Junior Year Box Set

I got ambitious and decided to bake a coffee cake. I found a recipe for a cream cheese and apple butter version. It had been some time since I’d had a chance to take my time and enjoy cooking. It was something I needed to get my mind off what would happen later today. I had a gut feeling that Cal and Mr. Fox weren’t done with their games.

I’d just put the coffee cake in the oven when there was a knock at the back door. I found a wet Tami, who looked pissed. When I opened the door, she pushed through. I handed her a towel from a laundry basket to dry off with, and then went back to the kitchen to put on coffee and hot water for tea. While I kept busy, Tami dried her hair and then had to love-up Duke.

“You hate me, don’t you?” Tami asked in a tentative voice.

I poured her a cup of tea, and then one for myself and sat down. We both had gotten to like it when we were each in the UK. It wasn’t bitter like coffee. I liked mine either plain or with a little lemon. Tami preferred some sugar in hers.

“No, I don’t hate you. I told you before that I hoped we would be friends. I’ve just been wrapped up in this mess the last week,” I said.

“How have we gotten to this point, then?”

I had several obvious answers jump to my tongue, only to die. Could it be Tami’s insistence we wait for the mythical someday, which would give her a chance to play the field? Could it have been when I found her and Alan naked in bed together? They might deny it until they were blue in the face, but more had gone on than they had admitted to. What I suddenly realized was our roles had reversed. I felt I was more of an adult than she was right now.

I’d been forced to grow up. Maybe that was a stretch, but I had taken on much more responsibility than Tami had. I was the leader of my football team, was now a partner in a farm, was the face of Range Sports and Jade, was an actor, and had two charities. People relied on me. While I still made mistakes, I owned up to them and figured out how to work them out. While I did all that, Tami got to be a teen and experience life.

I knew her issue was that I hadn’t come to her for advice when all this happened with Pam. Two considerations came to mind: the first was that this had nothing to do with Tami. My biggest issue was this really had nothing to do with Cal or anyone else but Pam and me. The second was Tami would have no idea what all was involved in this mess. I couldn’t imagine what advice she would give me that I wasn’t getting from professionals.

“Look, I know that you care for me, and probably should’ve called you. I don’t have an excuse for that,” I said.

Tami took a sip of her tea. I think she wasn’t ready for me to not be a total mess. I think she secretly loved it when she could swoop in and fix everything for me.

“How’re you doing?” she asked.

“I’m angry. Pam’s dad has tried every dirty trick he can think of, and if I hadn’t been a little bit lucky and gotten the right people in place, I might have been destroyed. I think we’ll get things resolved shortly and I can move on with my life.”

“David, you’re going to be a father,” Tami said as her eyes teared up.

That was when I got it, and suddenly my defenses came down. I felt my chest tighten up and it became hard to breathe. Throughout this whole debacle, I’d lost focus on what mattered. I would be lying if I said a little part of me didn’t wish that my child was with Tami. That had always been the plan. Tami was supposed to be my one and only, the girl I grew up with and planned to have a life with that was ‘us against the world.’ While I liked Pam, she and I would never be more than friends.

Mom and Dad came downstairs and the timer for the coffee cake went off. Dad went to check it while Mom took one look at me and came over and wrapped me in her arms. This was the first time since this all began that I’d let my guard down and let the full import of what Tami had said sink in.

“Mom, I’m going to be a father. I’m too young,” I said.

“I agree, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. David, you’ll be a wonderful father. You’ll just have to figure it out. Of course, your family will be there to help you. If your dumbass brother can figure out how to raise three kids and go to college, I’m betting you can figure it out, too,” Mom said.

“But he has Angie,” I said.

“He also has you and your mom and me,” Dad said. “David, I think you’re forgetting that Pam will be involved as well. You two might not get married, but you’ll have something that will bind you together in a very special way. Your child will be a blessing that will fill your life with meaning you’ve not had up to this point. Everything will work out, and when you look back on it, you won’t regret having a baby.”