[August 3]
Eric lay in bed with his arms behind his head. "If I give her my kidney, it's going to be hard to coach this fall. It's not playing football, but it's physical. I've got to run up and down the sidelines, throw the ball sometimes – sometimes I'm going to want to get in there with them. If you give someone a kidney, you have to take drugs after. And it affects your performance."
Eric's mother, it turned out, had developed some sort of inflammatory disease, and she'd lost 90 percent of the function of her kidneys. She was far down the waiting list for a living donor, and a kidney from a near relative was much more likely to result in a successful transplant. After she'd hung up the phone on Tami, it had apparently occurred to her that a child would be a good match.
Tami lazily caressed Eric's chest and abdomen. She shuddered at the idea of his perfectly, lightly tanned skin being cut open. "She should never have asked such a thing of you. I talked to Karen yesterday, and she said they usually discourage active, young males from kidney donations."
He sighed. He turned on his side and searched her eyes in the glow of the bedside lamp. "What if I say no, and she dies?"
"Eric…you don't owe her anything."
"No, I don't. But what if she dies, and she dies because I say no? How in the hell am I going to live with that?"
Tami pulled him close. He rested his head on her breast as she stroked his hair. She hated his mother for stepping back into his life only to give him this choice. "When would the operation be?"
"It would have to be soon."
"You're about to start summer training," she said.
"I know. I could lose this coaching position."
[August 4]
Mr. Taylor called Tami and asked her to lunch. "You can leave Julie with our nanny."
"Well, Garrett, I need to at least meet and talk to the woman first."
"Yes, of course. But you can bet Karen's been thorough."
When she arrived at the Taylor house in Dallas, Tami quizzed the nanny briefly and felt comfortable leaving Julie in her care. Mr. Taylor took her to a Mexican place. She usually avoided drinking during the day, especially when she was out and about with Julie, but when he ordered her a margarita, it sounded just about perfect.
"You always order for women?" she teased him.
"They like it."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Some might be insulted."
"You didn't turn it down."
"Only because that sounds really, really good right about now."
"Which I knew it would. Which is why I ordered it for you." He tapped his head. "I'm very perceptive for a dumb handyman."
Tami snorted.
"Women only hate it if you're wrong," he said.
"You haven't met a lot of modern women," Tami told him.
"Karen's a modern woman. And she loves it. As long as I guess right."
Tami shook her head and studied the menu. After they'd ordered - she ordered for herself - she crossed her hands over the table and said, "So let's get down to business. I assume you want to talk to me about something?" Her father-in-law, she was sure, hadn't just called her out of the blue and invited her to lunch on a workday to be friendly.
"You have to talk Eric out of it."
She knew he meant the kidney. Eric had told his father what his mother had asked for. They'd fought about it on the phone. Tami had heard Eric yelling, "I know you told me so! I know! But can you blame me for just wanting to meet her once!"
"We've been talking," Tami said. "He hasn't decided anything."
"If he gives her a kidney this summer, he can forget about this coaching job. She's asking him to delay his career, maybe even throw it away!"
Tami was just as angry as her father-in-law, but she was trying to remain calm for Eric's sake.
"How can he even be considering it?" Mr. Taylor asked. "For a woman who hasn't…who didn't…" He exhaled.
"He feels like her life is in his hands."
"Selfish bitch," Mr. Taylor muttered, and then apologized for his language. "What are the odds, do you think, that he's going to decide to do this?"
"I really don't know. But even if he doesn't…it's going to hurt him. He's been seriously distracted by this. And it's only going to get worse if she gets sicker."
"I paid her off once to keep her from him. I wish I could do it again. I wish I could give her my kidney. But Karen says they haven't fully perfected non-related living transplants yet." He ran a hand across his mouth. "I called her."
"You did?"
"Yeah. Found the number in the kitchen desk drawer. Eric left it. I tried to talk her into telling him she didn't need it."
"And?"
"She has a brother. I asked her why she didn't ask him, and she said they're estranged." He shook his head. "She is not a family woman, to put it mildly."
"Then what?"
"Then I yelled at her and…I didn't communicate very well I suppose. She hung up on me." He leaned back from the table while the waiter deposited Tami's margarita and his tequila sampler. "I tracked him down," he said after shooting one of the three tequilas. "Wendy's brother. He works in Austin. I'm going to drive there tomorrow to try to persuade him to donate his kidney to his sister. It would take the weight off Eric, if he knew there was another option."
"Persuade…how?"
"Well, I'm not planning on busting any knee caps."
"Are you planning to bribe him?" Tami asked.
He shot the second tequila on his sampler and hissed. "Whatever it takes."