[Friday May 22, 1992]

Tami's mother went crazy with the Polaroid. After the graduation ceremony, she made Tami pose on the porch of Pat Neff Hall holding her Baylor diploma; then pose next to Shelley, who was instructed by her mother to look at Tami's diploma with awe; then holding hands with Eric while they each held their diplomas in their free hands; then with Julie standing between them and holding both of their diplomas, one in each fist.

"If she makes us strike one more pose I'm going to stick my diploma in my eye," Eric told Tami.

"Just smile," Tami insisted.

Both families went out to dinner afterward, eating in a private, back room of a pub that Mom declared "too raucous" as they walked through the crowded front to the room Mr. Taylor had reserved for them. "This is no place for children."

"Let it go, Barbara," Pastor John said.

"Well, I just think Garrett could have chosen a more appropriate place," Tami's mom whispered to her husband.

"Drop it, dearest." Pastor John put a hand on the small of her back and pushed her gently into the room.

Eric saw it, caught Tami's eye, and chuckled. Tami shook her head. That was about the most authoritarian thing she'd ever seen Pastor John do.

The room had two long tables that could seat about ten people each, a fireplace, and a window. The fireplace was, of course, unlit in May. There was no door, but an opening where a door might have been, so the room was largely closed off form the rest of the pub.

Andrew was strapped into the portable booster seat Tami had passed down to Karen, as Julie now insisted on sitting in an open booster on a normal chair on those rare occasions when they went out to eat. All nine of them sat at one table, leaving the other empty. Cards and presents were distributed and opened, after which a waitress finally tended to them, placing a children's menu in front of Julie.

"If it's no place for children, Barbara," Mr. Taylor asked, "why do you suppose they have children's menus?"

"I didn't mean for you to hear that, Garrett," she said. "I'm sorry. It just seems a little rowdy is all."

"We're in a college town. A bunch of seniors just graduated."

"I appreciate you reserving the room," Tami's mom assured him.

"Chick nugs!" Julie exclaimed, pointing to a picture on the menu. "Drink root beer!"

"You let her drink coke?" Mom asked.

"No," Tami said. "Sometimes kids ask for things, Mom, whether they get them or not."

"Did you ever hear back from that job in Hewitt?" Mr. Taylor asked Eric.

"They hired someone else," Eric said, "but I just got a job yesterday. I'll be teaching American History to 11th graders at Bowie High School in Arlington. Assuming I finish my certification program successfully."

"Which you will," Tami said.

"I'll be an assistant JV coach too," Eric continued. "I start August 10th. School starts the 24th."

"Arlington, Texas?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"Yeah. Of course Texas."

"You'll be about 35 minutes from us. Is that school in a safe neighborhood? Arlington has some pretty nasty neighborhoods."

"It's not in the best neighborhood," Eric admitted. Tami thought he sounded defensive. She'd interpreted her father-in-law's question as concern, while Eric had clearly interpreted it as an insult to his ability to provide for his family. "We're going to get a nice, safe apartment just outside the school zone. I'll commute in."

"What's the pay?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"Good enough for just starting out. The coaching stipend is only $500, but that's typical for a JV assistant. The teacher's salary is $24,000. And I'll have benefits. Health care for the entire family. And don't tell me that's lower than a rookie CFL salary. I know it is, but it's better for my family, and there's opportunity for promotion, and Tami will be applying for a counseling job at nearby schools, and – "

"- Congratulations on the job, son. It'll be nice to have y'all nearby."

"I have some good news too," Shelley said before Eric could reply. "I'm engaged!"

Tami's heart dropped.

Karen smiled and looked at Tami's mother. Seeing from Mom's expression that this was not welcome news, she ceased smiling.

No one said a word for at least sixty seconds, when Pastor John spoke. "To whom?"

"Javier, of course, silly John."

Pastor John cleared his throat. "You know how your mother and I feel about that age difference."

