[Friday, November 24 con't]

Eric patched the hole in the wall silently. Tami had buried the stick in the trash and washed her hands and now simply watched him work, filling and smoothing and sanding.

"Eric," she said when he went over the area for the third time, "we have to talk about this."

He closed his eyes. "I know."

He left the spackle and other items in the hall and walked toward the kitchen. She followed. He took two glasses down from the cabinet and filled them with sweet tea, as if they needed drinks for this. And maybe they did. Something to look at besides each other.

They sat at the kitchen table across from one another. He looked into the light brown sea of his tea. She gripped her own glass with one hand.

"So…I guess we have three options," Tami said. "Abortion, adoption, or we keep it."

He took a sip of his tea and swallowed, hard, as if he couldn't work it down.

"I've had a religious upbringing," she told him. "I don't know how much of it I believe myself, but I really don't…I think if I had an abortion, I'd feel really guilty. Me, personally, I just don't know if I could do it."

"A'ight."

"The next option is…maybe I take a semester off from school. I have it and give it up for adoption when it's born. And then we go on with our lives."

"Just like that?" Eric pulled his tea a little closer. "Just like my mom did. Just….went on with her life. Like it never happened."

"You don't want to do that, do you?"

"No."

"I'm not ready to be a mother," Tami said. "I thought I'd be thirty."

"I did exactly what my father told me never to do," Eric said.

Silence descended. Eric drained his entire glass of tea, sip by sip.

"Eric, I need you to talk to me," Tami said. "I need you to say something."

He stood. He paced a bit. He came back and stood across from her.

"Here's what I think we should do," he said. "We should get married this December, during winter break. A simple wedding at the courthouse. We don't have the time or money for much else."

"Eric - "

"- We may need a rush license. I don't know how that works. But we can get it done. You go ahead and transfer to Baylor, like you were planning to do anyway."

"But - "

"Listen, Tami, if I'm married, I can get married family housing on my scholarship for the spring semester. They have these apartments, just off campus, for married students and families with kids and all that. We won't have any rent or utilities. My scholarship will cover it. You can go to Baylor for the spring semester. The baby will be born in…" He was calculating… "July? Maybe you can take the baby to classes with you in the fall."

"Eric, I don't want to get married just because I'm pregnant."

"I love you."

"I know, but I don't want to rush into marriage."

"What choice do we have? You don't want to have this baby while we're not married, do you? And it'll be a lot cheaper if we can live together in family housing."

"I don't have any health care. What do we do about that?"

"I get student health coverage through my scholarship. I don't know if they'll pay for a family plan, but I can probably add you and pay the difference. Since you'll be a student too, it should be cheap. We'll figure it out."

She sighed. "I really don't want you to marry me because of this."

"Tami, I love you. We'd probably have ended up married anyway when college was over."

"In two and a half years."

"Yeah. So?"

"Well," she said, "now we'll never know if this is the only reason why we got married."

"I love you. It can never be the only reason. What else can we do?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I should take another test."

"We both know it's going to be positive. Tami, you're pregnant." He took in a deep breath. "I don't know what else we're supposed to do. Nothing else feels right."

"Does marrying me feel right?" she asked. "What if I have a miscarriage? You'll be stuck with me for no reason."

"No reason other than that I love you."

The phone rang. Eric went to pick it up. When he got off, he told Tami. "That was my dad calling from the carpet store. He wants us to meet him for lunch, at this diner near the store."

"Is he going to break the table in half?" Tami shook her head. "I've never seen that side of your father before."

"I have. A few times."

"Has he ever hit you?" she asked.

"God, no. Never. Sometimes guys hit inanimate objects when they get mad. That's all."

"My father never did anything like that. I hope you never do." She meant it when she said it, but over the years, she'd see him kick over a chair, pound a phone against the end table, and lead their daughter down the hall by her neck, and though she wouldn't like it, she'd be a bit more understanding.

"Listen," Eric said, "we better have something to tell him when we go to this lunch. So are you going to marry me or not?"

She leaned her head against her hand on the table. "Such a romantic proposal," she said.

"Tami, I'm not romantic. But you know I love you. You know I wanted to marry you eventually anyway." She didn't know that, not for sure, though she suspected it. "You know I'm faithful. You know I try to do the right thing."

"I know. I know all that, Eric. I just don't want to be the right thing you try to do. I don't want to be your obligation."

He got down on one knee beside her chair. "Tami, listen. I've spent years being cheered on the field, having girls flirt with me left and right, earning football trophies, wearing this" – he pulled off the state championship ring the Tigers had won his junior year of high school and held it up, "but sometime, it all ends. Even if I do make it to the NFL, I can't play forever. Average career length in the NFL is only about five years. Sooner or later, it's all gonna end. I want something solid when it does. Someone solid." He took her hand. "I want you. Will you marry me?"

She smiled. She loved him so much, and she did think marriage made practical sense in these circumstances. She had just imagined a different proposal, at a different time, with a diamond ring. "Yes," she said. "I'll marry you."

He smiled and put the state ring on her finger. It instantly slid off. She caught it in her other hand. "I'll put it on a chain," she said.

"I'll get you a real engagement ring as soon as I can afford one."

"Let's wait. Get me one for our fifth anniversary" She smiled. "When you're in the NFL. Or coaching. Or teaching. When we have money."

He dropped to both knees now and leaned in and kissed her.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"So am I. But we've got each other."

[*]

Mr. Taylor was already in the booth, a coffee cup in front of him, when they arrived. He'd chosen a quiet corner with no one else around. Tami and Eric slid in on the opposite side, and Eric grasped Tami's hand beneath the table.

