Shielding His Christmas Witness. Laura Scott

man. He’d asked little of her except to look pretty on his arm, to be gracious to his friends and to make his life comfortable. She had rather liked Mitchell even though he’d been her parents’ choice and not hers. Her marriage had not been the exciting relationship she had dreamed of, but it had been fruitful. Mitchell had given her Maya and for that she would always be thankful.

      He’d asked Lydia if he could name the child after his mother and she’d agreed because she thought the name was so beautiful. She always suspected he’d been more of father to Maya than to his other two children.

      She’d done everything Mitchell asked despite her dislike of his two grown sons from his first marriage. Leon and David Montgomery had hated her from the moment they’d met her. She’d been twenty-one and barely out of college when she’d married Mitchell. Leon and David had been in their early thirties. Leon was the consummate playboy, with two illegitimate children whose mothers had to sue him for child support, while David married every stripper he’d ever met. Crippled beneath the mountain of alimony David had to pay out every month, Lydia had the idea he’d been almost delighted when Mitchell had died until the will had been read and he’d discovered Maya had inherited most of the money and the businesses, with Lydia as the executer.

      “I think we’re mostly done with the unpacking,” Miss E. said a moment later. She closed the last suitcase and zipped it. “I’ll just call the front desk and have them send someone up to collect the luggage and put it in storage.”

      “Thank you.” Lydia nodded absently. “What about you? Have you decided on which suite you’re going to use?”

      “I’m staying in my RV for the time being,” Miss E. answered. “I’ve lived in that RV for ten years. I’m not quite ready to give it up.” Her RV was parked in a side lot and plugged into the hotel’s electric grid. Lydia had never been in an RV before until she’d met Miss E. and she had found it to be quite comfortable if a bit cramped. She’d even considered buying her own, learning to drive it and then taking Maya all over the country to see all the wonderful places Lydia had always wanted to see. “So what happens next?”

      Miss E. and Lydia went into the living room to sit down in chairs that faced each other, leaving Maya to play in her bedroom.

      Miss E.’s face was thoughtful. “Reed and I have discussed letting you take over building the spa with Hunter while we take over the casino upgrades. Jasper is going to act as our consultant.”

      “Do you know when Reed will be coming?”

      “I don’t know. He said his father is doing better, but he’s going to be in the hospital for a couple more weeks and his mother isn’t handling it well,” Miss E. said.

      “How does a computer geek decide he wants to own a casino?” Lydia wondered. Reed Watson had been a computer nerd of the highest degree, starting his social media company in his bedroom while still in high school and then selling it ten years later for 2.9 billion dollars.

      Miss E. shrugged. “It was on his bucket list. He has the most extensive bucket list for such a young man who’s barely thirty.”

      Lydia laughed. “I hate to say anything bad, but I hope he doesn’t kick the bucket before we’re done.”

      Miss E. laughed with her. After she left, Lydia found a pad of paper in the desk in her bedroom and sat down to put together her list of ideas for the spa.