[December]
Football season had come to a close with a failed run for the 4A State Championships. For winter break, the Taylors went to El Paso to see Eric's parents. Shelley complained that they wouldn't be spending Christmas with her.
"We see you all the time," Eric said. "All. The. Time."
It was the first time they'd ever seen the El Paso house. They parked in the grand, circular brick driveway, and Eric kept looking at the little slip of paper he'd written the address on and looking at the numbers on the house and back at the paper. "Maybe I wrote the street down wrong."
Before them rose a two-story, villa style house, with a beautifully landscaped front yard consisting of a rock garden, a variety of cacti, and a flowing stone fountain. Jetting out from the second story was a covered balcony that overlooked the garden below.
"Gwandpa!" Julie shouted, and began unbuckling her car seat. She was too dexterous for her age, and that made her dangerous. She tried to get out of the car, but Tami had the child locks on.
Grandpa Taylor opened her door from the outside. "Princess! Do you know what we're doing today?"
"What! What!" Julie asked, climbing up into his arms. "Cwistmas tree?"
"Yes, my little one, we can string the tree. But we're also building a doll house!"
Grandpa Taylor carried her inside while Eric and Tami got the bags and followed. Betty Taylor gave them the grand tour, starting with a master bedroom that was the size of Eric and Tami's kitchen, breakfast nook, and living room combined. The master bath had two separate sinks, a shower, and a soaking tub. They followed her through the hardwood-floored formal dining room to a large kitchen with granite counter tops and a center-island stove. It opened onto the spacious living room, which had a gas fireplace. They went through the breakfast nook and outside onto the patio.
"Holy…" Eric muttered under his breath as he surveyed the outdoor kitchen, gazebo, pool, and hot tub.
"It's too cool for the pool, but you and Tami can use the hot tub tonight if you want," Betty Taylor said. "Share a bottle of wine. We'll keep an eye on Julie."
"We didn't bring suits," Tami said.
Betty shrugged. "We never use them. The neighbors can't see our yard from their house."
Eric flushed and winced at the same time.
Upstairs was a guest bedroom suite with its own full bathroom, another living room, a hall bathroom, and a large bedroom that had been converted into a study with built-in, floor-to-ceiling book cases.
"What the hell, Mom?" Eric asked. "When did Dad stop pinching pennies?"
"Eric, don't say hell to me."
"Yes, ma'am. Sorry."
"We're going to be fifty," Betty Taylor said. "It's time to really enjoy ourselves."
[*]
That afternoon, Julie and her grandfather built a doll house together in his workshop. Well, Grandpa Taylor built it. Julie slathered it with paint, four different colors, and then glittered the roof.
When they came in from his workshop, Julie ran off to "help" her grandmother bake cookies while Eric threw on his jacket and disappeared to the outdoor kitchen to start the grill.
Tami's father-in-law sat next to her on the living room couch and said, "My granddaughter is one smart cookie."
"I know."
"No, Tami, I mean really smart. She's developmentally advanced for her age by nearly every rubric. What's your plan for her education?"
"My plan?" asked Tami, laughing. "Well, when she's about four, I plan to put her in a pre-K program a few mornings a week. And then I plan to enroll her in kindergarten when she's about five."
"Public kindergarten?"
"Sure. It was good enough for me. It was good enough for your son."
Mr. Taylor shook his head. "It was a different time," he said. "If you want to send her to a private school for the gifted, I'll pay her tuition. It's cheap to live here. I'm making a very good salary at El Paso University. Betty's making a decent income too. We don't need all that."
"James, she's not even quite three. And the public schools have gifted programs, if it turns out she needs one." And I don't want to take any more of your money.
"The offer still stands if you ever change your mind."
[*]
On Christmas Eve, Tami stayed in with Julie while Eric and his parents went out to a nice dinner followed by a candlelight, midnight mass. After four stories, Julie fell asleep on the inflatable mattress in the guest bedroom next to the bed Tami and Eric would share. She crept downstairs, poured herself a glass of wine, plugged in the Christmas tree, started the fire, and settled onto the couch to read, stretched out, her head propped up by pillows. She fell asleep within an hour.
She was awoken by the sound of her husband cursing. "Jesus Christ!"
"Don't use the Lord's name in vain," Mr. Taylor scolded him.
Her eyelids fluttered open, and she saw them there, sitting by the Christmas tree, attempting to assemble what looked like a tricycle.
"Well Santa needs a beer," Eric said.
