Occasionally, Tami liked to study at Bo's Bakery & Coffee in the "historic downtown," a 1.5-mile strip along Main Street that also contained the parsonage (at one end) and her father's church (at the other). When she walked in at 5 PM Wednesday evening after finishing up her two hours of work at the church office, she found Eric Taylor behind the counter.

"When did you start working here?" she asked.

"Monday. What can I get you?"

"Just decaff coffee," she said.

They made the exchange of money for coffee, and Tami didn't try to make conversation with him, which she thought would have been an impossible task anyway. Instead, she settled into a two-person table and concentrated on studying for her upcoming math test. She was working another practice problem when she heard the chair across from her scrape over the floor.

Tami looked up and saw Eric sitting there. The shop was empty and all of the other chairs were up on the tables. A mop leaned against the counter. The watch Mo had given her last Christmas read 6:52. Everything downtown closed at 7 on weekdays.

"I'd really like to go home, Tami," he said. "It is Tami, right?"

"Yes," she said.

"You're Mo's girlfriend."

Why did she always have to be identified by her relationship to some male figure? The pastor's daughter. Mo's girlfriend. Why not the varsity volleyball player? Or the assistant yearbook editor? Or the former junior class treasurer?

"How can you be working here?" she asked. "With football?"

"I only work from 4:30 to close, Monday through Thursday."

"But how do you get here by 4:30?"

"Coach keeps practice to an hour and a half. It's over at 4. I shower quick."

"Mo doesn't leave practice until after 5."

"I don't linger the way he does." He glanced at the door, at the sign he had already turned to closed.

"Are you taking Anita Nisbeth to the homecoming dance?" she asked. "I know she asked you."

"I don't like dances."

She was annoyed by his brusqueness, which now seemed more rude than mysterious. "Why? Are you too cool for them? Or do you just not want to rush into the best blow job of your life?" Had she really just said that? What if Anita had been making that up? What if Eric had no idea what she was talking about?

"You small town girls sure are different."

She flushed. "I'm so sorry. I don't know why on earth I said that. I just heard Anita talking in the bathroom, and she said she said - "

He chuckled, and with his chuckle came a smile that made him look so much more approachable. "Yeah, she did say that. Was she serious, do you think?"

Smiling with relief, Tami asked, "Why? Do you wish you hadn't turned down the date now?"

"I'm not really interested in blow jobs from random girls I hardly know."

"Well, that would make you different from a lot of guys on the team."

"We're not all like that."

"I know. Mo's not." Tami suddenly wondered what Eric would think of her if he knew what she'd done with Boone. "I'm in no position to judge," she muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"I just mean…you know, judge not, lest ye be not judged."

"Are you really religious?" he asked.

"Well…My dad is a pastor."

"Yeah, but do you believe all that?"

Tami closed her math book. No one had ever asked her that before. It was presumed she believed what her father preached. "I…think so. Why? Don't you believe in God?"

"Yeah," Eric answered. "I believe in God. I'm not so sure about the wise men and the star and the virgin birth and all that. I think maybe it's just a story. It's the point that matters, not the details."

"Then why go to church, if the details don't matter?" she asked.

"Same reason you go to church. Your parents make you."

Tami mused on this. "I'm not sure that's the only reason I go," she said. "I think I'm always going to go."

"Why?" he asked.

Tami was used to people telling her what she should believe about everything from sex and God to football, but she wasn't used to people simply asking her what she did believe, or why she believed it, as if she were an...individual. "I guess because…the gospel is beautiful, and I like hearing it and walking through it every year in church. And church is about community and family and mutual support. At its best, anyway, church is those things."

"And at its worst?" he asked.

"A den of gossips," she muttered. "It's not easy being the pastor's daughter. People are always watching you. You can't imagine what that's like. Not being able to just…mess up."

"Oh, I can imagine. In football, people are always watching, too. The coach is watching. The fans are watching. The college scouts, maybe, are watching. And my father – my father is always, always, watching. I can't mess up. Not even a little. And if I do – I don't hear the end of it."

"My dad's not like that, at least," Tami said. "He's actually a pretty mellow guy. Forgiving. Gentle."

"Really? Mo said he was scary."

"What?"

"Said he sat him down and gave him a deathly serious talk about dating you and what would happen to him if he mistreated you."

"No, he didn't." Tami shook her head in disbelief.

"Something about wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a worm that never perishes."

"My dad did not say that!"

He chuckled that adorable chuckle again. "Okay, I made that last part up. But Mo is a little intimidated by your dad. I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to date a pastor's daughter."

"Why? What did your last girlfriend's father do? Make teddy bears?"

"He was a butcher."

Tami laughed. "Then I hope you let her down gently when you broke up with her."

"She broke up with me actually."

"Because of the distance?"

He nodded. "Two years we were together."

"Wow. Mo and I have been together for thirteen months. I thought that was a long time."

"Two years, and she couldn't even last two weeks. Called me up and said she wanted to see someone else."

"That's harsh."

He nodded and looked away.

"Are you coming back to our church?" she asked, trying to draw him back into conversation. "Or did your parents find someplace else to…settle?"

"Yeah, sorry my dad …" He shook his head. "He can be kind of…."

"Tactless?"

"Yeah," Eric said, "Sorry about that. And all that bragging he did about me. That was embarrassing."

"Maybe he's just proud of you," Tami offered, feeling bad about ragging on his dad. She wouldn't like it if someone criticized her father to her face.

"Except he's not. He only brags about me in front of other people. When we're alone, it's just one long list of everything I've done wrong."

