by Lynn Shurr
“I regard Mr. Billodeaux as an unfit parent and I will press my right to be declared legal guardian of this poor child as his mother wanted,” Everard swore. Of course, she had sent out the release and set Joe up for the photograph before he’d threatened to tell her husband about her one-night-stand as a list lady.
Nicole made good on her pledge to call Child Welfare, but he and Nell came through the interview with good grades. Still, this battle wasn’t over. He knew that. The best news he’d all week came in the form of the blood test results. Deanie was his, not, as he had worried, Derrick Foster’s child.
Nell returned from putting the baby down to sleep. Over the worst of her flu, she had perked up considerably and he was on the mend. Now, he needed something to take his mind off Nicole and the Sinners’ dismal performance.
“Nell, do I feel hot to you?”
She leaned over and put her lips to his forehead. “No, why?”
“Because I am.” Without warning, he pulled her on top of his prone body and ripped her baby spit stained T-shirt over her head. Beneath it, she wore a plain white cotton bra. No sense letting that homely thing obstruct the view. He tore it off in seconds.
She perched topless on his pelvis. His satin robe split open of its own accord as he grew big and hard beneath her.
“I thought you were too sick to play.”
“I am. That’s why you’re on top. I can’t get overheated.”
Nell put both of her small hands around his penis and tugged. “Too late.”
“Oh, Nurse Nell, I feel too weak to take off your jeans. Please, please do it for me.” Joe flung a hand across his eyes and peeped out at her between the cracks in his fingers. Yes, he’d made her laugh, which explained why she was bouncing up and down on him, at least partially.
Nell stood up, bracing her legs on either side of the wide couch and slowly unzipped her jeans. She shimmed them down to reveal—full-sized white cotton panties. Joe grabbed an ankle and upended her. The jeans came off. He balled the panties in his fist and made a perfect basket into a nearby waste can full of used tissues.
Nell settled over him so lightly all of his awareness focused on how snug and steaming she felt to him. She began to move, drawing herself up high and coming down hard. He groaned and helped her move with his hands.
“Nurse Nell, I’m comin’ home. Hold me tight.”
“Not yet, you’re not.” She slowed down so she was barely moving.
“You just need to catch up and you can go home with me.” He reached down with a wide thumb and stroked between her legs. When she arched and writhed, he humped his hips rapidly against her so they could both burst and meltdown together. Nell collapsed on to his chest and lay there panting.
Joe Dean put his arms behind his head. “I’m glad that’s out of the way.”
“Out of the way! That’s how you feel!”
“No, sugar, you misunderstand. Our marriage has been consummated—finally.”
“Joe, we consummated dozens of time before we were married.”
“Didn’t count. Now it’s official.”
TWENTY-TWO
On the road, the Sinners took the Seahawks 24-17 and went on to flatten the Falcons 35-10 as the team regained its strength. Joe gloated when the Panthers dropped a game because their ranks were thinned by Deanie’s Flu. Football was a contact sport and evidently the Sinners had shared some germs with their rivals. Yes, the Sinners were on the way to the Super Bowl.
Joe called home. He asked Nell to put the receiver up to the baby’s ear. “Daddy’s coming home, Deanie. Then you, me and Mommy are going to go to the country for a few days. But yes, we are. You be a good boy, Deanie.”
Nell swore the child kicked and wiggled twice as much when he heard Joe’s voice on the phone. She couldn’t help but smile. So she wasn’t blessed with the hormone rush birth mothers got gratis. Her feelings for the infant grew steadily. She tickled his chin with her finger. Deanie gave her a crooked grin. Startled, she laughed and the baby stretched his mouth even wider.
Fumbling the receiver, Nell shouted into the phone, “Deanie just smiled at me. Billodeaux eyes, my ass. He has your wicked grin. I guess it could just be gas—or hot air. No, he did it again!”
“Damn, I missed Deanie’s first smile.”
Passing behind the new father, Jared Forte mocked, “Ooooh, Daddy Joe missed baby’s first smile.”
Joe shot his left elbow back and caught Forte in the ribs about where the wide receiver had taken a hard hit early in the game and fumbled the ball. “When Daddy Joe throws you a good pass, you try to hang on to it next time, boy.”
