"Do you have everything, sugar?"

Eric tossed the last bag in the back of his vehicle and shut the hatch. "Yeah, that's about it."

The sun was just beginning to rise, and the neighborhood was quiet and peaceful. The house across the street still had Christmas lights flashing but their holiday cheer had fled with New Year's Day.

Tami stood with her hands jammed into her pockets. "So…I guess I won't see you for a few weeks." Furious blinking did little to prevent the tears from welling in her eyes. Why had she come up with such a stupid idea? It had sounded brilliant a month ago, but now that it was a reality, she wished she had never suggested it.

Eric crossed to her and took her in his arms. "Hey, it't not that long, hon, and I'll call you at least once a day…probably more often than that. And when I come back, we'll get to see the first ultrasound of the baby. Won't that be great?"

He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. She sighed as his hands rubbed a path up and down her back and wished she could remain like this forever. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Irish Spring and aftershave; that was his scent. She decided that she would stand in the shower and smell that bar of soap every day and imagine that Eric was there with her. She almost giggled at the silly mental picture but a soft sob escaped instead.

"Shh…it's okay; we'll get through this, babe."

Tami nodded and wiped her eyes. She knew Eric hadn't been enthusiastic about leaving to take the job and that made his attempts at cheering her up especially touching.

She pulled back and put a hand to his cheek. "Why don't you come back inside for a cup of coffee before you leave?"

"No, that'll just make it harder." Eric looked away and Tami thought she saw moisture in his eyes before he blinked a few times.

"Well, you have to say good-bye to Julie anyway."

"Yeah." Eric nodded, his face grim. "I guess I'll have to wake her up."

Tami heard the hurt in his voice and her heart ached for him. Ever since they told Julie about the baby, conversations had been strained between Eric and their daughter. For some reason, Julie still acted angry at her dad, despite the fact that she would be staying in Dillon. Between the holidays and trying to tie up all the loose ends of getting Eric's living arrangements in Austin in order, they hadn't had a chance to talk with Julie about the baby. Tami hoped that once Eric was at TMU, she would have a good chance to iron things out with her daughter. Tami had a sneaking suspicion that part of Julie's anger stemmed from her own guilt that her dad had to go to Austin alone.

"No you don't, Dad; I'm already awake." Julie stepped outside, yawning. Her hair was tousled and she wore pink fuzzy pajamas with feet in the bottom that Tyra had given her for Christmas. Tami thought it was amusing that teenage girls wanted to look so grown up during the day, but at night, reverted back to their childhood sleepwear.

"Hey, hon." Eric smiled tentatively and opened his arms. "C'mere and give me a hug good-bye."

Julie stood still for a moment before flying into her dad's embrace. "I'm gonna miss you, Dad."

"Me too, Monkey Noodle." Eric cleared his throat, his arms wrapped around his daughter, holding her head to his shoulder.

Eric met Tami's gaze, sharing a smile before planting one last kiss on top of Julie's head and releasing her. "I gotta go." He moved over to Tami and clasped her close, whispering in her ear, "I love you."

Tami hugged him tight. "I love you too, Eric."

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Eric reached out and adjusted the radio station as he lost one station and picked up another. Now that he was on his way, he couldn't help feeling a bit of excitement build inside him. He was now a college coach! He grinned and rubbed his hand against his mouth, leaving his elbow propped on the door windowsill. It was a dream come true. A dream that had been a long time in coming. Eric thought back to all the teams he had coached, beginning with a tiny rural highschool that only played eight man football. He had been fresh out of college and in addition to coaching the football team, he'd had to teach health class and driver's ed. After coaching the highschool kids, he would drive thirty miles to coach a pee-wee team in a nearby town. That had led to getting the offensive coordinator job at that highschool. The school was bigger than the last one, but not by much.

Julie had been an infant at the time and Eric still felt regret over having to miss so much time with her. A few parents had hired him to give private quarterback coaching to their boys, the lure of college scholarships beginning as early as third grade. It didn't pay much, but with a baby, they needed every penny they could scrape up. Tami had tried to find a teaching job, but they were few and far between with most schools looking for teachers with experience. When she could find the time, she tutored kids in reading and went back to school to get her master's degree. By the time Julie was in first grade, they had pretty much given up on ever having another child. Eric quit asking every month and Tami stopped mentioning little brothers and sisters for Julie.

Eric tried to remember if he had stayed at any school longer than three years before he moved onto a bigger highschool. The bigger schools offered higher pay, but demanded more of his time. In addition to coaching football, he sometimes was required to coach a spring sport, usually something like freshman baseball. Eric sighed, remembering how terrible those teams had been. He knew enough about baseball to get by, but he didn't study the sport. At least there hadn't been much pressure while coaching baseball, but he had always wished he could spend those extra hours with his family. Through it all, Tami and Julie rarely complained. Julie fell in love with books and Tami began picking up teaching jobs when they were available.

An exit sign for Austin caught Eric's attention, bringing him out of his reverie. Twenty minutes later, he pulled up at his new home away from home. Grabbing his bags out of the back, he entered the townhome and flicked on the lights. A chill passed through him and the first thing he did was head for the thermostat and turn up the heat. He slowly walked through the living room to the bedroom where he dropped his luggage. The townhome had come furnished, but the week before Eric and Tami had brought up some of Eric's personal items like his desk and computer. Tami had brought extra linens and had made up the bed.

