[Monday, May 9]

At the cafeteria lunch table, Tami told Eric about her mother's engagement.

"Wow," he said. "That's fast. Didn't you say they started dating last November?"

"That's less than seven months," Joey said.

"He can count," Sarah quipped. "No wonder he's surpassing me in Calculus."

Joey smirked. "She can use three-syllable words. No wonder she's surpassing me in English."

Sarah smiled at him. "See, I'll teach you to appreciate sarcasm yet."

"He's probably in a hurry," Tami said. "He's probably eager to have sex with her. She won't until she's married."

Joey glanced at Sarah. "I can see how that might make a man rush to the altar."

Eric pushed his tray aside. "How do you feel about this?"

"Ambivalent," Tami answered. "I understand why she's doing it, and it's probably for the best for her, but I just want more for her, you know? I wanted her to find someone like my dad. Someone who could make her laugh and blush and…" She shook her head. "At least Pastor John is decent. I see some of these single moms, dating guys who come on to their teenage daughters…" She shook her head. "It's vile. I don't have to worry about Shelley. And I don't have to worry about my mom financially anymore."

"I thought pastors were poor," Sarah said.

"No, he has a good salary," Tami said. "Steady, you know. Not a lot. I don't know what it is, but middle-class. On top of that he gets a parsonage. My mom can sell our house now." Tami smiled at Eric and reached across the table to take his hand and seize his full attention. "She's giving me $3,000 for college. I can afford to live in Waco now. I think I should go to Waco Community for two years, and then try to transfer to Baylor."

She wasn't sure he'd heard her. For a moment he just blinked. Then a huge smile burst out across his face. "This is fantastic!" He leaned across the table and kissed her.

"No PDA!" Joey insisted.

After a moment, they broke it up. "I just need to find an apartment and some roommates," Tami said.

"Not going to live in sin with Eric?" Sarah asked.

"I have to live in the dorms if I want my scholarship to cover housing." Eric winked at Tami. "But I can sneak you in some nights."

"Your poor roommate, Eric," Sarah said. "I hope I don't get some roommate who's doing the nasty every night."

"You could avoid that if you and I got an apartment together," Joey said. "You know…just as friends. Friends who occasionally shower together."

Sarah laughed.

[Wednesday, May 18]

Tami did not work at Chili's the night she graduated from Tyler High School. After she grasped that diploma in her hand, and shook the principal's, and tossed her hat in the air, she went to the secret paradise with Eric. She told her mother she was going to the all night graduation party, which was a supervised, alcohol-free lock-in at the community center.

"I don't know why you still lie to her," Eric said as they parked his truck just outside the secret paradise. "You're 18. An adult. You're going away to college."

"It's just easier that way," Tami said. "It's not like you tell your dad, bye, I'm going to get laid!"

He switched off the engine. "No, I just tell him I'm going out for an emergency repair."

Tami chuckled. "How is that going with the new woman?"

"I have no idea, but he's out doing emergency repairs every weekend now. She goes to your church. What do you know about her?"

"Easter was the first time I really noticed her. I think she's only there occasionally."

"Hey," he said softly, leaning closer. "You're a high school graduate now."

She smiled. "I know." She kissed him.

"I'm proud of you. Most improved."

She giggled. They'd had an awards assembly on Monday, and that was the certificate she received.

They stretched out a blanket on the soft grass and made love. Tami straddled him, and Eric, hands on her hips, fixed his eyes on her jostling breasts as she took her pleasure in slow, grinding circles.

"So beautiful, Tami," he murmured.

"Eric..." she begged, moving faster.

He matched her pace.

She whimpered and bit down on her lip.

"Don't try to silence it, babe. I want to hear you when you cum."

The pleasure ripped through her, and she let the cry escape.

[*]

Eric's hands were resting on his naked stomach. He was surprisingly comfortable being stark naked around her. Tami wasn't quite there yet. She'd thrown her t-shirt back on after their lovemaking for the long, lazing around part.