Connor Riley had repeated his performance of the previous year against the Falcons and run in an amazing string of touchdowns that accounted for all but one score of the game. Forte went away sulking.
“Trouble?” Nell asked.
“No way. We have a bye week coming up, then a home game. What say we spend a few days in Chapelle, check out how the house is coming, exercise those lazy horses and see if Bijou is putting down enough straw in the stalls while my mama spoils the baby.”
Check out the straw, indeed. “We’ll be ready to go, Daddy Joe.”
The small family headed for a weekend in the country without bothering to call ahead. In Nadine Billodeaux’s life there was no such thing as not having a room ready or being without food in the house for guests. “You just add more rice to the pot, cher,” she told Nell. As for her grandchildren, she always had the time.
MawMaw Nadine came to the door with Izzy’s new baby girl in her arms. “Come see whose visitin’, Randi.”
The child had been christened Miranda Marie, but the Cajun law of nicknames had come into force already. The chubby, bald little girl wearing a pink stretchy headband to designate her sex would be Randi to her dying day.
“Oh look, see. It’s Uncle Joe and Auntie Nell and Cousin Deanie. Come to MawMaw, cher bebe.” Nadine handed Randi to Joe and scooped Dean from his carrier. That left Nell holding the diaper bag, but she did not mind in the least. She’d had no outings in four weeks.
“So is Izzy around?”
“No, cher, she’s gettin’ her figure back, only it didn’t go back to the same place. Never does.” Nadine looked down sadly at her own robust body. “She went to the mall with Eenie to get some clothes. Me, I’d rather stay home and give some sugar to my grandkids.” Nadine laid a smacking kiss on Deanie’s forehead and the baby smiled.
“Ah, son, he got your smile. Jus’ like the one your daddy gave to me first time we went out, only he had teeth. And here we are, five kids and fourteen grandchildren later.”
“If you don’t mind watching Deanie, we thought we’d go over to the ranch, see how the house is coming, do some riding.” Joe lifted Randi high in the air. She opened her mouth wide with joy and let loose a string of dribble that landed on his shirt.
“Unless having both of them will be too much for you,” Nell added quickly.
Nadine wagged a finger at her. “Cher, there’s only the two and they don’t even walk yet. Wait till you have four under the age of six, then you see some trouble. The house is comin’ along real well. It’s been hot, hot with no rain. Makes for an easy harvest, but we could use some cold to bring the sugar up. Anyhow, the house might be ready for Thanksgiving. Go take a look.”
Nadine turned toward the kitchen counter. “Take this leftover gumbo to Bijou, would you? He drinks more than he eats. How Hal and Flo got one like that, I don’t know. The rest turned out okay, but Bijou, poo-yie!”
Joe took the Tupperware container of gumbo from his mother and pecked her on the cheek. “Thanks for watching Deanie, Mama.”
Nell relinquished the diaper bag, and they went off to deliver the food and check out the depth of the straw in the barn. They caught Bijou, leaning up against the extended cab truck Joe had left behind, watching a horse and rider in the ring. He smirked at Nell’s Toyota.
“Comin’ down in the world, Cousin Joe? You trade in that Porsche
for a mom mobile?”
“You know it’s Nell’s car, Bijou. We couldn’t get the baby seat in the sports car.”
Bijou chuckled. “Yeah, I heard you got caught in more ways than one.”
The sound of hooves tearing around the exercise ring drowned out the conversation as the horse moved closer at a gallop. The rider pulled up sharply and lost a pink cowgirl hat to the maneuver. Dust obscured the scene, then the happy face of the rider emerged from the cloud. Trails of sweat rolled down like tears through the dirt on Cassie’s face. “Surprise!” she hollered.
Cassie dismounted and led the heaving horse to a gate and over to Joe and Nell. “Isn’t he beautiful? Bijou said you wanted to get more horses and he picked this one out for me. His name is Copperhead.”
The animal looked at Nell with a wild, blue eye. His head certainly was a copper color. It arched over a compact white body splotched with black and brown. A tail with all three colors switched nervously.
“Yeah, I did want more horses, but Bijou should have checked with me first. He’s not too much horse for you, Cassie?”
