Paradise for a Sinner (12 page)

“This was an arranged marriage?”

“A very traditional one. My family has been accumulating fine mats and other gifts for most of a year in expectation of the wedding. Such a bride would bring prestige to my family. Pala is all a Samoan woman should be and so I ought to be happy with her, right?”

“I suppose.” Winnie studied the abundance of food she had little appetite for anymore and crushed a blackened bit of pigskin into the banana leaves with her thumb.

“Only now, I don’t think I want a Samoan wife anymore.”

Her eyes moved from the feast to Adam. “Is that so?”

“Winnie, come to the islands with me as soon as you can.”

“I’d have to wait until Nurse Wickersham arrives to care for Teddy. I’m not sure. Samoa is very far away, and I should be looking for a new job. I don’t want to be a burden to Mintay and Rev any longer than I must.”

Nell clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Finish eating. The pre-game show is on and dessert is in the house. Every one of you take home some of this pork and anything else you want. I know y’all brought coolers.”

“That, too, is very Samoan. Every person takes home part of the feast. I have no interest in seeing the pre-game show and want only one kind of dessert. I think we have time for a trip to the palm grove before anyone will miss us.”

“I can’t. Teddy.”

Teddy sat nearby, a sturdy plastic plate almost empty in his lap. Stacy had taken a seat beside the wheelchair and handed him his drink whenever he wanted it. She fed Titi a morsel of pork. Macho gnawed a crunchy pig tail and a couple of the ears with great contentment. The girl gave the couple a genial smile, far from her usual sullen expression when she failed to be the center of attention. She’d been listening in on the adult conversation of course.

“If you want to go for a walk, I’ll take Teddy inside for dessert and get him a good spot in the theater to watch the game.”

Winnie considered the offer. Stacy, though bossy, did pay attention to Teddy and helped when she could. Their little nightly tête-à-tête continued before both went to bed. Within the large Billodeaux family, they had formed their own group of two.

“Teddy, do you need to relieve yourself or anything else?” she asked.

Embarrassed in front of Stacy, he wrinkled his nose. “No! I’m okay. Go for your walk. I don’t need a babysitter all the time.”

“If you are sure…”

“Jeez, go walk with Adam. I can get inside by myself.” He pushed his chair in the direction of the house.

Adam threw the meat scraps to Macho and gathered the banana leaves with the rest of the remnants to fling into a trashcan. “Sounds like he means it to me.” He neatly folded the blanket and tucked it under his arm.

“Teddy,” Winnie called after the disgusted child. “We won’t be gone more than an hour. If you need me, have someone call from the gate to the grove.”

“Yeah, sure.” The boy made steady progress toward his dessert with Stacy tagging after him and giving the wheelchair a shove whenever it hung up in heavy leaves or a small hole.

Winnie conceded to Adam, “To the palm grove then.”

Chapter Fifteen

Stacy took possession of wheeling the chair. She leaned over and whispered in Teddy’s ear. “They are going to do grownup stuff, sex things, aren’t they?”

“Probably. Let go of my chair. I can do this myself.”

Instead, Stacy flashed a sweet smile when Sharlette Dobbs complimented her on being so kind. “I wish my daughters were half as helpful.”

Stacy tipped the chair slightly to gain the concrete path. “Let go,” Teddy growled. Titi yipped at their heels.

“Wait here. I’m going to put Titi inside. I don’t want her barking and giving us away.”

“Giving what away?”

“I want to watch the sex stuff. That Dean thinks he knows everything. I bet he never actually watched anyone having sex.”

“You don’t want to, either. It ain’t nice.”

“How would you know?”

Teddy snorted. “I lived in a trailer, not a wing of the palace, Stace. The walls are pretty thin. Ours had a crack between the two bedrooms. Once, I watched Newt and my mother go at it. Mama called that ‘doing the nasty’, and it was. Lots of moaning and grunting and bumping against the wall. She said she had to let Newt or he’d put us both out on the road with no way to get back to Tennessee.”

“It’s Newt that sounds nasty. I bet it would be nicer between Winnie and Adam. Come on. When will we get another chance this good? It’s you and me against the rest of them, remember?”

“You can’t brag about it to anyone, or we will be in big, big trouble.”

“This is for my own information,” Stacy sniffed in her most superior manner. “Be right back.”

She grabbed Titi and caught up with the triplets filing into the house. “Lorena, would you watch my puppy for a while? I need to help Teddy do something.”

