A/N: Sorry, I know a lot of people were probably expecting this story to go on and on, but I never really meant it to be this long, and I'm wrapping it up with this final chapter. When I first started writing this story, I wasn't even sure I was going to include Tami - I thought it was just going to be a short story about Eric and his father and their relationship, but it obviously grew! I'm at over 116,000 words now, and I didn't even notice it happening. I hope you've enjoyed this tale.

[*]

Tami loved the way Eric looked while he carried the boxes, especially in that red and green muscle shirt, with his tan, muscular arms glistening with sweat in the sun. She leaned against a post of the carport, not far from the For Rent sign, and watched. Aunt Bonnie decided not to sell the house, in case things didn't work out in McAllen. Besides, the rental income would be a good source of funds while she took off six months from working to finish her degree.

Coach Taylor had already put in a bid on a duplex in McAllen, and the offer had been accepted. He would close in two days, which was why the Taylors were moving already. Tami and Shelley and Aunt Bonnie would follow, arriving the day before school started, and they would move in right next door, with only a single wall between her house and Eric's.

"Nice view," her aunt said with a smirk as she came to stand beside her. She held a glass of lemonade and watched Eric's dad as he filled his pick-up truck to the brim. Eric was loading the rented moving truck. "So how did you talk Eric into moving?"

"I didn't," Tami said. "We just talked about it. And he talked to his dad. And...it was his decision."

"And you're really okay with this?"

"Yeah. I am. Shelley, on the other hand..."

Aunt Bonnie sighed. "I told her she could have a moped when she turns 16, and now she's on board."

"Are you serious?"

Tami's aunt nodded.

"Why can't I get a moped?"

"Because you're getting a vehicle this evening. A used, 1979 Dodge pick-up. In red."

"Really?" Tami's eyes widened. "You're buying me a truck?" God knew she couldn't afford one.

"No, your mother is. She's saved up a bit, without you girls living with her, and working so much, and she wants to give that gift to you. She's on her way right now with it. She'll fly black. But you'll have to pay the insurance out of your part-time earnings."

Tami couldn't believe her ears. The mother who had once refused to allow her to go out at all was now buying her a car?

"Your mom loves you, Tami. I know that's hard for your to believe sometimes. But she does."

Coach Taylor meandered over. He rubbed an arm across his brow. "Is that for me?" he asked, nodding to the lemonade.

Aunt Bonnie too a suggestive sip and then handed it to him. He smiled, shook his head, and drained the glass. Tami left them to talk while she made her way over to Eric. The sun was high and strong in the Texas sky, and normally the blinding heat would bother her, but right now, it felt like some kind of omen of opportunity, a promise for yet another fresh start, an even brighter future, a new world that she and Eric would learn to navigate together.

He slid a box into the U-haul as she approached and tuned with a grin on his face. "I'm going to miss you."

"All five days we're apart?" she joked.

He pulled her close, against his sweaty chest, and kissed her lips hard. "All five," he murmured through his kisses. "Every single one of them."

[*]

The girls at McAllen High were dissapointed to learn that the new quarterback already had a girlfriend, and not a long-distance one either. He was supposed to have been fresh meat. A few tried their hands at seducing him anyway, but it wasn't long before word got around that any such efforts would be wasted. Tami dedicated herself to her studies, volleyball, and Eric, and she knocked her S.A.T. so far out of the park that she became a National Merit Finalist.

Eric's academic performance was less stunning, but he became a rising star on the football team. Tami and Eric went "all the way" for the first time that November, the Saturday after he won an important playoff game. It was an unusually warm afternoon for fall, and they drove down and parked in a secluded spot by the lake. They made love in the bed of the used pick-up Tami's mother had brought her. Tami's mom would have been mortified to know what her daughter was doing in it, but Tami wasn't the least bit mortified. They'd waited a long time, Eric had been patient, and she felt no shame at all. It was a beautiful first, and when they lay wrapped in blankets afterward, slowly and tenderly caressing one another, Eric asked, "Was it good?"

"Very good."

"Good enough to marry me?"

She laughed. "What?"

"Well, they say you should never buy a car without taking it for a test drive. Now that you've had the test drive...what do you say?"

"Are you serious?"

"I couldn't be more serious, babe."

It seemed ludicrous, to promise marriage to a boy at the age of 18, but she did. She'd never been more sure of anything in her life. They didn't tell his father or her aunt of their private engagement, not yet, not then. But when Tami revealed to Aunt Bonnie that she was turning down her acceptance to an ivy league college in order to follow Eric to Texas A&M, the truth came out.

