Chapter Four
That evening, the Taylors had a big backyard barbecue with Mrs. Taylor's brother and sister-in-law and their gaggle of children, so Tami finally got to meet Eric's extended family. It was one of those random, sunny, 68-degree Texas December days. It would probably drop back down into the 40's tomorrow.
Tami sat next to Eric's Aunt Mary and Uncle Andrew in some lawn chairs and watched Eric play football with his six male cousins, aged twelve to nineteen. She thought her sister Shelley would probably explode if she was here, watching those boys play. They were all of them good-looking: lean and blonde and blue-eyed, with perfect teeth and adorable dimples every time they smiled. Eric was like the black sheep of the family out there, his mop of dark brown hair rising above the sea of blonde every time he leapt for the ball.
Eric's Aunt Mary was holding her infant daughter cradled in her arms, and Eric's Uncle Andrew had his arm around her shoulders. They were watching their older boys and laughing with each other about their kids, and once the uncle leaned over and kissed the aunt on the lips, right there in front of Tami. Tami had never seen anything like that: long-married adults acting almost like teenagers, not ashamed to be affectionate in public. Her parents had certainly never acted that way, even before her mother had kicked her father out.
"Andrew," Mr. Taylor said from behind them. "Come help me get the grill started. I need to pick your brain about something."
Eric's uncle rose.
Eric ran over, his long-sleeve t-shirt clinging to his muscular chest, and took his uncle's vacated chair. His aunt handed him the baby, and she went to join Mrs. Taylor, who had just come back out of the house with two glasses of ice tea.
Eric cradled his baby girl cousin. He looked adorable with that baby in his arms. "I bet you'd make a good father," Tami said.
"What?" His eyes were wide and alarmed as he glanced at her belly.
"Relax. You know I'm on the pill."
"Shhh!" He glanced toward his parents, but they were a long way off.
"I just meant someday," she said. She put a hand on his neck and toyed with his hair. "Don't you want kids someday?"
"Sure. When I'm established, but I certainly don't want seven like my aunt and uncle. They're good Catholics. I'm a bad Catholic."
She laughed. "You're good, Eric. You're a good human being."
He smiled and put his pinky out and the little girl grabbed it and immediately drew it into her mouth. "Whoa, Maggie," he said. "Ease up on that." Her full name was Mary Magdalene. His cousins all had names like Nathan Gregory and Peter Francis and Philip Andrew. "How did you end up being named Eric?" she asked.
"There was a St. Eric," he said. "He was never officially canonized, but he was important enough to get beheaded."
She laughed.
He pulled his finger out of Maggie's mouth and played with her hands. The baby gurgled, and Eric smiled.
Tami wondered how far off in the future he saw marriage. Would he want to get married when he finished college? A few years after he graduated? At all? Would they even be together a year from now, after he became a college quarterback and was surrounded by all sorts of fawning college girls?
John Paul ran toward them and came to a dead stop in front of Eric. "Come on, man. We need you. Stop flirting with this beautiful girl and get back out there." He winked at Tami.
Tami chuckled.
"Stop flirting with my girlfriend," Eric said, handing the baby to Tami and standing up. "And maybe I won't kick your ass."
"I'd like to see you try," his cousin said, and they ran out a few feet and started wrestling.
Tami shook her head. "Boys," she said to the baby Maggie. "They can be such idiots." She looked over at Eric, who was laughing as his cousin tried to put him in a chokehold. She smiled. "Such charming idiots."
When the scuffling boys had broken apart, they started playing football again. Eric's aunt sat down next to Tami and reclaimed the baby, while Eric's uncle left Mr. Taylor at the grill and joined the boys to play.
After a few minutes, Eric called across the yard, "Dad! You wanna play?"
Mr. Taylor shook his head. "Tending the grill, son," he said.
Eric frowned. He looked around at his cousins, playing with their own father. He missed the football when John Paul tossed it to him. It hit him straight in the chest.
Tami got up and walked over to the grill. "I'll take over," she said. "You go play with your son."
"I should really tend these burgers," Mr. Taylor said.
She plucked the spatula from his hand. "I can handle it. Go play with your son."
"Very well," he said. "We all like them medium rare, except my sister-in-law – she likes hers to be a hockey puck."
Tami smiled. "I'm on it."
Eric smiled as Mr. Taylor jogged out to join the game.
[*]
The Texas 5A State Championship drew enormous crowds, so Tami wasn't at all surprised that her cheating ex-boyfriend Mo McArnold should be at the game, but she was surprised to find him so near to her in the stands. Eric's family had especially good front row seats, but Mo was a mere four rows behind them. He clamored down the bleachers before kickoff and squeezed himself between Eric's cousin John Paul and Tami, who were sitting before the rail. John Paul eyed him suspiciously.
"Hey, Tami, long time no see," Mo said.
If Tami had discovered Mo was cheating before her heart had already half bent toward Eric, the wound might have run deeper, but she felt little resentment toward him now. "Yep. How's A&M?"
"I'm tearing it up on the Aggies." That's not what she had heard. She'd heard he was warming the bench. "So," he asked, "why are you rooting for the Wildcats tonight?"
"You know why. Eric's their quarterback."
"Huh. You two still together?" Mo glanced out on the field. "Long distance is a bitch, Tami. You don't really think he's not banging one of those cheerleaders, do you?"
