Chapter Thirteen

Teddy insisted that Jessie drive his van home from rehab. He wanted to give her the gift of confidence—among other things. He broached the subject carefully. “Are you busy this weekend? I mean I have to be in the booth for the UL game Saturday night, but the Sinners have their opener on the west coast. I won’t have to go down to New Orleans.”

Jessie bit her lip, concentrating on the heavy flow of traffic along Johnston Street, getting plenty of practice on braking at the many spotlights, not to mention the sluggish pace along that piece of road. She stopped on red before answering. “Do you need me to stay with Ella again? My dad wants me to go to the game and sit with the team, but I’d be glad for an excuse to get out of it. I don’t want to be their crippled mascot.”

“You’d be a beautiful mascot, but no. Ella connived to get invited to the ranch for the weekend. My parents aren’t flying out to see the Sinners beat the Raiders. They’ll have a few friends over to watch the game. She’ll get to stay in Lorena’s room like she wanted. My mom said I looked like I needed a break from Ella, so she’d take her for a few days. If the baby comes, they have Nurse Shammy on hand and can drive her to the hospital. I mean, I’ll be free most of Saturday and Sunday if you’d like to come over and hang out with me.” Relieved when the light turned and Jessie paid attention to the car in front of them, Teddy knew he had a blush coming on as he bungled his way through the invitation.

“Or you could come and watch the game with my dad on Sunday.”

“Not exactly what I had in mind. I thought we could go out to lunch some place nice, maybe Don’s Seafood. Do whatever in the afternoon, then drive over to Cajun Field for the game.”

“Oh, like a date.” She kept her eyes straight ahead. “Maybe a date with sex.”

“Well, it could be that or just going to the game and getting a hot dog before it starts. Really, forget about it. You should go with your dad and sit with the players. You’re used to being in the heart of the action. I’ll bet you could help out, raise team spirit.”

“Right. I might do my old cheers—without the cartwheels and splits of course. Mostly, me and the chair would be in their way.” Bitterness crept into her voice like salt water encroaching on a fresh pond.

Not what he wanted at all. Why was this so difficult? He’d asked girls out before, been rejected by some, accepted by others, and had sex with the more adventurous and open-minded. In the last case, he made sure he didn’t disappoint. Caring about Jessie too much wiped out any suave he might have possessed. He tried again.

“Okay. We could get takeout and watch some other team in the afternoon. Go to the UL game while I work. You can stay with your dad, hide in the tunnel, whatever you want, go home with him or come back here with me.”

“You left out the best part.”

“Dinner out?”

“No, idiot! The sex, the really good sex.”

“That could be arranged before or after the game, maybe both. Up to you.” He took a turn at studying the traffic pattern.

“It’s a date, then.”

Jessie executed a left across two lanes and into one of the nice old subdivisions running along the Vermilion River where her parents had found the single-story brick home with mature trees and shrubbery plus the amenities left behind by an elderly couple who built a bathroom for the handicapped before they’d succumbed to assisted living. As usual, her dad trotted out as if he led a team to victory. He retrieved her wheelchair from the rear and let Jessie slide into it herself.

“Want to stay and have some lunch, Teddy? Right after I have to get over to the college to teach my PE class and run the pre-game practice.”

“No, thanks. I have to get back to my place and feed Ella. I’m bringing Jessie to the game tomorrow night.”

“Great! I wanted her to come, but wasn’t having much luck.” Coach Mo gave him a wink so broad that Teddy sincerely hoped Jessie missed it.

“I bribed her.” He neglected to say exactly with what. “I’m taking her out to dine Saturday.”

“Whatever it takes, son.” Maybe Coach Mo did suspect. They shook hands while Jessie fumed.

“Anyone care if I have some say in this? Pick me up at eleven, Teddy. I’ll be ready to go.”

“See you then.” Whistling a happy tune like a cartoon dwarf setting off to work, he took the wheel, made a stop to empty his post office box, and returned to his apartment in a thoroughly great mood.

The first thing he noticed upon arrival was a cigarette butt on his ramp and the smell of smoke in the apartment. Ella lay sprawled on the couch as usual. “What’s for lunch?” she asked, also as usual.

“We have leftovers from the ranch barbeque—unless you’ve eaten it all.”

Ella studied her painted nails resting on her big belly. “That’s mostly gone.”

“Then, toasted cheese sandwiches and soup. There’s always fruit if you need something right away. Has someone been smoking in here?”

“Maybe the cleaning lady. I went out for a walk when she came.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Oh, I met that couple from the childbirth class, the guy with the tats and the woman with the nose ring. They came to visit for a while. I guess he did have a cigarette. I give ’em some of the leftovers. I mean I didn’t eat it all myself.”

Not the friendliest couple in the group, but Teddy accepted her excuse. He certainly hoped the culprit hadn’t been Ella.

Teddy sorted through a week’s worth of mail, slinging most of it into a trash bin. A handful of bills remained and a couple of checks for past work. He’d do a deposit and pay online after he fed the elephant in the room. Putting tomato soup into bowls for nuking in the microwave and placing the assembled sandwiches in a large frying pan to brown, he opened the bills and sorted out the chaff of advertisements and special offers until he had only the chits to be paid. His pale brows rocketed toward the ceiling when he saw the total on the cell phone bill. Sure, he used it a lot for business, but this sum exceeded the past six months. One number recurred over and over again, calls lasting over an hour, all to a phone registered in Tennessee.

“Ella, just because I leave my phone on the counter, doesn’t mean you can use it without asking. This bill is going to eat those two checks I just received and then some.”

