Paradise for a Sinner Read Online Free PDF Page B

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 directed 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