“No, sir. We get along fine, don’t we, Copper?” Cassie stroked her mount’s nose and the horse calmed.
“But, what are you doing here, Cassie?” Nell asked the obvious question.
“Riding. Bijou is teaching me barrel racing and pole-bending. I was always the sickly one, but now I fly like the wind.” Cassie threw out her arms and Copperhead spooked a little. Immediately, she patted his neck.
“She showed up here in early September wanting to ride. Just got her driver’s license and managed to get that old van all the way up here alone.” Bijou grinned as if pleased by Cassie’s connivance.
“I paid for my own gas with babysitting money, but Mom wouldn’t let me do it again.” Cassie stuck out her lip. “She said I deceived her by coming all the way to Chapelle when there were closer places to ride if I had the money. Those places won’t let me ride like I want to and they cost more than I can make with after school jobs.”
“So I said I’d come down and get her in the truck Friday night and she could stay over all weekend at the house. Figured it would be all right with you, Joe. You brought girls to the homestead a time or two, didn’t you?” Bijou poked Joe in the ribs.
Before Joe could answer, Nell cut in. “I think if Cassie stays the weekend, it would be better to let her sleep at Nadine’s or with one of Joe’s sisters.”
“Fine by me.” Bijou presented her with an oily smile. The sun glinted off his bad front tooth newly capped with gold. “Hear that, Cassie?”
“I bring my own sleeping bag and help clean up the house and muck out the stalls, Nell. I’m not a burden. I feel so good and strong for the first time in years. You must understand.”
Nell did, only too well. “Stay with Nadine from now on.”
“I guess.” Cassie looked down and rubbed a boot toe in the dirt.
“She’s a natural, Joe. Look at her. No more fat on her than on a greyhound. She clings to a horse like hungry tick. Won’t be long before she can compete.” Bijou gave his professional opinion.
“I don’t know, Joe. She should get her parent’s permission. Is pole-bending dangerous?”
“Tight turns and fast speeds, so it can be if the rider falls off. It’s not as dangerous as bronco or bull riding. Girls don’t compete in those,” Bijou said.
“Bijou should know. He did the rodeo circuit for awhile when he was younger,” Joe told Nell.
“While you were playing it safe on the high school football field, Cousin, I was making my way to the top. I tell you, it’s just not right what you get paid compared to a bull rider. Sure, you get roughed up once in awhile, but you got those big linemen protecting your precious ass. All I had was a couple of rodeo clowns protecting me. All I got was a bunch of broken bones that ended my career.”
“I could end up the same way, Bijou.”
“Yeah, after you bank millions. Didn’t you buy my daddy’s place with your last bonus?”
“I did it to keep the land in the family. You can always quit if you don’t like what I pay you.”
“Let’s see you ride, Cassie,” Nell said to break things up between the men.
Cassie mounted and wove Copperhead around some barrels at a slow canter on the course Bijou had laid out for her.
Nell applauded. “That’s great, Cassie. Joe, if that’s all there is to it, I don’t think it would be a problem if she competed.”
“If that’s how she rides in competition, she won’t win, Nell.”
“That wouldn’t matter. I think it’s the riding she enjoys.”
“Okay, then. Clear it with her folks though. It might be a good idea to have them sign a waiver in case she gets hurt.”
“If she got hurt, I’d expect to pay the medical bills. You know the Thomases don’t have much money with all those children to raise.”
“Whatever you say, Tink.”
Bijou mumbled something in an undertone. Joe heard the word “pussy-whipped”, but he let it pass for the sake of Nell and Cassie.
Joe and Bijou saddled L.B. and Fatima. Cassie on Copperhead followed them out to the hay meadow now deep in goldenrod, wild aster and black-eyed Susans. With their company in tow, they rode farther along the bayou, then returned following the tractor path beside the recently harvested cane fields. They would not be testing the depth of the straw in the barn or having nookie in the meadow today. When they returned, Nell made sure Cassie collected her things from the old homestead and came back with them to Nadine’s home.
Frank turned over two briskets—soaked with liquid smoke, rubbed with garlic salt and tightly wrapped in foil—on the grill. Allie brought coleslaw studded with tiny pink shrimp, and Eenie the mandatory potato salad. Lizzie promised to pick up hot French bread from Pommier’s Bakery on her way home from work. Izzy put together a Watergate salad more like a dessert with its lime Jell-O and marshmallows because it was the only green stuff most of the kids would eat.