"Is your mom always that quiet?" Tami asked.

"She's pretty quiet around my dad. But she's actually really outgoing when you get her apart from him. She's like a different person." He abruptly changed the subject. "Listen, tell Mo I'm sorry."

"For what?" Tami asked.

"You know. Taking his position. I suppose he told you Coach decided to make me QB1?"

Mo had not told her that. "He doesn't care," Tami lied. "Football's just fun for him."

"I wish that were true," Eric said. "But it's pretty clear he resents me. And it's not good for the team, that tension. So I'm just asking…you know…since you're his girl and all, if you could, maybe, put in a good word for me."

"I don't even know you," she said. "What kind of word do you want me to put in?"

"Just…maybe…hey, Eric's an okay guy. Trust me. He didn't want to have to move to some small town and lose his girlfriend just so he could take your place on a team that's only half as good as the one he left. But his dad made him."

"Why did your dad move you?" Tami asked. "If he cares so much about you getting a football scholarship, why wouldn't he leave you on the team where you won State?"

"He couldn't pass up a good business opportunity."

Tami's brow crinkled. "What kind of business opportunities are there in this town?"

"He bought The Drunken Kickoff." Two months ago, the bank foreclosed on the sports bar, and it had gone up for auction, furniture, wall hangings, inventory and all. "It's the fifth bar he's bought in fifteen years. He buys a bar, improves it, oversees it for a few years, then sells it a profit and moves on to the next one."

"So that's why you've lived so many places. Not witness protection, after all, huh?" she smiled. He looked confused. "I overheard you joking to Kimberley in Government."

"Oh."

"Kimberley's on my volleyball team," Tami said. "She's nice, and she's doesn't have a boyfriend, if you're looking for someone to take to the homecoming dance who's not…you know…Anita Nisbeth."

"If I were looking, I would take that under advisement."

"Isn't the Drunken Kickoff still closed?"

"My dad's been having some renovations done," Eric replied. "Then he's going to rename it and have a grand opening."

"What's he going to call it?"

"Taylor's. Original, huh?" Eric looked outside. "It's getting dark. I'll walk you to your car."

"I don't have a car. I'm just going to walk home to the parsonage. It's less than a mile from here."

"Then I'll walk with you."

"That's okay," she insisted. "I know you have to clean up. I'll be fine. It's not like this is Houston."

"My mother would kill me if she knew I let a girl walk a mile alone in the dark."

[*]

Eric had his hands buried deep in the pockets of his khakis as they walked down the sidewalk toward the parsonage. He'd been in khakis every day this week, two tan, one navy blue.

"How come you never wear jeans?" Tami asked.

"You pay attention to what I wear?"

"It's just out of the ordinary. Wearing khakis all the time."

"Why?" he asked. "Do I look like a dork?"

"No. You look fine. It's just…like I said. Out of the ordinary. Most guys wear jeans."

"My dad says jeans are inappropriate for being serious about pursuing an education."

"Your dad sounds kind of…." Tami didn't even know what word to use.

"Tell me about it," he muttered.

"That thing he said about you getting a full football scholarship on a top ten team. Do you think – "

"- No, I don't. I mean, I think I'll get a scholarship somewhere, but not to one of these football programs my dad expects. My dad thinks I'm going to make it all the way to the NFL one day, but he's dreaming. I just want to play some college ball, learn all I can about the game, and then become a coach. JV to start, then varsity, and eventually the college level."

"I have no idea what I want to do," Tami told him. "And I kind of wrecked my GPA my sophomore year, so that might limit my choice of colleges."

"Really? I saw your name on last year's honor roll in the hall."

"Well, I've been making up for it as best I can." She peered at him. "You read the honor roll? What for?"

"So I know who I'm allowed to date."

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"I'm only allowed to date girls on the honor roll."

"You're joking."

"I can't wait to get out of my father's house," he muttered.

She smirked. "Why, so you can finally date Anita Nisbeth?"

He laughed. "You mean she's not on the honor roll?"

"I take it you didn't make it to the N's?"

"Bell rang."

"Then maybe you didn't notice that my friend Kimberly Parker is on the honor roll. She's smart, nice, athletic. She's the best server on our team."

"What are you, her matchmaker?"

"You don't think she's cute?" Tami asked.

"Sure. But I'm not looking for a date right now."

"Then why were you reading the honor roll?"

He shrugged. "Future reference. For when I get over this thing I'm getting over."

"Best way to get over an old love is a new love."

"Don't think I could trust anyone right now," Eric said.

"She hurt you pretty bad, huh?"

He nodded.

She slowed to a stop in front of the parsonage. "Well, this is me."

He looked up and down the brick façade of the two-story, town-house like structure. "That's cool. How old is it?"

"A hundred years. It's one of the town's original structures. We don't own it. The church does."

His eyes scanned the windows. "Looks dark inside."

"My sister and mom are at a friend's house for dinner tonight. My dad's still at the church."

"What does your dad do there," he asked, "working until after 7?"

"Counseling, usually."

"Like…spiritual counseling?" Eric asked.

"Well, he'll counsel anyone about anything, really. He has a bachelor's in psychology."

"You can be a preacher with that?"

"He also has a Master's of Divinity," Tami answered.

"Oh." Eric looked down at the sidewalk. "You're easy to talk to."

She chuckled. "I didn't even know you could talk before tonight." She unlocked the door, pushed it open, and flicked on the light in the foyer.

Eric nodded to her, almost a bow. "You have a good evening." He turned on his heels and walked back down the street.