Billionaire Blaze, page 14
With a sort of plan in mind, I finally felt more settled. And if nothing else, I had some good friends who gave good advice. Whatever happened, I would be all right.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The site came into view and undid some of the work the mental pep talk I’d given myself had done in calming me. My heart rate increased, and I considered getting Henry to turn around or drop me off somewhere else.
My reaction was ridiculous. I knew that, and I wasn’t going to actually ask, but I was tempted. And there was no guarantee she was even on the site at all. She could be anywhere doing anything.
Still, I wanted to see her. If nothing else, I wanted to know how she would react to me.
Henry pulled into my usual parking spot. The first time we had come here, everything had been dirt. Now, there was a small parking lot, mostly for site members and visitors. Sarai was ambitiously hoping to open the park before it was all finished.
Given her business and that this wasn’t her first vacation park, I didn’t doubt that she had customers who would be willing to pay to be here even before she had everything in place and ready. But I didn’t like that kind of pressure.
Not that I hadn’t faced it before. I’d been in charge of some projects that had such tight schedules, we ended up needing to charge almost double our initial quotes to bring in extra people to fix mistakes. But there was only so much more people could do, and I knew Sarai wanted it done right by the right people.
Thankfully, so far so good. The schedule was a few days adrift, but there were two weeks baked into the end before the grand opening. If people stayed here before then and understood it wasn’t fully open yet, it was Sarai’s business to conduct.
Still, I was grateful that I was working on the project. It was fun, quirky, and had a lot of different interesting elements to it. The theme was obviously the whole world, with sections that represented famous landmarks in various locations, and it had been laid out as if the park was a mini-map of the globe.
I’d taken a few tiny liberties for the ease of fitting everything in nicely, but nothing that the average person would notice. Each hut was themed after a different city, and there was at least one for most countries.
In that sense, having someone British like Kit to help with the interior design of the cabins was smart. She knew a lot of the European countries. At least, Sarai had been impressed enough that she did.
Of course, time would tell if it was actually good enough. But I pushed those thoughts aside as we walked to the site office to let everyone on site know we were there. As we walked through the parking lot, I tried to see if there were any unfamiliar cars around.
“Looking out for her car?” Henry asked, picking up on me being distracted when I almost tripped over the curb to get onto the walkway.
Although I wanted to deny it, I was sure my reaction gave it away.
“She’s not got one here, I don’t think. Sarai said something about having a driver for her.”
It was a good point. If there was a driver, she’d be using one of the cars that Sarai or Richard drove often. I had no hope of figuring out whether she was here based on what cars were in the parking lot. Not unless there were three of the cars Sarai and Richard owned. But it was rare to have both of them on-site at once. All three of them would be even more unlikely.
I was on my own in trying to figure out if I would run into Kit. Still, I couldn’t help but look now that I knew what I was trying to spot. There was nothing to indicate she was here at all, however.
Finally letting go of the fear, anxiety, and the hope that I would see her, I focused on why I was here. There were tweaks to some of the designs to make sure they worked with everything we had learned. I had also shifted into a sort of project manager role to make sure the building team was creating the structures I had envisioned.
With any build, there were always a few changes based on budget differences, materials available, and misunderstandings about what was possible. It was never exactly the same, and I’d come to expect that. But I definitely wasn’t allowing it to deviate more than it had to or the circumstances allowed.
The door to the site office was ajar and I knocked on the edge as I walked in. As expected, Sarai was there, but Richard wasn’t. There was also the site foreman, and they were looking over some of the plans I made.
“Need any help?” I asked as I walked over. Henry trailed behind, knowing to leave me to it unless I asked for help or asked him to handle something for me. For the most part, he was here with me for this project to learn as much as possible.
“Lukas!” Sarai exclaimed. “Perfect timing. You have no idea how much we need you right now. We’ve had some problems with the delivery of a few materials we need. We’ve had enough to build this far, but the supplier has run out and won’t get any more for two weeks. We need to know what changes we can make to stay on schedule and would appreciate your input so we don’t ruin the overall plan.”
I nodded, knowing this was one of the harder things to do—juggle what the foreman would want, the client, and what was best from the viewpoint of the original goal. The trick was helping everyone want the same thing, but for that, I had to know our best option.
“Tell me everything,” I said as I walked up, my focus on Sarai for now. She would give me the best indication of what was upsetting her, and then I could work with the foreman to get it for her.
I’d already gotten the impression that Sarai wanted to keep this on target if she could, but not at the expense of the overall project. The ideal here would be to find a compromise.
We talked for a long time, both of them telling me where they’d gotten to and speaking amicably enough. Henry also listened alongside me after getting us all tea and coffee and pulling up several chairs. I wasn’t the sort to send my PA to get drinks, but Henry knew that this was something he couldn’t contribute to as well.
Still, I included him where I could, making sure he didn’t feel ignored. I even got him to do some research for me as we went through possible options.