Cassie, easy to pick out by her bright red hair among the dark Billodeaux girls, held baby Randi. Joe stood near the grill, a cold beer in one hand, and Deanie, legs gripped under his daddy’s arm, small head palmed like a football, in the other. The baby gazed at his father and tried out his new smile every time he was addressed.
“Deanie, see PawPaw cooking. Is Deanie hungry?”
Sitting in the late afternoon shade, Nell marveled at Joe’s ease with the child. “I’m still afraid I’ll drop him,” she confessed to her mother-in-law.
“Comes wit’ practice. Joe babysat for Allie’s kids. First time, he comes to me hollering to help change a diaper, I said, ‘Who’s the one gets paid for this?’ He caught on real fast. Always knew he would be a good daddy once he settled down.”
Frank peeled back the foil and basted the briskets with barbecue sauce. “Be ready quick. Lizzie here wit’ da French bread for sandwiches yet?”
“Not yet,” Nadine called back. “Tomorrow, we go to Mass, then after, to the Pepper Festival in St. Martinville. You been?”
“No. I’ve been to the Strawberry, Rice, Frog, and Jazz festivals plus a few others, but never one for peppers.”
“I’ll keep the baby for you,” Allie offered. “Mine are getting so big.”
Nell looked around the crowd on the lawn. “Bijou doesn’t come over for the cookouts?”
“No, he’s more likely to be at a roadhouse drinking on Saturday nights,” Eenie said. “Here comes Lizzie, alone. I’ll bet Charlie’s out with Bijou. They went to high school together. Of course, Bijou never finished. Got a GED and a criminal record instead.”
“Bijou’s been in jail?”
“Minor things. Drunk driving, receiver of stolen goods. He couldn’t pass up one of those fancy rings he likes to own. The first time he hocked it, he got picked up, but they couldn’t pin the robbery on him. Said he got it off some black dude. As if,” Eenie said with disgust.
“Joe is too kind-hearted letting him stay in the
house and look after the ranch. Bijou is just plain trash,” Allie asserted.
“He’s your cousin, Allie. For shame,” Nadine corrected. “The rest of Flo and Hal’s children turned out fine.”
“Bad apple in the bunch,” Allie insisted.
Lizzie, still in her LPN clothes and white, thick-soled shoes, dumped six long loaves of French bread in white paper wrappers on the picnic table. She lifted the tea towels keeping the dust and flies off the food and gave an evaluation. “Yum, any night I don’t have to cook is a good night.”
Lizzie took a seat on the bench. “Did my kids get here?”
“Sure, Darryl picked them up.”
Lizzie frowned. “Charlie was supposed to drop them on his way to pick up Bijou. He said they had to see a man about a horse.”
“Probably going to the off-track betting parlor is my guess,” Allie whispered to Nell.
“PawPaw, is that brisket done? We all starvin’ here,” Nadine shouted to Frank, turning the conversation in a different direction.
Lulled by the sound of the engine and worn out by well-meaning relatives, Deanie slept in his car seat as the Toyota passed through the smoke of cane fields being burnt after the harvest and down the long causeways over the marsh leading back to New Orleans. Cassie had fallen asleep, too, still wearing the garish necklace of bright red ceramic Tabasco peppers Joe had bought for her at one of the crafts booths. She slumped against the window behind the driver’s seat, her head bobbing each time the car hit a pothole.
Nell watched a big, bloody harvest moon rise through the haze as she rested her head on Joe’s shoulder. “Joe, do you think Bijou is a danger to Cassie?”
“You been talking to Allie, right? She has a low opinion of everyone. She’s the one who told Mama you and I were probably sneaking out and doing it in the cane fields.”
“And she would have been right.”
Joe’s smile glittered in the beam of light from an on-coming car. “Bijou is thirty-three or thirty-four, Lizzie’s age. He had his brushes with the law when he was younger, but nothing for years now. He can be canaille, sly, you know. Like I bet I paid for that gold tooth somehow. Probably told the dentist it was part of his dental plan as my employee. But, he would never hurt a child.”
