Chapter 25

[December]

When Eric and Tami drove to Odessa for the christening, Julie was already seven months old. It had been a challenge to find a christening gown for a baby that size.

Shelley came, as did Tami's mother, but the new husband was away on business. "His name is Antonio," Shelley told Tami. "They've been married four years now. Stop calling him the new husband."

Shelley had recently quit her preschool job over an altercation with the preschool director regarding educational theory.

"What?" Eric asked. "Shelley has opinions about educational theory?"

Tami replied, "Eric, Shelley has opinions about everything."

Tami's little sister was now teaching aerobics and dating some guy Eric's age. Shelley was only in junior high when Tami and Eric started dating, so how could she now be with someone Eric's age? How did time do things like that?

Grady and Angie came and stood up as Julie's godparents, even though Eric and Tami had only seen them twice since moving to San Antonio. All but one of Eric's cousins were at the baptismal party, and, boyfriend notwithstanding, Shelley flirted shamelessly with all of them, but especially Philip Andrew.

"Your sister's something else," Philip Andrew told Tami. He looked across the Taylors' expansive kitchen to Shelley, who was in the breakfast nook, eating powdered cookies and licking the powder off her fingers. "Something else," he muttered, and disappeared beyond the kitchen into the house.

"Is my sister giving your brother a hard time?" Tami asked John Paul, who had been leaning against the counter beside her. John Paul had graduated from UT as a theatre major, and he was now doing improv in the evenings while working construction during the day. They'd gone to see one of his shows in Austin right after Eric graduated, but they hadn't had a chance to go back since the pregnancy.

John Paul laughed. "Oh, you don't know the half of it. Philip's a postulant now."

"What?"

"It's like pledging a fraternity, only…it's a monastery."

"I thought he might go to seminary after college," she said. "But I didn't see a monastery coming."

"When he goes back, he'll be a novice. If he can't survive Shelley, he won't survive his novice year. But I suspect he will. Then he'll take temporary vows. Then he'll eventually take his solemn vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. Someone should really tell Shelley about the chastity thing."

Tami shook her head. "It's not healthy to try to suppress your sexual urges like that."

"Why not?"

Tami laughed. John Paul was on his ninth girlfriend since she had met him.

"Hey," he said, "didn't you expect Eric to suppress his urges when you first started dating? I'm sure he wanted to have sex with you before he actually did."

"Well, yes, but I didn't expect him to suppress them for his entire life."

John Paul shrugged. "To each his own. Philip knows who he is and what he wants." He raised his punch across the room toward Eric, who had just come in through the kitchen door from the patio. "You keeping my cousin in line? Is he behaving himself?"

"Most of the time," Tami said with a smile.

Eric strolled across the kitchen toward them. "You flirting with my wife again?" he asked.

"Someone has to," John Paul said. "You've been out there grilling for an hour."

Eric looked around the kitchen. "Where's Julie?"

Tami shrugged. "Someone responsible has her I'm sure. Probably your father."

"As long as it's not Nathan Gregory," John Paul said. "He'll stuff her with cake until she vomits, if he doesn't fracture her skull tossing her toward the ceiling."

"I better go look for her." Tami anxiously disappeared from the kitchen.

Eric smirked. "Well played. Let's sneak upstairs and watch football. My dad finally got cable."

"Yeah. Your pal Grady is already up there. Tell Philip to get us some beer."

[*]

Tami had reclaimed Julie and now sat next to Angie on the living room couch. Julie sat on her lap and played with a ring of large, plastic keys. Everyone else was either in the kitchen, on the patio, or upstairs watching football. The only other inhabitant of the living room was Eric's youngest cousin Maggie, who lay on the floor playing with her Barbie dolls. The seventh of seven children, she was erratically doted on by her older brothers, but largely left to her own devices by her parents.

"So," Angie asked, "How are things since you had the baby? How is…" She half whispered. "S-E-X?"

"What's sex?" Maggie asked.

Tami giggled. "She's in first grade. She can spell. And it's O-K. Sometimes great. Sometimes…" Tami shrugged.

"I'm only asking because…" Angie put a hand over her stomach.

Tami squealed. "When's it due?"

"June."

"That's great! We can come visit you guys after she's born. Or he. Eric has about three weeks in July when he doesn't work. I mean…when he doesn't have to be anywhere. He always works."

[*]

"Damn ref," Eric muttered.

"I would not have made that call," Grady agreed.

Philip Andrew sat down next to John Paul on the 5-seat, L- shaped couch and set a one-gallon growler on the coffee table. He began unstacking four plastic cups and then pouring.

"Is this more of your bathtub beer?" Grady asked.

"No, this is better," Philip said. "It's from the monastery. I'm apprenticed to the master brewer." He began passing the cups down.

"My brother has found his true calling," John Paul said as he sipped the brew.

Philip sat back with his cup. "Your dad has quite the entertainment suite."

"Well he didn't have seven kids to support," Eric replied. "Although I don't know why he waited until I was out of the house to get a decent television and cable."

"Well," John Paul mused, "my dad says your dad is tighter than a virgin on – "

Philip Andrew interrupted him: "Let's not repeat that expression."

"But," John Paul continued, "My dad also said your dad's going to be making a shitload next month when he starts that Athletic Director job at El Paso University." There had been a SOLD sign up outside the Odessa house when they arrived. The moving trucks were rolling in next week.

When John Paul told him how much Mr. Taylor would be earning, Eric lowered his cup. "What? That's almost as much as some college QB coaches make."

John Paul pointed his beer cup at Eric. "Then you should aim to coach college ball."

"Yeah…well…I'm just aiming to get out of junior high right now."

"What color are we rooting for?" Philip asked.

"Green," Eric said while John Paul answered, "Red."

"That's actually burgundy," Eric insisted. "And how can you possibly live in Texas and be a Red Skins fan?"

"I do it just to piss off my dad."

Shelley popped into the room and took the last seat next to Philip Andrew. All four guys looked down the couch at her.

"I teach aerobics," she told Philip. "It's very challenging but it helps me to stay in excellent shape."

Grady chuckled. John Paul looked her up and down. "I'll say." Eric glared at him, and John Paul whispered, "Hey, I'm just trying to take one for the team."

Shelley put an arm on the back of the couch behind Philip and turned to face him. "What do you do to stay in such good shape?"

John Paul smirked. "He gardens."

Philip stood up. "I'm going to go see if my Aunt Betty needs any help in the kitchen."