Paradise for a Sinner

by Lynn Shurr

  “She’s got a heap of those along with a bad attitude. I’m not so sure she’ll be staying here after those remarks she made. Maybe your parents will take her, Nell, or your brother.”

  Nell stroked Joe’s arm. “My parents are too old to raise another child, and my brother has three boys. Besides, she is a half-sister to both the twins and the triplets.”

  “Maybe your sister-in-law would like to have a daughter. This kid doesn’t look anything like Emily, but she for certain has the same sorry nature. She won’t fit in here.”

  “I could have said the same of Xochi when she arrived, but she has thrived.”

  Brinsley looked from one to the other and finally inserted his plea. “Anastasia greatly resembles the prince who was a handsome man, but a child will reflect the parent she is with most often. Her mother did not permit her to play with the village children. She had only an Italian girl and a private tutor to see to her. They left as soon as the first paycheck bounced. No loyalty at all. Now if the child had a professional English governess things might have been different, but instead, she was her mother’s confidant. Mrs. Polasky became an embittered woman, well aware of her mistakes and refusing to admit them. I have been working with Anastasia to improve her behavior, but it will take time and patience to undo the damage, I fear. If you are not up to the challenge, I could seek the Polasky side of the family, but I am afraid they don’t exist, and certainly not as Polish royalty.”

  “We figured as much. I guess she must stay. Be glad to have you remain a while, too,” Joe conceded. Nell hugged his shoulders, and he knew he’d done the right thing deep down no matter how difficult it would be. He and Nell had faced hard issues before and could handle them together.

  He clapped his hands together. “Okay, so let’s get that load of luggage moved upstairs. Where do you want to put the children, Nell?”

  “Let Anastasia pick her room. Teddy can go along and decide where he wants to sleep, too.”

  “I can handle the luggage, sir,” Brinsley offered.

  “The hell you can. It will take you, me, and Adam to move that mountain. Good thing we put in an elevator, huh, Nell? You coming along?”

  “No, I have to break the news to my family. Close the door when you go out, please.”

  “Should I stay?” Joe noticed the tears forming in the corners of her brown eyes.

  “No. Taking care of the children will be the biggest help right now.”

  “If you say so.”

  He left his wife in the closed room and went out the front to tackle the baggage with Brinsley. He saw Adam’s broad, hunched shoulders first, then the rather charming tableau of the two children and the dogs under the oak tree. Maybe this could work.

  “Ah, Joe, you got a minute now?” Adam asked.

  “As soon as we move Anastasia’s things into her room, bro. Grab a few bags.”

  Picking up two of the pink suitcases and shoving a hatbox under one muscular arm, the big Samoan complied. Brinsley extended the handle from his black, wheeled luggage and piled two smaller cases on top.

  “Princess, bring along Titi’s carrier, please,” the butler directed his charge.

  Anastasia snapped the leash on to the dog’s rhinestone collar and took up the small crate now sitting on the ground. Teddy wheeled up after rocking a little to free his chair from the oak duff.

  “I can help. Put a little one on my lap.”

  Joe placed him on the porch first before setting smallest case on the boy’s lap. He tipped the wheelchair up the steps into the house and went back for what remained of the baggage. Like a caravan of overloaded camels, the men followed the high plumed tail curled over Titi’s back and the equally head-held-high form of Anastasia. Macho attempted to join the march. Joe kicked the door shut in his snout.

  “Make a right at the end of hall to the elevator,” he called from the rear.

  “Golly, you got an elevator. I never lived in a two-story house before or one with an elevator neither. Can I push the button to make it work?” Teddy did the honors.

  “I guess we knew you were on the way,” Joe said as he motioned the children inside and got aboard himself. “We’ll have to make two trips.” Leaving Adam and Brinsley behind, they ascended to the second floor.

  “We have four bedrooms with shared baths between them. Pick your place.”

  Anastasia wrinkled her nose. “I do not share a bath.”

  “Well, you do now.”

  The girl opened one door after another. “None of them is pink. Pink is my color.”

