Kicks for a Sinner S3 (19 page)

The Rev couldn’t resist an “Amen.”

Howdy continued, “Cassie, the ones who raise you
are
your family. Would have been nice if my mother stayed in touch like you do with Tommy. He won’t ever have to wonder if he wasn’t loveable or not good enough to keep like I did. As for being your friend, well, in my mind, a friend tells it like it is to keep that other person from being hurt even more.”

With a choked gasp and a flood of tears, the sparkler burning in the back seat went out. Connor kept his eyes straight ahead. “I saw that coming from way, way off.”

Howdy moved across the aisle to the seats Cassie occupied alone. “Shoulder to cry on?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.” She stammered out, “I’m sorry” before burrowing into the fabric of another of his pale blue shirts, this one clean and smelling of fabric softer. She cried herself out and eventually fell asleep in the hollow right below his collarbone as if they were lying in bed together wrapped in each other’s arms, his imagination running wild of course.

* * * *

Joe looked at his son’s bright head nodding against the truck window. The boy hadn’t slept well, tossing and turning against him in the motel bed they shared next to Knox Polk who winked out as soon as the lights went off thanks to years of training. No wonder. He’d learned that Tommy hadn’t viewed the actual killing or seen the bodies up close. Thank God for that. But still, he’d lost his natural father—who had treated him well for their short time together—and a new-found sister. Child services came and took Xochi away until her citizenship could be established. He gave the tired, rumpled woman who arrived after dark his contact numbers and his Aunt Flo’s information, too. He assured her that Xochi’s father had been a Cajun-American and she had relatives in Louisiana willing to take her and give her a home.

Last of all, he swore to Xochi she would have a new place with them soon. The child, dry-eyed now, answered, “I do not believe you.” So much cynicism in so young a child broke his heart, but then she’d been raised by Bijou. Most likely many promises had been made and broken in that family.

The female border guard remembered Tommy from his last crossing and, very ashamed, apologized sincerely that she hadn’t seen the Amber Alert and stopped the truck before they got into Mexico. She pointed out the fake passports in the glove compartment. That and a call from Sheriff LeDoux got them released to go home. She helped them find a veterinarian willing to open his place and take the pup into quarantine.

“But he’s an American dog,” Tommy protested.

Good at explaining the facts to children as many veterinarians are, the animal doctor told Tommy that Macho might have picked up diseases in Mexico and needed to have his shots, but he’d keep him safe until the day when the Billodeauxs returned for the dog. Still, the puppy whimpered and put his black nose up against the wire of the small cage when they left. Tommy held back his tears until the truck door shut.

“Is that why they kept Xochi?—because she might have diseases? Maybe I have them, too.”

“Nope, you’ve had all your shots,” Joe joked, trying to cheer his son. “With Xochi, it’s more a matter of deciding where she should live.”

“With us, don’t you think so, Mr. Polk?” Tommy asked as he tried to gain the support of the taciturn ranch manager.

“You never know what the government is going to do,” Knox Polk answered.

Intentionally, Joe selected another hotel far from the one where they’d stayed the night before their incursion into Mexico. Cassie might have been a comfort to her son, but she could be drama personified. The kid didn’t need any more theatrics. He let Tommy sleep as long as he wanted in the morning, stuffed him full of waffles and milk at breakfast, and headed home to Nell who always knew what to say and what to do when it came to their children.

Showing a great deal of tact, Connor, Stevie, and the Rev had all decamped for their homes by the time the long-lost silver truck turned into the drive at Lorena Ranch. They knew he’d call if he needed their help again. With relief, he noticed Howdy’s red truck gone, too. Didn’t mean he wouldn’t find Cassie inside waiting to come between him and Nell. Joe took a deep breath and got out of his vehicle. He came around to the passenger side and scooped the sleeping Tommy from his seat. A light rap on the side window immediately woke Knox who had stretched out for a nap in the backseat. Though dark had fallen, the kitchen door flew open and released a stampeding herd of women and children. Being more fleet, Dean and the twins reached them first.

Tommy startled in Joe’s arms. He rubbed his eyes. “Hey, we’re home.”

Dean tugged on his brother’s jeans. “We saved Easter candy for you.”

“Thanks. I got us a dog. I mean he’s my dog, but I’ll share him with you.

“Where?” the little girls shrieked and swarmed to the truck.