“Sure. I love your doggie.” Innocently, the little girl held out her arms to accept the fuzzy bundle.

“Thanks, Lori.” Stacy dashed back to Teddy who had wheeled farther down the path and around a bend to avoid people stopping to ask if he needed help.

“It’s getting dark. You won’t be able to see much,” he said, still trying to talk her out of it.

“The pool and the pathway have lights, but we’d better wait here a little and let them get good and started.”

****

Deep in the grove beneath the same crossed palms, Adam flicked open their blanket and spread it out. Judging by the many small footprints in the sand, the visiting children had enjoyed his gift, but now the place belonged to them. As soon as he stood again, Winnie unbuttoned his aloha shirt and ran her hands over the smooth contours of his chest. Adam shoved down his jeans and stepped out of them, athletic shoes and all. He immediately went to work unknotting the flowered blouse Winnie had tied at her small waist. With his erection pressing hard between them, he divested her of the top and bra. Sliding her slacks and panties down to her ankles, he held them while she kicked free of the rest of her clothes. On the way up, he licked the inside of her thigh and tested her response with the tip of his tongue. She leaned back against one of the palms as if her legs could no longer support her.

“Ready so soon?” he asked.

“Oh, yes.”

They sank onto the blanket, but he kissed her lips and teased her nipples before going any farther. Winnie dug her nails into his back and flexed her hips against his erection. He sank into her depths. She raked her fingers through his hair with abandon. Adam began moving over her, but suddenly Winnie put a staying hand on his chest.

“Am I hurting you?” He leaned close to ask his question.

“No, I heard something in the bushes,” she whispered.

“Probably a raccoon or one of those crazy mockingbirds. They never sleep. I have one near my cottage that sings all night.”

“I doubt even a mockingbird can simulate whispers and giggles.”

With his lips against her ear, he said quietly, “Probably that damned Dean and maybe Tommy spying on us. Give me a second. I’m going to scare the hell right out of them.”

Slowly, he withdrew from her, but remained lying down. Then with one sudden spring, he jumped to his feet and flexed his muscles. His erection pressed against the maze of his dark tattoos. The rising moon backlit the fury of his wild hair. He crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue before uttering a war cry that did flush a mockingbird from a nearby tree and at least one child from the closest thicket of short palms and red-leafed bananas. Running footsteps beat against the sand.

Adam whipped on his jeans. Winnie huddled under the blanket she’d drawn over her nakedness. “I’m going to catch that snotty brat while you get dressed.”

He dug in with his toes as if starting a sprint, but went no farther than the clump of concealing plants. “Looks like we have a bird in the bush after all.”

Putting on her clothes under the cover, Winnie asked, “Who?”

“You won’t believe it.”

With his hands over his eyes as if covering them would make him disappear, Teddy sat in his red wheelchair mired in the sand. Obviously, he’d tried to escape and only gotten himself in deeper. In the distance, the sharp slap of footsteps fleeing on the concrete path sounded clearly through the grove.

Winnie rounded the bushes and stared at the culprit. “Teddy! How could you? Did Dean talk you into this?”

“No,” the boy mumbled, still shielding his eyes. “I didn’t watch. I swear I didn’t.”

“Well, you certainly didn’t get out here on your own, so who
was
watching?”

Adam squatted down by the wheelchair where the moonlight made shadows of two deep indents in the sand. Unlike the flat patterns made by other children’s sneakers, these betrayed the unmistakable sign of the heels on a pair of small party shoes. Only Stacy had worn dressy footwear with her designer jeans and frilly blouse to the pig roast. He answered Winnie’s question. “The Princess Anastasia, right?”

“I can’t tell you. I promise I didn’t look until you yelled, Mr. Adam. You were like the Incredible Hulk out there, really scary.” His small shoulders trembled under the weight of Adam’s hand.

“Sorry, I was trying to frighten the older boys. But, we’re both dudes, right? You’ve seen naked guys before, so no big deal.”

“Yeah, Newt, my mama’s boyfriend, liked to lay nekkid on the sofa when she wasn’t around to complain. He never shut the bathroom door either.”

“Sounds like a great fellow. I’m glad you didn’t peek on Miss Winnie, but still you should apologize to her.”

“I didn’t want to do it, Miss Winnie. Stacy pushed me over here. Please, please forgive me and don’t tell Daddy Joe or Mama Nell. They’ll put me out on the side of the road.”

