Chapter Twenty-Nine

With the wedding dress secured in Teddy’s van, Jessie dug through the fireproof box where her mother kept important papers. “Got it!” She waved the birth certificate in the air, but her elation lasted only a few seconds. A car pulled into the drive at the Minvielle home.

“Let it be Dad, please let it be Dad,” she murmured. No way to tell by the sound of the engine since her parents drove identical SUVs in different team colors. Tucking the certificate into her spare backpack of supplies, Jess put the box into the desk drawer in her mother’s small niche of a home office just off the kitchen.

Teddy waited in the hall for lack of room and bore the full brunt of Dale Minvielle’s anger when she entered the house. “What are you doing here? Returning my daughter, I hope.”

The hardness of her light eyes made him grateful he’d never be a referee at one of her games. He heard Jessie come up behind him. This time, he’d be the one to take the lead. No sense in lying about it being nice to see her, not when Dale already fumed like a bull in the middle of a narrow road.

“We stopped by to pick up a few more things. Jessie needs her birth certificate in order for us to get a marriage license.”

“Marriage license. You are both crazy—unless you’ve gotten her pregnant. Is that it?”

“I’m too responsible to do that to Jessie.” He didn’t bring up Joe’s perpetual advice about always wearing rubber raincoats, knowing it wouldn’t draw a laugh from the enraged woman.

Jessie interrupted. “We’ve hardly had the time to know if that were the case. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“How am I supposed to be aware of what you did when you said he was taking you to the gym? For all we knew it was his euphemism for climbing in the sack, exactly like calling a bar The Library. Regardless, you haven’t known each other long enough to marry. I forbid it! So will your father.”

“Mom, we’re both years past twenty-one, and I no longer live here. You can’t stop us.”

“You aren’t competent to make this decision. Troy hasn’t been dead six months yet. This—this Romeo on wheels has lured you into all sorts of dangerous activities, riding horses, carrying guns.”

Teddy couldn’t help himself. He smiled. How often had he wanted to be considered a little bit dangerous, a bad boy, not the guy in the chair who had a nice personality? “Riding is good core exercise and a gun saved Jessie from her attacker.”

“You think the last part is funny?”

He packed that smile away. “No, ma’am.”

Behind him, Jessie sighed so hard Teddy felt her warm breath on his neck. “Mother, could we get out of the hall and into the kitchen? I want to explain.”

Dale gave a curt nod and led the way. She propped her slim length against a counter, folded her arms, and refused to sit down. “Talk. I can’t imagine how you would justify such rash behavior.”

Both turned their chairs to face her, but Jessie spoke first. “I love Teddy and the baby. The Child Welfare people won’t let him have custody of Lizzy because of his disability and the lack of a wife. We can manage to give her a good home with just a little help from family.”

“That’s what this is all about, the little black bastard his white trash sister birthed and deserted.”

Stunned for a moment by the harshness of her mother’s words, Jessie fought back fast. “Most of your basketball players are black. I’ve never seen such prejudice in you before.”

“Yes, they are, and I’ve lost a good many of them who went off chasing boys and having babies while in high school instead of working toward a scholarship. Jessie, what will people say when you show up holding a colored baby in your arms?”

“I don’t know, Mom. Maybe that I’ve adopted a child who needs me. Or perhaps they’ll think I got in trouble with one of Dad’s players and Teddy loved me enough to marry me anyhow. Frankly, I don’t care. Let people make up what they want. Besides, you haven’t seen Lizzy. She has beautiful skin like café au lait and the most lovely blue eyes—like Teddy’s.”

Dale paced as if she stalked the sidelines in a championship game, scouting for any advantage. “Believe me, I know what it’s like to fall in love with a baby. You’re my only daughter, and I adored you at first sight, those big hazel eyes staring up at me. But it’s not your baby, not my grandchild.”

“She could be if you’d accept her,” Teddy said in his most gentle manner. “Mawmaw Nadine struggled a little when Xochi came into our family, but now I believe she’s her favorite grandchild. The only true Cat’lic among us, she says.”

Dale didn’t spare him even a slight smile. “That’s your family, not ours. If you think for one minute I’m going to rush around trying to reschedule the church and reception hall, you’ve got another think coming, Jessica Claire Minvielle.”

