[About a Year Later]

The Jaguars made it to the play-offs again, but once again failed to enter the 4A State Championships. Shelley came to church with Eric and Tami on Christmas Eve to watch Julie play an angel in the Christmas pageant. The pre-schooler had one line. Well, one word, really. Julie got to shout, "Lo!" and wave at the shepherds.

After church, they went back home, and Tami slid the ham into the oven, along with a few other dishes she had prepared and refrigerated.

Shelley had the wherewithal to praise her niece for her fine performance, but she otherwise came trailing a cloud of gloom. Her fiancé had just broken off their engagement. This was not the same man Shelley had lived with earlier, who had creeped Tami out by being Eric's age. No, this one was a ripe young nineteen.

"It's probably for the best, Shell," Tami reassured her as she draped the tree with the popcorn string Julie had helped her put together that morning. They'd decorated the tree last week, but this was the finishing touch. "Nineteen is a bit young to be getting married."

"Eric was only nineteen when he married you."

"It was a different time," Eric insisted from his recliner, where he sat watching football. Julie lay on her stomach at his feet. She was gazing at the neatly wrapped gifts beneath the tree. Grandma Merretti (Tami still wasn't used to her mother's last name) would be bringing more gifts tomorrow, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Taylor would bring some belated Christmas gifts when they arrived on New Year's Eve.

"It was like...eight years ago," Shelley reminded him. "It's not like it was another century."

"Well, things were different in our generation," Tami said.

"Your generation? Tami, we have the same mother. That kind of makes the same generation by definition."

"And Eric was almost twenty," Tami insisted.

"I'm over twenty, though," Shelley grumbled. "I'm old enough. And where am I supposed to live now? The lease was in his name."

"Because he had a job," Eric said.

"I have a job, Eric, thank you very much," Shelley insisted. "Much like your job."

Eric chortled.

"Well, we're both coaches, when you think about it."

Eric shook his head and turned up the volume on the television.

"We are. You coach football. I coach my clients in proper yoga technique."

"I thought you taught aerobics," Tami said.

"God, Tami! That was ages ago. I've been teaching yoga for at least six months now."

"What the hell is yoga?" Eric asked. Tami was surprised he was still listening to the conversation at this point.

"Stretching," Tami said. "It's basically some kind of stretching."

"It's far more than that," Shelley insisted. "It's about developing mindful techniques. You could probably use some mindful techniques, Eric. Relaxing breathing."

"Tami'll make sure I engage in some relaxing breathing, won't you, babe?" he asked with a wink.

"Good Lord, Eric." The oven started beeping, and Tami headed off to the kitchen.

"Smells fantastic, babe!" Eric called after her, but he didn't exactly get up to see if she needed any help.

[April]

Shelley wasn't able to pay the lease on her yoga studio, and so she was evicted. She started offering "in-home private yoga consultations" instead of studio classes.

"Please tell me she's not turning tricks," Eric said when Tami told him about Shelley's new project one night as they were getting ready for bed.

"Lord, Eric, my sister is annoying, but she's not a whore."

He put his watch on the dresser, dropped his pants, yanked off his T-shirt and crawled into bed in only his boxers. "C'mere," he said. "We got a baby to make."

She rolled her eyes.

He jerked his head toward her side of the bed. "Biological clock's ticking, babe. You can't ignore it. I hear doggy style is the best position for getting pregnant."

"You're lucky I don't smack you right now."

"Hey, if that's how you like it. I'm here to accommodate you."

She laughed. "Try saying something romantic instead."

"Nah, you're already laughing. I always get laid when I make you laugh."

She slid into bed next to him. "I'm worried," she admitted. "It's already been over fifteen months."

"Well, sometimes it takes a while, right?"

"Yeah, but…over a year? I read today that 85 percent of couples conceive within a year."

"So?" Eric said. "We're the other 15 percent. We obviously just need to have more sex."

"I don't know. I got pregnant that first time with no trouble at all. With no effort at all. I think we should see a fertility specialist."

"Tami, you sure know how to kill a mood."

"Eric, I'm serious. Something's wrong!"

He kissed her lips. "Nothing's wrong, babe. Just give it more time." He kissed her shoulder. "I love you. I love you, and sometime in the next year or two, I'm going to love the child you give me." He patted the bed between them. "Hey, you need to relax. Lie down here on your stomach. I'll rub your back."

"I bet you will. I bet that's not all you're going to rub."

"And I bet you're going to want me to rub more by the time I get there."

She smiled. "I bet you're right."

[May]

It was right after Julie's 4th birthday party that Shelley asked to move in with them. All of the other guests had departed, and Julie was passed out in a sugar comma face down on her bed.

Shelley's private yoga consultations weren't raking in the income she'd hoped. She couldn't make the rent on her apartment. "Just until I find another job," she assured them.

"Or another boyfriend?" Eric asked.

Shelley ignored him. "I'm going to go back to teaching preschool. As soon as I can find an all-day school that will hire me, I'll be out of your hair. You have that huge third bedroom."

"It's not huge, really," Tami said.

"You're not using it," Shelley told her.

Shelley hadn't meant for it to sting, but it did. Tami had expected to be turning that room into a nursery by now.

"I'm using it to store my game tapes," Eric insisted.

"We'll discuss it, Shelley," Tami told her sister. "We'll discuss it and let you know. When are you getting evicted?"

"In three weeks."

When Shelley shut the front door behind herself, Eric turned to Tami, raised a hand, and said, "No."

"Eric, she's got no place to go."

He began clearing the table of icing-smeared paper plates. "No," he said.

"It would only be for a couple of weeks, until she got on her feet."

He shoved the plates into the trash can. "No."

"I'm her only family in the area."

He took a wash rag and wetted it in the sink. "No."

"You're a family man, Eric. You're a good husband and father. A good son to your parents. I know you don't want to turn your back on family."

He began wiping down the surface of the table. "No."

"Please?" she said. "Please. Not for her. For me. I promise, I won't let her stay more than a month. If she's still here in a month, we'll kick her out."

"You said a couple of weeks a minute ago."

"Couple…four….Come on, Eric. You'd do it for your own sister."

Eric sighed. "You're right. I guess Shelley is my sister now." He leaned back against the counter and smiled at her. "But I'm at least getting laid for this, right?"

"We've probably got twenty minutes until Julie wakes up."

He chased her into the bedroom.