"Interesting," Shelley said, "because you're ten years older than my mother."

"There's a considerably larger difference between 27 and 19 than between 52 and 42, Shelley, dear," Mom said.

"Yes, two years," Shelley retorted. "John, you have two more years on my mother than Javier has on me. And Mr. Taylor is, what, seven, eight years older than his wife?"

Karen and Mr. Taylor preoccupied themselves with their son, as though Andrew were suddenly in need of having the close attention of two parents.

"Marriage is a lifelong commitment, Shelley," Pastor John said, "and should be based on a certain level of compatibility."

"We're totally compatible."

"In what manner?" Pastor John asked.

"We both love adventure, and love to laugh, and watch sunsets, and…we're compatible in other ways too."

Tami did not like to think of her baby sister having sex with a man who was closer to thirty than to twenty. "Shelley," Tami told her, "two years ago that relationship would have been illegal."

"Three years ago," Shelley insisted. "Two years ago I'd have been 17, which is the age of consent, Tami."

"You get my point."

"And this isn't three years ago. This is today."

"Shelley," Mom said sharply, "This was supposed to be Tami's special day. We'll discuss this later."

"There's nothing to discuss, Mom. I'm an adult. I'm getting married on August 1st at Saint Mary's Cathedral in Austin. You can come or not. Tami, I hope you'll be my maid of honor."

"That's less than three months away!" Tami exclaimed. Was this the girl who stepped away from the bouquet at her wedding and said she wasn't tying herself down?

"Funny, Tam, that you find that so alarming. If I recall, you and Eric were engaged for about three weeks before you got married."

"We'd been dating for almost two years."

"Javier and I have been dating for almost a year."

"You knew each other for a month in Spain," Tami corrected her. "And he's been here in the U.S. for only three months. What's the hurry?" Tami prayed to God that her sister wasn't pregnant.

"The hurry is that he's madly in love with me and he wants to make me his wife."

"Shelley," Pastor John said, "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but has it occurred to you that come August 1, Javier will have been in the U.S. for just under six months, and a B2 tourist visa expires in six months?"

"Are you suggesting he's marrying me to stay in America? I can't believe you! I can't…I just…." Shelley burst into tears, rose, and ran from the room.

"Oh Good Lord," Mom said.

"I'll go talk to her," Tami said, but Pastor John stood.

"I will," he said. "I'm the one who made her cry." He left the room.

Mr. Taylor and Karen were peering at each other across Andrew's booster high chair. Mom was shaking her head. Julie was scribbling all over her menu with the crayon the waitress had given her and, Tami just now noticed, also the table. Tami snatched the crayon from her before she could do any further damage, and Julie wailed.

"Well," Eric said. "It's always good to get the families together."

[Monday, May 16, 1992]

Tami slid closed the filing cabinet. Until the end of May, she was working at the Baylor Admission Office from 8 to 3. Since Eric's youth football program was 3:30 to 7, they could dispense with childcare for the time being. She walked back to her desk, sat down in her chair, and considered what she might do for temporary work in June and July, while they lived with her mother in Tyler and Eric got certified to teach.

She should have a counseling job, she thought, by the time they moved to Arlington in August, but in the meantime she supposed she could go back to work at her old stomping grounds – Chili's. She didn't relish the idea of waitressing again, but she needed to start paying down those student loans, and her mother would watch Julie while she worked. She still had the restaurant's phone number memorized, and she was just about to call to ask about openings when the phone rang.

"Baylor Admissions Office. This is Tami Taylor. How may I help you?"

"Your professional voice is very pleasant."

"Uh…thank you."

There was a laugh. "You don't recognize my voice?"

"Mr. Taylor?"

"Please, Tami, it's been over two years since you married my son. At least call me Garrett."

"Is everything all right, Garrett?" She couldn't imagine why he was calling her at work.

"I have a proposal for you and Eric," he said.

"Why are you calling me and not Eric?"

"Because I know how these things work."

