Love Letter for a Sinner (The Sinners sports romances) Read online

  Letty arranged a drift of white calla lilies on Tricia’s arm, the same flowers Marty held in her wedding pictures, and called on her daughter to carry the short train of the gown into the church where they met Nell and Rex’s sister. Ida, the perpetual church organist, her aged but sharp eyes on the aisle, began loudly pumping out the traditional wedding march. The men lined up at the altar and the matrons and maids began their progress between the rows of guests.

  “Look at Mom! How pretty she is,” Lorena exclaimed from the third row of the church where the Billodeaux family spread out on the bride’s side. A brilliant smile lit Nell’s face, erasing the pain lines of her long recovery. A grin from Joe standing next to Rex answered her.

  “Hush,” Nurse Shammy said, decked out in a blue suit bearing a large jeweled brooch rather than wearing her customary white. “You will wake little Edie.” Beside her with a spit up rag draped over the shoulder of his immaculate suit, Clive Brinsley uncomfortably held the baby boy who would always be known as T-Rex.

  The true wonder was that Mrs. Worthy’s sobs didn’t wake the infants or drown out the entire service. She bawled from the time Tricia appeared at the head of the aisle until the service finished, more as if she attended a funeral than a joyous wedding the other guests said. Rex, eyes on his bride, didn’t take notice. His maternal grandparents, pried out of Texas to attend, sat stiffly beside Sue Grace, only too aware of the hulking Sinners players sitting behind them, a good many of them black. “Get over it,” Honeybee advised them as she accepted a dance invitation from Jakarta Jones later at the reception much to their horror.

  Before the festivities in the church hall began, however, the bride and groom walked among the tombstones behind the church. Tricia placed a lily on each of her grandmothers’ graves and the rest of the bouquet on her mother’s resting place. “Mom, he looked past Layla and noticed me,” she murmured.

  “Layla never stood a chance,” Rex said as he helped her back to the hall where folks waited to toast them with sparkling cider since the church didn’t allow alcohol on the property. He had a bottle of the best champagne cooling in the limo for their ride to the airport among other surprises.

  They’d agreed to keep the wedding and reception simple and put what might have been spent on a lavish affair into the Worthy Foundation. Still, the church ladies who catered the event outdid themselves with vats of swedish meatballs, pyramids of crustless sandwiches, and a vast bowl of ice filled with shrimp flown in from New Orleans that they’d spent hours steaming, peeling, and deveining. The wedding cake, professionally but locally made, kept up the theme of restraint being plain white and decorated with fresh blue and pink flowers and tiny bits of fern. Leftovers were to be taken to the firehouse and police department since their cars and trucks blocked the road and their men patrolled the fields around the church to keep out the paparazzi.

  A local DJ provided the music, which tended toward slow, romantic numbers, the chicken dance, and the hokey-pokey. Ida Lutz amazed the audience by doing a fairly good slide jazz piece on the old piano in the hall.

  “Good clean fun for everyone,” Mrs. Worthy said primly to the elderly pianist.

  Ida called out, “One more round of the hokey-pokey, guys.” She leaned toward Sue Grace and remarked as the Sinner players lined up to dance, “You ever seen so much prime beef on the hoof? Look at that footwork. No wonder football players always do great on Dancing with the Stars.”

  Mrs. Worthy huffed away. She’d had little to say about the arrangements due to her own refusal to participate in the planning, but Sue Grace had contributed a roaster full of barbecued brisket and a pan of her special cornbread. She went to stand beside her offerings in order to accept the compliments.

  Tricia didn’t allow Rex to pay a cent for the wedding. Her civil suit settlement from Layla’s lawyer more than covered expenses. The last time she’d seen the actress in person, the cuffed Layla slept curled up on the floor of Joe’s bedroom having finally fallen under the soporific effects of the hydrocodone which could have kicked in sooner for all their sakes. The tabloid mug shots spared her nothing, showing the star with a scratched and swollen face and smeared, grotesque make-up worthy of a zombie movie.

  Layla’s attorney got her out of jail on two million dollars bail and followed Doris Dillman around as she pled with all those Layla had harmed. Her daughter suffered from mental issues and needed treatment, not incarceration, she claimed. Shammy’s settlement alone would have allowed her and Brinsley to retire in style for the rest of their lives, but neither wanted that. Childless, and having the Billodeauxs as their only family, both wanted to remain useful and on Lorena Ranch to the end of their days. Joe and Nell granted that wish and gave them land to build a larger home than their cottage if they desired.