“His name is Macho, and he’s in Texas, but he can come home in a month.”

“Oh.” Their pretty, elfin faces showed their disappointment.

Tommy squirmed to get down, and Nell replaced him in Joe’s arms. “You’re home safe. Now what’s this about a dog?”

Joe said, “Bijou gave him the puppy, not me, but I think the kids can take care of him. Right, team?”

“We’ll feed him and brush him and give him baths,” the girls agreed.

Nell leveled her gaze on her children. “You’ll clean up his poop and his piddles?”

“Oooh, yuck,” the female half of the family replied.

“We will,” Tommy and Dean replied in unison.

“Good. All of you inside and get ready for bed. It’s way past your bedtime.”

The herd turned and trotted away at this command from their leader. Tommy chattered about Mexico as they went. Corazon’s sobs drowned out his words as the housekeeper stopped him at the door, knelt, and smothered him with kisses. “
Oh, mi Rojito, mi pequeno Rojito
.”

He resisted. “Stop it! I’m not small anymore. I escaped from a man with a gun, Corazon, so don’t call me Little Red anymore.”

“Ay, what you telling me?”

Knox raised his wife up and gently led her away. “I’ll tell you all about it,
mi amor
. Joe, I’ll clean those rifles in the morning. Looks like I won’t get to them tonight.”

“No hurry.” Joe steered Nell to the house. “We have lots to talk about, you and me.”

“I’d say so. I get a call from a border guard who puts Tommy on the line. I can’t make any sense of what he’s saying, but catch the words: sister and guns and giant pots. Then, Connor and Rev show up to stay with him until you arrive. They say Bijou and his wife are dead, but they don’t know where you are. Cassie is with you, Knox and Howdy, too. Finally, I get that two-second phone call from you last night saying everyone is fine and we’ll talk when you get home. Not good for my blood pressure, Joe.”

“Sorry. Go settle the children. I’ll put on some coffee. We can talk as long as you want.”

“Better be decaf.’

“You got it. I don’t need any jitters tonight. I shared a bed with Tommy last night and when he wasn’t kicking me in the back, he stuck to me like hot glue.” Joe eyed her belly. “How’s the rest of the family doing? I swear you’ve grown an inch since I went away.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You were only gone a few days. It just seemed like a lifetime. Of course, your mother came over every day and stuffed us with her cooking which is not exactly lo-cal. You know how she gets offended if you don’t clean your plate and ask for seconds. Lizzie’s boys did all the ranch work so none of us got any exercise except for a few long walks. No wonder if I do look bigger.”

“But beautiful, very beautiful.” He drew her in for a kiss, started out light on the lips, then went deeper and deeper until…

“Mom, you gonna tuck us in or not?” Dean said from the doorway. Tommy stood right behind him. The disgusted look on their faces said they’d caught their parents smooching again.

“Coming, definitely coming,” Nell said. “Scoot!” She followed them out.

By the time she returned, Joe had the coffee made. She marveled how he’d managed to make decaf taste strong. Eating it right out of the pan, her husband dug into the half a pecan pie left from dinner,

“Mama does make a great pie,” he said, licking the crust crumbs from his lips. “So you know about Bijou being dead. Some drug lord did him in, no surprise there, and killed his wife. You heard about the dog. There’s one other little thing we need to discuss together. I know you like when I do that instead of making a family decision on my own.”

“Yes, we’ve discussed this.”

“Well, Bijou left a daughter behind. Her name is Xochi. She’s a tough little thing same age as our girls. I wanted to bring her home with Tommy, but since we aren’t sure of her citizenship, Health and Human Services people have her in Texas.”

“Oh, no. Poor thing to lose both parents and then be left with strangers.”

Nell had the softest heart when it came to children, at least unfrozen ones. She’d taken on the raising of Dean, his love child by another woman, then Tommy, and finally the twins conceived by IVF. He counted on that weakness for kids now.

“I sort of promised to come back for her. Tommy has already claimed her as his sister, but if you can’t handle having another five-year-old daughter, you just say so. Aunt Flo and Uncle Hal would probably take her or one of my sisters.”

“You think a five-year-old would be too much for me when I’m carrying three? It’s taking care of a trio of babies that concerns me. No, Flo and Hal have raised a large family and deserve their rest, though they’ll be delighted to have another grandchild. We should keep her, especially since she’s Tommy’s half-sister and a Billodeaux, too. Unlike that puppy, she won’t pee on the floor or chew up the furniture.”