“I don’t expect that. We’ll have a small civil ceremony in the next few weeks. I don’t know where or when yet, but I’ll let you know.” Jessie turned and started out of the room.

“Don’t bother!” Dale shouted at her daughter’s back.

Teddy remained behind for a minute. “Mrs. Minvielle, I hope you will attend. I’ll leave a message with Coach Mo when it’s all decided.” Following Jessie, he thought he heard the sound of weeping from hard-as-nails Dale Minvielle.

****

Teddy found a parking space in front of LeClerc’s Jewelry. The small bell brought old Mr. LeClerc from his glass-walled office, a loupe screwed in one eye as if he wore a monocle, or maybe been captured by the Borg and spied them from afar with this device. The overhead lights shone on his bald head and stooped shoulders.

“Ah, Teddy and Miss Jessie. Either one of you lose your class ring?” he said with so much hope in his voice they knew sales must be slow.

The couple moved toward the old fainting couch where parents learned the damages for class rings, often feeling the need to lie down, and past the antique hutch where Jessie’s selections for silver and fine china once sat on display with a little white card proclaiming the Minvielle-Gilbert wedding. Teddy took a seat on the couch, and Mr. LeClerc perched on a large, studded, but cracked leather chair opposite with the class ring binders resting on a faux Chippendale table between them. With the tiniest of sighs suggesting he suspected a watch repair or battery replacement, the jeweler asked, “How may I help you?”

Teddy straightened his substantial shoulders, flicked the hair out of his eyes, and cleared his throat. “We’d like to look at engagement rings.”

That brought old LeClerc bolt upright in his chair. The loupe dropped into his hand. He gestured toward a nearby case. “Take a look in there and see what you like. Might I wish you every happiness and thank you for not buying in Lafayette or New Orleans. LeClerc’s Fine Jewelry always has the latest styles.”

Well aware that his brothers and brother-in-law had done exactly that, purchased in the larger cities, Teddy said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere else.” Besides, he could hardly afford those ten-carat stones high-class jewelers kept in their vaults. He watched Jessie approach the case and wondered how big a diamond Troy shelled out for with his income as a football player. He’d never minded not being a professional athlete and having their income as much as he did right at this moment.

The rings were in the current style, many small diamonds running along the bands with a central stone in the middle, not a solitaire among them and no plain gold wedding rings in sight. He began to sweat as Jessie circled the case peering through the glass at the dazzling display.

“Oh, Teddy, look at this one. The diamonds on the band alternate with little sapphires, and another small blue stone is mounted beneath the larger one filling it with highlights. That’s my birthstone, the sapphire.”

Mr. LeClerc arrived with the key to the case and supplied the magic name in weddings. “That’s a Vera Wang. Excellent choice. Let’s try it on.”

Teddy thought of the modest necklace he’d bought for Jessie’s birthday, a few inexpensive pearls, no thoughtful sapphires. And no price tags exposed in the ring case. The ring fit a trifle loose. “We can size that for you, no extra charge,” LeClerc offered. “How about that matching wedding band?”

Teddy gulped and wished Jessie hadn’t heard him. Immediately, she twisted the ring from her finger and declared, “You know, we could just get gold wedding bands and forget about all this expensive stuff. I don’t need it.”

“You deserve these rings.” He tried to say that with conviction. He bet Dale Minvielle knew to the penny how much Troy had spent to engage her daughter. “Mr. LeClerc, let’s talk about this in your office.” Teddy put on his most winning smile. Financing available if he asked for it. After years of trying to assert his independence, no way would he ask for a loan from his dad, though the jeweler couldn’t know that.

The total came to a little over five thousand; a bit more with the not very wide gold band he chose for himself. He had that amount in his bank account now, flush with his seasonal earnings from calling the UL and Sinners home games, but in the leaner months after football ended, the sum amounted to several months of living expenses. And he’d taken on a wife and possibly a baby. Jessie would do her part, but Lizzy might sometimes require childcare if Jess wanted to take classes toward that psychology degree. His hands grew clammy as he wrote the check after wheedling a discount for a cash sale.

“Could you put the engagement ring in a box? We’ll bring it back for sizing after we’ve told the family.”

“Nothing I wouldn’t do for the Billodeauxs—even if some of them choose to shop elsewhere.” With a small sniff of disdain, LeClerc placed the ring in a white satin box with his gold logo on the top and handed it over.