She looked up at the purplish black sky that was fading into night. He reached for her hand, and they laced their fingers together.

"Have you thought of going on the pill?" he asked.

"You want me to?"

"It's more secure. Condoms have a twelve percent failure rate. My dad seriously drilled that little factoid into me. I guess he was using a condom when he knocked my mom up with me. The pill's more like 99% effective. And…" He fell silent.

"And what?"

"I think sex feels better without condoms."

"Maybe it was just better with Laura," she muttered, suddenly jealous of his past relationship. How many times had they had sex? Laura had probably perfected pleasing him.

"Tami. Really? I just meant…not having that barrier between me and you…I'd like that. You might like it better too."

She felt bad about making the comparison. She decided to tease him to lighten the mood. She rolled on her side and rested a hand on his bare hip. "You're being a bit presumptions. You just assume we're going to be having sex on a regular basis?"

"We…uh….we aren't?"

She suppressed her smile and attempted to appear very serious. "I may want to slow it down a notch. Go back a few steps."

"May I ask why?"

She laughed. She kissed his lips. "I'm just teasing you. I'll talk to my doctor," she said. "I'll get on the pill."

He smiled. "You're evil."

Eric rolled her underneath himself and began peppering her with ticklish kisses.

[Saturday, June 4 ]

Mrs. Hayes became Mrs. John Wilson in a traditional Baptist ceremony. The wedding crowd was larger than either of her daughters had imagined it would be. Tami supposed that was what happened when you married a pastor. Half the congregation was present for the nuptials.

The church's assistant pastor married them, and Mom wore the traditional white, though her dress was simple and inexpensive. There was an excessive number of scripture readings, which Shelley whispered complaints through, and the wedding sermon was unusually long. Tami thought her feet were going to blister in her heels, and she wanted to step down from the stage and kick them off.

Eric was at Baylor for the weekend for some kind of football-related meeting with his future coaches, so he'd had an excuse not to attend with her.

"Too bad for Eric," Shelley told Tami at the alcohol-free cake and punch reception in the fellowship hall afterward. "He could have seen you in this gorgeous bridesmaid dress." Her words dripped sarcasm, because Mom had not chosen the most flattering apparel; they were an uncertain color (like blood mixed with purple jelly beans, Shelley suggested) and there were these over-large flowery poofy puffs in the breast area. Shelley raised her glass of punch to her lips. "I wish Kash were here, and then I could dance. If they had dancing at the reception."

"So…what is going on there, with you and him?" Tami asked.

"Less than I'd like. I told you he was crazy conservative religious. He won't let me do more than stick my tongue down his throat. Though he certainly seems to like that." She sighed. "He's talking about quitting the football team, though. Says he wants to dedicate his energy to the rifle team instead."

"So?"

"The rifle team doesn't have cheerleaders. Or stadiums. Or…it's just not that cool."

"Do you like him, Shelley, or do you like that he's a football player?"

Shelley shrugged. "I kind of like him. I guess. I don't know."

"Well, if you don't like him, don't string the poor boy on anymore."

"Thanks, Mom." Shelley nodded toward their mother, who was talking to someone at the head table. "She's going to have to have sex with him tonight. Do you realize that? Sex with the pastor."

"Who knows," Tami said, sipping her punch. "Maybe he's great in the sack."

She and Shelley both laughed.

When the couple was headed out the door to drive off for their short, two-night honeymoon along the San Antonio river walk, Mom tossed her bouquet, and Shelley caught it.

Shelley looked at the flowers and shook her head. "No fucking way I'm limiting my options any time soon." She handed the bouquet to Tami.

[*]

Mom had closed on the old house last week and sold most of the furniture, as Pastor John's parsonage was already fully furnished. Tami had kept the futon couch/bed and her desk to take to college, and they were currently in storage in Pastor John's garage. They'd moved everything else into the parsonage on Thursday. Pastor John had slept on the couch while Mom had slept in the bedroom they would soon share. Though Tami certainly had not been in a rush after her mistake with Paul, she couldn't imagine waiting until your wedding night to have sex with the man you'd pledged to spend the rest of your life with. She hoped Mom didn't hate it.