"What things?" she asked.

He ignored the question. "There's one of those intensive, alternative teacher certification programs Eric wants to take here in Dallas," he said. "Starts June 1 and ends July 31. You two need to look for an apartment in Arlington. It makes no sense for y'all to live with your mother in Tyler, when she's two hours from Arlington and Karen and I are only 30 minutes. And we've lost our part-time nanny."

"Lost her?"

"Well, she's found a husband. I'm swamped with business this summer, and Karen is in summer school full time. We need child care. We've got room to put your stuff in storage. You move in with us, take the guest bedroom, we put Julie on her bed in Andrew's room. You watch Andrew this summer, and in exchange y'all get free room and board and I pay Eric's tuition for the certification program, the deposit on your apartment when you sign the lease, and the first two month's rent."

Tami saw what Mr. Taylor was doing. He was trying to slip his son money without injuring Eric's pride. "I don't think Eric's going to go for that. He's not going to want you to pay for all of those things."

"It would be payment for you watching Andrew. I paid the nanny quite a bit. Would it be better if I just paid you, say, $10 an hour?"

"That's $3.50 an hour more than I make now! As an administrative secretary."

"Well, this job entails a lot of administrative work. A lot of scheduling is involved with kids. Research. And Andrew is far more valuable than a collection of files."

She laughed. "I'll talk to Eric about it," she said. It did make more practical sense for them to live near Arlington.

That night, while Julie played in the living room, Eric and Tami sat at the table in the breakfast nook, keeping one eye on her and talking.

"I don't want to live with my dad," Eric said.

"I thought you didn't want to live with my mom."

"At least they have two extra bedrooms. What if Andrew wakes Julie up at night?"

"Then I'll get her back to sleep. Look, Eric, you'll be in that program full-time, with no income until mid-August. I don't have a job lined up yet. This is a convenient opportunity, a way to earn some easy money. We'll also be close enough to Arlington to take our time apartment shopping."

"I'm not crawling back with my tail between my legs after failing to make the NFL to live in my dad's basement."

"He doesn't have a basement, Eric. It's only two months. And he needs the help with Andrew. We'd be doing him a favor. Otherwise I have to find temporary work. This way I can spend the entire summer with Julie before I start a new job. I owe her that time. I missed too much. And I don't want to go back to work at Chili's, or temp at some office."

"What if we have to listen to my dad and Karen have…" Eric glanced at Julie, who was happily preoccupied in the living room with a tower of blocks, "sex?"

"That really scarred you that one time, didn't it, sweetheart?" Tami laughed. "They didn't know we were in the house. I'm sure they'll keep it down when we're living there."

"What if they hear us having sex?"

"Well, we could just not have sex for two months if you prefer."

"I don't prefer!"

"You know, if we live with my mother, no beer in the house."

"I'll sneak Pastor John's whiskey. I know where he stashes it."

"And we might have to hear them have sex."

"We can go for a walk during their weekly Sabbath nap."

"You'd have to listen to my mother complain about things."

Eric winced and nodded. "She does complain a lot."

"Your dad doesn't complain. He could be sawing with a broken arm and he'd say," she imitated his deep voice, "it's just a little broken bone."

Eric laughed.

"And he always has beer in the house. And you'd get to spend more time this summer with your baby brother. Don't you want to spend more time connecting with him?"

"Tami, he's eight months old. We aren't exactly going to spend weekends tossing the football and talking about girls."

She laughed. "Should we flip a coin?" she asked. "You want me to flip a coin?"

"I want to flip you. Over my knee. For suggesting we move in with my father."

She shook her head at him. He smiled. His smile grew into a grin.

"What are you fantasizing about right now, sugar?"

He leaned across the table, laced his fingers through hers, and gave her his best smoldering gaze. "You really want to know what I'm fantasizing about, babe?"

She laughed, a little amused and a little turned on at the same time. "What's that, sugar?"

"Having our own apartment."