Chapter 55
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
The beach at the far, western end of the island was empty of wedding guests and staff. After a couple of days being in the constant company of Matthew’s family, Rachel was more than content to be alone with him. In the time they’d spent together at the lodge, she and Matthew had become their own tiny self-contained community. She didn’t want to share him with anyone else.
Well, not unless the boiler breaks again. Or I meet more bears. Or we need groceries.
Stepping off the garden path, Rachel bent and picked up a palm frond which had fallen from a nearby tree. As they walked along the beach, she trailed it behind her letting it make random sweeping tracks in the sand.
Matthew snatched up a stick that had washed ashore, grinning as he added his own touches to her natural art work.
“Hey, I have copyright on that trail, go get your own,” she laughingly chided.
“My family owns this island, so you’d better have good lawyers. ”
She stopped and turned to face him. “You said you had some ideas for the resort. I’m ready to listen.”
Matthew pointed his stick at her. “I’d rather show you. But you have to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You won’t steal my model.”
He got a playful whack on the arm for his trouble. “Cheeky boy.” And then he got a kiss because she felt bad about hitting him.
Moving further along the beach, Matthew bent and picked up various rocks and other beach debris. When his arms were full, Rachel dropped her frond and took some of his treasures to lighten the load.
At the western most point of the island they came to a halt. Under the light of the full moon they set down their gathered loot. She’d always been a tactile person and having bits and pieces of any sort of trash had always helped when it came to putting concepts into reality.
Matthew piled a couple of rocks on top of one another on the sand. “That’s the existing lodge building, incorporating your original work and the amendments we agreed on,” he explained.
Rachel nodded. “Right, so the piece which has already gone to the Brocks and the planning committee for discussion.”
It didn’t look much, but it had taken a lot of work to come up with the right costings to save the old lodge. A number of the other existing buildings on the site had unfortunately been scrapped in order to bring the renovations within budget.
He raced back down the beach and retrieved Rachel’s discarded palm frond, then set to work pulling it apart. Kneeling on the sand, he fashioned it into a dome over the top of the rocks. By the time he had finished, she could see what he had in mind.
“Is that a glass dome over the building?”
“Yes. Repurposing my original pyramid concept but using it to house the whole design. What do you think?”
“I think I owe you a really big plastic dome for the top of your new design model. That’s what I think.”
He grinned at her, and heat flushed her cheeks.
Taking some of the other assorted sticks and rocks, Rachel moved behind the palm dome and began to create another building. “The old lodge needs to be the entrance piece, the historical facade, but modern guests will want something more.”
She bit on her bottom lip. It was well past time that she set aside any thoughts of professional rivalry.
“When I told you that some of your original design was sound, I wasn’t patronizing you, Matthew, I meant it. This is the piece of your model that I think makes the most sense. A multistorey hotel behind the original resort, but as you say, all of it under the dome.”
It makes the whole concept so much more cohesive.
Working together they were creating something special. But it needed oomph.
“What would you say to putting an observatory inside this new resort?” she said.
“You mean a garden area, that sort of thing?”
Rachel laughed. “No, not a conservatory. An observatory.” She lifted her gaze to the heavens. “A proper star‐gazing installation with telescopes. Something that will bring people from all over the world to see the Aspen night sky.”
The idea had popped into her head the previous evening as she and Matthew made their way back to the main house. Above them glittered a billion stars. Unfettered by the light pollution of a major city, vast tracts of the Milky Way were visible. When the cloud cover was gone, Aspen had the same bright clear skies.
“That will cost a pretty penny to build.”
She could understand his hesitation, but if they were going to make this plan work, the new resort had to have something amazing that made people want to come.
“What made you want to become a designer, Matthew? Was this a childhood passion or did you family just slot you into the job? I’m asking because I sense in you a frustrated designer. If you could find a project that allowed you to really dream, you could be brilliant.”
Matthew got to his feet, dusting the sand from his linen pants. For a long moment he simply stared at the model they had built. A look of frustration sat on his face, or was it confusion, she couldn’t quite tell.
“I’ve been working on the new resort design for over two years. And all that time I’ve felt like I’ve been trying to put a mental puzzle together, but never got any further than the edge pieces,” he sighed. “Now I’m starting to see the details.”
He hated her question about his choice of career. Not because no one had bothered to ask him before, which they hadn’t, but because it meant having to look within himself. Staring back at him, judging him, was the Matthew Royal who had wanted a career in design because of his passion to create. He’d been full of excitement, itching to make his mark on the world.
You betrayed the promises you made. You sold your soul.
Money hadn’t been a part of the problem in his early days. All through college and university he’d created virtual buildings that were not bound by the limits of cost or time. It was only when he went to work in the family business, that the clash of reality and dreams had come and hit him head on.
He’d been forced to accept that what looked fabulous in AutoCAD, didn’t always make business sense. The board of Royal Resorts, including his own father, had all but laughed his early grand designs out the window of the company’s executive floor in New York. And while his more recent proposals had eventually ticked most of the financial and risk boxes, they’d left him cold.
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 package something 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 dancefloor and 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.
He nodded toward the main residence. “Let’s get out of here.”