Paradise for a Sinner Read online

  The dancing began and would continue well into the night. Precious Armitage, in a brilliant orange and gold floral dress boogied by with her cumbersome husband, Calvin, and said, “I tell you, these are my peoples. They know how to eat and how to par-tay.”

  Winnie glanced around for her new husband and found him gone. Leaving the shade of the last canopy, she scanned the beach for him and experienced a small frisson of worry as memories of the night Sammy Tau died flooded her mind. It receded like the tide on the village shore when she noticed him crouched by Teddy’s wheelchair watching a game of kirikiti, a Samoan form of cricket the bored children started as the heat of the day waned a little. Getting their wedding finery dirty, Dean, Tommy, Jude, and Xochi participated. Teddy and Stacy sat on the sidelines. Having abandoned their shoes in a little pyramid on the shore, quiet Annie supervised the triplets and Knox, Jr. wading at the edge of the water. Dean used the three-sided club to wallop the rubber ball into the waves. Stacy jumped up and did an impromptu cheer as Winnie joined the group.

  “I wish I could do that,” Teddy said wistfully. “But it’s okay. Daddy Joe and the ice hockey team in Lafayette are going to sponsor a sled hockey league for kids like me at the arena next winter. It’s so cool even Dean and Tommy want to do it, but they won’t be allowed. You’ll come see me play when you can, won’t you, Adam?”

  “I will. Winnie, too. I figure without you and Stacy I might never have gotten to know my bride so well, never brought her here at all, but we had to get away from you brats.” He tousled Teddy’s hair to show he teased.

  “We’re completely forgiven, then?” Stacy asked. She jumped suddenly to her feet and shouted, “Way to go, Tommy!” as her cousin caught a piece of the ball with the club and sent it sizzling like a hard line drive. Primly, she sat again and rearranged her skirt. “I’m trying to be more of a team player, but I really don’t care for sports very much.”

  “You’re trying. That counts for a lot,” Winnie told her. Despite Samoan customs, she slipped her hand into Adam’s and his strong arm came up around her waist pressing her close.

  ****

  Joe Dean Billodeaux moved behind his wife who watched the little scene on the beach a short distance away. Never one to obey rules, he nuzzled her neck and rubbed against her puletasi-clad backside.

  Nell poked him with her elbow, but not hard enough to hurt. “We’re not supposed to do that here.”

  “Do I look like a Samoan, me?”

  “Maybe in that lava-lava, but our kids certainly do all barefooted and playing in the sand in their wedding clothes.”

  “Let them have fun. Wait until they see the fire dancing later. This is a once in a lifetime experience and worth shutting down Camp Love Letter for a week.”

  “It is,” she agreed. “Romantic, too, with the palm trees and the beach and the blue water. If only we didn’t have those helicopters buzzing around.”

  “The sun is going down. They’ll leave soon. Hey, Knox did a great job securing the road and patrolling the perimeter with his off-duty policemen for any paparazzi who tried to sneak through the jungle.” Joe pointed to his ranch manager, clad in khakis and a bush hat, who still ranged along the expanse where the mountain met the beach with his troops. “He said it reminds him of ’Nam, not romance.”

  “That’s sad, but I think Brinsley and Shammy are making the most of the trip.”

  Far down the beach, the older couple walked side by side. Observing proprieties, the butler had his arms tucked behind his back.

  “You think those two are bed-hopping?”

  “Joe! No, Shammy is a former nun and Brinsley is far too proper.”

  “Still, I think we have another wedding in the works and probably a permanent butler and nurse at the ranch now.”

  “With the size of our family, we need all the help we can get.”

  “At least this Samoan romance was easy to bring off before it screwed up the football season. We just had to let our kids send them running to the islands to get away together.”

  “Oh, you’re taking credit for this happy ending, are you? I don’t call it easy transporting ten children, one of them with special needs, to Samoa for the celebration. The Rileys, the McCoys, and nearly everyone else had the sense to leave theirs at home. They are having second honeymoons, but us, no!” Still, Nell relaxed against him and wiggled her backside in just the right place.

  “Tink, it’s not a wedding without a whole lot of kids running around.”

  “Correction, it’s not a Cajun wedding without a lot of kids.”

  “True, and right now all those kids are occupied and I’ll bet you me, the bedrooms in the house are not.”

  “What, no lovemaking under the palms?”

  “Not after what happened to Sammy Tau. Come along with me, and I’ll show you what paradise really is. Sugar, you know I always keep my word.”

  A word about the author…

  Once a librarian, now a writer of romance, Lynn Shurr grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country. She attended a state college and earned a very impractical B.A. in English Literature. Her first job out of school really was working as a cashier in a burger joint. Moving from one humble job to another, she traveled to North Carolina, then Germany, then California where she buckled down for an M.A. in Librarianship.

  She found her first reference job in the Heart of Cajun Country, Lafayette, Louisiana. For her, the old saying, “Once you’ve tasted bayou water, you will always stay here” came true. She raised three children not far from the Bayou Teche and lives there still with her astronomer husband.

  When not writing, Lynn likes to paint, cheer for the New Orleans Saints and LSU Tigers, and take long road trips nearly anywhere. Her love of the bayou country, its history and customs often shows in her books.

  You may contact Lynn at www.lynnshurr.com or visit her blog, lynnshurr.blogspot.com.

  Other Books by Lynn Shurr

  A Trashy Affair

  THE SINNERS SERIES

  Goals for a Sinner

  Wish for a Sinner

  Kicks for a Sinner

  THE MARDI GRAS SERIES

  Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball

  Mardi Gras Madness

  Courir de Mardi Gras

  Other Books You Might Enjoy

  Love Letter for a Sinner by Lynn Shurr

  http://amzn.com/B00GVKRU8S

  Making Room at the Inn by Misty Simon

  http://amzn.com/B00GVKY220

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