Tami popped into the coffee shop to study on Tuesday evening after work and to visit with Eric. When he walked her home later, she told him about their fathers' confrontation over the computer.

"My dad thinks he knows everything," Eric said. "And it's annoying as hell. But the thing of it is…he's probably right about that. When it comes to business, he's usually right."

"Well don't tell my dad you think so."

"What was he even doing there?" Eric asked.

"Settling my dad's bar tab."

Eric shook his head. "He said he was going to write that off. It was maybe $10. I bet they were really talking about us."

"Us?" Tami asked. "What would they be talking about?"

"My dad probably cross-examined your father about you."

"Oh Good Lord."

When they arrived at the parsonage, Mrs. Hayes invited Eric to stay for dinner. He called and checked in with his mother, who said it would be fine.

"Would you say our grace, Eric?" the Reverend asked him when they were all seated.

Eric seemed nervous to be put on the spot, but he obliged, quickly muttering, "Thank you O Lord for this food and for the hands that prepared it. Amen."

"Well, that was succinct," Mrs. Hayes said.

"Brevity is the soul of wit, my dear," the Reverend told her.

"Well, Edward, keep that in mind when you write your next sermon."

Eric snorted and then immediately swallowed the laugh. Dishes were passed, and food was consumed. "This cooking is fantastic, ma'am," Eric said.

"Why do you assume I didn't do the cooking?" Reverend Hayes asked.

"Well…I…uh…."

"Because you're a man of your time, Edward," Mrs. Hayes said.

"I'm a man very much ahead of my time, Linda, you just don't appreciate how good you have it."

Mrs. Hayes laughed.

Eric smiled.

Shelley said, "So….Eric….do you know #36?"

"Number…what?" Eric asked.

"Mason Davenport?"

"Uh…" Eric shook his head slightly. "I think he's JV."

"Yeah, but he played for a little while in the fourth varsity game."

"Shelley," the Reverend said, "in an ocean full of fish, why must you gravitate toward the bottom feeders?"

"Mason is not a bottom feeder!" Shelley turned to Eric. "Do you think Mason's a bottom feeder?"

"I…uh…. I don't really know him very well. But you should really listen to your dad."

Shelley rolled her eyes.

"Shelley isn't allowed to have a boyfriend until her junior year, so it's a moot point," Mrs. Hayes said. "Eric, do you plan to work during college?"

"Yes, ma'am. Youth coaching."

"Aren't those mostly volunteer positions?" she asked.

"Well, I'll probably be working for an after-school and summer daycare-type sports camp. So I'd be coaching, but also kind of babysitting."

Tami smiled at the idea of Eric trying to herd a gaggle of kids.

"I can't believe my little girl is heading off to college soon," the Reverend said. "Just leaving the nest. No thought for your old man."

"Or your mother," Mrs. Hayes said. "Think how much more attention your father's going to need when you're gone."

"I am a lot of work," the Reverend agreed. "For such a modern man."

Mrs. Hayes shook her head and suppressed smile.

When Eric was leaving later, and he and Tami were standing in the doorway to the parsonage, he said, "Your family's fun. Your parents...they really seem to like each other."

"Well I should hope so," Tami said. "But they've worked at their marriage too."

"I wish mine would work at it."

"Do they fight a lot?"

"Nah." He shrugged. "They never fight."

"I hated it when my parents were fighting a lot," she said, "but sweeping things under the rug probably doesn't help either."

"My mom's rug," he said, raising his hand to be level with his head, "is probably about this high by now."

[*]

When Eric got off work at the coffee shop on Thursday evening, he took Tami out for a Valentine's day dinner at the only place you could be waited on in town - Taylor's. He promised Tami's parents to have her home by 9:30, since it was a school night.

The sports bar had actually been decorated for Valentine's Day, and there were candles on all of the tables. The menu had even been altered for the occasion to contain selections a bit fancier than your typical pub fare. There were lot of couples around, and almost no one alone at the bar.

"Your dad sure has changed the place," Tami said.

"You went to the Drunken Kickoff?" he asked with surprise.

"No, but I heard the cops went there a lot."

Eric chuckled. "Well, it's not like this all the time. I mean, it's always decent, but…not this nice. He's trying to cash in on Valentine's Day. My mom says he's great at marketing."

"He doesn't strike me as much of a salesman."

"Well, he does a lot of research and runs numbers. He doesn't succeed because he's in tune with the human heart."

Tami smirked and then looked around the bar. Mr. Taylor was nowhere in sight. She wondered how often he actually set foot in his own bar.

"You're going to have to meet them soon, you know," Eric said. "My parents."

"I've met them. I talk to them at church every Sunday." Well, she talked to Mrs. Taylor, anyway.

"No. I mean, you're going to have to come for dinner at our house."

"Oh." Her voice betrayed her dislike of the idea.

"The thought of sitting down to a full meal with my dad is kind of intimidating, huh?" he asked.

"Maybe," she admitted.

"I understand that, but you've got to do it if we're going to be…you know. Serious."

"Are we going to be serious?" she asked with a smile.

He took her hand across the table. "I'd like to be." He reached in his pocket and pushed a small gift across the table. She had a gift for him too, a pair of blue jeans, folded tightly, wrapped in sparkling red paper, and taking up most of the space in her hand bag. She fished it out and set it on the table in front of him.

