The more he learned about her, the more he found himself thinking that he could spend a lot more time with her. He hadn’t thought that possible after the last woman — and her affinity for closets …
“Wow. I’ve seen the specs of this place, Tyler, but looking at something on paper and actually seeing it are two entirely different things,” Elena said, breaking him from his reverie.
They were pulling up in front of the main lodge —15,000 square feet and three stories, made of logs, and with giant picture windows and inviting doors. It was certainly impressive, even to a billionaire.
“This is the gathering place for all the campers. I wanted it to be big and beautiful, and more importantly, I wanted it to be inviting. I want this entire experience to be the best of these kids’ lives. Some of them won’t have anything else like it.” He opened the driver’s door and came around to her side of the car.
She stepped out and walked with him to the lodge. The doors were open and she could hear the noise of power tools.
“You actually got people to work today?”
“Yes, I have crews going seven days a week. Summer is just around the corner, and I want to be open by July so we have less than a month to go.”
“How much more do you have to do before it’s done?”
“We’re almost done with construction, so we have to decorate, get the special-needs equipment installed, test it all out, and wait for the final inspection. I’ve hired only the best of the best, so it’s moving along quickly,” he told her before officially beginning the grand tour.
They went through the lodge, which had a state-of-the-art kitchen, medical rooms, lounge areas, game areas, and even private nooks with desks for children who need a few moments to themselves.
“A lot of autistic children need to have quiet time,” Tyler said, “and we’ve tried to anticipate the needs of all the children who will be coming in.”
Elena listened to him explain how the rooms were to be used, and how the staffers were being set up. After leaving the lodge, they made their way through a maze of trails with clearly marked signs.
There were several sections to the camp, three-sided cabins taking up a huge portion, and some fully enclosed cabins taking up another section. One area had a cluster of yurts, and another area was more dense with trees and brush and had areas carved out for tents and fire pits.
Each kind of camping experience that you could ever imagine was being put in place. The paths were wide and paved so they were all easily wheelchair accessible, and so were the recreation areas, where the kids could shoot bows and arrows or learn to make a fire, or take part in any number of other camp activities.
When he stopped at one of the enclosed cabins and opened the door, she smiled as she stepped inside. This one had the name “Rockers’ Hut” on the outside, and it would be a budding musician’s dream come true.
Instruments were painted on the walls, the wooden bunk beds were carved with musical notes, the floor had a drum set etched into it, and the curtains looked as if they were on fire. The closet held a number of real musical instruments, and in the corner a keyboard sat waiting.
“Did you put this much time into every cabin?” she asked as she touched the camp mattress that was just waiting for bedding to be placed on it.
“We aren’t finished — not at all — but each enclosed cabin will have a theme to it. The three-sided cabins are all the same, but through the years the kids will personalize those as well.”
“So you aren’t done with the decorating?” she asked excitedly.
“No, my brothers and I did this one as an example of what we expected. We want each cabin to have its own theme.”
“Have you decided on all the themes yet?”
Tyler smiled at the look on her face. “No, not yet. That phase is a couple weeks away still.”
“Can I volunteer, please?” Elena asked as she left the cabin and ran to the next one over. He hurried to catch up.
“I’d love that,” he said. This woman awed him.
“And I get to do any theme I want? And can I do more than one?”
“Yes. Okay, anything within reason,” he said. “We wouldn’t want … well, you know …”
“Oh, thank you for sharing this with me, Tyler!” Elena ran back to him and jumped up in his arms, her face shining.
“Thank you for caring,” he told her, suddenly choked up with something uncomfortably close to emotion.
He kissed her hard and for a moment she melted against him. But then she wriggled to get down and rushed into the empty cabin in front of them. After scanning the space, she set her purse on one of the built-in desks and rifled through it for a notebook and pen.
“I’m going to do a princess theme in one of the cabins. Yes, the curtains will look like they’re made out of satin and lace, and they’ll have a gigantic crown at the top. And the walls will be covered with drawings capturing my favorite scenes from the Disney movies — the teapot and rose from Beauty and the Beast, for example, and the magic carpet from Aladdin. Then, we can make dress-up totes for kids of all sizes and maybe even have a salon day at the lodge where the girls can get their hair done. A lot of little girls love to the idea of being princesses.” She started scribbling frantically again.
Tyler didn’t get a chance to say anything. She filled out a few pages, and then flipped over for the next cabin in line.
“This one will be superheroes. I always thought I was going to marry Superman when I was a little girl, and my first bathing suit was a Wonder Woman one. When I realized later on in life that superheroes weren’t real, I was devastated, but everyone, both young and old, still loves a good superhero story.”