“She claims she doesn’t wet herself, but she might take a bite out of someone, none of my guar-an-tees there. I have three months to help you get her tamed before summer training starts.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Thanks for getting rid of Cassie so we could have some private time when I got home.”

“I didn’t. Howdy sort of prodded her my way. I could tell she’d been crying. She apologized for upsetting me in any way. She said she’d call Tommy in the morning. Then, he loaded her into his truck, and they went back to New Orleans. That young man is becoming much more assertive.”

“If he expects to get anywhere with Cassie, he’ll have to be. Say, this might not be a good time for a suggestion, but do you think we could have some very, very gentle sex tonight? I really need to de-stress.”

Nell took a seat on his lap. She licked the sweet molasses of the pie from his full lips. “Let’s see what we can do in the way of stress relief. I could use some, too.”

TWENTY-ONE

Only too happy to escape his dream of being pursued by gun-toting drug runners and dashing through that arroyo praying he didn’t tread on any rattlers and lose his kicking foot to their poison, Howdy woke to the shrill buzz of his doorbell. Throwing on a terry robe over the boxers he slept in, he made his way to the peephole and glared out at Brian Lightfoot who held up a grease-stained white bag. He unlocked the door, and Brian breezed in with his offerings.

“I have returned. I bring beignets and café au lait for breakfast. My mother sent you an Easter basket filled with home-baked goodies. It’s downstairs.”

“Does she think we’re a couple?”

“Possibly, but I think it’s more the orphan story playing on her heartstrings. She says next time I should bring you home.” Brian set the bag and grande-sized paper cups on Howdy’s breakfast bar exactly like the one in his place except for the pebbled exterior, beige marble top, and the rush-seated stools.

“I hope you told her I had an invitation from a girl to go to her house.”

“Why crush her hope that I’d found a nice guy to spend my life with forever?”

“Thanks a lot for that. So how was Easter at the Lightfoots?”

“Same old, same old. Baked ham, deviled eggs, and Aunt Celia telling me she understood my lifestyle choice while Uncle Newt called me Ella’s faggot son. Family, you don’t get to pick them and have to take them as they are. How did it go with Cassie? Making any progress there?”

“Hard to say. We got called away from her hoard of a family. Must have been fifty people crammed in that house and most of them red-haired. I didn’t have much chance to talk to her with her older brothers quizzing me on my intentions and asking if I played rugby and her mother and aunts pushing more food on me because I seemed too thin for a football player.”

“Typical family holiday if you ask me.” Brian lifted the lid on his coffee and took a cautious sip.

“Look, I appreciate the donuts, but I got in real late. Let me get some clothes on.” Howdy pulled the sash on the robe tighter.

“Still afraid I’ll jump you? Is that why we don’t meet here more often?”

“Yes—and no. You make fun of my condo.”

“It is so mockable. Your designer took one look at you and said, cowboy motif. You did not correct her. I do rather like the new rug, but shouldn’t it be under the distressed oak coffee table rather than slung over the saddle leather sofa?”

“Got it in Mexico and if Cassie doesn’t start seeing me as man rather than a friend soon, I might have to go back there and buy another one.”

“I take it rugs are now a euphemism for sex? Interesting, go on.”

“You got that right. We get this call from Joe Dean on Friday night. Tommy’s natural father, a low-life called Bijou, made off with the boy. He tried once before but Knox Polk, Corazon, and Joe fought him off.”

Brian bit into a beignet and scattered powdered sugar across the counter. Tidily, he cleaned it up with a paper towel ripped from a wrought iron holder. He swallowed and said, “I remember that. Joe took a knife to the shoulder, and the Sinners lost their first playoff game because he was out on medical leave. Tragic.”

“You wanted to play for the Sinners even then?”

“No, dear boy. I wanted a grand lifestyle in a big cosmopolitan city where my queer ways would not be questioned.”

“Makes sense. Anyhow, I drive Cassie over to Lorena Ranch because she’s too upset not to kill herself on the road getting there. Joe already has the Rev and Connor there planning a raid into Mexico to get Tommy back from this Bijou. Cassie refuses to stay behind with the rest of the women, most of them pregnant. I offer to go along—to keep her safe, but she doesn’t seem to notice that.”