"Open mine first," he said.

She did. It was his State Championship ring on a silver chain.

"That's from my junior year. When I lead the Hawks. I'll switch it out for Rankin's when we finally get them."

Smiling, she took the ring out. He walked around the table to help her clasp the chain. His fingers lingered on her neck for a moment before he sat back down.

She caressed the ring between her fingers. "I think I want to keep this one," she said. "I know it's not my high school, but…I bet it was your finest hour. And it means a lot to me that you would give it to me."

"You know it means I want to go steady with you, right?" Eric asked.

"Yeah. I guessed as much."

"So you accepting it means – "

"- I want to go steady, too."

He smiled.

As far as Tami was concerned, they already were going steady. It wasn't as if she'd dated anyone since Mo, or he'd dated anyone since he moved to Rankin. But it was nice to have the official symbol of his commitment hanging from her neck. Then everyone in school would know his intentions.

She gestured to his present. He opened it and laughed when he saw the jeans inside.

"Welcome to the 20th century," she told him. "And tell you father to stick those khakis in his pipe and smoke them."

"I thought every girl was crazy about a sharp dressed man."

"Well, the khakhis are okay, and I really love to see you in a suit and tie." She kind of wished he'd worn one tonight, even though it would have been overkill for Taylor's. She'd put on a flattering dress herself. "But…jeans and a tight white T-shirt are pretty hot."

His eyes twinkled. "I'll keep that in mind." Eric set the jeans on the floor under the table. She knew he was looking at her legs while he did it, because he drew himself slowly up before he was sitting upright again. "How did you know my size?" he asked.

"Jack told me."

"How did Jack know my size?"

Tami smiled mischievously. "I told him to snoop around the last time he was at your house and report back."

"Ah. I wonder what he was up to that day."

After they'd eaten, but before the plates were cleared, Tami said, "I need to tell you something, and I don't think you're going to like it."

Tami had decided she needed to be very direct with him. She'd been thinking about her past and wondering if maybe all those adults who kept saying that the developing teenage brain wasn't "ready" for sex possibly had a point. "I know this is going to sound strange, because you know I'm not a virgin. But…" Tami figured she should tell him this now, because their make-out sessions were already so full of electrifying chemistry, that she thought it was only a matter of time before he was moving toward sex, especially now that he'd given her that ring. "I've decided I'm not having sex as long as I'm in high school."

"All of high school?" he asked, as though there were years and years remaining, instead of a little over three months.

"Maybe longer," she insisted boldly. "Maybe through my first semester of college."

"College?"

"I should have taken that approach all along. It might have saved me a lot of heartache."

He looked at her and blinked.

She swallowed. "I understand if that's too much for you. If you want to end it now," her confidence trembled, as did her voice, on that part of her rehearsed speech, "we can walk away as friends." She didn't want to walk away as friends, of course, but she wanted to be clear how important this was to her.

"But…I'm already insanely in love with you."

"I can't be held responsible for that," she said, though her heart was seizing at his blatant admission of love.

"You are responsible for that," he said. "I couldn't possibly be this in love with anyone else."

"Well, then I guess you'll have to take a lot of long showers."

[*]

When they were parked a little ways down from the parsonage that night, he just sat in the truck, staring through the windshield.

"Are you going to walk me to the door?" she asked.

"Yeah. In a minute." He finally turned to look at her. "Could I please have some guidelines?"

"What do you mean?"

"I heard you when you said you don't want to have sex for the rest of high school, and I respect that. I mean, I respect you. But I could use some guidelines. How far…uh…are we going to...you know?"

"Let's just let that unwind naturally," she said.

"But where is the end zone now?" he asked. "I mean, I understand it's been moved in – and that's fine, really, but - where is it now, exactly? I just need to know where it is."

"This isn't a football game, Eric. I won't be upset if you try for something, but then if I say no, or I move your hand away, or whatever…"

"So I just have to play offense and you'll take care of the stops?"

She laughed. "Yeah. I guess. If that's how you need to see it."

"But you will take care of the stops?" he asked. "Because...I can't play both sides. Honestly, Tami, I get confused sometimes. I think you want things you don't, and then I think you don't want things, and you take my hand and you..." His eyes fell to her breasts.

"Well, you know, sometimes you gain yardage." She smiled.

"So, if you make a stop, is it okay if I try that play again later? Or do you automatically get the ball? I mean, how many downs do I have?"

"You can try again," she told him, "but not the same night."

He nodded. "A'ight."

"And don't try to make me feel guilty, because it won't work."

"Why would I try to make you feel guilty?"

"Some guys do that."

He put a hand on her knee, where her dress ended. She could feel the warmth of his palm through her panty hose. He looked into her eyes and began to caress the inside of her leg, just beneath the edge of her dress, ever so slightly, with a single fingertip. He leaned in and kissed her, so softly that she was thirsty for more, and she pushed her lips firmly against his. Just when the kiss was beginning to deepen, he pulled back.

"Guys who play dirty," he said, his voice a little husky, "don't appreciate the game."

Tami thought his truck must have somehow slipped into neutral, because she had the sensation that they were rolling.