Chapter Twenty-Seven

Teddy, like a gentleman, let Jess have first use of the bathroom in the morning after they’d uncurled from each other and decided on quiet sex around sunrise. Across the hall, Dean showered for an early departure to New Orleans, and the team meeting before claiming some time off prior to the endless training sessions beginning again. Likewise, the other Sinners moved around the second floor trying not to wake anyone else, especially Dean’s children. When the baby, DJ, started howling for his first meal of the day, and Wynn shouted, “Mommy, Deej hungry,” so loudly any coital noises Jessie and Ted made got lost in the uproar.

“Do you think I should rumple the other bed?”

“If it makes you feel better, but I already told my parents you’re moving in with me. I doubt they’ll be either fooled or upset.”

“Okay. So would you like to shower with me?” Jessie closed the bathroom door.

“Start the water, climb on the bench. I’ll be right there!”

As they explored what could be done with lots of gel and a handheld sprayer, the other inhabitants made their way down to breakfast without knocking on Teddy’s door to say goodbye. He strongly suspected they knew what was going on as well.

Dried and dressed in yesterday’s clothes since they brought no other, Teddy shaved his light beard with an electric razor while Jess fretted over having no makeup. “I keep telling you that you don’t need it, but if you must, Lorena might have left some of her gunk in the drawers on the right-hand side.”

Jessie sorted through the offerings, most not quite right for her skin tones, but she used a light application of blush, some mascara and liner, drawing the line at painting on someone else’s lipstick. They took the elevator downstairs to find Nell, Joe, and Corazon drinking coffee around a mostly depleted platter of turkey sausage patties and buckwheat pancakes.

“I make more if is not enough,” Corazon offered, starting to rise.

“Plenty for us. We’re not athletes. We’ll get our own coffee and juice.” Teddy checked his watch. “When we finish here, we’re going over to Jessie’s house to pack her things. Might take us a while since her parents will be at work.”

Nell put down her coffee mug in a rather decisive way. “Corazon and I will clean up your apartment while you do that. I don’t have any appointments until two.”

“Me and Knox will go along to the Minvielle’s and help you haul,” Joe announced. “Dean, Tom, and Junior said they’d drive back after the meeting if you need them, but positively no lifting for Xochi. That’s Junior’s condition.”

“Not necessary. We can manage by ourselves.” Jessie’s hand alit on his forearm, staying any more words. He’d observed the gesture often when Nell wanted to calm her often-excitable husband. Had he and Jess come that far already?

“Who gave me the lecture about accepting help graciously? Sure, we could manage ourselves, make dozens of trips to the van with a couple of boxes or bags on our laps or wait for your cleaning lady to mop up the blood and put sheets on the bed. However, if we can do all that this morning with their help, we should accept.”

Joe Billodeaux brought out his best grin. “I like this girl. She’s bossy like your mother.”

“Hey, I’m not bossy. I’m logical and sympathetic. You are hard-headed and emotional.” Nell squeezed his arm in a way that said love you anyhow.

“That’s why we’re perfect together. Soon as you finish eating, we move out.” Joe clapped his hands as if he’d just come from a huddle about an important play.

While they finished breakfast, Corazon and Nell assembled enough cleaning supplies in bags for a small hospital. Joe and Knox Polk lugged the stuff to the truck and seated their wives in the double cab. Teddy and Jessie lead the way in the van, first stopping to drop off the cleaning crew at the apartment and next pulling up to the Minvielle’s equipped with boxes and bags thanks to the forethought of Knox.

Jessie emptied the contents of her dresser drawers and closet into the containers. The two tall, able-bodied men hauled. She cleared out her bathroom of makeup, a hair dryer, and her medical needs.

“You taking any of the furniture?” Knox asked.

“No, it’s theirs. Just my laptop on the desk. Good thing I didn’t take it with me yesterday or Ella’s boyfriend would have taken that, too.”

“Yeah, I had mine on the road. I wonder they didn’t rip the desktop out,” Teddy said, feeling a little irrelevant, a bit pushed aside.

