[About A Year Later]
The next summer, Tami's mother moved to Lubbock for Antonio's job. "It'll be good for Shelley," Tami's mom told her, "if we live farther away. She'll have to get out of our basement. She'll have to spread her wings." Tami's mother was less pleased, however, when Shelley spread her wings simply by flying to her boyfriend's apartment in Plano. "I never thought a daughter of mine would end up living in sin," she said.
In July, Eric received a job offer as a QB coach for a high school in Dallas. "I love working with Coach Compton," he said, "but I can't pass this up. They'll only make me teach three history classes and a weightlifting class. I can concentrate more on football. And it's high school! 4A!"
Tami smiled to hear how excited he was, and she didn't mind the move, as it put her in a major city just thirty minutes from her sister. They did have to take on a slightly larger mortgage, however, because of the increased cost of living.
Tami played the cultured mom that summer, taking Julie to every museum she could find in Dallas and nearby Fort Worth. The little girl was only two, but she was alarmingly verbal for her age, so Tami had hoped she might enjoy the experience.
If there wasn't a button to push, however, Julie wasn't interested. The one exception was the art museum. Julie would sometimes stare at a painting for as long as sixty seconds before moving onto the next, issuing a verdict of "pwetty" or "weird" or asking an insightful question such as "What is it?" or "Why aw her boobies showing?" Once Julie asked, "Do awtists make a lot of money?"
"Artists? Not usually," Tami replied.
"Oh, then I'm mare-weeing a banker."
"You don't have to marry a banker. You can make your own money, you know," Tami told her.
"You don't."
That evening, Tami scoured the help wanted ads and began printing out resumes on their new desk jet printer.
Eric got home from his first day of school around 5:30. "What's for dinner?" he asked.
"I ordered pizza." At the moment, she was sitting at the kitchen table and collating and stapling the two-page resumes she'd printed. She could still see Julie from the kitchen. The girl currently lounged stomach-down on the living room couch, her face turned toward the television. Tami had been strict about restricting Julie's television viewing ("the book says TV can negatively affect their developing brains"), but ever since Julie had stopped napping, Tami had started bending the rule to maintain her own quiet time.
"What's with all the paper?" he asked, plucking up a sheet. "Volleyball team leader?" he asked. "I didn't know you were the team leader."
She'd put that under her "leadership skills" section. She'd only been on the team for one season. It had taken up too much time.
"Wait," he asked, "Are you applying for something?"
She sighed. "I think it's time for me to get back to work."
"But I thought you wanted to wait until Julie was in kindergarten. What are we going to do about childcare?"
"We could pay Shelley" Tami suggested. "She could probably use the money. Her aerobics classes are mostly on weekends and in the evenings. I could get a job near Plano. Drop Julie on my way."
"No offense… I know she's your sister and all…but I don't know if I want Shelley raising my daughter."
"She has an associate's degree in early childhood education."
"And she earned a 2.4, even though she was living with your mother and not working."
"She used to teach preschool, you know."
"For less than a year," he reminded her. "Then she quit to teach aerobics. Part-time."
"She used to babysit in high school," Tami said." I know she's a little flaky, Eric, but it's not as if she's going to leave her niece in a car with the windows rolled up."
"Yeah, but…I just think you're a better influence on our daughter. You're intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, compassionate…" He lowered his voice, "beautiful…." He leaned down to kiss her.
"Are you angling for something, Coach?"
"Nah. Just being honest."
She looked at the resumes scattered across the table. "I just feel like I'm not really contributing."
Eric took off his black and white cap – Tami much preferred these colors to those of the Yellow Snakes (she preferred the name, too, the Jaguars) –hung it on the back of the chair, and sat down. "Why the hell would you say that?"
"I mean I'm not contributing anything to the household income."
"Sure you are. You take care of Julie, so we don't have to pay Shelley. You cook dinner, so we eat out less than some other people. You do the taxes, so we don't have to hire an accountant. You take the time to shop for the deals. Babe, you make us money by saving us money."
"I never thought of it that way."
He took her hand. "Your support makes it a lot easier for me to do my job, which means I'll get farther and make more money. This ship couldn't run without you, babe. We'd all just be floating around in one spot, getting nowhere."
"You really want to get laid tonight, don't you?"
"I really don't want Shelley raising our daughter."
