The next morning after breakfast, Gracie was planted on the couch watching Finding Nemo, the other Taylors and Tyra sat at the dinner table. Eric had a pad of paper and pen in front of him. "Okay, how long have you known Cash?"

"A couple of months, I guess. We were at the rodeo and he was bull riding, I think my sister or maybe Billy Riggins pointed him out, Billy's known him for a while longer, and then we were at a roadhouse and we started talking, and…" Tyra trailed off, twisting her hands together in her lap.

"Where does he live?"

"I, well, he was staying at our house, I guess I mean, I gave him a key."

"So he just sort of crashed at people's houses, sleeps on their couches and whatnot." Eric ran his hand across his cheek. "That does make sense if he's on the rodeo circuit, hotels can get pricey and I imagine you'd get to know people who you could lean on or ask to stay the night. But you've never been to his house? I mean it doesn't have to be a house, could be a trailer."

"It's a house, I don't know if he owns it, there were a couple other people there, but it's a house."

"Where is it?"

"About 40 minutes North West of Dillon, I don't know the actual address, I just know how to get there, I'm like that, if I drive somewhere once I remember how to get there."

"Did he give you a key to his place?"

"No?"

"Did you ever ask him for a key?"

"No, and he never asked me for a key I, I just gave it to him."

"How often did he stay at your place and you at his?"

"Eric."

"No, this is important. Look, I'm thinking that you need to get a restraining order or order of protection against Cash and I bet there are some conditions that have to be met."

"I—I think I spent maybe three days at his place and he was at my mom's house for a couple of weeks, some of this stuff is still there, unless he came and got it."

Julie got up, saying, "I'll get my laptop." She came back and sat down and tapped on the keys and moved the mouse around. "Okay, according to the Texas Attorney Generals website 'A protective order is a civil court order issued to prevent continuing acts of family violence.

Family violence is basically defined as any act by one member of a family or household intended to physically harm another member, a serious threat of physical harm, or the abuse of a child.

Family includes blood relatives or relatives by marriage, former spouses, parents (married or not) of the same child, foster parents and foster children, or any member or former member of a household (people living in the same house, related or not).

To obtain a protective order, the victim and the offender must be (1) related by blood or marriage, (2) living together, or previously lived together, or (3) have a child together.'"

Eric nodded. "I thought it'd be something like that. You can't just run out and get a protection order on some person on the street; you have to have a relationship with them." He shook his head. "Has he ever hit you or gotten crazy like he was when we picked you up?"

"He changed."

"What do you mean?"

"He was showing me around and being sweet and then he went off to talk to some guys and like I told Julie last night, they started arguing and there was some shoving and when he came back he was upset, which, I mean I understood that, 'cause those guys were ganging up on him, but he stayed angry. Turned out that he owed money, a lot of money."

"How much?"

Tyra shrugged. "He didn't specify, but I think it's at least ten thousand dollars. Anyway, after that he stayed mad, anything I said just riled him up more. We went to a bar and he yelled at me some more and told me to stay there in the bar and he….just left. I stayed there for a few minutes, but all the other guys were like, leering at me, so I went to the hotel room, and called Mrs. T and then Cash came back and he yelled at me for leaving and yelled at me about the money some more and then you guys were there."

"A'ight, but has he ever hit you?"

"He…he pushed me around when you guys arrived and a couple times when he—we had been drinking we'd argue and he pushed me down…" Tyra looked down at the table and a tear fell from her eye and splashed on the surface. "When the girl came around with her kid and I told him about it he did slap me." She wiped her eyes but continued to look down.

"What girl?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure of her name…Cindy or Brandy and I don't know where she lives, she showed up at Cash's place one night and she had a kid with her and she said it was Cash's and that he owed child support," Eric snorted. "He came home and I told him she came by and he started yelling and throwing things, saying, 'why did you say anything to her, what did you tell her' and I was just standing there, and I said something like, 'Are you serious? I was just supposed to stand there and say nothing?' and then he slapped me."

"You said last night that your sister is over at the Riggins, is that a permanent thing, has she moved all of her stuff over?"

"I don't know, I didn't help her move, she probably has some stuff still at my mom's house, but as far as I know she hasn't spent a night there in a couple of months. I mean, she's stopped by for a few hours to visit, but I mostly see her at Tim's place or where she works."

"Uh huh. And you mom is in Dallas?"

"Yes, visiting my aunt."

"For how long?"

"I don't know."

"Well is your aunt sick or in the hospital?"

"No…I think they just wanted to get together for a while."