  As for the Billodeaux’s own payoff, which they hardly needed, it went into Camp Love Letter and a trust fund for the twins in case either suffered long-term damage from their delivery. So far, no sign of cerebral palsy or autism in either child, but Nell cautioned it was early days yet. Joe, ever the optimist, claimed T-Rex already had a steady gaze and good hands and Edie her mother’s big, brown eyes and remarkable spunkiness. He tended to be right as if wishing hard always made it so.

  With unexpected comments on the tip of her tongue, Doris Dillman made her way over to the bride and groom. Since the entire small congregation had been invited, they could hardly leave her out. She squeezed Tricia’s hand with her pudgy fingers.

  “You know Louise would have loved to be here, but she is still receiving treatment. How lovely she would have looked in one of those sapphire bridesmaids’ gowns. You were such a good and understanding friend, she’d have walked proudly in your wedding to such a fine young man.”

  Tricia and Rex exchanged glances. Now they knew Layla came by her delusions honestly. Both had done their best to forgive, but some time had to pass before they forgot.

  “A tragedy Micah Stanley wouldn’t wait for my daughter to recover and recast her part in his upcoming movie, his loss. She will have other chances once she is out and well.” Doris stared resentfully at Nell Billodeaux who “danced” with Teddy in his wheelchair.

  “That woman should have been sued for what she did to the great Layla Devlin’s face. To think we had to sell off the Hollywood mansion to meet all those trumped-up claims, not to mention the cost of the plastic surgery. Well, I once built my life up again from scratch and so can Louise. I know you’ll always be there for her. Have a blessed married life.” Finally, her damp hand fell way from Tricia’s, and Doris returned for a third helping at the buffet.

  “That was scary. You about ready to go, my one and only wife?” Rex said.

  “I am, wherever you want to take me.”

  Ida got everyone’s attention with a crescendo on the piano and proclaimed the bridal couple about to leave. The guests filed out carrying their traditional little net bags of rice to throw.

  The stars shone above and the fireflies below, but Tricia and Rex left without any other fireworks or fanfare. The local police cruisers stood ready to escort them safely to the airport. Rice pelted down as they ran to limo, and Mrs. Worthy began another crying jag.

  Honeybee flirted with Cody by pouring rice down his collar and offering to help get it out again. The Reverend Worthy beamed at his son, now a married man and so happy, by the looks of him.

  Leaning against each other, Joe and Nell stood among their twelve children. “You know where they are going?”

  “Africa for two weeks. Rex wants to show Tricia where he spent his childhood. They’ll take in some of the big game parks, too, but he has to be back for minicamp training. Not me.”

  “And after that?”

  “The condo in New Orleans for now, a bigger house later, and maybe a place outside of Austin far enough away from his family for Tricia’s comfort and close enough to his dad if he needs help.”

  “Sounds wise. So a new married life begins. More children will come into the world, but our fa
mily is complete.”

  “My career is over. His is only beginning. We’re just an old married couple now. No more excitement for us.”

  Nell detected the hint of sadness in Joe’s voice. “You really think that with twelve children to raise?” She drew his silver-streaked head down close to her lips and toyed with the curl on his forehead as she whispered, “If you want excitement, just wait until I get you back to the hotel. Ever done it with a matron of honor in all her regalia?”

  Joe answered that honestly. “You know I always tried to avoid married women, but you’re an exception. If you’re ready to leave, then so am I, sugar.”

  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 degree in English Literature. Her first job after graduating really was working in a burger joint. Moving from one humble job to another, she finally buckled down and got an M.A. in librarianship.

  Lynn found her first reference job in the heart of Cajun country. 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 the background for her books.

  Contact Lynn at www.lynnshurr.com or visit her blog, lynnshurr.blogspot.com.

  Other Wild Rose Books by Lynn Shurr

  Goals for a Sinner

  Wish for a Sinner

  Kicks for a Sinner

  Paradise for a Sinner

  The Convent Rose

  A Trashy Affair

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  Mike’s Best Bet (At The End Zone) by Doreen Alsen

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Love Letter for a Sinner

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Also available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.