He glanced around the room, noting a few framed pictures his wife had put on the dresser. Smiling, he crossed the room and picked up one of the frames. Tami and Julie grinned into the camera, and Eric remembered taking that picture while on a little vacation last June. They had gone to a little beach house along the Gulf Coast and stayed over a long weekend and had a wonderful time playing and lounging on the beach. Eric traced the freckles sprinkled across Julie's nose. She hated those little sun-kissed spots she had inherited from her mother, but Eric adored them. They gave her a carefree, innocent look. Tami had long ago quit thinking of her own freckles as ugly and just laughed when he teased her about them.

Eric set the photograph down with a sigh and headed for the kitchen. The fridge didn't have too much in it, but Tami had stocked the cupboard with some cans of soup and crackers. The freezer also held a cache of frozen dinners. He tried to decide which of his choices sounded appetizing, but neither did. His stomach rumbled and Eric decided to go out somewhere and grab a burger. Maybe he'd even eat it at the fast-food place. The house was just too quiet and the thought of coming back here and eating alone depressed the hell out of him. Of course, he would have to get used to it sooner or later, but tonight was too soon.

FNLFNLFNLFNLFNLFNL

"Loosen your grip a little bit. See?" Eric demonstrated by showing Jeff Spaulding, the freshman quarterback, the small space between his hand and the ball. "You don't want to squeeze the crap out of it, understand? When you relax your grip, you'll get more spin on the ball. Like this." Eric motioned for a nearby player to run out for a pass and zipped a perfect spiral to the young man. The receiver jogged back with the ball and tossed it to Eric.

"Now you try it, son," Eric said as he handed the ball over to the young quarterback. The starting quarterback had missed practice...again, and Eric was working with the third stringer. He didn't mind though. It reminded him of coaching Jason Street. This kid might not be as smooth as the first stringer, but Eric thought he had more love for the game. More heart. It made the extra time he spent working with Spaulding worth it.

The player let fly with a nice crisp pass and turned to Eric. "Like that?"

"Yeah! That's it!" Eric grinned and slapped Spaulding on the shoulder pads. "Now practice that at least fifty times so you get used to it." Motioning with his hand, Eric summoned three more freshman players over. "Listen up! I need y'all to run some basic routes for Spaulding here, let him practice his throw."

An hour later, Eric made his way back to the locker room. He thought practice had gone well, but wished he had more opportunity with the varsity quarterback. So far, he had only worked with him a handful of times. It made him wonder why they had bothered hiring him in the first place. Shrugging, he tried to push the thought aside. It wasn't like he made the decisions anyway. Eric was just another coach here. It surprised him how much he missed calling the shots, how many times he wanted to say something about what the head coach was doing, but had to bite back his own opinion. Unless they asked for it, they didn't want to hear it. No one ever warned him how hard it would be to give up the authority he had become accustomed to in Dillon.

Eric rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work out a kink. Maybe he would get to work with the starting quarterback more next week. At least, he sure hoped so. There was less than a month left before the beginning of the season and Eric still had some things he needed to work on with the guy. And then, once Tami had the baby, Eric would be on leave for a few weeks, and with Tami's due date coinciding with the first week of the season, he felt like he needed to get working with the player as soon as possible. Time was running out.

He entered his office, and grabbed his duffle bag out of the corner. What he needed was a quick shower and then he'd go out to eat somewhere. Somewhere where he could sit and relax, maybe read a newspaper. Eric let the cool water run over his body and felt around for his bottle of shampoo. He'd received some heavy ribbing from his fellow coaches when he had left the bottle in the shower stall one time. The flowery scent had inspired plenty of wisecracks when he would walk by and they would pretend to hit on him. But, it was Tami's shampoo and, well, he'd let them tease him all they wanted. He wasn't giving it up.

He rinsed, and shut off the water. His stomach rumbled and he wanted to hurry and eat. And then he'd go back to the the townhome and call Tami. See how she was doing. The last time Eric had been home, she had been really uncomfortable. He grinned, remembering her awkwardness when they had gone to bed. She'd been embarrassed about her increased girth, but he had loved it. The thought of a child--his child--growing inside of her was intoxicating. He'd held her close, feeling the swell of her belly, and marveling at the acrobatics of the unborn baby. He wondered how Tami ever got any sleep with the constant tattoo of kicks.

Eric dressed quickly, tossing his dirty clothes in his bag and hoped he'd remember to remove them this time. Last time, they had gotten so rank, they had practically fought their way out of the bag on their own. And he had brought it home like that. Tami had not been amused. But then, not much was amusing her these days. This pregnancy was a lot harder on her than when she had been pregnant with Julie.

His brow furrowed, thinking about the stress he had sensed between she and Julie. Eric had barely even seen his daughter when he had been home. It seemed she was always out, either working her job at the pool or out with Matt and friends. When he did see her, she had been different. More distant. He felt like he was losing his little girl.

Stepping outside into the late afternoon heat, Eric ran a hand through his still wet hair. His cellphone rang and he thought about ignoring it. It was probably one of the other coaches looking to go out and have a beer. Eric had gone a few times, but it had made going back to the empty townhome even more difficult. By the third ring, he gave in and answered it. He could always make an excuse. His eyes widened when Julie's number flashed across the screen. He couldn't remember the last time his daughter had called him. He smiled.

"Hey, hon!" His grin faded. "Wait...slow down a sec. Yeah...her water broke? I'll be there on the next flight!"