"You can't throw away an opportunity like that for a boyfriend, Tami!" her aunt insisted.

"I'm not," Tami replied earnestly. "I'm not throwing anything away for a boyfriend. I'm making a compromise, for the man I'm going to marry, for the sake of our future together."

Aunt Bonnie thought she was marrying too young. Coach Taylor seemed less reticent about the union. "Look," he told Tami's aunt, "she can go to a fancy ivy league school that only offers her a 50% tuition scholarship, and graduate in massive debt. Or she can take a full academic scholarship to A&M. She and Eric can live in family housing, which his football scholarship will cover, and they can both keep each other out of trouble. Maybe they won't party their way through college like I tried to do. Eric will stay focused on his studies and his game. He'll achieve what I never did. He may even get drafted to the NFL."

Eric didn't get drafted, but he and Tami had to grow up quickly, especially after the condom broke their sophomore year and Julie was born their junior year. Because of the baby, it took Tami six years to earn her B.A., though Eric made his way out in four and went straight to work as a young P.E. teacher and assistant football coach. Tami received her B.A. the same year her aunt finished her Ph.D. thesis.

From there, life rolled forward like a steam engine on a roller coaster track. But through all the ups and downs, Tami and Eric had each other, and a marriage built on the firm foundation of friendship.

[*]

"I'm confused," Matt told Julie as they drove by a sign that read South Padre Island...65 miles. "I thought your grandfather lived in McAllen."

They were going on a month-long, cross-country road trip. Julie considered it a graduation present to herself. They'd already stopped off in Dillon, Texas to see old friends, and soon they'd be seeing her grandfather and grandaunt in south Texas. Next, they'd stop by Pennsylvania, visit her parents, and pick up all their stuff, which was currently in storage in the Taylors' two-car garage. They'd shipped it there three weeks ago.

The young married couple didn't exactly have a home at the moment. Their lease on the Chicago studio apartment had ended in June, Matt had quit the art gallery, and they would be settling in Maryland soon. In late August, Julie would start her job as an 8th grade English teacher in a suburb of D.C. Matt had gotten a job as a tour guide at the National Gallery of Art. It wasn't what he wanted to do for a living, but it would bring in a little extra income while he tried to sell his art.

"He does, most of the year," Julie explained. "But we're staying at his beach house on South Padre. He also has a duplex an hour away in McAllen, which he shares with my grandaunt. They each own and live on one side of the duplex. They're a thing."

Matt turned off the radio. "Wait...what?"

"It's not as incestuous as it sounds. She's my mom's aunt, but he's my dad's dad. So they aren't related or anything. By blood, anyway. They've been dating for like...I don't know...twenty-three years."

"What? How can you date someone for twenty-three years?"

Julie shrugged. "They live in that duplex, and they each have their own side of it. They go out on dates. And sometimes they make each other dinner on their own side of the duplex. And sometimes they sleep over together on one side or the other, but not every night. They have their own homes, their own bank accounts, their own lives, but...they're together. She's a psychology professor at UT-Pan American, and he's the Athletic Director there."

"Does UT-Pan American even have a football team?"

"Not that kind of football," Julie said. "But they have soccer, basketball, baseball, track and field, that sort of thing. Grandpa Taylor oversees the whole athletic program, though Dad says he's retiring in six months. He's getting too old for the stress of it."

"That's just weird," Matt replied as he switched lanes. "Why doesn't he just marry her?"

"Apparently, he asked her more than once, but my grandaunt turned him down so many times, that he eventually stopped asking. Then she decided she did want to get married, so she started dropping hints, but he refused to take them. So she finally asked him to marry her, and he said no. So they just kept dating."

"So...they've dated around?"

"No. They've only ever dated each other in all that time."

Matt laughed. "Weird."

"My mom thinks it's kind of awesome. She says maybe Dad should get his own house next door and take her out on dates when he wants to see her and just sleep over when she wants him to. But Dad says that would be cost prohibitive,and that if he's going to have his own house, he gets a girlfriend."

Matt laughed. "Can you imagine your dad with a mistress?"

"No. He likes not having to work at it."

"Oh, I think he works at it," Matt said. "Your mom's not exactly low maintenance."

"What?"

"Neither are you, if I'm being honest."

"Watch it, mister," she warned him.

He smiled, and Julie laughed and kicked off her sandals. The road wound on to South Padre as she put her bare feet up on the dashboard and reached for her young husband's hand.

THE END