by Lynn Shurr
Winnie laughed, a low and lovely sound. “No, we just met.”
But Adam said, “Not yet.”
Chapter Five
Mintay held Nell’s hand and gave Joe’s shirt some time to dry. They’d been over the ambivalent feelings Emily’s death caused, and the Rev had offered a prayer for the soul of the departed. Their attention turned toward the two children upstairs who must be foremost in their minds.
“We have to keep Anastasia and try to teach her how to fit into the family. That won’t be easy after nine years in Emily’s hands. As for Teddy, I know Maydell will come back for him when she’s less stressed and leaves that boyfriend of hers. In the meantime, we’ll see Teddy has all the care he needs. Good idea bringing Winnie over to help us. I worried if I could handle his schedule. His mother left a long list in his medical bag.” Nell squeezed Mintay’s hand and let go.
“Two birds with one stone as they say. Winnie’s divorce went through last week. She packed her bags, left Shreveport, and landed on our doorstep last night. Says she is so humiliated she is never going back. Can you believe she gave up medical school and took nurse’s training instead to help her husband become a doctor, and that bastard drops her for a busty blonde he met while my sister worked double shifts at the hospital? The asshole!”
“Language,” the Rev reproved gently.
“You are the minister, not me, honey bear. Anyhow, Winnie is at loose ends now. I think she should go back to med school and finish. She says she will look for another job in this area and not impose on us any longer than necessary while that lowdown slime she married sets up a practice and a household with his mistress who is going to be his receptionist. We should sue for all the money my sister earned to put him through school. That’s what we should do.”
“Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord,” the Rev quoted. At a glare from his doctor wife, he added, “We’ll cover her tuition if she wants to go back to med school, and she is welcome to stay with us as long as she likes. You know that, sweet thang.”
“Look,” Joe said. “We’ll pay her for taking care of Teddy until Nurse Wickersham is available. Anything else we can do to help?”
“You might have already done that. When I heard Adam showed up here, I thought exactly what that Samoan said. She needs a new love, and pretty quickly to get over that skinny-assed white boy. I mean Adam is just mouth-watering delicious, don’t you think, Nell?” Mintay appealed to the only other woman in the room.
“Fairly scrumptious, yes.”
“Hey! Sure, he’s a good-looking young man, but he is supposed to be getting married in a few months. Besides, the two of you have the best men the Sinners ever produced, past or present,” Joe insisted.
“Shit!” Mintay exclaimed. “Forgive me, this sorry affair has me all worked up. I forgot about his engagement, but I could have sworn I saw a spark when Adam and Winnie touched hands. Maybe he is having second thoughts about the wedding and that’s why he is here.”
“No, that’s not the reason,” Adam said, standing in the doorway. “Joe, Rev, you got a minute now, maybe without the ladies? Sorry for your loss, Mrs. Joe.”
Mintay stood up and grabbed a black purse big enough to be an old-fashioned doctor’s satchel from the coffee table. “I brought a DNA test kit along for Teddy. Nell, why don’t we take care of that right now?”
“I should get the note his mother left to show to the social worker when she comes.” Nell stood also, embarrassed along with Mintay wondering how much Adam overheard.
“It’s in the kitchen trashcan. Macho made kind of a mess in there, and the note got all soaked with milk. I cleaned up, but it should be right on top under the cookie bag,” their scrumptiously delicious guest said.
“Good. I’ll fish it out and let it dry. Come on, Mintay. Help me find it, then we’ll go see Teddy.” Nell fairly jerked her friend from the den.
“Women! If we said that about some babe, they’d be all over us like flies at a crawfish boil. Sit down, Adam.” Joe gestured to the sofa the women recently vacated.
“Said what?” Adam asked, acting perplexed.
“Nothing you need to know. So what is the problem? Why are you here and not on the road to your island honey?”
“Pala broke off the engagement right after we lost the playoff game. Here I think she is calling to console me, and bam! She tells me she is marrying my best friend, my soa, the guy who was supposed to keep an eye on her and sing my praises while I’m away playing football.”