She sighed, took her hand out of his, and began collecting the resumes into a pile.
"If you want to get a job, Tami, that's one thing. But don't feel like you have to. Don't feel like what you do here isn't important. Because it is. I appreciate it. I'm sorry if I don't say that enough."
She looked at the stack of papers. She didn't really want to go back to work, not yet, not when Julie wasn't even in preschool. "Well, I guess it was good to update my resume, at least. It'll be ready when Julie goes to Kindergarten."
Eric went to open a bottle of wine and sat back down at the table with her. He scooted his chair so they were at close corners with one another. He poured her a glass and then filled his own. "How was your day?" he asked.
"We went to the Meadows Museum. Julie wants to marry a banker instead of an artist."
"That's my girl. She's got a good head on her shoulders." He glanced back at where Julie had fallen asleep on the couch.
"And how was your first day of school?" Tami asked.
He turned back to her. "High school 's different. The players are more cocky. And teaching U.S. history to 10th graders is a hell of a lot different than teaching general history to 7th graders."
"How's that?"
"Well for starters, at the beginning of all of my classes, the girls just giggled for almost ten minutes. They kept looking at me and then whispering to each other and then giggling. I thought my fly must be undone, but it wasn't."
Tami laughed. "Oh, Eric."
"What?"
She kissed his cheek. "I love how innocent you can be sometimes. It's adorable."
"What are you talking about?"
"They were giggling because you're an attractive man. And they were whispering because they were sharing the fact with each other."
"Damn, Tami, I'm ten years older than those girls."
"Trust me, if you had been my history teacher…" She shook her head and laughed. "I'd be stopping in after every class and asking for extra help with my assignments."
"Yeah?" He smirked and leaned in to kiss her. "You want to earn a little extra credit tonight?"
[November]
The Jaguars made it to the play-offs. Eric was busy. He hauled up in his office in the guest bedroom for hours. He stopped by his QB1's house to work with him in private. He got home later in the evening. Tonight, it was almost eight before he walked through the door. Tami had just finished reading to Julie in her toddler bed. Julie wasn't toddling anymore - but that's what they called the bed.
When Eric came in, he was holding a little, floppy armed, stuffed monkey. "For my baby girl," he said, setting it down on the bed. Julie snatched it up. Eric kissed Tami's head.
"Where'd you get that?" Tami asked.
"Some girls were selling them in school. Some fundraiser for field hockey or something."
"Odd choice of sales item," Tami said.
Julie stretched out the arms of the monkey. "Like a noodle!" she said, and laughed. "Monkey noodle!"
Eric bent to kiss her nose. "You're my Monkey Noodle."
[*]
When he crawled into bed next to Tami later that night, she yawned and rolled over and settled against him. There was so much tension in his body that she felt like she was cuddling up with a rock. "You need to relax," she told him. "You have to get some sleep for your game tomorrow."
He sighed. "I think I'm just going to end up getting up and watching some more game tape."
"You can't stay up all night, Eric." She kissed his shoulder through his t-shirt. "Let me help you relax."
An excited smile teased the corners of his mouth. "Yeah?"
She scooted up his t-shirt and bent to kiss his navel, just above his boxers. "Mhhmmm..." she murmured.
"But I still get my victory lay tomorrow too?" he asked. "If I win?"
She giggled and tucked a finger into the band at the side of his boxers. She peered up at him. "Even if you lose, sugar. I'm proud of you, you know."
He buried a hand in her thick hair. "Show me."
[*]
When the door knob jiggled a few minutes later, Tami, who was on top of him, suddenly stilled. "Did you lock it when you came in?"
In answer to her question, the door flew open. In an instant, Tami yanked the blankets up to her shoulders. The hall light seeped in. "Why are you on top of Daddy?" Julie asked.
Tami rolled to the side and pulled the blanket all the way to just beneath her chin.
Eric was half panting. "What do you want?" he asked, the irritation in his voice causing Julie to step back.
"I had a bad dream."
He closed his eyes.
"Can I sleep with you?" Julie took a few steps toward the bed.
"No!" They both said at once.
"We mean, I'll put you back to bed and read you some stories," Tami said. She rustled under the blankets for the night shirt and underwear that had become lost somewhere near the foot of the bed and dressed underneath the covers. She kissed Eric's cheek before she slid out of bed.
When she came back twenty minutes later, Tami locked the door.