Tonight, Shelley and Tami were alone in the parsonage, as they would be Sunday night as well, until Mom and her new husband returned on Monday evening.

"We should totally throw a party," Shelley said as she put up her feet on the coffee table.

Tami tuned the TV to Saturday Night Live. Pastor John's TV was six inches larger than theirs had been, and it had a remote control, but he didn't have cable either. He'd apparently installed an outdoor antenna, though, because he got seven channels instead of four. "We're not throwing a party in the parsonage."

"Can I at least invite Kash over?"

"No."

"Sucks to have you as a babysitter, Tami."

"I'm going to college in less than three months. Let's spend some quality sister time here." Tami was going to miss her baby sitter, despite all the times Shelley had annoyed her.

"Fine. Then can we at least have a little of Pastor John's secret stash of whiskey?"

"What?"

Shelley made Tami follow her, down the hall past the guest bedroom that would be Tami's room until she left for Waco, past the hall bathroom, and past the bedroom that was now Shelley's. Shelley's room had once belonged to Pastor John's son, who was now married, twenty-five, and a missionary in South America. Shelley paused in the hallway and nodded to the family photos on the wall.

"Is that his late wife?" she asked, looking at one photo of a smiling woman.

"I think so."

"Why didn't he take it down before he married Mom?"

"I don't know, Shell. She still has more than one framed photo of Dad, and he's been dead longer."

"Yeah, but it's not like she'd put it on the nightstand, right in his face."

"Maybe he didn't even think to do it. I don't think he's updated the decor of this house since she died."

Shelley shrugged and led Tami to the staircase that went up to the loft, where she paused. Beyond the staircase, had they kept going, they would have come to the master bedroom Mom and the pastor would soon share, which had a walk-in closet that had made mom swoon and its own master bathroom.

"Ladies first," Shelley said, and pointed up.

"You're not a lady?" Tami asked her.

"I try not to be."

The loft was set up as a small library, with an arm chair and a hassock, an old-fashioned roll topped desk, and bookshelves crammed with books. Shelley went straight to the farthest book case. "Found this when y'all three were out shopping for drapes." Mom hadn't liked the color of Pastor John's drapes. Stuck in the 70s, Mom had said. All those yellows and oranges. This is the 80s.

Shelley pulled out a bunch of books and began pressing against the wall paneling until a little square piece of it popped opened.

"You found that how, exactly?" Tami asked.

"These are Stephen King books. I took them out because I wanted to decide which one to read. And then I saw it was discolored."

Tami stepped forward. Inside the little cubbyhole was a near full bottle of whiskey and a whiskey glass.

"Think Mom knows about his secret habit?" Tami asked.

"Probably not," Shelley said. "Let's just be glad it wasn't a bunch of photos of naked boys."

"Ewwww! Shelley, did you have to go there!"

Shelley laughed. "Lighten up," she said.

"Do you think he's an alcoholic?" Tami asked.

"One bottle does not an alcoholic make."

"But it's secret," Tami said.

"You know half his congregation thinks drinking is a sin. He probably can't risk them finding out he doesn't. Hell, Tami, Mom thinks it's a sin. He probably doesn't want her to know either." She took the bottle out. "Just a little shot each."

"Shell, you're fourteen."

"I'll be fifteen in July."

"You are not drinking whiskey. Besides which, he'll notice. Put it back."

Shelley sighed and slid it back in and closed the panel. She began to return the books. "As much as I love you, Tam, and as much as I'm going to miss you, I have a sneaking suspicion my life is going to be a lot more fun without you around."

"And that's what worries me," Tami admitted. She put her arm around Shelley's shoulders and said, "C'mon, baby sis, let's go laugh at some SNL together."