"Well, how long is 'a while?'"

"I don't know, in the past it's been a few days to a couple of months. I can call and find it but when they're together they can change their plans a lot."

"Spur of the moment type of thing."

"Yes sir."

Eric tapped the pad with his pen as thought and read over his notes.

"Okay. Here's what we're gonna do. Get a locksmith to come out to your place and change the locks, maybe put in a deadbolt. You can get some more clothes and whatever else you may need' cause you should stay with us for a few more days. As for the order of protection, I think the sticking point might be whether the police would accept that you and Cash were living together. That thing Julie read didn't specify anything in terms of duration or amount of days needed to qualify as living together, but I'm pretty sure the police will know more about that. So, I'll call the locksmith and meet them at your house while you and Tami go to the police and get the order or at least file to get the order. Sounds like you may have to see a judge or they have to rule on it."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"No, I'm not going to the police."

Eric's eyes flashed, and he got what Tami and Julie called the Coach's Look on his face. He jabbed the pen in his hand at Tyra. "What do you mean you aren't going to the police? How the hell do you expect to get an order of protection without going to the police? I tell you what; I am not going to stand guard outside of your house every night for you. Who do you think you are? You sh—"

"Eric! Come outside with me."

"Wha—"

"Now."

Eric pushed back from the table and followed Tami to the back patio. They watched Jordan and Payton amble off into the yard and start to chase and growl at each other.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me, what're you talkin' about?"

"You are interrogating that girl like she's the one who's done something wrong."

"Like she hasn't? She's probably had sex with half the players on my team, she was well on her way to flunking out of school before you had to take her under your wing and make a project out of her, she brought strippers to school in order to win the election for student body president, and apparently she's been spending more time with this Cash guy then she has in school."

"So, it's a horrible thing, in fact it's the worst thing in the world if she has sex with any of your players because that's gonna be some kind of distraction, and instead of thinking about what pass pattern they're supposed to run or who they're supposed to block they're gonna be thinking of her naked body and lose a game for you? Come on, Eric, if Tim Riggins can play games for you when he's drunk and hung over and not screw up, the other players will be fine. As for my making a project out of her, yes I've done that, and I'm proud to have done it and I'm proud of her."

"Oh, and let's not forget her getting her claws into Julie."

Tami shook her head. "What?"

"Julie was doing just fine until she met that girl," Eric jerked his thumb over his shoulder, "and then suddenly she was skipping class and being out to all hours and lying to us about where she was and going to parties an—"

"You think she didn't go to parties before she met Tyra?"

"Well, she didn't lie about where she was going."

"How do you know that? How do you know that Julie wasn't off at some party when she said she was at the movies with Lois?"

"Because it'd have been damn hard for them to get from the movie theater to wherever the party was with no car and get back into the theater before I came by to pick them up."

Tami sighed. "Y'know what, I am not going to go around and around with you on how bad a job we both are doing raising our two children because we aren't. Yes Julie has made some mistakes and screwed up, but we did the same things in high school."

"Really? I don't remember being caught drunk by my parents."

""Uh huh, just like you don't remember coming up to me before first period one Thursday and cajoling me into skipping because your dad had gone out of town for the weekend and that meant we had a lot of 'alone time.' Now, we are gonna go back inside and you are going to apologize to Tyra and then we're all going to do what you suggested. Those were suggestions and not orders, right?"

"Fine. But I want to know why she's so against going to the cops. She can't get a restraining order without going over there and talking to them."

Tami frowned. "I know that. I think it's because she has a history with the Dillon police department and when she went there after she was assaulted they were, well they were pretty rough on her, like they didn't believe her."

Eric sighed. "A'ight, let's go." They walked back inside and sat at the table. Gracie was in Tyra's lap having her hair braided. "Gracie Bell, I thought you wanted to watch Nemo?"

"I was watching, but I can watch it later, I want to sit with you."

"A'ight." Eric looked at Tyra. "I'm sorry for earlier. I guess I was kind of interrogating you before and I got into what Tami and Julie call 'Coach Mode.' Mrs. Taylor just told me you had a bit of rough time after you got assaulted year before last, so I can see why you might not be thrilled with going to the police, but you can't get an order of protection without seeing them. Far as I can tell, that's the first step in the process."

"It isn't because of the assault, it," Tyra's eyes darted from Eric to Tami to Julie, "it's because of how they treated me after what happened last year."

Tami leaned forward. "What happened last year?"

"After Landry killed the guy who tried to rape me."

"What the fuck!?"