She shrugged as if it weren’t her problem. “I thought you wanted me to make up with my daddy.”

So she hadn’t been talking to her baby those evenings he’d passed by her room. No, she’d been wasting his money on the repulsive Newton Smalls, trying to crawl back into his good graces, as if he had any! He considered checking the number to see if she’d told the truth, but the very thought of any contact with Newt made his skin crawl as if covered with small live snakes.

“I think the sandwiches are burning,” Ella prompted.

Right, the sandwiches and his usually placid temper. Teddy flipped the bread to the other side. They’d eat them slightly charred because he wasn’t making them over for his careless sister, not with the price of cheese. Screw it! He’d take Jessie out to dinner even if he shouldn’t charge anything right now. They ate in silence. Ella cleared the dishes and cleaned up without being asked while Teddy opened his laptop and calculated the damages she’d done to his bank balance.

“You kinda mad at me?” She turned wet blue eyes away from getting the scorch marks off the frying pan toward Teddy.

“Yes. I’m trying to live on my own, not live off my parents. You put a big hole in my safety net with your phone calls. I still have your medical bills to pay.”

“You gonna beat me with one of your crutches?” She offered him a wobbly smile as if knowing him incapable of doing violence.

“Don’t think I couldn’t, but I will never be like Newton Smalls. I need to get over my mad. I’m taking you to the ranch this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning.”

“Why that ain’t a punishment. It’s a reward.”

“It’s cooling off time. Go pack for the weekend.”

As soon as she left, he called Lorena Ranch, lucky to find his ever-busy mom at home. “Hey, do you mind if I bring Ella over right now instead of tomorrow morning?”

“To be honest, it is inconvenient. On Labor Day, she said she had nothing for the baby, so we’re planning a surprise shower for her. Your sisters are coming, Mintay Bullock, Marvelle and some others from the clinic, Mawmaw Nadine, whoever I could get at short notice. Corazon is working on the food, and we’ve ordered a cake. We have a nice crib and a changing table left over from Edie she can have.”

“I’ve been meaning to take care of those things.”

“Well, time is nigh, Teddy. She could go into labor any minute.”

“I know, I know. It’s just that Ella burned a big hole in my bank account making long distance calls back home. I’m kind of p.o.’d with her right now.” A good son simply didn’t use foul language with Mama Nell, and he went for the initials.

“You should know we’ll help you cover whatever you need. She really is your sister by the way. We used her blood sample at the clinic and sent it off to see if it matched your DNA from the test we had done to determine if Joe really was your father when you first came to us.”

“Ella agreed to that?”

“You know how it is with medical forms. They shove a stack of papers in front of you with a bunch of x’s telling you where to sign, and you do. Since I married Joe Dean Billodeaux, I take nothing for granted. You never know what will happen in this family. Best to make sure we aren’t being conned.” People always underestimated Mama Nell because of her small size, assuming she’d be a pushover. If anything, she was more logical and hardheaded than her genial husband—except when pregnant he’d probably add.

“I never doubted she belonged to the Wilkes family, her eyes, her accent, the things she knew about my mother, but thanks for looking out for me.”

“Always. Give me an hour before you leave. We’ll hide everything. Tomorrow, we’ll get your dad to distract her. He and the other husbands plan to watch football in the theater away from the baby stuff, he said. Maybe he can play a movie for her while we set up the party.”

“You are the world’s best mother.”

“You are my beloved son. Never forget it. We’ll survive Hurricane Ella Sue together.”

As they disconnected, Ella dragged her old suitcase into the living room. “I’m ready to go!”

“Mom has to get your room ready, so we’ll have to wait a while.”

“That room looked fine to me on Monday, better’n any place I ever stayed.”

“Fresh sheets, soaps and lotions for the bathroom, you know.”

“Just like a hotel.”

“Just like. Come on, I’ll take you for some soft serve after I clean up from the gym.”

Ice cream, a cheap luxury on a now tight budget, but Ella lapped it up like a cat does a bowl of milk. As they ate their cones, Teddy considered what he wanted more than dessert—Jessie Minvielle tonight in his bed. He checked his watch, repeatedly. At last, they hit the road driving somewhat over the speed limit in a mobility van. The sad state of the backroads made him slow down, but he had Ella at the gates where she was once refused entrance in record time. Ella Sue, thrilled to be there, took no notice of his quick departure with nothing more than a peck on the cheek for his mother.

As soon as he passed the first bend in the road, Teddy turned into a farm lane bordered by tall sugarcane awaiting harvest and whipped out his much-abused phone. He called Jessie’s number and waited somewhat breathless. She answered.

“Jess, would you like to move our date to tonight—dinner at Don’s? I took Ella to the ranch early. Did you know my mom is planning a baby shower for her tomorrow?” His rush of words seemed to amuse her.

“I was invited to the shower, but told them I had other plans. You are my other plan. I’ll get her a gift when I see what else she received. Yes, to moving up our date to tonight. Not sure about going to a restaurant. I hate being gawked at by kindly strangers, or worse, friends. Let’s get takeout.”

“I don’t think so. You need this experience, and believe me, it is all in the planning. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but gawkers never hurt me. Wear something nice.”

“Teddy, no!”

“Pick you up at seven.” He disconnected before he got further protests, found the number for the restaurant, made reservations, a couple of special requests, and gave some thought to how to spent the rest of the evening. Yes, it was all in the planning.

The rumbling noise of a high-rise tractor heading his way on giant tires interrupted those thoughts. Teddy backed out of its way and onto the crumbling tarmac. Plenty of time to dispose of the cigarette butt, air out the apartment, and put condoms in the night table drawer.