  “The twins have the pink room and aren’t likely to move out for you. Choose something else,” Joe ordered with his dislike of the child creeping into his voice. He choked it back and turned to Teddy. “Which one do you want? Now you get first choice because the princess here can’t make up her mind.”

  “Hey, ladies first!” Anastasia objected.

  “You snooze, you lose. Go on, Teddy.”

  Teddy peered into the first room by the elevator. “This ’un’s fine. It’s green. I like green. I never had such a big room before. Thanks, Dad.”

  “About that business. I don’t think your mom and me ever…I mean she had you at fifteen, and I’d never do… Forget it for now.” Joe let the two pink suitcases fall to the floor. “Where’s your luggage. Let’s get you moved in.”

  “My duffel bag is in the kitchen. I hope Macho didn’t eat my meds ’cause I really need them.”

  “Only if they smell like food.”

  The elevator slid open and disgorged Brinsley, Adam, and the rest of the luggage. Anastasia stamped her foot and addressed the butler. “Uncle Joe says his twins have the pink room. Teddy took the green one, but it’s by the elevator and I didn’t want it anyhow. The worst rooms in a hotel are always by the elevator. And I have to share a bathroom.”

  Brinsley appeared to reflect for a moment. “However, this is a very nice house and will not be quite as noisy as a hotel. Let’s see what we have left: a very lovely lavender, pale gray, cream and white with gold accents. Why this last is fit for royalty and away from the lift. White and gold furniture in the French style, a beautiful lamp with crystal drops, a padded headboard, superb! What do you think, Anastasia?”

  “Then it should be mine. Where will you stay, Brinsley?”

  “In the servants’ quarters, I imagine. If you will point the way, I will dispose of my baggage and return to assist the princess in her unpacking.” He addressed Joe and awaited directions.

  “We don’t exactly have servants’ quarters. Take the gray room. Our housekeeper and ranch manager have one of the cottages, but that’s a lot of room for one person. I think you should stay by Anastasia for now.”

  “As you wish.”

  Adam let his burdens fall to the floor with a thunk. “Joe, do you think now…”

  “Would you go downstairs and get Teddy’s duffel bag?”

  “Sure, but then…”

  “Absolutely.”

  Adam gave up and headed for the sweeping staircase. He needed to burn off some frustration. Cleaning up the mess the dog made helped. Placing the broken plate in the sink, he sopped up the spilled milk with paper towels, put the jug back into the refrigerator, and the dog-licked dishes in the washer. Shouldering the duffel, he ran up the flight of stairs only to find Joe gone and Teddy alone in his room.

  “Thanks, Mr. Adam. I don’t got much. Set it down by the dresser, and I can put my stuff away by myself.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yep.”

  Across the hall, Anastasia’s shrill voice corrected, “Not there, Brinsley! My undies go in the upper right hand drawer.”

  Glad to escape, Adam jogged down the stairs again. In the hallway, Joe held a sobbing Nell to his chest.

  “I know Em could be mean and vindictive. She resented all the attention I got because of my illness, all the sacrifices she had to make. We weren’t close, but still she was my only sister and now she’s gone.”

  Over his wife’s h
ead, Joe mouthed, “Not now.”

  Adam nodded and went out the front door. He took his seat on the step again. Macho came over, put his big head in Adam’s lap, and dusted the sidewalk with his tail.

  “You know, I don’t like dogs very much. They bark too often and leave shit everywhere. They make big messes like the one in the kitchen. In America, you can’t eat them, but you’d make a pretty good-sized roast. Still, you seem like a good listener. Here’s the problem. My girl told me she is going to marry my best friend, not me. She held off until we lost the playoff game. Didn’t want to upset me. Ha!”

  Macho tilted his head and scratched his side with a rear paw. He appeared ready and willing to offer comfort and support in time of need. Adam continued with his tale.

  “How can I go back to Samoa when all I want to do is find Sammy Tau and squeeze his neck until he dies? He stole my taupou, a real island princess, not like that kid upstairs who thinks she’s royalty. Where am I going to find another one of those, huh? Everyone in Pago Pago must be laughing at me by now. I mean you can be a big deal in the U.S. of A. and still be nothing in Samoa. I can’t go home. Not now.”