Adam rammed a fist into the leather of the sofa and left a sizeable dent. “Sammy Tau, we were on the same team in high school, but he wasn’t good enough to earn the college scholarship and get off the island. So he stays behind and steals my taupou, my princess, a real one, not like that crazy kid upstairs, but a beautiful, nineteen-year-old virgin who represents the very best of Samoan womanhood. You know how rare that is? I could break Sammy’s neck.”
“Yep, nineteen-year-old virgins are pretty thin on the ground,” Joe said. “Now that’s your problem. I never did virgins. Too much trouble. You need to forget her and concentrate on your game because I do not want to go through that broken heart crap again with any of my players. First Connor Riley, then Howdy McCoy. Not again, never again! Find someone else. Move on.”
“Well, the guys did tell me you were the man when it came to the ladies back in the day. That’s why I came to you for advice. I should take it.”
“Back in the day,” Joe spluttered. “I only have ten years on you, maybe a couple more.”
Adam turned to the Rev. “You think Winnie and me threw sparks?”
The Rev held up a pair of hands as big as Adam’s. “Not me who saw those sparks, son, but you did hit on her. Now look here, you don’t seem as cut up over losing the girl as you do about your friend betraying you. Could be having a taupou meant more to you than the woman herself. Now, you think about that before you start connecting with my sister-in-law because I can still take you on.”
Adam bowed his head over his clenched hands and considered the Rev’s words. “Maybe you are right. Pala was only twelve when I left for college on the mainland. I never noticed her before she became the taupou, but you know, she kind of ripened last summer. By the time I came back here for summer camp, we were engaged. I’m not so sure if that was my idea or hers or our families. One thing for certain, I wasn’t getting under her puletasi without putting a wedding ring on her finger.”
“As it should be,” the Rev intoned.
Joe tweaked his friend. “Like you and Mintay?”
“I was a football player, not an ordained minister, back then. I’m trying to give Adam some good Christian advice here. Do not jump into another relationship right away. If you have any interest in my sister-in-law, get to know her first. You take things slow. You court her, you hear.”
Adam nodded solemnly. “I understand you stand for her as a brother. I must respect your words. Say Joe, can I hang around for a while? I’m not going home until I am sure I won’t kill Sammy Tau on sight, and most of the guys have left New Orleans already. Is Winnie going to stay here?
Joe shook his head. “I don’t know, Rev. Maybe they both just need a good f—”
From behind the men, Nell answered. “I’ll put her in the lavender room next to Teddy in case he needs her during the night. Adam, of course you are welcome to visit.”
“I told Brinsley he should sleep in the gray room by Anastasia for the same reason,” Joe said. “I guess you can stay in one of the cabins as long as you like, Adam.”
The Rev’s dark face broke into a big, happy smile. “Great idea. Privacy and lots of room in those cabins. Just remember, once Joe sets the alarms at night, you can’t get back into the main house. That would be humiliating to set off those alarms.”
Nell sat down by Adam and smoothed out Maydell’s limp note on the coffee table. “The social worker will be here shortly. I’d like Mintay to sit in with us. Rev, Adam, you know your way around the property. Why don’t y
ou collect Anastasia, Teddy, Winnie, and Brinsley and give them a tour of the grounds. It’s a lovely, mild February day for a walk. Joe, are you hungry? We never did get lunch.”
“I’m starving in more ways than one, sugar, but I’ll settle for a sandwich and a cold drink. Yeah, you guys, give Teddy and the princess the grand tour.”
Chapter Six
Joe’s Lorena Ranch, a former dairy farm, abounded with acreage, and a good thing, too, as Camp Love Letter kept expanding along with his family. As the Rev explained, if Joe heard of something the children would enjoy, he bought it. Once on the smooth, concrete paths winding to various recreation spots, Teddy spun along in his wheelchair without help. Anastasia, not an outdoors kind of girl, complained about the long walk and the inferiority of the facilities. No wonder Brinsley had elected to take a “bit of a lie down” after the ordeal of getting his charge unpacked instead of going along on the tour. Her excess possessions overflowed into his closet and dresser. He did not complain, but Winnie, noting the strain in the man’s face, insisted he needed a break after his travels. The suggestion was most gratefully accepted.