“Ella convinced the guy no one would buy it. She did do that for you.”

“Well, good for Ella.” Teddy did a doublecheck of the closet. “Hey, you left something way in the back in a garment bag.”

“Nothing I need.” Jessie did a three-sixty survey of her bedroom. “Do you want me to take the TV on the dresser since yours is gone?”

“No, I’ll buy another one. I wouldn’t want your mother to accuse me of stealing it.” Okay, so a little bitterness sneaked into his tone when he dropped his guard. No one thought he could take care of a baby or Jessie or even move her into his place without help, and it seeped through behind the wry smile.

His father, stacking four boxes under his chin, caught his mood like a well-delivered pass. He’d always been good at motivating his teammates. “Stop goofing off, Teddy.” He dropped the lower two boxes into his son’s lap. “Get those out to the truck and spare my back. Hand them to Knox. You know how he always has to arrange the cargo just so.”

Two more trips, and they had the truck loaded. Jessie penciled a note to her parents and left it on the kitchen counter. Moving in with Teddy. I have to get a new phone since mine was stolen. Call his number if you need to get in contact. Short, blunt and to the point, the nicest thing about hard copy is that no one could argue with it.

Teddy glanced at the note. “You should add Love, Jessie no matter how angry you are right now. That’s what Mama Nell says. Even when she thought the baby might be mine, she said, ‘Love you no matter what.’”

Reluctantly, Jessie added the words. “You are too much of a good influence, Teddy Wilkes Billodeaux. Hard to keep a good mad on when you’re around.”

“Glad I’m good for something.”

“I can think of others.” Jessie made sure both of the older men were out of earshot. “Because I don’t plan on sleeping in the second bedroom.”

That brought out the sunny smile missing all morning. It pretty much stayed on his face on the way to the apartment to unload as Jessie followed him in her reclaimed car. The blood and wilted balloons had vanished, but he found a television bigger than his own with a built-in DVD player waiting to be installed and his bed made up with hospital white sheets covered by his spread and the teddy bear afghan from the ranch. His smile turned upside down.

“I appreciate your efforts, but I planned to buy my own set and thought maybe Jessie would like to help me pick out the spread.”

Mama Nell put her rubber-gloved hands on her hips. “The TV is from one of the Love Letter cottages. You can consider it a loaner. Suit yourselves on getting another spread, but I thought Lizzy would love that afghan just like you did when you weren’t pretending to be too old for it. We were simply trying to get you back to normal as fast as we could.”

Corazon, also rubber-gloved, loomed behind her. “We clean your bathroom too.”

“Muchas gracias. Well, we’ll just put all the bags and boxes into the second bedroom and let Jessie sort it out later.”

Jessie quirked an eyebrow at him.

He added, “Because she’s going to be living here with me, together, in my room.” The dreaded blush heated his cheeks.

Daddy Joe laughed and dropped a stack of boxes to slap him on the back. Knox just nodded, assimilating the fact, but his wife pressed her hands to her broad, big-hearted chest, and said, “I am so happy for you.”

“No need to be embarrassed, Teddy. If you want to pay for something, you can treat us to lunch once the unloading is done,” Nell suggested.

Teddy took advantage of that suggestion to escape to the truck for a pile of bags. With so many hands, the job took little time. He suggested a Mexican restaurant for lunch, but Corazon vetoed that. “We eat Mexican all the time and mine is better. Greek, I would like some Greek food.”

Over heaped platters of gyro meat, hummus, and stuffed grape leaves, Teddy’s phone sounded. “Excuse me. I’d let it go to voicemail, but it might be about Lizzy. You did call Child Welfare this morning, didn’t you, Mom?”

“As soon as they opened. I wouldn’t forget something so important.”

Automatically following the rules of his upbringing that dictated no phones or other devices at the dinner table, he took the call in the lobby and returned to share the news.

