what if they could offer something different. Really different. Something which would make other resorts sit up and take notice.
“I’m talking about designing a resort which caters for those people who don’t want to ski. Like the poor individual who gets dragged to an alpine resort for a week by their friends or family and is relegated to long hours of reading books or watching cable TV. What if we could packagesomething that makes their vacation as amazing, if not better, than what the powder hounds get?”
Rachel got to her feet. Grabbing one of the longer, thinner sticks she began to scribble notes in the sand. They had their phones with them, but he sensed she wanted to stay with the moment.
“A science wing. Nature study tours. Bird and wildlife watching. And webcams in a few places so people can see what is happening from home.”
She scraped her thoughts at her feet and Matthew’s heart swelled with pride. This was why he wanted her in his life. Not just because of the way he felt about her, and not just because that when they came together to make love, they were so perfectly matched.
A meeting of minds.
He took in Rachel’s rapidly growing list.
A cooking school. Master chef residences.
Writers retreats. Need fully stocked bar.
Matthew laughed. “Why the bar for writers?”
“A friend of mine is a romance author and apparently, they drink the bar dry at every retreat or conference she attends.”
The list went on. So many brilliant ideas for luring people away from the main town and out to the lodge. “A barista course sounds fun. I’ll definitely be signing up for that one, but I expect Bryce will want to go first. My brother is a major caffeine fiend.”
“When we were sitting on the roof using the 3D scanner, I thought how fun it would be to have a fire pit in the grounds where guests can make s’mores,” offered Rachel.
The sound of approaching voices broke their private moment of inspired creation. A group of drunk Royal family members crashed through the trees and onto the beach. Someone had their phone turned up loud and it was blasting out dance music. Why they couldn’t stay on the dancefloorand enjoy the hideously expensive DJ he’d hired, Matthew didn’t understand.
He pulled his cell out of his pocket and quickly took a few photos of the model and Rachel’s accompanying list. Their gazes met and a silent understanding passed between them. Rachel used her stick to erase her notes, and Matthew kicked over his model.
This was their project, and until they could bring the concept fully to life, they didn’t want to share it with anyone.