  Adam buried his broad face in his huge hands. Macho tongued the part not covered, then pricked his ears and, barking ferociously, raced toward the front gate.

  “Even you desert me, Macho,” Adam muttered.

  Running alongside another black Escalade, the dog escorted the new arrivals to a parking space and waited eagerly for a door to open. Adam recognized the vehicle and knew it bore a gold cross and a chaplain’s license plate on the rear rather than a red devil. Revelation Jeremiah Bullock, the man he had replaced on the Sinners’ team, had come calling. Adam brightened. Maybe he needed a man of the cloth to listen to his woes more than Joe Dean’s advice.

  Huge, black, and ponderous, the Reverend Rev got out from behind the wheel, and being the consummate gentleman, moved around the front of the SUV to hand his pretty and svelte wife, Dr. Arminta Green Bullock, down from the front seat. She carried a medical file under one arm and smiled brilliantly when she recognized Adam. The Rev opened the backseat door, probably to release his three children, but no.

  He helped a tall, slim, very light-skinned woman alight from the rear. She possessed large, green, slanted eyes that marked her as a relative of the Rev’s Mintay, but had better hair than the esteemed doctor’s straightened black bob or Adam’s frizzy mane for that matter. Hers, light brown and parted in the middle, fell in soft, golden edged waves around a perfectly oval face and down her chest to the tops of two firm, upturned breasts encased in a tangerine-colored clingy top. Not large but alluring, those tits tilted as if they offered themselves to a man’s mouth. All she needed to set off that face, that body, was a red hibiscus flower tucked behind an ear and a brightly colored lava-lava dress. Adam stood to greet her—and Mintay and the Rev of course.

  Mintay reached him first and gave him an affectionate hug. “So good to see you, Adam. This is my sister, Edwina, but we call her Winnie. She’s a registered nurse, and I thought she could help out with Teddy’s needs until Miss Wickersham is free. Winnie will be staying here for a while. She’s newly divorced.”

  Winnie cheeks flushed lightly. “Sister, I do not believe you just said that to this man.”

  Adam smiled a grin so broad he thought his face might stay that way permanently. “Lovely lady, there is a saying in Samoa that the best cure for a lost love is a new love.” He offered his hand.

  Chapter Four

  Winnie Green—Green because she’d taken her maiden name back with a vengeance—stared at the outstretched hand and all the rest of Adam Malala. Being sister-in-law to the Rev, she’d seen pro football players up close at various family events, but at the time she’d been married and following the advice of her grandmother and mother. Nana, the original Arminta and wasn’t Winnie glad she’d escaped being her namesake, always pounded home the age old wisdom. Marry lighter than yourself. Raise up your family. Better opportunities come to the light-skinned.

  Her mother, a beneficiary of the Civil Rights movement, who held a doctorate in sociology and possessed a husband who matched her in intellect, degree, and fair complexion, simply said, “Marry white because you can.” When Mintay accepted a proposal from the Rev, considerably darker than the Samoan who stood before Winnie today, her family erupted like a volcano in the South Seas.

  “Do you know what you are doing, girl? We don’t care how rich he is, how can you marry that big, black brute of a football player?” By the time the wedding rolled around, the Rev had won them over with his outsized personality, kind heart, and in the case of Nana, his love of the Lord. It could happen again, especially since Winnie, the pliable baby sister of the family, had failed to keep her white man.

  As of today, Winnie Green was done with skinny white boys. She desired someone big and warm and brown, as delicious as hot fudge topping. She wanted to rake her fingers through the mass of soft curls surrounding Adam’s face and enjoy everything broad about him, his nose, his cheekbones, his lips—especially his lips. Then on to his chest stretching the red knit Sinners shirt over a mass of muscles and down to an ordinary pair of khakis made extraordinary by the way they pulled over his large, hard thighs.

  She took Adam Malala’s hand. “Very happy to meet you.”

  “Me, too.” Without releasing her hand, Adam guided her into the house with the Rev and Mintay following, and Macho being shut out again to whine for entrance. “I’ll take you to meet Teddy. I think the doctor and Rev should go see Mrs. Joe. She just learned her sister died.”