In the end, we had three options. One of them was to wait for the materials that were in the original design. And I knew it was unlikely that anyone would select this option. Sarai had left some room in her schedule before her first guests would stay on-site, but this would eat all that and give her no room for anything else to go wrong.
That didn’t make it an easy decision, however. The alternatives had downsides. One was to bring the material in from a much more expensive supplier in another country, something that would make a big difference to the project’s overall cost, and the final one was a bit of a compromise. More money and a shorter delay, but also a different result.
Of course, I understood that if money were no object, that would be chosen, and if time were no problem, we would all wait. But it wasn’t that simple. And the final decision was Sarai’s to make alone. I didn’t envy her, and I knew this was a decision I couldn’t steer. It was too big a change.
I sat back with my coffee to just listen as she tried to process the information and figure it out. Thankfully the foreman did something similar, not pressuring her for one answer over another. Henry handed her the sheet of paper where he had crunched the numbers for her and also stayed out of it.
She was still trying to decide five minutes later, exchanging messages with Richard about it, when there was a knock at the site office door. We all turned to see who it might be, and my heart stopped. Kit was hurrying in, a box tucked under her arm.
“Sarai, are you here?” Kit called before she was even properly in the door, looking around. She paused as well, almost dropping the box and having to brace it and bring her other arm around to stop it from hitting the floor.
The resultant position was clearly awkward, the box stopped by one leg and her arms. It looked heavy, but before I could do anything but stare, Henry leaped up to go and help her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Kit
My body wouldn’t move, the heavy box I was carrying pinned between my arms and one of my legs. Even if I could have moved, I wasn’t sure I would have dared. Any slight movement could see the box and its contents on the ground.
It was breakable, an exciting purchase I had hoped to show Sarai. She sat at the table in front of me, exactly where I had expected to find her, but she wasn’t the only one here.
Lukas was here. And there was another guy with him. The other guy slapped a phone on the table and rushed toward me to help. As my cheeks flushed, I let the guy rescue me and take the box. As it shifted, there was the tinkle of glass on the inside. It was gently wrapped but not so carefully that some of the contents couldn’t rattle slightly against each other.
“By the sounds of it, you wouldn’t have wanted to drop this.” The guy shifted to the nearest flat surface and put it down for me. I followed him, not sure what else to do. I could feel Lukas staring at me, and I knew he hadn’t looked away.
From the surprise on his face, I was pretty sure he hadn’t known I would be on the project at all. I couldn’t look at him, but thankfully, the guy who had helped me turned to hold out his hand as soon as my fragile burden was safe.
“I’m Henry. I PA for Lukas. You must be Kit.”
I lifted an eyebrow, not sure how he knew who I was.
“You’re one of the only people I haven’t met yet. Sarai said that you’ve been here for a few days.”
Although I nodded and shook his hand, I also finally glanced toward Lukas. He was still staring at me and looked like he had seen a ghost. I gulped.
“Kit, I need you to come over here and help me. You’re the exact person to tell me what you think about these options.” Sarai reached out her hand toward me as if she hadn’t noticed a thing wrong.
I went over to her without thinking. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were busy.”
“Nonsense, nonsense. Come and have a drink, and let us tell you everything. I know you’ve met Lukas, and George here, so no more introductions needed.”
Sarai launched into a long, detailed description of her dilemma, and I tried to focus on it and listen. Now and then, George and Lukas added information, but every time Lukas talked, I was aware he would no longer look at me, and he seemed uncomfortable.
The whole situation was a nightmare, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to cry, but I knew I had to focus and work. Sarai was asking for my input on something that was clearly partially an aesthetics problem. When Henry showed me the numbers for the costs of the three options, I tried not to choke.
All of them cost more than I was being paid over the original budget, and it was hard to help choose any of them. This was the kind of money I couldn’t suggest anyone spend at all.
“What does the alternative material look like?” I asked, mostly to buy time.
Henry was quick to show me some pictures on his phone of the final effect when it was used. I frowned, knowing it would ruin the aesthetic of some of the huts if we used it for the inside walls. It couldn’t be used for some of them. But how did I tell Sarai that when it meant waiting or spending a lot more money?
“It’s…a solution in some cases. But...” I trailed off, still not sure how to put it.
“You don’t think it will work?” Sarai asked me as if she trusted my opinion, and I hesitated some more. Everyone was looking at me as if I had the answers, and I didn’t want to be under that much pressure to decide.
“I think it will make it really difficult to get the authentic feel in some huts if the walls all look like that. For some, it will work just fine and make little difference, but for others, it will look wrong.” I blurted the words in a hurry, glancing out of the corner of my eye at Lukas. To my relief, he was nodding.
“Kit has a point that none of us considered. Will it work for multiple different-themed areas?” Lukas looked at Sarai, bringing the decision back to her and taking the pressure off me. I could have hugged him in that moment.
