A/N:This story was drawn from a longer work I removed from the archives a couple years ago to salvage parts for a book I was working on at that time, so large parts of it may be familiar to those of you have read my stories for a long time. If you haven't seen it yet, or want to read it again in its new form, I hope you enjoy. Comments welcome.

Chapter One

"This is getting serious," Tami's mom said as she basted the turkey.

Tami was setting the table. It was her first year of college, and she'd come home to North Dillon for Thanksgiving.

"What's getting serious?" Tami asked.

"You and Eric. Him here for Thanksgiving. You planning to spend winter break with his family in Odessa."

Eric was still a senior in high school. They'd begun dating toward the end of his junior year, but over the summer his family had moved to Odessa and she'd gone away to college. They'd continued to maintain a long distance relationship.

"What do you want me to say to that, Mom?" Tami asked.

"Well, you could either confirm or deny."

Just then, Tami's 8th grade sister walked in the kitchen. "Eric won't let me watch Magnum, P.I.," Shelley complained.

"It's just a re-run tonight," her mother said.

"You can lust after Tom Selleck another time," Tami told her.

"It's not Magnum I like," Shelley insisted. "It's Rick. And Eric won't let me change the channel! He's just watching some stupid football game." She grabbed a can of Sprite out of the fridge and started shaking it up.

"What are you doing?" Tami asked.

"Just going to offer Eric a coke." And then she walked out of the kitchen.

"Tami," her mother said, "you make sure your sister doesn't ruin my carpet now."

Tami left the half-set table and stormed to the living room. She stopped Eric in the nick of time, grabbing the can from his hands before he could open it. "Why don't you help me set the table?" she asked him.

He motioned to the TV. "It's not even half time yet."

When they'd first started dating, he'd have done anything just to spend time with her, just to be near her. "Really?" she said. "You're going to choose a televised game over my company? When we haven't seen each other in weeks and won't see each other again until almost Christmas?"

He stood up, but he looked over his shoulder at the TV as he followed her to the kitchen.

At dinner, Tami's mom gave Eric the honor of carving the turkey. She asked Shelley to say grace.

"Dear Lord God," Shelley said, "thank you for all this grub. And thank you that Mom won't let Eric sleep here tonight, so I won't have to watch football all freakin' night long."

"Shelley!" her mother scolded. Ms. Hayes had said no to overnight guests, so Eric was staying with a high school friend, a teammate from the time he'd lived in North Dillon.

Shelley continued her inappropriate prayer despite her mother's admonishment: "Even though he and Tami are probably just going to find some other way to get horizontal."

"Shelley!" It was Tami yelling her name this time.

"Amen," Shelley said.

When they started passing the plates, Eric's face was a near match for the beets.

[*]

Tami broke away from Eric's lips. He was leaned back against his truck, his hands on her back. "You better get on over to your friend's house," she said.

"Why doesn't your mom just let me sleep on the couch tonight?"

"She doesn't want you sneaking into my room."

"After what Shelley said at grace…she's got to know."

"Yeah," Tami agreed. "But this way I think it's easier for her to lie to herself about it."

"I'll pick you up for breakfast at 6 tomorrow. We'll hit the diner. Then we can go park down by the lake."

"It's cold, Eric. It's been a cold November."

He kissed her and murmured, "I'll warm you up." When she sighed, he said, "What's wrong?"

She shrugged. "I don't...It's just….It just seems like you're just interested in getting laid."

He dropped his hand from her back and hooked a thumb through his belt loop. "Damn, Tami. It's been weeks since we've seen each other!"

"I know, but…you're just going to screw me in the bed of your pick-up tomorrow and then head back to Odessa to get ready for your game. You drive up here, and all you do is watch football all day."

"I'm taking you to breakfast tomorrow! And I didn't just watch football all day. I ate with you guys. I cleared the plates. I took out the trash."

"And then went back to watching football. "

He shook his head and paced away. He put a hand on the hood of his truck and looked at her with disbelief. "You know, you could come down with me to Odessa tomorrow. You could come to my game. It's a big game."

"You know I can't! You know I have to drive over seven hours to MWU and that I have that study group first thing Saturday morning. "

"Yeah, I know. I understand. I don't accuse you of just wanting to get laid and move on."

She crossed her arms over her chest. She felt like crying. Maybe she did cry, because he took her in his arms. "Can't we just have a good day together tomorrow?" he asked. "Please? Breakfast? The lake? Make love?" he usually said fool around. "I've missed you so much."

She didn't know why she was so emotional. He'd been faithful. He called her every other day, even though the charges had to be eating away at his savings. He even wrote her once a week: short letters, corny and sweet. She kept them in a shoebox. "I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I just…I've missed you. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. This long-distance thing."

"I know," he whispered.

"And I'm sorry I'm not making your big game. It's just, I really need to attend this study group to be able to ace that math test. I have a C+ right now." It was a stupid Calculus class she had to take as a prerequisite for statistics, which she had to take if she wanted to be a Psychology major.

"I know. It's okay. You can come see us when we go to State."

She smiled. "You're pretty sure about that, huh? When did you get so cocky?"

He nuzzled her cheek. "When I convinced the prettiest girl in Texas to be my girlfriend."

"Either that or when you became the first string quarterback of a team that's had an undefeated season."

"Or when UT-Austin started knocking on my door."

She pulled back. "They have?"

"Oh yeah. Some time now."

"You'll go, won't you?" UT was his father's alma matter, and two and a half hours away from her school. That was a lot better than the seven and a half hours between them now. Not to mention that it had a good reputation for both academics and football.

"I don't know. I haven't committed to anything yet. I'm just gonna let them keep sweetening the pot…"

She smiled and kissed him. "We don't have to wait until tomorrow morning, you know. Once my mom goes to sleep, she's out like a light. She goes to sleep by ten. And I'm on the ground level. I can let you in through the window."

"What about Shelley? Is she out like a light?"

"Ugggggg!" Tami threw her head back. "I forgot about Shelley."

"We could wheel the TV in her room, give her a bag of chips, and let her watch Magnum, P.I. re-runs."

Tami laughed. "I guess we better just stick to the original plan and go to the lake tomorrow morning." She kissed him teasingly. "Dream about me tonight."

"I always do." He resumed kissing her, but he stopped suddenly and lifted his eyes over her shoulder.

"What?" she asked.

He nodded in the direction of the house.

She turned to look behind herself and saw Shelley with her face pressed up against the kitchen window. "I better go in."

"Tell Shelly goodbye for me," he said. "And that I'll really miss her."

Tami laughed all the way back to the house.