At the basketball court, the men and Teddy practiced free throws. The boy with a mighty effort put two through the hoop. Though Winnie took a turn and got one ball in, Anastasia refused to participate. Foot tapping with impatience, she and Titi, joined by the roving Macho, watched from the sidelines.
“I want to see the horses.”
They went to the barn next where Teddy petted Lazy Boy’s inquisitive, velvet nose and laughed when the stallion sneezed on him. Uneasy around horses and their big teeth, the Rev stayed away from the stalls, but Anastasia inspected them all.
“I’ll want to ride the white mare. Is she English trained?” she said, referring to Fatima whose dapples had faded away with age.
“Hmmm, I think the twins and Xochi share her. You sure better ask them first. The older boys ride Drummer Boy and Copperhead, and the little ones stay on the ponies. I know Lorena likes Buttercup best. That still leaves a pony for you, and they all use western gear.” Still staying clear of the animals, the Rev told as much as he knew.
“Two of those ponies are so old they have gray hairs. I am used to a more spirited mount, but I suppose I must learn to ride western if that is all that’s available.” With a great put-upon sigh, Anastasia asked, “What else is there to do here?”
“Fishing, canoeing, boating, swimming,” Adam listed since he’d helped out at the camp a few times. “My team always wins the canoe races,” he added for Winnie’s benefit, not the girl’s.
“Very well. Let’s see the pool.”
“I had some swimming lessons last summer, and I been on a horse,” Teddy added enthusiastically as the group moved along to the pool area.
“Big deal. This pool is bigger than the one at the palazzo, but we had a private beach, too.”
“Yeah,” Adam agreed. “They could use a beach right beyond the fence where those scrub trees are now. And palms, this place could use some of those. But the banana trees all around the wall make me feel right at home. I’ll be staying in one of the cottages for a while, Winnie.”
“Which one?” she asked.
Their eyes locked. Even the Rev saw the sparks this time. He stepped between them. “Nell didn’t say yet. Probably right next to Knox and Corazon where they can see everyone coming and going from the camp to keep an eye on the place. Yes, sir, a perfect place for you, Adam.”
Adam grinned and shrugged. “Yes, love is best made beneath the palm trees, but no palm trees here.”
“And it better stay that way,” the Rev admonished. “Come on, the children will be home from school soon. We need to get moving.”
Macho raised his head, issued a woof of greeting, and took off in a puff of dust. Anastasia held Titi back with the leash. “You’ll get run over, silly dog.” Hanging back in their shadows, she let the adults take the lead for a change, even allowing Teddy to go before her. The twelve-person van that Macho greeted unloaded a short, plump Mexican woman first, then a long string of children hauling book bags from the backseats. The more the group increased, the slower Anastasia walked, but Teddy whizzed ahead in his chair.
“Hi, I’m your new brother,” he greeted the whole bunch with as much eagerness as Macho who bumped against them and licked faces.
Dean Billodeaux, on the threshold of adolescence and already showing a darkening of hair above his upper lip, practiced his nonchalance. “That so?”
“Mom and Dad could be adopting again,” Tommy, freckled and lanky, said.
“Nope, I’m your real brother. My mama said so.”
“You don’t look like us,” Jude, the more aggressive of the petite, curly-headed twin girls, claimed.
Annie and the kindergartner triplets simply stared at the boy in the red wheelchair before looking to Dean for direction. He’d had “the talk” with his dad, already knew about sex and condoms even if he’d never used one. Coolly, he said, “Could be. It’s possible.” Seven pairs of eyes rounded and seven mouths dropped open.
“Yes, could be,” adopted, brown-skinned Xochi said. She always seemed to know more than the others about the ways of the world, whether she actually did or not.
Corazon, the housekeeper, already standing at the kitchen door while her husband took the van around the back of the house, called out, “You go inside now. Get your snacks. Bring the guests. Reverend Rev, Mister Adam, you coming with your lady friend?”