“It is something we overlooked. Thank you, Kit. We should consider which huts it will work with one way and which the other.” Sarai sighed, and I grimaced. I knew I had just made her decision a lot more difficult, but I had told her my opinion, and she appeared to be taking it well.
However, the foreman leaned closer, looking at the site map and architects’ drawings on the table.
“Depending on the huts, it might solve our problem for us. If the huts we want to do next can use this second option, we could still have the original material for the huts that need it by the time we’re building them.”
Sarai lit up, looking at me again to help her work it out. I looked at the drawings, too, and we got to work figuring out which huts needed the original product and which could be modified. There were even a few that would benefit from the new design, and I was quick to point those out.
“I think we could alter our plans for the next few days and work on those huts sooner, then shift back to the others. As long as we’re careful where we put a few things, it shouldn’t change much.” The foreman nodded.
I sat back and let the experts do their parts, determining what could be done, when, and how so it cost the least, delayed the project the least, and still had a result that would fit the original vision.
After a few hours, the rest of them sat back, Sarai grinning from ear to ear. They’d found a solution that cost a fraction of the previous estimates, and it only delayed everything by a day or two. It changed the order the huts would be built and finished, but not as much as anyone had feared it might, and it allowed them to wait on the original manufacturer for some of the orders.
“Nice work, everyone. Let’s get this fed out where it needs to be and get this show back on the road.”
I got up, even though there was nothing for me to do after this. The others did the same, and the foreman hurried off to tell his people what was going to happen next.
“I should go, too, and see how everything is going before I make those tweaks to the designs.” Lukas scrambled to his feet. Henry hastily followed, gathering all the scraps of paper they needed.
“It was good to get you all together,” Sarai said before Lukas could leave. “Stick around, and we’ll all go for dinner later. My treat. I owe you all for fixing this mess.”
I frowned as Lukas hesitated, opening and closing his mouth a few times while looking between Sarai and me.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” Sarai added.
Lukas nodded. “Then we’ll be there.”
Henry grinned, seemingly delighted with this result, and Sarai was hardly any less happy about it.
As Lukas left, Sarai looked between us.
“I don’t think he knew I was going to be here,” I blurted out, answering a question she never asked.
“Well, I’ve got to make a few phone calls, but then we should take a look at what you brought in. Feel free to talk to Lukas if you want for a bit. Or get on with anything else you have to do. I’ll message you when I’m done.”
Gratitude swept through me as she headed to the small desk she had set up for herself in the temporary site office. I rushed straight out the door, letting it swing shut behind me. It banged against the frame and drew the attention of everyone around.
Lukas was standing beside the foreman and Henry near the almost finished first hut. All three of them were staring at me, but I hurried closer, my brain trying to process what I was doing and why before I’d really thought about it properly.
Seeming to understand I intended to talk to him, Lukas sent the others away from him and waited for me. I slowed as I got closer, my mind going blank.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Lukas
As Kit hurried out of the site office, her cheeks flushed and the patterned blouse flowing out behind her, my heart skipped a beat. She looked amazing in the afternoon light, and if anything, in normal work clothes, I could see how much better she looked when she was more herself.
I’d already noticed a few paint splatters on her pants, but they were in places that made it look like it might be deliberate. Of course, I suspected they weren’t, given her profession.
I encouraged Henry and George to go ahead of me and waited for her to come closer, sure she had come out of the site office specifically to talk to me. Although I was willing to wait for her, I was nervous about what she might have to say.
Despite the way I had spoken to her, I wanted her to like me. And I had tried to talk to her with as much respect and care as I could muster while we had been in the meeting with Sarai. She had thought of a viewpoint none of the rest of us had, and as Henry had suggested, she had been very professional.
It made me like her all the more, but that only made me feel like I was even more of an idiot. I didn’t deserve her attention. I’d prided myself on being a good person. Protective and caring. I was used to being in charge, but with that came a great responsibility. And with her, I had already screwed up.
“I’m sorry,” she said as soon as she reached me.
I blinked and opened my mouth to ask her what for, but she looked away and wrung her hands together as she carried on.
“I really didn’t know you were going to be on this project until I’d already agreed to do it. I didn’t mean to ambush you and definitely didn’t think I’d run into you so soon. If you want me to, I can stay out of your way.”
Her words made me wince. “You think I want you out of my way?”
She finally looked at me, her body almost freezing before she tipped her head up and down once.
“I don’t want you to avoid me. Not at all. I think it should be me who is apologizing. Not you. I was very rude to you that last evening. And there’s absolutely no excuse. Will you forgive me?”
“In a heartbeat.” As she spoke, her whole face seemed to light up, and I felt the floor drop out of my stomach. If I had thought she was beautiful before, she was even more stunning now. She stood near the shade of the almost-finished hut, and the sun caught her just right to make her hair shine.
