Chapter Nine

[November]

Tami and Eric went to the Taylors' house in Odessa for Thanksgiving. They had decided not to tell their respective parents about the engagement quite yet. Tami still didn't have a ring. "I'm working on it," Eric had promised her. "I just need to save a bit more."

"I don't need anything fancy, sugar."

"She doesn't understand," Eric told his cousin John Paul when they were sent to grab some extra bottles of wine from his Uncle Andrew's house. They'd almost run out, and Thanksgiving dinner hadn't even been served. Everyone except Eric's youngest three cousins were drinking. Mr. Taylor had frowned on the teenagers imbibing, now that the legal drinking age had been raised to 21, but Eric's uncle had assured him that it was still perfectly legal for them to drink in the presence of their own parents.

"Even just to get her something simple," Eric said as they walked into the house, "is going to wipe out my entire savings."

"Well," said John Paul as he opened the cupboard in his mother's kitchen and pulled out some bottles, "what are you saving for, exactly, if not something like this?"

"It's fine, I just…I want to get her something decent, you know?"

"You want to borrow some money from me?"

Eric laughed. Mr. Taylor was paying some of John Paul's tuition with Eric's college fund, and John Paul was considering a future career in stage acting. He wasn't precisely rolling in it, and he wasn't ever likely to be. "Nah. I'll just tutor a bit more. I'll have it before Christmas. We're not telling anyone else yet, you know. So don't go blabbing to anyone."

"I'm as silent as the grave."

"You'll be one of my groomsmen, right?" Grady would be his best man.

"Of course. I can also do a scripture reading for you if you like. Something sexy." He handed Eric two bottles and took another two out.

"A sexy scripture reading?" Eric asked as he headed toward the door.

"Sure. Something from Song of Songs. Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of gazelle that browse among the lilies. Doesn't that make you think of Tami?"

"Watch it!"

John Paul laughed as he followed Eric out the door. "I will climb the palm tree," he said in his Richard Burton-esque voice, "I will take hold of its fruit. Her breasts are like clusters of grapes on the vine - "

"- You're just lucky we grew up together."

"Nah, cuz, you're the lucky one, to have enjoyed my scintillating company for so long."

They put the wine bottles in the trunk of John Paul's twelve-year-old Vega. "Shit," he said. "Philip Andrew wanted me to grab a book while I was here. Can you run into my dad's library and get it? Seven Storey Mountain. It's got a monk on the cover."

Eric shook his head. "He's going to read while we watch football, isn't he?"

[December]

Football season had drawn to a close for the Houston Cougars the last week of November. There would be no bowl game this year, but Eric had played well, and he expected to be QB1 his sophomore year.

Grady and Angie eloped suddenly the second weekend in December. They got married in a Houston courthouse, with only Eric and Tami as their witnesses.

"We're not doing that," Tami said as they followed the newly married couple out of the courthouse. There was a light feathering of snow on the steps, a rare Texas dusting. "I want a real wedding."

"He just wanted to beat me to it," Eric said.

"Not everything is a competition, Eric."

He put his arm around her waist. "Well, if it were, I'd be the hands-down winner."

She laughed and kissed him.

He stopped walking. "Hey, is there someone I should officially ask for your hand in marriage?"

Even if Tami knew where her father was, she wouldn't want Eric asking him. "I guess you could ask my mother when we go home for winter break." They were spending the Christmas holiday at Tami's house, and then going to Odessa to his parents' house for New Year's Eve. It was as if the in-law juggle had already begun. "Maybe I'll have a ring by then." She smiled and toyed with the state ring she wore around her neck. "I mean, besides this one."

"Subtle," he said. "Very subtle." He took her gloved hand in his own, waved goodbye to Grady and Angie, and tugged her down the street in the opposite direction. "Let's walk in the park," he said. "It's pretty, with the snow."

There were some kids in the park, trying to sled on the mere two inches down a would-be hill. Eric came to a stop in the snow-dusted grass and dropped to one knee. Tami smiled and covered her mouth with her hands. He'd caught her off guard - again.

He reached into the pocket of his black leather jacket and pulled out a small box and opened it to reveal a solitaire. A light snow began to fall again, almost as if he'd planned it, large, airy flakes dusting his hair, which was a shade darker now than it had been when they'd started dating. "Tami," he said. "I love you. I'm not good at speeches, so, I'm just gonna ask…Will you do me the great honor of agreeing to be my wife?"

She nodded and pulled off her glove and held out her hand to him so he could slide the ring on her finger. "It's so beautiful," she said.

"I'll get you a bigger one for our tenth anniversary."

"I won't want a bigger one."

He stood up and kissed her.

"Hey, mister," came a child's voice from behind him.

Eric broke the kiss, turned, and smiled. "No one's ever called me mister before."

"My cat's stuck up in that tree." The boy pointed a little way across the park. "Can you help?"

Eric ran a hand through his hair and brushed out the light snow flakes. "Who brings a cat to a park in winter? You should have a dog, kid."

"Please?"

"Sure."

[*]

There was no justice in it. Eric had made it through a half dozen hard tackles this past season without so much as a sprained ankle. It was like the guy who comes home safely after months at war only to die in a car accident a mile from his own house.

Tami told him the upper branches looked too weak, but Eric had just put a ring on her finger. He was invincible.

She heard the branch snap first, then the thud, crash, rustle, thud, and, at last, the second snap, three times as loud as the first. Not a branch this time.

[*]

When they finally let Tami into his hospital room, his leg was already in a cast. He was just staring at the ceiling. A curtain was drawn between him and his roommate, who was snoring loudly.

"Hey," she said softly and kissed him. She drew the chair up and sat down and took his hand and squeezed. He looked furious. "How bad is it?"

"Bad," he said, "Obviously." He nodded angrily to his leg.

"Hey," she said. "I'm here." Shouldn't that count for something? Take at least a little of the anger out him?

"Doctors said there's a bone chip…or something…I can't play on it next season."

"But you can play your junior year," Tami assured him.

"It doesn't work like that. I'll be replaced. I'm losing my scholarship, and I won't get it back, even if I make the team as a walk-on my junior year, which I may not. Even if I do, I'll never play quite as well again." He slid his hand free from hers and rested it on his chest. "So much for the NFL."

She nervously twisted her engagement ring. The diamond caught the overhead hospital light and sparkled, but Eric couldn't see that. He'd turned his face to the curtain.

"Maybe we shouldn't get married," he said.

"What? Why? Why would you say that?"

"I'm not going to be able to support you now."

They'd had it all planned out. They were going to get an apartment on the housing allowance from his scholarship. He wasn't going to have to pay a dime in tuition, books, or fees. The money they made working part-time would cover the rest of their expenses.

"Support me?" she said. "No, Eric Taylor. That's not how this works. We support each other. That's how this works. And we're going to make this work." She stroked his cheek.

He pressed her palm against his cheek and turned his face to kiss her hand.

"I love you," she said, "I love you, and we're going to figure something out."