As the newly engaged left the shop, Jessie reached up to put a hand on Teddy’s forehead. “Are you okay? You’re sweating. I know the old man scrimps on the air-conditioning a little, but it wasn’t that hot in the store.”

“I’m fine. I’ll put down the windows on the van and let it cool off a little. Let’s go sit in the shade on the green while we wait.”

They crossed at one of the three stoplights in Chapelle and moved into the shadow of a giant live oak among the many dotting the green in front of Ste. Jeanne d’Arc Catholic Church. One mighty branch dipped so low it nearly touched the group.

“Can you get up on the branch?” Teddy asked.

“Sure, thanks to all my muscle building with you.” Jessie flexed her biceps playfully and hiked herself onto the limb.

Teddy leaned his crutches against her wheelchair and lowered himself to his knees. He wouldn’t be able to hold the pose long, but he wanted to do this right. He withdrew the ring box and flipped the lid to expose the diamonds and sapphires. “Jessica Claire Minvielle, will you marry me?”

“Hey, I asked you first, and you didn’t know my middle name until this afternoon when my mother yelled at me. But yes, Teddy, I will marry you with all my heart and all my soul.”

Teddy placed the ring on her finger, and she leaned way over to kiss him on the lips, lost her balance, and took both of them to the ground amid a clatter of fallen crutches.

For a moment, they lay there until cars began lining up at the red light and drivers stared at the two laughing lunatics cavorting in the oak duff. A few people rolled down their windows and offered, “You two need any help?” because this was after all Cajun Louisiana, not the big city.

“No, no, we’re fine. Just got engaged!” Teddy shouted.

Horns honked at the good news. He grabbed his fallen crutches and pulled himself up. That earned a few cheers as the light changed, and traffic moved. He held the chair for Jessie to raise herself into the seat.

“What an engagement story we’ll have to tell Lizzy and our other children,” Jessie said, still laughing.

“We’d better get a move on telling my mom and the rest of the family. Nothing pisses off a Billodeaux more than not knowing family news first. That’s why they hate the tabloids. We’ll try the clinic since it’s nearby, then the ranch.”

They should have known any line of traffic that long signaled what amounted to the rush hour in Chapelle. Between the confrontation with Jessie’s mother, getting the license, making the drive into town, and selecting the rings, they’d lost track of the hour.

At the clinic, Marvelle, closing up for the day, informed them that Nell had left, gone to Xochi’s to pick up Corazon. “Who’s watching the baby? Is she over there?” Teddy asked.

Marvelle bathed them in that warm smile she offered everyone. “The child is with Nurse Shammy at the ranch. Your mother said she practically ran off the rest to get her hands on Lizzy.” Eyes that missed nothing spied the glitter of the ring. “I see congratulations might be in order.”

“Might be, but don’t tell anyone yet. Mom first.”

“If none of the people driving along Main Street don’t call her,” Jessie added.

This time, Teddy phoned ahead and asked the women to stay put until they arrived. “I have Jessie with me. We’ll meet you outside.”

“Wait until you see, Teddy!” Xo exclaimed. “I had ramps built for my second favorite brother after Tom. I was saving it for a surprise when you visited, which you don’t do nearly enough.”

“You sound more like Mawmaw Nadine every day, my second favorite sister after Stacy. We’ll be there in five minutes. Big news to share.”

“Tell me, tell me!”

“Nope. See you soon.”

The women stood lined up along the front porch railing when they arrived. With the gate propped open by a cast iron mouse that appeared to be pushing it, the couple got into the yard easily enough, and immediately noted a path hewed through the aspidistra leading to a side ramp adorned with multicolored spindles and handrails that matched the King Cake house. He and Jessie easily mounted the porch. No one remarked on the stained knees of Teddy’s khakis or the little, brown oak leaves caught in Jessie’s hair.

In less than a second, Xochi spied the ring. “You’re engaged!” She hugged Teddy, then Jessie, then burst into tears. “Sorry, hormones. I’m so happy for you.”

“Ai-yi-yi, we have another wedding to plan!” Corazon took Jessie’s hand to view the ring. “Muy bonita. When—in spring?”

“We were thinking in two weeks,” Teddy said. “Just a simple ceremony with a justice of the peace.”

