[Friday]

It was hard for Eric to concentrate on the game with Mo in those stands, just hanging out there. Next to his wife. Holding his baby.

Why did Tami hand Mo Gracie Belle? And who did Mo think he was, lifting his baby girl up into the air like that? Mo wasn't her daddy. He wasn't her uncle. He wasn't even her godfather. That was Eric's baby. That was his girl. He'd impregnated Tami with that little beauty, thank you very much.

Despite Coach Taylor's distraction, they won the game easily. He widened up the defense in the end to give the opposing team a chance to score. It was the right thing to do.

It felt good to be in Tami's arms after the game, to hear her congratulations and kiss her. But right behind her was…Mo. Jesus. That guy. And he was holding Eric's baby.

"Heeeeey, Mo," Eric said and thought, Give me my baby.

"Great game."

My baby. "Come here, you," Eric said, lifting Gracie Belle into his arms. "There's the little one. How you doing?" My girl.

Tami kissed Mo goodbye on the cheek. What was with all this kissing? Eric didn't kiss women hello and goodbye. What would Tami think if he did, if he just went around smooching women on the cheek all the time?

"You blew the shut out," Mo was saying, or something like that. Eric only half heard him. "Put the hammer down next time."

Eric let it slide. At least Mo was proving himself to Tami to be the same old ass he always was. And at least Tami was already saying, "Bye."

Eric made it a point not to mention how annoying Mo had been when he got home, or that Mo didn't really need to be holding Gracie Belle. He didn't want to delay his victory lay with a squabble, because the victory lay was always among the finest, and he hadn't been getting as much sex as he would like lately, what with the long wait for the green light after Gracie was born and the continued night wakings.

[*]

When Tami called Eric to tell him that Mo wanted to take them to a "nice dinner," his first thought was, "I take my wife to nice dinners. She gets to go to nice dinners. She doesn't need you to take her to a nice dinner." His second thought was that Mo was hanging out in Dillon for an awful long time and trying to spend way too much of that time with his wife. "This is the world's longest business trip, isn't it?" he asked her.

Surely Mo had some mansion to return to in Houston. Dillon didn't have that much real estate to buy, and Mo didn't have any relatives in town anymore. There were only two reasons he could still be hanging around - to needle Eric for taking the prize, or to try to take that prize back. Not that Mo had a snowball's chance in the ninth circle of hell of luring Tami into adultery, but Eric didn't want to watch him try either.

He knew, though, that if he said no to this dinner, Tami would accuse him of petty jealousy again, so he had to go along. "All right, fine! But at least let's go get barbecue or something." Mo didn't need to show Tami how much his money could buy. "I don't want to spend all night with Mo."

"Fine, if you're going to be crabby about, let's just not go. We'll do it again next time he's in town."

Oh, no. There wasn't going to be a next time. Mo had best stay out of Dillon and out his wife's sphere. "No. No. Fine. We'll go out. We'll get it done." Tami couldn't accuse him of being jealous, and Mo would have to leave them alone after this. "We'll do it."

[*]

"I guess the better man did win," Mo said as he toasted Eric and Tami across the dinner table.

Mo was being surprisingly gracious, Tami thought. Either that, or he was slowly peeling off his old scab so he could smear the fresh blood all over Eric's face. She couldn't quite tell which. Maybe this dinner hadn't been such a good idea. Mo and Eric had never liked each other. Why pretend?

Because that's what adults do, Tami reassured herself. Adults play nice with one another, because adults are civilized. They weren't immature teenagers anymore. There was no reason they shouldn't be able to display their maturity, their ability to let bygones be bygones.

Maybe she should have told Mo "no" to the dinner without even telling Eric he'd invited them. But she'd had this silly hope that they'd all grown up. She'd grown up after all.

"Well that's just a very kind, kind speech there, Mo," Eric was saying. His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Eric wasn't taking Mo seriously, and Mo had always hated not being taken seriously. Tami could see the tension in Mo's eyes, that look he'd gotten years ago when he was gearing up for a fight.

Time to end this thing before it got out of control. But as Tami tried to segue out of the dinner, Mo pushed for them to remain and ordered a bottle of good whisky.

Tami didn't want Eric drinking whisky. She'd had two glasses of wine, and she wanted Eric to drive. And she certainly didn't want Mo pushing Eric's buttons, because her husband looked about pushed to his limit right now.

"I'll have a shot," Eric said.

O Lord, Tami thought. This is what boys did, wasn't it? They couldn't back down from each other. Couldn't turn the other cheek. They strutted, and postured, and pissed.

Mo threw down the gauntlet. "Let's have two."

"Sweetheart," Tami plead. Please Eric, walk away. Don't rise to his bait. You're a man now. A husband. A father of two. This isn't high school.

Mo cleared his throat and Tami asked for the check. Then Mo and Eric had a mini-pissing match over who was going to pay it.

Tami was more than ready to go.

"To Lucky," Mo said, toasting Eric.

Eric stared him down and half nodded.

Lucky? Tami thought. Who was Lucky? Was that a person? Or…hadn't there been some shouting about who was lucky about what last time Mo and Eric had fought?

The check didn't come.

The drinking went on.

Mo accused Eric of stealing some offense.

"Can we just let this be the last one?" Tami pleaded. Well, at least she was ready to drive home by now, since this pissing match had gone on so long.

"Here's to liars," Mo said.

"Oh, yeah," Eric said, "well we both can agree to that now, can't we?"

Tami tried to get Eric to leave again, but then Mo went there. He went there. "Let's talk about something else that you stole, Coach. Let's talk about this little lady right here." Mo pointed to Tami.

"Oh that's ridiculous," Tami said. Nobody stole her. Tami Hayes Taylor was not a piece of property to be stolen.

"You look me in the eye," Mo said "and you tell me you were not calling her behind my back and telling her I was sleeping with Billie Dean Elizabeth."

Tami stood up, muttering how ridiculous it all was. "I knew you were sleeping with her." Wait? Billie Dean Elizabeth? She thought the girl's name was Mary Ellen. Was her memory that bad? Or was Mo's? Or had he been sleeping with two girls back then?

It didn't matter. It was time to get out of here. Tami felt like a broken record now, pushing her chair in, telling them they didn't need to finish this off.

"Red light," Eric said. Eric said it. Not even Mo.

"Oh stop it!" she shouted.

Here they went.

And there went the table.

And there went Tami, out the door.

She took the SUV and left Eric there. Let him walk the ten miles home for all she cared.