“Uh, no, thank you,” the Rev replied when the other two adults showed no inclination to move and in fact swayed closer to each other.
With uneasy glances at Teddy and the little girl with the tiny white dog who hung behind the great bastions of the Rev and Adam, the children filed inside, slung their backpacks into a pile, and took a seat at the long table. Corazon doled out glasses of milk and fig bars made with a whole wheat crust. “One each because we got visitors and only a dozen of these.”
“I don’t care for any.” Anastasia scooped up her puppy and took a seat on a stool away from the others.
Teddy, who found a space in the crowd, accepted his with a “Thank you, ma’am.”
Corazon nodded her approval. “Good boy. What are you called?”
“Teddy Wilkes, and that there is the Princess Anastasia and her dog, Titi.”
Dean smirked. “Did you say Titty?” His audience of brothers and sisters snickered.
In all innocence, Teddy answered, “No, Titi, like some people say for peepee.”
“Is not! It means tiny in French,” Anastasia answered, her blue eyes brimming with tears.
“Can we hold it?” Annie asked. “What kind of dog is it?”
“She’s a Bichon Frise, and no, you can’t touch her.” Anastasia crushed Titi to her chest so hard the pup squeaked.
“She’s not a very nice girl,” Lorena, the only female among the triplets, said.
“Did you say bitchin’ freeze?” Dean smirked again and earned more giggles.
All the young Billodeauxs looked up when they saw their father filling the doorway. “Nice or not, she is your cousin. Stop picking at her. Team meeting in the den, five minutes or less. Meet y’all there.”
“Uh-oh,” Trinity, the smallest of the triplets, murmured. Round, black-framed glasses magnified his already large, dark eyes.
Mack, the middle of triplets, guessed, “I think he heard you say titty and bitchin’, Dean. Now we’re all in trouble.”
“Titty is not a bad word. Cows have titties. Peepee is just a baby word, and bitchin’… Never mind. It’s something worse for a team meeting to be called,” Dean answered, not making any of them feel better.
Teddy’s pale cheeks burned red, and a tear dribbled down Anastasia’s cheek. She buried her face in Titi’s curly white fur.
“Go on. You all done. I got to get dinner started.” Corazon shooed them away with a flap of her bright yellow apron edged in red rickrack.
Chapter Seven
Solemnly, the Bi
llodeaux children trekked to the den where their mother and father waited, each sitting in one of the big recliners like the king and queen upon their thrones. The triplets automatically sat cross-legged on the area rug while the older kids crowded onto the long sofa. Teddy and Anastasia stayed slightly outside the family circle.
Joe stood to address his family. He paced with his hands behind his back simply to keep them still as he often did when talking to his teammates. “The young lady over there is your cousin, Anastasia Polasky. Her parents died in a car crash a couple of weeks ago, and she’ll be living with us now because she has no other family.” The words came out grim and unwelcoming though he hadn’t intended them to be.
The children turned to stare at the girl still cradling her dog. Anastasia stood tall and announced, “Princess Anastasia Marya Polasky. You may address me as Princess.”
“Cher, we don’t have real princesses in America. You will just be plain Anastasia from now on, and that’s a mouthful in itself.”
“We could give her a nickname,” Annie volunteered. “Except I’m already Annie, so we can’t use that.”
“How about Nasty?” Dean offered up for laughs until he saw the expression on his mom’s face.
Nell got up and stood beside her husband. She stilled his pacing with a hand on his arm. “Dean Joseph Billodeaux, one more ugly remark at this meeting and you will not be allowed to play football in the fall.”
“Dad!”
“You heard your mother. We have some new players on our team, and you will make them feel at home. That’s part of your job as the oldest and a leader. Understood?”
“Yeah.” Dean slouched back into the cushions and stretched his long legs out in a defiant sprawl.
Annie raised her hand as if she sat in the front row of a classroom. “Stacy would be a nice American name for her.”
“It’s a cool name,” her twin, Jude, agreed.
Nell rewarded them with a grateful smile. “Thank you, girls. I like it, too, but does Anastasia?”
