With my agreement, he introduced me to his tax attorney, his financial advisor, and a business consultant who specialized in the hospitality industry. He insisted I use all of them as much as I wanted to, and to ask them every and any question I had. He encouraged me to learn from them as much as I wanted. And he would pay for their services. He wanted me to get my business back on its feet, and I accepted this as his way of helping me keep my parents’ legacy alive. I learned a lot from talking to these advisors anyway, so it was a win for us both.
I met Trev’s mama. She cried with me when she heard about my parents and told me, with tears running down her face, “I never had a daughter. Not until today. Lindsey, I can never replace your own mother. I will never pretend to try. Still and all … Consider me your mama. Call me Mama from now on.” And I cried with her.
He got me to agree to remodel and update the whole lodge, making it more of a five-star lodge. When all was said and done, I increased the room rate three times.
I was very nervous about it, but … even the silent Mr. Johnson remained a loyal lodger with his rotating bevy of beauties and paid (cash!) without a comment. I made sure to reserve his room every weekend for him, no matter how booked up we got—and we did! The lodge started getting more guests than I had ever dreamed of, and I hired a minimum staff. I had my greatest moment when I had to tell a caller that we were fully booked and had no more rooms to let.
Trev launched two new games fairly soon after returning to the Lodge and to me. He calls me “my muse.” I’ll take it.
When Trev asked me to marry him, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I said yes in a heartbeat and jumped into his arms!
I was glad that I had changed my “guests-off-limits” policy for him. I couldn't imagine what my life would have become if I had not gotten close to him. And then, I had some really serious new business to discuss with him.
“Trev, my sweetest heart?” He looked over at me. “You’ll need to figure out a trust fund, please, with the whoever attorney or the whatsis accountant, okay?”
I’ll never forget the look on his face. “Whoa! That tax attorney hasreallybeen educating you! Well, what for?”
“I think if we put a little money in it every month or quarter, by the time our firstborn is ready for college, he’ll have some money of his own.”
Trev’s face was indescribably perplexed, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“You are gonna be a daddy, my sweetness! I’m at ten weeks!” He yelped and ran around the room like a happy puppy chasing its tail, and finally stood still long enough to scoop me up.
We laughed and laughed. He covered me with kisses. Then he stopped and got mock-serious.
“I wonder how Mama’s gonna feel about being Grandmama?” And he roared with delighted laughter as we discussed how to break the good news to her.
I love this man!
