The air conditioner creaked on again. A cool stream began to float from the overhead vent, penetrating the hot June air. Tami lay naked on her stomach in Eric's bed as his warm lips tickled her bare shoulder and his strong hand kneaded her bottom. Halfway through their afternoon foreplay, when they were down to their underwear, she'd asked for a massage, and she'd gotten one, after he'd stripped her of her bra and panties. At some point, Eric must have taken off his boxers also, because she could now feel his erection resting against her hip. Tami pushed her lower half against the bed, trying to ease the growing ache between her legs.

He began to pull her slightly on her knees. "You want to try it this way?" he asked, his voice raspy from wanting. His hands on her thighs, he spread her legs. "From behind?"

She rolled over onto her side, forcing him onto his in the process, until they were face to face. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've never done it that way."

"It's not rocket science."

"I don't know if I want to."

"A'ight." He kissed her. "What do you want?"

She draped a leg around his hip. "Face to face. I want you…inside."

"Now?"

She bit her bottom lip and nodded.

"Like this?" he asked as he pushed slowly in.

"Oh God," she moaned.

"And this?" He eased halfway out and thrust back in.

"Oh God!"

Eric stroked her hair afterward, as she lay with her head on his chest, which was still rising and falling. She traced his rib cage lazily. It occurred to her that, despite having sex with Boone and Mo, she wasn't particularly experienced. She'd been with Boone only once, with no idea what she was doing. She'd waited a long time to have sex with Mo, and they'd broken up only a few months after their first time, whereas Eric had probably been having sex with Lisa for almost two years.

Tami's sexual experience with Mo, aside from lasting only a few months, had been limited. Was that part of why Mo had turned to Anita? Because Tami was boring? She didn't care what Mo thought of her anymore, but what if Eric thought so, too? "Am I not adventurous enough for you?" she asked quietly. "Did Lisa do...did she do more?"

Eric tensed slightly, for a moment, and then relaxed. He rested a hand on the small of her back. "I love you, Tami. And I love having sex with you. There's no hurry to try everything. This is all on your timeline, babe."

"Yeah?" she asked, raising her head and shooting him a teasing smile. "I call the plays?"

"Uh-huh." He smiled. "As long as there's a spread formation in there somewhere at some point…I'm happy as a clam."

She smacked his chest lightly and laughed. "Well, we've got time to experiment gradually," she said. "We're going to be doing it a lot this summer."

His eyes brightened. He was clearly excited that she was the one who was saying it this time. "Yeah? A lot?"

"Definitely. You're leaving for summer training in seven weeks. Soon, we're only going to see each other on the weekends, and probably not even every weekend. We have to store up nuts for the winter. But we have to figure out how."

"Oh, I think we've figured out how," he said. "I know our first time wasn't the best, but we've definitely figured out how."

She laughed. "That's not what I mean. I mean, once or twice a week, when your parents are out… It's not enough. Don't you want it more often?"

He grinned. "Yeah! You want to go to the secret spot by the lake tomorrow?"

"No!" she cried. "It's not secret anymore. I'm not getting interrupted by hikers again. And the mosquitoes are out now."

He looked disappointed.

"But my dad's cleaning up at the soup kitchen every Wednesday night until nine," she told him, "and my mom's at her ladies' bible study until 9:30. Shelley's out at that aerobic tumbling class camp whatever thing she's doing now. She's never home before 9:00 either. You could walk me home from the coffee shop on Wednesdays and stay for a while."

"Uh…" Eric looked conflicted. "No."

"Why not?"

"Not under your father's roof. I can't do that, Tami."

"But you can do it under your father's roof?"

"That's different."

"How so?" she asked.

"You're his daughter. That's his house. It would be disrespectful."

Tami let out a groan of exasperation and rolled onto her back. "You have such a weird sense of honor."

"It's not weird. There's nothing weird about it," he insisted.

"Can I ask you something? Are you having sex with the pastor's daughter?"

"Uh…yeah," he admitted.

"Yeah! So what difference does it make where we have it? Aren't you disrespecting him already?"

"Yeah, but that would be really disrespecting him."

"Fine," she said, sitting up on the edge of the bed and starting to pull on her clothes.

"Come on, Tami. You know he'd take it as an insult." Eric sat up too and yanked on his boxers.

She clasped her bra. "I just want to have sex more often this summer." She pulled on her shirt.

He smiled as he stood and pulled on his jeans. "There is one way I could have sex with you in your father's house and not feel so guilty about it."

"Yeah, what's that?"

Shirtless, he went over to his desk drawer and yanked it open. He pulled out a box of Cracker Jacks.

"You need a snack?" she asked, her skirt still in her hands, her long shirt just covering her thighs. "Now? I helped you work up an appetite, huh?"

"The box is empty," he said. "But the prize is still in here." He turned the open box upside down against his hand. A fake, plastic, diamond ring fell into his palm. He tossed the box into his wastebasket and walked over to her before falling down on one knee in front of her.

Tami almost laughed, but then she saw his eyes, the eyes she'd told him could never bluff in poker. He was sincere. So instead of laughing, her mouth dropped open in surprise, and she covered it with one hand.

"Tami," he said, holding out the plastic ring, "I've never been more sure of anything in my life than I am of you. Will you marry me?"

"Oh Eric," she said, shocked and delighted. "Oh, sugar…" She was moved almost to tears. "Oh, babe….no."