  Mintay thrust the medical file at her sister. “This is Teddy’s information for you to study. I need to comfort Nell. You two go ahead.”

  In the elevator, Adam stood close enough to Winnie catch a whiff of light perfume. The scent of her shampoo in that golden brown hair exuded the fragrance of coconut and papaya that reminded him of the islands, palm trees, and ripe fruit for the picking. When the door opened on the second floor, the complaints of Anastasia ordering Brinsley about filled the air, and not in a good way.

  “A niece and a butler the Billodeauxs inherited,” Adam explained.

  “I would have been surprised if Nell allowed any of her children to act like that. Where is Teddy?”

  They found the boy sitting near the window facing the front of the house. Although his Harry Potter book lay open on his lap, Teddy gazed outside at the tops of the oaks and Macho beneath them snuffling in the dirt and barking at a squirrel that darted up a trunk. He wheeled around to face them with a big smile. “Hi, Mr. Adam. I put my all clothes in the middle drawers so I can reach them and my medicine bag is in the bathroom. Is that okay?”

  “Not my house, but it sounds good to me. This is Edwina Green. She’s a nurse who will help you out for a while. Teddy and me are buds. We met at lunch.”

  “Mr. Adam made me a peanut butter and banana sandwich, Miss Ed—ed—ina.”

  “Call me Winnie. That’s short for Edwina. I was named after my father, Edwin. That’s kind of funny, huh?” She sat on the bed to be more on the boy’s level.

  “You shouldn’t laugh at people’s names, Mama said. She went away today and left me to be raised by my dad. Winnie is a nice name like the sound horses make.”

  Faced with this bald statement of abandonment, she fell back on the mundane. “Did you eat all your lunch?”

  “Most of a sandwich and some milk and an oatmeal cookie, but Mr. Adam ate four sandwiches and a big glass of milk. I guess Macho got the rest of the cookies,” he said regretfully.

  “I’m sure you can have a snack when the other children get home from school.”

  “Miss Nell said she has eight kids. That’s a lot. Do you think they will like me?” His small, pale forehead wrinkled with concern.

  “I think they will. Adam and I like you already. Right now, do you need help using the bathroom or need anything else?”

  Winnie added a warm smile to her statement that made Adam wish she’d dire
cted it at him. He could have sworn he’d seen some heat in those green eyes when they met, but now all her attention had gone to the patient. He counted that as a good thing even if it bruised his ego some.

  “No, I can cath myself,” Teddy said with some pride. “But I need help with doing a number two at night.”

  “We’ll take care of that this evening. I see you like to read.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I can’t take PE in school. Mostly I read during that time.”

  “Reading is great, but you need your exercise, too. Are you using crutches yet?”

  “Yes, ma’am. They are in Miss Nell’s car, but I don’t like them. They slow me down. In my chair I can go fast as I want.” Teddy swirled his chair in a quick circle on the hardwood floor to make his point.

  “Still, you need to practice with your crutches every day to get better at it and do some upper body exercises to make you strong.” Winnie made a note in the folder. “I need to look over this big, fat file that tells me all about you. Why don’t we just sit here and read for a while?”

  “Okay.” He opened his book, but stared out the window again. “I bet heaven is like this—way above the treetops. I bet my granny is there, and Jesus gave her a room just as nice as this one. And dogs. There would be dogs running around in heaven.”

  “I’m sure you are right about that.” Winnie shared her smile with Adam now.

  He smiled back, maybe a little too broadly. “Guess you don’t need me here.”

  “Not at the moment, but I think I’ll want some help lifting him into the bath and bed if you are staying overnight.”

  “I hope I am. I want to stick around for a while if Nell and Joe will let me.” More reason now than ever.

  “You know they always have room for one more.”

  “True, they are full of alofa. That’s a giving kind of love in Samoan.”

  “I’d like to learn more about Samoa.”

  “I would love to teach you. I wish we had a few palm trees and a beach for our lessons.”

  Even Teddy felt the sexual tension invade the air. He asked, “Is Mr. Adam your boyfriend?”