Kinky Confessions

“Last but not least, we’ll have to upgrade a lot of camp infrastructure. All this new construction will need power, water, and sewer mains. That’s a long run from the main road. And speaking of roads, we discussed beefing up the camp’s main roads and parking so they can handle heavier RVs. Oh, and she wants to replace the main gate and add some kind of fence around the inside perimeter.” He finally leaned back in his chair and cast a critical eye over his notes.

“She doesn’t think small, does she?” I said rhetorically.

“No. Which is why you and I need to have a serious discussion.” He sat forward, found a note pad, and wrote a dollar figure. Then he circled it and turned the pad so I could see. “That’s what we’re talking about.”

I took one look and immediately furrowed my brow. “Hold on, that’s less than we spent last summer. Well, when you include the cost of the houses themselves. Susan’s job should be ten times that. Probably more.”

Trip shook his head and pursed his lips in a grin.

“Okay,” I said, “what’m I missing?”

He tapped the notepad. “That’s our fee for the job, seven percent of the total budget. It’s what we’ll charge for construction management and doing our part of the work. And now that I think about it, I’ll want to add bonuses if we come in on time and under budget. We’ll have some expenses like travel and a ton of long-distance phone calls, but most of that will be profit.”

I blinked and felt lightheaded.

“Uh-huh. That’s both our shares. And it’s at least a year’s work, maybe more, but still… it’s a lot of money.” He sat back and ran his fingers through his hair. “Although… I’ll be honest, it scares the shit out of me. It’s larger than any job I’ve done before, by a huge margin. And it’s more construction management than hands-on work. Yeah, we’ll still get our hands dirty, but for the major jobs we’ll be acting as contractors more than foremen. Hell, we’ll be managers.

“And you’ll get a chance to do what you do best,” he added with a significant look, “especially if we decide to rebuild the larger cabins instead of just demolishing them. Throw in the clubhouse and the vacant houses and you have even more work. Actual design work.” He paused to let it all sink in. “So, what do you think?”

“I… don’t know,” I said honestly. “It scares me too.”

“No shit. For the first time in my life, I have serious doubts if I have what it takes to accomplish something. That scares me more than anything. But…

I’m not sure I can walk away from that kind of money.” He gestured at the notepad again, in case I’d somehow forgotten how much we were talking about.

“Susan said she wouldn’t even consider hiring us if I weren’t scared. And she’s right. I’m scared because I understand what a huge job this is, and how easily we could screw it up. I don’t wanna cost her tens of thousands of dollars—maybe hundreds of thousands—and leave her in the same position Sayuri’s first contractor left her. You know?”

“No kidding. I’d never forgive myself if I did to camp what that idiot did to Sayuri.”

“Exactly,” Trip agreed. “So we need to think long and hard before we make a serious offer. I’ll have to run the numbers and do some preliminary planning, but I think we can make it work. I definitely wanna talk to Blackie and Mike Senior and some other guys I know. If nothing else, I wanna

confirm my initial thinking. And we need to see for ourselves before we do anything.”

I nodded and automatically started designing things in my head.

Trip interrupted and said, “I thought about flying over this weekend, but you have your West Virginia thing. Wren and I have plans here. I may be crazy to think about taking this job, but I’m not crazy enough to cancel our weekend plans. We both need the time to, ahem, relieve some pressure. The girls too.”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“So I was thinking…,” Trip said. “The weekend after next is Easter, an

—”

“Uh-uh, sorry. Christy and I are flying to San Diego to visit her family.”

“Okay, then… when?” He pulled out a calendar. “How ’bout the last weekend in April.”

I closed my eyes and imagined my own schedule. “That should work.

But… is it soon enough?”

“It should be,” he said. “We’ll have to do the job in phases anyway. The first one is to finish the Retreat. While we’re doing that, we can plan the other phases.” He ticked them off with his fingers. “Cabin renovations and demolition on the larger ones. Maybe new construction, depending on the numbers from Susan. Then we have the new bungalows, the motel rooms, the clubhouse, and finally the vacant houses. Oh, and infrastructure. We’ll spend most of the summer just figuring out what to do and then planning and scheduling it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s a lot of work.”