EPILOGUE

[About two and a half years later]

A/N: Warning. Season 5 spoilers.

[*]

Eric answered the kitchen phone as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

"Son," his father said, "sorry I didn't call earlier, but I was on vacation. Katrina wanted to see some Cirqu du Soleil thing in Las Vegas. Congratulations on winning State. Again. And with a team like the Lions. Impressive."

"Thanks." Eric leaned against the counter. He was never comfortable with his father's praise. He always yearned for it, and yet he was never comfortable with it.

"I heard you turned down a five-year contract with the Panthers."

Eric straightened up. "And who'd you hear that from?"

"Buddy Garrity."

Buddy. Of course. Buddy would try to get Eric to change his mind by going to his father. Eric's Dad had kept in touch with Buddy over the years, because, as an Athletic Director for El Paso University, he'd wanted to know the main booster for one of the major high school teams. After Mr. Taylor retired, however, it was more like Buddy kept in touch with him. Eric wondered if it would be like that when he moved to Philadelphia, if Buddy would check in with him regularly for years whether he wanted the man to or not.

"Now," Eric's father continued, "the only reason I can think you would turn down a solid contract like that is if there was a better offer on the table. A college offer. Did you get a college offer?"

"Oh, there's a college offer on the table all right," Eric said, stretching the phone cord so he could draw a beer out of the refrigerator. "But it's for Tami."

His father chuckled. "Tami's coaching football now is, she?"

Might as well rip the band-aid off, say it all at once, and brace himself for his father's reaction. "No, she was offered the position of Dean of Admissions at Braemore college in Philadelphia. She's going to accept it, and I'm going to follow her and find a high school coaching position in the area."

Eric popped the cap off his beer bottle. He'd done it with a bit of force, and it flew across the counter to the floor of the breakfast nook. He hadn't realized how tense he was until he saw it fly. Even though his father hadn't said anything yet, he was instinctively defensive. "And I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding such a job, seeing as I've won two state championships, including one that involved building a team up from the ashes. And I've been on a magazine cover." What the hell was he saying? He sounded like a conceited ass. Why did he still instinctively go on the defensive around his dad? Eric wondered if he would ever stop.

"Dean of Admissions?" his father said. "That's a big position."

"Yeah."

"That's a big position for a woman who's only - "

" - I know. But they offered it to her."

"This is a college, you say? We're talking a dean at a college?"

"It's like an ivy but not an ivy."

"Damn, son." Mr. Taylor chuckled. "That girl."

"I know. So, is that all you called to do? Mock me for following my wife for her job?"

"Son, I called you to congratulate you for winning the State Championship."

That was true. He had.

"Listen," Eric's father said in a suddenly serious tone. "I need to tell you something."

"What's that?" God, please don't let it be cancer, Eric thought. Please. His father was the last surviving grandparent. He wanted Gracie to know at least one. And…well…he didn't want to lose his father either.

"I got married while I was in Las Vegas. I thought you should know."

"Well, hell yeah I should know!" Eric slammed his beer bottle on the counter. "I didn't even know you'd proposed again. Or that she'd said yes."

"It was a bit impulsive of us. Well, of her. I'd been waiting for her to come around, you know."

"Well…congratulations, I guess. I thought I'd get to be your best man, though."

"You didn't want to do that."

"I sort of did, actually," Eric admitted.

"You've come around to the idea then?"

"I like Katrina well enough. And you've been together for a few years now. But, Jesus! An elopement? Really?"

"Don't use the Lord's name in vain, son. It's quite unnecessary."

"I thought you'd want to get married in the church."

"She can't. She's divorced, you know."

Just then Tami walked in. He covered the receiver with his hand. "Dad eloped."

"What?" Tami screamed. She grabbed the phone from him. "What's this you son is telling me, James? You getting married and you don't even tell us?"

"Well, Tami, what's this your husband is telling me? You getting this Dean of Admissions position and you don't even tell me you applied?"

"That's a job. It's not a marriage."

"Just out of curiosity…how did you manage to get that job?"

"Well I'm just fantastic, James. Don't you know that about me?"

Mr. Taylor laughed. "I do know that about you," he said. "I do. So you just walked into that interview and said, y'all, Tami Taylor is here. Ready to take this place over."

"Pretty much," she agreed with a warm laugh, and then, more earnestly, "Actually, I was pretty shocked. I thought maybe they were going to offer me the assistant dean position, and I thought even that was a long shot."

"Well…I'm surprised, Tami, but not particularly. You do have this uncanny tendency to walk through doors. Congratulations. But…Is Eric really a'ight with that move? Out of Texas?"

"He's agreed to it," Tami said.

"That's not what I asked."

"You Taylor boys don't handle change well, do you? But you've made a lot of changes lately, James. I think your son will be just fine." She said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Turning to Eric, Tami asked, "You know what would make me happy?"

"Being Dean of Admissions of Braemore College?"

"That…and being taken to bed by my husband."

He smiled and grabbed her hand and started tugging her toward the bedroom. He came to a halt in the living room where Gracie was lying on her stomach and watching TV. "I almost forgot we had a daughter."

"We have two of them actually, though only one we have to get to bed before we can fool around."

He dropped her hand. "I'll take care of it. Just hold that thought."

[*]

Later, when they were enjoying a post-sex glass of wine in the living room, the phone rang. Eric answered it this time. When he came back, he put an arm around Tami.

"Guess who that was?"

"Don't make me," she said.

"My old best man."

"I didn't know you were still in touch with him."

"I haven't been. But he called because I sent my resume into that school in Philadelphia. Franklin?"

"Yeah. What's that got to do with Scooter?"

"He's the Assistant Superintendent of the whole damn school system. Anyway, he says I shouldn't work for Franklin. He says I should work for some school named Pemberton. Some team named the Pioneers."

"Pioneers? What kind of name is that? There's nothing vicious about a Pioneer."

"I don't know. But apparently they need a better head coach."

"So you're going to apply?" Tami asked.

"Nope. Apparently I don't need to. I've already got the job. I just need to say yes. The school is just two miles off the Braemore campus."

She laughed. "Well, then…say yes!"

"A'ight. Thought I'd at least talk to you about it first."

"This is quite the night for news, isn't it? You think Julie will call next and tell us she already eloped with Matt?"

The phone rang.

"Don't answer that," Tami said. "Just take me back to bed and don't answer that."

"Yes, ma'am!"

THE END