Winnie knelt by Teddy’s side and took his hands. “They will do no such thing. You have a home here for as long as you need it. Still, what you did was a very naughty deal, and they need to know. I blame myself, too, for letting Stacy take my place. I should have watched over you. We’ll both accept our punishments. I might have to leave.”

“No!”

“It’s up to your foster parents. I don’t want to wreck the party, so until it is over, I won’t say a word. Let’s get you back to the house. We’ll watch the game and forget for a while.”

****

Nell did a child count as anyone with ten children would do. Joe sat in one oversized recliner, sleepy Mack and Trin tucked in beside him. Her eyes skimmed over Precious and Calvin Armitage and the Rev overwhelming the large sofa with Mintay squeezed into one corner. Sharlette and Asa Dobbs claimed the loveseat with their son, Prince, between them. Connor Riley had possession of the other recliner. He held his two blond children while Stevie lounged on the floor between his legs and rested her neck against the seat. Nell spotted the twins’ curly heads next to Xochi’s braids in the swarm of girl cousins and guests of all ages sitting on cushions in front of the big screen TV. Lorena was with them petting Stacy’s dog.

That accounted for six. Nell made her way to the theater. Dean and Tommy sat in the last row with their feet up on the seats in front of them and a large bowl of popcorn on an adjacent seat. Eight. She searched for two blond heads among the dark Billodeauxs filling the rest of the space. Cassie was removing her tiny fury of a daughter in the midst of a hissy fit from the theater. Her husband attempted to rock Wayne to sleep despite the uproar. Near him in a very dark corner, she picked out Stacy by her white, ruffled blouse in the dim theater. Nine.

Retracing her steps, she went to the elevator and rode it up to Teddy’s room. No sign of him. She tried the kitchen where Corazon and Knox Polk attempted to explain American football to Brinsley as they watched on the set the housekeeper used for her Spanish language soap operas. Chubby Junior Polk worked on a mound of desserts at the table. “Have you seen Teddy?” she asked.

Four heads shook and showed immediate concern. “Should we start a search?” Knox asked as head of security among other duties at the ranch.

“Let me get Joe, then we’ll go looking.”

In the overcrowded den, Joe was up on his feet and shouting, “You call that a block?” The instant replay showed the quarterback suffering a tremendous sack. “My mother could do better than that!”

Mawmaw Nadine probably could if riled enough, Nell reflected. She tugged Joe’s arm. “Teddy is missing,” she told him over the angry roar of the crowd in the distant stadium.

“Save my seat for me, guys,” he said to Mack and Trin before following his wife to the kitchen.

They caught Knox strapping on a very official utility belt holding a weapon and a flashlight heavy enough to be used as a club. Brinsley, still in his absurd tropical shirt, offered to help. “Could he be with Miss Stacy?” he asked. “I noticed them together shortly before we came inside.”

“No, she’s in the theater. Must have come in the front door without him. Do we have any more flashlights?” Nell started searching drawers until Corazon handed her the one she kept handy for power outages. “Let’s go!”

Joe pushed her into a kitchen chair. “You stay here. I’ll get the camp lanterns in the barn. No sense in all of us tripping over tree roots.” He turned the doorknob only to find Teddy, Winnie, and Adam on the other side.

“Thank God!” Nell raced over to the wheelchair bound boy. “We were so worried about you.”

“He went with us for a walk in the palm grove,” Winnie claimed.

Nell and Joe exchanged another of those married people, mind-reading glances. “Really?” they said simultaneously.

“Hey, we’re missing the game. How about some dessert, Teddy? I have my eye on the coconut cake. What do you like?” Adam said cheerfully.

“I guess dessert would be good. I like red velvet.”

Adam steered the boy away. Winnie faced her employers, her friends. “I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. I promise.”

Chapter Sixteen

By the time the chaos involved with getting ten children off to school and waiting with Teddy at the gate passed, Winnie missed her chance to confess. On her walk back to the house, Nell whizzed by in her small, red car on her way to provide free psychological services at Dr. Bullock’s clinic. She thought to find Joe in the barn, but he’d already ridden out on Lazy Boy to check his small herd of Charolais cattle and take an extended morning ride. Adam policed the picnic area, picking up stray trash and shoving the party debris into a black plastic garbage bag, probably already doing community service for their sin.