“Not Child Welfare. The police tracked Ella and Wyatt, last name Coffey, to an emergency clinic in Opelousas where he claimed he’d shot himself cleaning his gun. They treated him and gave him a tetanus shot and something for the pain. He paid with a credit card, but they were gone by the time lawmen showed up. Next hit came in Shreveport. Ella hocked the TV and the necklace I got for Jessie. They left the truck with the wheelchair and cell phone parked behind a cheap motel. The management picked up the call from the cops, but the two of them were long gone in a boosted car from the motel lot. Turns out that’s what Wyatt did time for: stealing cars. Evidently, he has mechanical skills.”

Nell took a long sip of her lemon and rosewater-flavored Lebanese iced tea. “Too bad he didn’t apply those skills to an honest job and make a home for Ella and the baby.”

“I don’t think the idea ever entered his mind.” Teddy seized a lozenge of grape leaves and dipped it in tzatziki sauce. He took a vicious bite out of the unoffending appetizer.

Knox Polk pondered the criminal mind for a minute. “From Shreveport, they could go in any direction: Texas, Arkansas, back across the state to Tennessee, or head south again. But I wouldn’t mess with Texas or come back here. Arkansas and Tennessee have plenty of woods to hide in, and their accents won’t make them stand out as much.”

Before he could go on with his analysis, Nell’s phone rang. “Child Welfare. I’ll take it in the lobby.”

She got a unanimous, “No, you won’t.”

“Forget about manners, Mom. Tell us what they have to say,” Teddy insisted.

“All right.” The way she smiled and nodded, said, “Yes, I understand” several times, and ended with “That will be fine. We’ll be waiting for you,” her audience knew the news must be good. She disconnected and picked up her fork again.

“Come on! Don’t tease us,” Teddy begged.

“The social worker will bring the baby to the ranch this afternoon. If I’m not there, Corazon and Nurse Shammy will be standing by to receive her. It practically broke Shammy’s heart when Stacy didn’t want her to come help after DJ was born. Stacy has her own way of doing things and thought our family nurse might be getting too old for night feedings. I don’t think Shammy got over that insult until camp started again to keep her occupied. She’s said over and over that gardening and long walks don’t take the place of meaningful work, and Clive agrees with her. Call them semi-retired, she always says. Call them whenever needed.”

Ted explained the situation to Jessie, the only outsider at the table. “Nurse Shammy is married to our sometimes butler, Clive Brinsley. They found love late in life and have no children but us. When they won a big civil suit for personal injuries against the actress, Layla Devlin, they considered building a retirement house on the ranch since Dad offered them land, but decided to renovate the place that belonged to Dad’s aunt near the front gate of the ranch.”

“I’ve noticed it! White picket fence, a garden full of flowers in the front, and vegetables to the rear. Rockers on the porch. It’s a beautiful old place.”

“Yes, the gingerbread cottage appealed to them both. They don’t need tons of room—but it is rumored they put in a Jacuzzi big enough for two.”

“This is true. I have seen this with my own eyes,” Corazon swore. “What do you think, mi esposo? Maybe we get one.”

The light in her eyes gave away the fact that she jested, but Knox, being Knox, gave her statement grave consideration. “If you think it would be good for your sore back, I’d consider it.” He appeared puzzled by the laughter that followed.

“Everyone, finish eating. We want to be there when Lizzy arrives.” Teddy signaled the waitress for takeout boxes. “Maybe I can take her home with me.”

“Not so fast, Ted. The social worker will do a walk-through to make sure nothing has changed at the ranch since the last time we hosted a child, and she’ll check the nursery at our place. After that, she wants to interview you at the apartment and do the same. Lizzy has to stay with us until the case is settled. You must understand.” Nell touched his hand a second before Jessie reached out to clasp the other.

“Yeah, I guess. So I have to go home and wait.” Teddy dumped the generous remains of gyro meat and rice into a takeout box and asked for the check.

“Remember, I’ll be there with you.” Jessie blessed him with a smile that made most of the hurt go away.