Nell beamed at them. “You know that won’t be possible with the Billodeauxs involved, though of course we will defer to Jessie and her mother about what they want. Is there any reason to hurry?”

“We want to meet one of the qualifications that Miss Simms set for us to keep Lizzy.”

Nell stopped smiling. “That first time you visited the ranch together, I thought you were perfect for each other, but I didn’t expect an engagement so soon. Is it really good to rush for the sake of the child and have no time to adjust to marriage? Lizzy is fine with us for now. We all enjoy having a baby in the house again.”

“You just want to keep her, don’t you? Can’t you understand she’s my last link to my birth mother?” He failed to keep the jealousy out of his voice and knew he’d hurt the woman who raised him, but she didn’t show it or strike back. That wasn’t Nell’s way. Yet he kept on speaking. “You and Dad started married life with Dean as a baby, and he wasn’t yours. You adopted Tom and had the twins within the next two years. Why don’t you think we can manage?”

“Believe me, while having a baby for a little while is nice, we have very little desire to relive the teen years. Remember, I still have two of those at home. This will all be straightened out long before she reaches that age. I won’t mind skipping teething either. Certainly, I believe you can take care of Lizzy, but having a little time to yourselves might be nice. I always thought so.” Nell revealed herself to him. Obviously, there had been moments she simply wanted time alone with her husband.

Xochi laid a hand on Teddy’s arm. He felt her calming warmth flood his body. “You’re doing your woo-woo thing on me, right?”

“You know you have to watch your blood pressure, brother of mine. Usually, you’re pretty mellow, but you’ve been under great strain lately.”

Jessie nodded. “I can agree with that. We only wanted to tell you about the engagement. My mother won’t be having any say in the wedding. She’s not coming. Like Teddy said, small and simple. Maybe just a ceremony at the courthouse.”

“Oh, no! That cannot be.” Corazon put her hand over her big heart. “You want in two weeks, we see what we can do. You got a dress?”

Jessie brightened. “I do, though I haven’t tried it on in ages. It might need some adjustments and shortening to keep it from tangling in my wheels. I certainly won’t need the train.”

“We do something nice with that. So at the ranch,” Corazon said, already making a mental list her audience could almost see.

“Let’s discuss this over dinner. The men probably wonder where we are,” Nell said.

“If I am not home, there is no dinner,” Corazon proclaimed.

Xochi glanced through the trees of her backyard, across the bayou to the Riverside restaurant where Junior held a part ownership. “I say we celebrate with dinner out across the way. Champagne for everyone! Oh, not for me. Call Dad and Knox to bring Edie and T-Rex along and get word to Trinity. We’ll get a nice takeout for Nurse Shammy and Brinsley who is sure to be lurking around.”

Corazon hugged her daughter-in-law’s shoulders. “With this one, always a fiesta.”

Nell got on the phone. Xo continued to study her yard, shady with oaks, but bright in the sunny spots with beds of black-eyed-susans, Mexican blanket flowers, and orange marigolds. “Why not here if we don’t need a lot of space? It’s more intimate than the ranch. I put a small ramp on the gazebo, too, to let you use it. We can place the justice of the peace there. If Beau’s Blooms can’t handle this at short notice, we’ll cut some of my flowers and hand tie them for bouquets. Who do you want as your attendants, Jessie?”

“You,” Jess said. “Just you. Most of my old friends fell away when I had my accident. Teddy, what about your best man?”

He sorted through all his brothers. Dean had been really mean to him when he first entered the family, though he’d defended him later from teasing. Tom tended to do what Dean did back then. Certainly not playboy Mack. T-Rex, a little too young to trust with the rings. “I guess my nerd brother, Trinity. He won’t show me up by being too tall, or play practical jokes like Tom or Rex might. He needs to sharpen his social skills anyhow.”

“Perfecto,” Corazon agreed. “Some of the boys are still naughty.”

“Your dad wants to know how many pigs to roast.” Nell held her phone away from her ear.

“Roast pigs, ahh…” Jessie stumbled over that one.

Teddy squeezed her hand. “Family joke. Adam Malala, our Samoan friend, had forty at his wedding on the island. It’s a prestige custom there. Tell Dad one would be fine. We don’t expect a crowd.”

Nell relayed the message and phoned for reservations at the Riverside. “They’re getting a table ready for us. Let’s celebrate!”