"First of all," Mr. Taylor said, "I apologize for my reaction and my language. Both were completely unacceptable."

A waitress arrived and took Tami and Eric's drink orders.

"Second of all," Mr. Taylor said when she was gone, "y'all need to know this is not the end of the world."

"Really?" Tami asked. "Because you sure made it sound like the end of the world when you hit that wall."

Mr. Taylor sighed. "Eric has worked so very hard to reach his goals, and I've warned him so many times to be careful, that I just lost my temper. I shouldn't have. But I assure you, this is not the end of the world."

"Dad," Eric said softly "it's just...sometimes you've also made it sound like it was the end of your world when you conceived me. The end of your dreams, anyway."

"If I made you feel that way, Eric, I'm sorry. I regret quitting the amateur league. I regret that I didn't do things in the right order. I regret that I didn't have it all – the wife, the son, and the career. But I've never regretted you. You're my son, and I love you. Everything I have done for the past twenty years, I've done with you in mind."

Eric's eyes were speaking, the way Mrs. Hernandez said men's eyes do. They were saying he loved his father and feared his disapproval, that he was overwhelmed, that he felt like a failure, and that he was terrified of what the future might hold.

"But it's not easy becoming a young father. You're nineteen."

"Almost twenty," Eric said. "Tami is twenty."

The waitress returned with Tami and Eric's drinks and took everyone's order. Tami wasn't at all hungry, but she ordered a salad anyway.

"I was about your age when your mother had you," Mr. Taylor continued. "I could never have done it alone. For the first few years, I lived with my sister and shared expenses with her. If you two decide to keep this child, you won't be alone either. Karen and I will offer what support we can." He looked at Tami. "I'm sure your mother will as well."

Tami shook her head. "She's very religious. She's married to a pastor. She's going to be humiliated. She's going to…" Tami wanted to cry.

"My mother was very religious too," Mr. Taylor said. "She went to mass every single morning. I was terrified to tell her. But people can surprise you."

"Please don't tell my mother, Mr. Taylor. I will, eventually. But please don't tell her."

"It's not my place to tell her. You should tell her in person before you leave for Eric's game tomorrow." Tami had no intention of doing that. She wasn't ready to tell her yet. She'd wait until after the wedding. "Are you going to the game?"

"Of course," Tami said.

"So am I." Mr. Taylor shook his head. "What timing. Try to keep your head in the game anyway, son."

"I will," Eric promised him.

The waitress returned with their food. Tami poked around hers, while Mr. Taylor dug into his. Eric ate, but in a lackluster manner.

"Do you have a plan?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"We're keeping the baby," Eric said. "We're getting married, over winter break."

"That's probably for the best. Do you have a financial plan?"

"Tami is transferring to Baylor for the spring," Eric answered. "I'll apply for married student housing. They gave her a partial scholarship. She has enough savings to pay for next semester and still have a little left over. I have a little savings, three hundred dollars. I've got that part-time job lined up at the bookstore for spring and summer. She'll keep waitressing I guess."

"That's not going to be a comfortable job when she's six month's pregnant," Mr. Taylor said.

"I'll apply for a work study office job at Baylor instead," Tam instead. "I won't make as much, but it'll be better when I'm pregnant."

"And when the baby comes?" Mr. Taylor asked.

Eric looked at Tami.

"I guess we'll have to find childcare," Tami said.

"And pay for it how?" Mr. Taylor asked. "Along with your fall tuition and health care expense and baby related expenses?"

Tami looked at Eric.

"We haven't thought that far," he admitted.

"I have savings," Mr. Taylor told them. "I never had to help Eric with college. So I'll give y'all a wedding gift of $4,000." Tami felt like Mr. Taylor was throwing them a life raft, only to instantly poke a hole in it: "It won't last long. You'll burn through that more quickly than you imagine. Eric won't be able to work during the fall. He'll have to concentrate on football. Tami, you should consider not finishing college until Eric is in the NFL."

"Dad, there's no guarantee I'm going to make it to – "

"- I believe you can, Eric," his father told him. "But if you don't, it's probably even more important that Tami delay college. You two won't be able to afford her tuition after a semester. And if you don't make it to the NFL, and she takes on loans, it may be a long time before you can dig yourself out from under them. And all the things she'll be juggling – the baby, and work….to have school on top of that?" Mr. Taylor shook his head.

Tami didn't want to wait two years to finish college. She was on an academic roll. She feared she'd forget what she learned, lose the drive, get stuck in a rut. Besides, when Eric graduated, wouldn't they have to move for his job, whether the NFL or something else? But for now, she just let Mr. Taylor have his say.

"I assume it will be a cheap wedding," Mr. Taylor said. "Family, a few friends maybe, rings, but no fanfare?"

Eric looked at Tami.

"Yes," she said. "Maybe at the courthouse."

"You won't want your stepfather to perform the ceremony in his church?"

"I don't know if he'd…given the circumstances…I…." Tami was mortified at the thought of Pastor John finding out she was pregnant. "I suppose I don't have to tell him why I'm getting married," she said.

"Less than a month's notice before a wedding?" Mr. Taylor asked. "No, you won't have to tell him."

They ate their food in silence. Eventually, Eric excused himself for the restroom. Tami plead with him with her eyes not to go, but either he didn't notice or he really had to pee.

When he was gone, she examined her mostly untouched salad. She could feel Mr. Taylor examining her.

Tami put her fork down. Without looking at him, she said, "I hope you don't feel like I've ruined your son's life by getting myself pregnant."

"You didn't get yourself pregnant," he said. "And you are my son's life now."