Tami gripped the bleachers, the cold metal chilling her palms. John Paul leaned forward and peered at Mo. "My cousin's not a cheater."
Startled, Mo glanced at him. John Paul extended his hand. "John Paul."
"Mo McArnold."
They shook hard. A little too hard. Tami sensed a pissing match coming on and tried to deflect it. "So, Mo, why are you rooting for West Odessa?"
"I'm dating this girl whose little brother is a linebacker." He glanced up a few rows, waved at a pretty blonde, and smiled.
"So, you and the whore you cheated on me with didn't work out?" Oh, why had she done that? She was beyond that. She was better than that.
John Paul's blonde eyebrow shot up.
"Oh, Tami," Mo said, "you knew that was nothing. I told you that was nothing. That was never going to be anything. You were my everything, you know."
She rolled her eyes and John Paul narrowed his. Eric's sixteen-year-old cousin Philip Andrew, who was on the other side of John Paul, and who had oddly brought a book with him to the game, looked up from his reading and peered at them too.
"Game's starting soon," John Paul said. "You best get back to your girlfriend."
When Mo was gone, John Paul glanced up to where he stood in the bleachers. "Pretty girl," he said. "She deserves better."
"You're not going to try to steal Mo's girlfriend, are you?" Tami asked.
"Did I mention I'm considering A&M?"
"No you're not," Philip said, closing his book and slipping it inside his coat. "They don't have nearly as good a theater department as UT-Austin."
"Yeah, but I didn't know A&M had girls who looked like that."
They stopped talking because of the kick-off. The game was slow moving, and by the end of the half, the teams were tied 7-7.
As the band began to march, Philip Andrew sat down and pulled out his book again, while John Paul made his way up the stands to where Mo, apparently in search of food or a bathroom, had left his girlfriend alone.
Tami sat down next to Philip. "What are you reading?" she asked.
"The Practice of the Presence of God."
"Uh…okay." Well, that wasn't going to be much of a conversation starter. She wasn't sure where to run with that. "Do any of your brothers play football?"
"Stephen Patrick does," he said as he turned a page, "for his middle school. Nathan Gregory did, when he was in high school." Was Nathan the mechanic, or the one in military college? She couldn't keep them straight. She knew John Paul, because he'd harmlessly flirted with her for the past two days, and she knew Philip Andrew, because he was peculiar. The rest were a blur of double names.
After that, Philip Andrew became immersed in his book. Nathan Gregory – or was it Peter Francis? - walked past her and asked if she wanted something to eat, and then Mr. Taylor came and sat down next to her on the bleachers. "My son's playing well out there."
"He sure is."
"I suppose he's told you he turned down UT-Austin."
"Yep."
Mr. Taylor shook his head. "He's making an enormous mistake. He's not going to get to the NFL playing for a team like the Cougars. He wouldn't hear it from me. But perhaps…if you spoke to him."
Tami zipped up her jacket over her sweater. It was colder now that she wasn't standing and cheering. "He's already made a commitment."
"Well, he hasn't signed."
"Yeah, but he gave his word. I'm sure you've raised him to be a man of honor."
Mr. Taylor didn't have a comeback for that.
"He has to make his own decisions at this point in his life," she said.
"No one makes their own decisions. Everyone is influenced. My son, I believe, was influenced to choose UH by nothing more than its proximity to you."
"He had other reasons," Tami insisted. "He'll get more playtime."
"Maybe. But what does that matter if the team isn't nearly as good?"
"The Cougars won a bowl game in 1980," Tami said.
"They haven't won one since."
"Well, Eric might help change that," she suggested.
"Even academically, UH is less competitive than UT."
"UH is in the top ten in Texas academically," she insisted.
"And UT is number one."
"Those rankings change every year," she said.
"Do you know, if he gets injured at UH, he'll lose his scholarship completely?"
"He mentioned that. He said they'd give him until the end of the year. But he's not getting injured."
"Do you know what UT offered him?"
No. She didn't. Eric had intentionally avoided telling her that. "Eric's made up his mind, Mr. Taylor. I'm not going to be able to change it any more than you are."
Mr. Taylor rubbed his chin.
"James," Mrs. Taylor called from a couple of seats down. "Would you get me one of those soft pretzels and a coke?"
"Yes, my love," he said and stood. He looked down at Tami. "Eric's making a mistake. He could go all the way to the NFL. He really could. It's not a silly pipe dream of his. He could actually do it. But he's not going to do it on the Cougars."
A couple of minutes later, John Paul sat back down next to Tami. "Your ex-boyfriend sure likes that kindergarten game."
"What game?" Tami asked.
"Red light, green light."
Mo said "red light" as a way of announcing that he was on the edge of wanting to fight someone. Everyone in their old high school knew that, but there was no reason John Paul would. When Mo hollered, "green light," though, that meant he was going to throw his first punch. "You guys didn't fight did you? Did he try to hit you?"
"Oh, is that what he was trying to do? I must have stepped down the bleachers right when he was swinging. I guess that's why he tripped."
"Any luck with the girl?" Tami asked.
John Paul pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. A phone number was scrawled across the scrap.
"No wonder Eric doesn't trust you with me," she said.
"He trusts me completely. Why do you think I'm the one sitting next to you?"
