Sinners Football 01- Goals for a Sinner (28 page)
Read Sinners Football 01- Goals for a Sinner Online
Authors: Lynn Shurr
“Joe wouldn’t do that. He’d never date anyone that young. It’s against what principles he has.”
“See the proof in next week’s tabloids. Bon voyage, baby.”
Dex took off running to his next opportunity.
Stevie settled in beside Connor and rested her head on his broad shoulder.
“Joe wouldn’t, would he?” she asked her new husband.
“I don’t think so. He’s still trying to get over that nightmare evening with Margaret Stutes after the Super Bowl. I didn’t think he’d ever get that drunk again.”
“Oh, I get it. Joe finally hooked up with the Wish Lady. She does look kind of young. What a relief.”
Connor told the driver to get going. They headed for the airport with a string of paparazzi in pursuit.
Having alerted the security people in advance, the celebrities raced through the metal detectors and claimed their small carry-ons with a minimum of delay. They split from each other at the restrooms and reappeared dressed like normal people, Stevie in jeans, T-shirt and ball cap, Connor wearing all black and his Sinners’ jacket. They made a U-turn and slipped back into the main body of the airport. Their limo still waited at the curb to take them back to the house on the lakeside. ****
Connor waited for his bride in the hot tub. Rose petals from the wedding ceremony still floated on the surface of the water. They’d made love once in the comfort of their own bed, but now the sun had gone down. The air and water matched temperatures. The stars shone overhead, winking in the humid night. Wrapped in only a white towel, Stevie came to him moving across the darkened deck. She flung the towel away, no sagging swimsuits or trunks between them now.
She settled her back on top of his broad chest and bent her head to nestle under his chin. He kissed the top of her hair and reached around to stroke her breasts with both hands. His erection popped up between her legs. She laughed and reached to touch him. No need to rush, no urgency now. “I’m glad we decided to come back here where it all started. The islands can wait another day.” She looked up at the stars and enjoyed the touch of his strong fingers.
“Me, too. It would be a shame to leave behind that big bowl of chocolate mousse Miss Essie put in the refrigerator. We can use it up later tonight. But our love did not start here.”
“Well, I doubt if they would let us in the Super Dome so we could do it on the sidelines this time of night.”
“Farther back, the day I sacked you into that pile of leaves at my parents’ house.”
“Not for me. I took a little longer. Thanks for waiting. I wonder if Joe Dean will ever know how to love like this. I tried my best to fix him up with the Wish Lady today, but he probably threw away that chance again by getting drunk.”
“You know what? Joe Dean Billodeaux is the last person I want to think about on my wedding night. He’s on his own right now.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
Stevie stopped teasing him and turned over. She took in his fullness and moved slowly up and down.
Connor closed his eyes and enjoyed. But before he lost himself in her completely, he wanted to tell his bride one more thing.
“Stevie, you know what we got—it
is
a joy forever.”
Epilogue
Connor Riley played football for the New Orleans Sinners three more years. During that time, the Sinners took two Super Bowls. A severe knee injury in his last year of play told Riley the time to quit had come. He went on to football commentating during the season but became better known as a motivational speaker. He delivered the message of how to overcome fear with the help of friends and loved ones.
Retirement blessed the Riley’s with other rewards. Nine months after his last game, Stevie gave birth to their first child. Keeping her promise to Jackie, she christened him Jack Haile Riley.
Eighteen months later, a second child was born to the Riley’s. Joe Dean Billodeaux demanded to be named godfather to this one. He claimed as he held tiny Josee Deana Riley near the baptismal font, she had batted her long lashes over her big, blue eyes and given him a very sexy, toothless smile.
At the age of forty, Stevie mistook a third pregnancy for early menopause. She could no longer avoid naming a child after Rev Bullock who reminded the Riley’s often that his twins, Connor and Riley, and his youngest boy, Little Joe, were already in grade school. Still, he did not have his own namesake. Unable to foist the name Revelation Jeremiah on any helpless child, Stevie created one of her own, Arjay Bullock Riley. The Rev approved.
Retiring the season after Connor, he gave as his reasons a desire to serve the Lord and to spend more time with his family. Now, he had plenty of years to shape little Arjay into the football player he would become.
Merrilee, not to be outdone, gave birth to two more children, each born three months after Stevie’s babies. She named them Kelly and Keegan. Her last child arrived the year she turned forty-one, nine months after discovering Kevin kept a mistress in the French Quarter. The boy bore the name Quade Michael, but the family called him Quits. She continued to claim she was the better mother because Stevie had elected not to nurse. Because of Merrilee’s religious convictions, Kevin never, ever got a divorce.
Jackie Haile, who became known fondly to the Riley children as Uncle Jackie, gave the toddling Jack his first set of plastic golf clubs. Immediately upon finishing college with the business degree insisted upon by his parents, he joined the pro golf circuit where he succeeded brilliantly managed by his Uncle Jackie. The media dubbed him the White Tiger Woods. Within a year, he became known as simply the White Tiger for his blond good looks. Golf being so much safer than football, his career decision made his mother joyous.
At the age of sixteen Josee Riley, who had inherited a golden beauty and even longer legs than Stevie, was offered a modeling contract by the Amberello Agency. Stevie absolutely forbid this.
Sometimes, having Joe Dean as a
parrain,
a French godfather, paid off. He told her to ask her mother about the photos she had posed for wearing only sand, and he knew where her dad kept the posters, too. This made up for all the years of being dragged to sporting events and enduring the chronic joke about everyone standing up for her at a game and asking, “Josee, can you see?” As a small child, she had actually believed this.
At the age of twenty-one, Josee Riley posed for a
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue. Photographed by, according to her, a gross, balding old lech named Dexter Sykes who claimed to have known her mother rather well, Josee gave up modeling for more serious pursuits.
As for Joe Dean Billodeaux, he quarterbacked until the age of forty, just as he said he would, and retired with five Super Bowl rings. Afterward, the Amberello Agency arranged several lucrative advertising and minor acting stints for him based mainly on his handsome, craggy face, but he preferred being at home on his ranch in Chapelle, Louisiana. Believe it or not, Joe Dean eventually did learn there was more to life than sex and football.
Joe Dean’s story is told in the sequel
Wish for a
Sinner.
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