"We don't have beer," James said. "Your mother only drinks wine. It looks like your wife opened a bottle." He motioned with a screwdriver toward the kitchen.
Eric went and poured himself a glass.
Tami closed her eyes again. Maybe Eric would be a gentleman and carry her up later. She listened to them assemble, mutter, and talk.
"Jesus, Dad, how many presents did you get Julie? I don't want you to spoil her."
"Don't use the Lord's name in vain. Is that what they teach you to do at that nondenominational church?"
"We're going to a Methodist church now." The church was Protestant enough for Tami and had almost enough tradition to satisfy Eric. He still wasn't fond of the grape juice, however. "And, seriously, there must be over a dozen gifts under there."
"Santa has resources, Eric."
"Well, Santa never brought me more than four gifts."
"Poor baby. Were you deprived, son? With a roof over your head and three meals a day and warm clothes in the winter?"
"You made me work to buy everything extra. If I wanted brand name jeans instead of the cheap jeans, I had to pay the difference. If I wanted a Walkman, I had to buy it. If I wanted a car, I had to buy it."
"Don't whine because I taught you industry and self-reliance, son."
"Well, maybe I want to teach Julie those things too."
"Julie's two and a half. And she's my granddaughter. Now hand me that screw."
[*]
Julie tore laughing through the presents the next morning. She emptied her stocking full of beanie babies and age-inappropriate candy. She tried on her two princess costumes. She whirled on her sit-n-spin until she almost threw up. She fed her crying and peeing baby doll. She opened her artist's kit and spread the markers and colored pencils all across the floor. She took out all the pieces to Candy Land and left them on the kitchen table. She took out the adoption certificate for her Cabbage Patch doll and put it inside one of the six volumes of her hardback Dr. Seuss collection. She rode her tricycle around the circular brick driveway a dozen times.
As the four adults stood outside and watched Julie pedal and push, Eric asked his father, "How are we supposed to get all of this stuff home?"
"Well why did you bring the car? Why didn't you bring the pick-up?"
"The car gets better mileage."
"Guess we'll just have to bring some of it up when we visit you in January."
Tami raised an eyebrow. Eric had not pre-approved a January visit with her.
That night, Julie crashed at 7:30. Eric's parents turned in at 9. Tami looked out the downstairs living room window and suggested heating up the hot tub and enjoying some wine while they soaked.
"Hell no," Eric said. "I'm not sitting in some hot tub my parents have entered naked."
"I'm sure they clean it, Eric."
"No. Hell no. We can go take a shower together if you want."
"How do you know your parents haven't had sex in that shower? Maybe they've christened every inch of this house."
"Stop. Just. Stop."
[*]
They got back to Dallas on December 28th. That night, as Eric and Tami were cozying up in bed, little kisses turned into deep kisses, caresses turned into petting, and clothes came off. Eric stretched his arm behind himself and fumbled to open the drawer in the nightstand where he kept the condoms.
After Julie was born, Tami didn't go back on the pill. She was breastfeeding to start, and then she worried about the pill making her gain weight right when she was trying to lose it. Besides, they'd discussed having a second child eventually, so she thought they'd just use condoms in the meantime.
"You don't really need that, do you?" she asked.
His hand fell away from the drawer. "What?" he asked.
"Julie's going to be three in May, and we said we wanted to have our kids four years apart. It could take a few months for me to get pregnant." Of course, it had only taken the once last time. They hadn't even been trying. "You okay with that?"
Maybe he wasn't. He was running his hand through his hair now and looking a little dazed. She glanced down and saw he'd half lost his erection.
"You're not okay with it," she said.
"It's just…why did you have to spring this on me right now? Why couldn't you have brought this up an hour ago when we were sitting on the couch and reading? Your timing is really awful sometimes."
She winced apologetically. "Sorry. I just…I just thought maybe we should start trying. We did talk about it before. We said four years apart."
"Yeah, we talked about it two years ago!" He sighed. "I guess it's all right. I mean, we're paying the bills. I can always take on some extra private coaching if I need to." He laughed. "Damn, Tami." He shook his head. "Sometimes."
She smiled. "But you love me anyway, right?"
He laughed and kissed her. "I do love you," he agreed. "I don't know why sometimes, but I do."
She nibbled his earlobe in that way she knew drove him crazy. He cupped one of her breasts and teased the nipple. She felt a responsive stirring against her hip.
His voice was thick and low when he asked, "You want me to make you pregnant?"
"Yes."
"We might have to do it every night, you know," he said as he eased her legs apart with his knee. "Just to make sure."
