Still, they’d taught him the core values that made him who he was today. He’d always worked hard, earned everything he’d ever striven for and appreciated the life he’d been raised to lead. He’d gotten lazy with his own children, but he knew it wouldn’t be too late. He just had to have faith and stick with the plan.
They would all take it one day at a time, and then a week at a time. If he tried to think past that, it became too overwhelming. He had always protected his children, which he was still doing, just in a more tough love sort of way. He was determined that they would appreciate this, and him, someday.
Richard smiled as he thought back to their priceless expressions of rage and shock. They wouldn’t be appreciating him anytime soon; that was for certain.
Chapter Two
Present day
Enjoying the fresh morning sun and gentle sea breeze, Crew Storm stood in front of his resort and smiled. Never would he admit to his father how good he felt, how much more alive, strong and happy he’d become since taking on the monumental task of refurbishing an oceanfront resort on exotic Catalina Island.
He couldn’t give the man too much encouragement or he’d go on meddling in all of their lives from here on out. However, Crew did feel great. Maybe he’d cave and give the old man just a small thank-you. It was the least he could do since his father had put him on the right path. For a while, Crew had been lost, but that was a thing of the past, and now he only looked straight ahead.
In the last two years, Crew had truly grown up, and because of that he was rising to the top, learning how to fight for what he wanted, and he had discovered that he wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. Pride billowed up inside him as he turned to look at his finished project.
When he’d pulled the file for the resort, all he’d felt was extreme anger, resentment, and a determination to do the opposite of what his father wanted. It had all been nothing more than a game, and it was one that he had to win. He had planned on doing the bare minimum, getting his trust fund back, and never speaking to his dad again. What a fool he had been.
Now…now that had changed. Crew felt like a whole new man. It was about more than beating his old man — it was about taking pride in accomplishing a great task and feeling the satisfaction of victory over himself.
He’d completed a task many others would have failed at, and it felt incredible to see the resort in all her former glory — better than her former glory, in fact. She was a shining jewel, ready to bring Catalina Island back to the ultimate vacation destination. In the nineteen-thirties Catalina Island had been at her heyday, the ultimate place to spot the stars, and to vacation like a king. This resort was the beginning of reinventing the thirties with a twenty-first-century bang.
Crew had always been tenacious, never willing to back down from a challenge. His father said it was because he came from good stock. And his dad seemed to have the Midas touch. Crew found it a thrill to know he was making smart choices, and he had a better relationship with his father than he’d ever thought he’d have again.
His father had thrown him and his siblings out to fly or to die, and changed all their lives forever. Never before had he looked himself in a mirror and felt shame, but after the first six months of sweating it out pounding nails into wood on the broken-down resort, he’d woken up one day to realize he was a different man. After a year, he’d called his father to apologize.
Now, finally, he was ready to open his new resort, and he was proud for people to walk through her doors. Yes, this thing of beauty before him couldn’t be called anything but a woman, because her curves were smooth, her lines flawless, and she’d been transformed by his blood, sweat and…well, not tears, but she’d gotten everything else she could out of him.
As he gazed in adoration at the sleek and glistening entryway, he felt a pang in his heart. He knew to sell her would be bittersweet, but that was the deal. Get the business up and running, turn it around, and then make a profit.
It wouldn’t be easy, but a smile flitted across his lips when he thought of doing it all over again. His father had laid down the law, setting the ultimate challenge, and the old man had won, because Crew was changed forever now, and a man his dad could be proud of. Crew had discovered what he excelled at, and he would embrace that gift, even if he left a piece of himself behind each time he left the old and ventured on to a new project.
The old resort had been in shambles, the corporation going bankrupt, and it was walking away, leaving the place to fall into the sea. She wasn’t tall, only ten stories high, but each floor had a theme, and each room was fit for royalty. Crew’s absolute favorite floor was the flamboyant thirties. He had to dedicate a floor to the year the resort had originally opened, of course.
The wide hallways were decorated with fine pieces of art and vintage antiques he’d uncovered in his high-powered hunting. Fresh flowers decorated delicate tables; the colorful bouquets would draw the eye of every customer who stepped from the cherry-wood-lined elevators. Hand-fashioned carved railings led up the wide staircases, and the walls were painted in soft golden hues. Dazzling chandeliers glowed in the center of each room and down the grand corridors.
He’d poured his entire soul into the place, and he wanted his clientele to walk through the doors and instantly feel as if they were in a luxurious wonderland. His staff would treat each and every one like the most important guest in the building, and they all would want to return over and over again.
He’d hired only the best cooks, and his restaurants would soon be famed for tantalizing entrées and enticing ambience. A small theater room was decorated with dark colors, soft lighting and red velvet curtains above a stage where live bands and professional vocalists would perform. The resort planned to cater to its guests’ every whim, wanting no one to feel the need to step outside onto the island for anything except the abundant gifts of nature.
Half of the rooms faced an exquisite stretch of the Pacific Ocean, and half faced the inner workings of the island. Crew’s preference, of course, was the water, but there were many who would want to open their French doors and step out on the balcony to watch the entertainment below of a town that played hard, and never stopped moving.
The price tag at his resort wasn’t cheap, but the clientele he attracted wouldn’t bat an eyelash. They would pull out their wallets, open them willingly, and, in turn, they would get to experience a once-in-a-lifetime vacation.