Summer Swing (19 page)

I hadn’t even thought about that, but it didn’t matter anyway.
“I don’t know anything. He just… He didn’t want me to go with him and—”

“Ellie, don’t take that personally, okay? He has no idea how to manage other things right now and even the smallest of decisions can be impossible to make. He’s just decided to face this. Whether you came with him or not had absolutely nothing to do with
you
. Just give him some time.
Okay
?”

I barely nodded and took my things from his arm.

“Do you want me to take you home? I feel uncomfortable allowing you to drive in the state that you’re in.”

“No, I’m fine,
”
I said, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.

“Where are you
headed
?”

“Uh…I
don’t really know,” I realized. “Um, p
robably my sister’s house.”

“Let me take you there.”

“That’s okay, Harlan. I’m capable of driving, and I don’t want to leave my car here.”

“You don’t have to; I’ll drive you in your car.”

“What about
your
car? There’s no way you should leave your car here.”

“I don’t really care about the car, Ellie. I just want to get you there safely.
Felix can dri
ve my car home
.”

“Your brother lives with you?”

He gave me a partial smile.
“Yes, he does. Does
that
surprise you
?”

“Uh…” I kind of shook my head. I wasn’t thinking straight and I didn’t even understand why I’d asked him that.

“
Let’s find your car,” he said. He waited for me to point him in the right direction, or move, or
do
something
. “You did drive here,
correct
?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’m just tryi
ng to remember which row I’m in…
”

“What make of car is it and what color?”

“It’s
, uh,
white—t
here I am,” I pointed to the next row.

He followed me to my
car, and as I fumbled to find my keys, I dropped everything on the ground. Of course half my purse contents dumped out onto the pavement, including a couple of very personal items. I hurried to scoop everything up before Harlan could help, but he was already knelt down, gathering what he could.

“Uh, I got it, thanks,” I mumbled, shoving it all into my purse. He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t expect that he would, but I was still really embarrassed anyway.

“Let’s have your keys,” he told me, holding out his hand. I set them in his palm and immediately headed for the passenger’s door. When he’d unlocked
the car
, I just
tossed
my things on the seat behind me.

“You are comfortable with driving on the right side of the road,
aren’t you
?” I couldn’t help but ask
.

He started the ignition and smiled at me. “I don’t know. Occasionally I get mixed up, but hopefully I’ll be all right this time.”

It made me smile and I was glad for the distraction. But I did sit for a minute in silence as Harlan drove us away from the ballpark. I listened to him leave a quick voicemail for his brother, and then there was silence again.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he
finally
said.

I glanced at
him and sighed. “I’m just thinking about Gage. I’m worried about him.”

“Mm. I take it he’s very close to his father? He had plans to work with him after university, so I presume a person wouldn’t do that unless they truly wanted to.”

“Yes, he was very close to his dad. His mom not as much, but his dad was pretty special to him.”

“Does he have siblings?”

“A younger sister at Berkeley. I’m sure she’ll be flying up as soon as she can. And he’s
got Wyatt, I guess. Their dads are brothers
.
Some
of Wyatt’s family lives in the area, and then the rest of Gage’s
extended
family is in Colorado—another aunt and uncle and some cousins, his paternal grandparents, and a few other relatives. His mom’s family is in the Oregon/Idaho area.”

Harlan barely nodded as he merged onto the freeway. “It sounds as if he has support, so that’s a good thing. What about, eh, religion? Is his family religious?”

“Yeah, they’re Christian, and
his mom is
pretty involved in
her
church and stuff. So yeah, I’m sure there will be lots of people willing to help out or give support but…” I sighed.

“But you’d like to as well,” he concluded. “You’ll get a chance, Ellie. Just give it some time. And when Gage is ready, he’ll let you know. But I’d also like to remind you that everyone deals with grief in a different manner, so the worst thing you could possibly do is… Well, just don’t
expect
anything. You can’t
expect
that he’ll do this or that, or even respond in a way that you think that he should. Well I’m not even an expert, but if you’d like an expert’s opinion, I do have a colleague that is
specifically a grief counselor…
”

I slowly shook my head. “No, that’s okay. But thank you.”

He nodded. “Just let me know if you change your mind.”

The ride to Dawn’s felt really long, even though it was only
fifteen
minutes. Harlan walked me inside, and as a way to feel like we weren’t alone, I turned on the TV. I knew Felix would be picking up Harlan when his game was finished,
but for
the time being
he was stuck with me.

I did take a quick shower
though, and put on some comfortable clothes. My phone had never been but three feet away from me because I was hoping and praying that Gage would call me. If he did, I would be out that door in a flash to wherever he was.

Out of pure desperation, because I felt helpless and didn’t know what else to do, I just sent him a text that said
:
I love you
. I literally sat there on my bed for five minutes and waited for a reply, but I didn’t get one. Then I remembered that Harlan was in the next room, so I made my
way
to the couch where he was watching
Law & Order.

“I don’t understand how they make so many of t
hese
programs
,
”
he
commented
.

“They just open up the newspaper and point.”

“And build and create from there?”

“Sure, why not. You’ve never done progressive storytelling?”

He laughed. “I think progressive storytelling would
be quite fun with you, Miss
Abbott.”

“Maybe you could guest star on
Law & Order
as a doctor. You could throw in all kinds of weird English phrases along with hypo-whatever and insolence.”

He laughed out loud and corrected me, even though he knew I was being facetious.

“Somnolence.”

“I like insolence better.”

“I’m sure you do. You’re a cheeky little lass.”

I knew what he said, but when he spoke it all together it sounded like something else. He saw me hold back a laugh and he rolled his eyes.

“That’s called
an
‘
arse
,’ ” he informed me.

“Oh yes, I guess I’v
e heard that before,” I smiled.

“You are quite cheeky, you know.”

“Yes, I know. You’re talking about my personality, right?”

“Yes, I’m talking about your personality, not your
arse
.”

I laughed again. “So what do you say in the ER. Do you use
‘
arse
?
’
”

“No, it’s
rude
. I typically say ‘bum’ or ‘behind.’ But the other day I did say, ‘Doctor Cree, that was a very half-arsed attempt.’ ”

“Half-arsed,” I chuckled. “Hopefully it wasn’t a half-arsed stitch job or something.”

“Half-arsed attempt at juggling a soccer ball.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You guys play soccer in the ER?”

He smiled and replied, “In the break room, perhaps. Just a little juggling.”

“You like soccer?”

“Yes, quite a lot.”

“And you’re good at it,” I stated.

“Well
,” he shrugged.

“Juggling in the break room? You’ve got to be pretty good to do that inside a room without breaking anything. I would probably break a window. Or the nearest person’s nose.”

“You’d most likely break so
mething on yourself.”

“True.”

We were both distracted by gunshots on the TV. We watched
for a bit
, neither of us really understanding the storyline. Well maybe Harlan did, because after a minute he said, “They’ll question the lollypop man. He knows who it was but is too
frightened
to tell.”

I looked at him and asked, “The what?”

“Hmm?”

“The lollypop man?”

“Eh, the, uh…crossing guard? The lollypop man.”

I burst out in laughter. “The
lollypop
man? Are you kidding me?”

With a smile he motioned to the television. “The sign. It resembles a lollypop—at least in
Europe
because they’re
completely
round.”

“It looks like a sign, but okay, I see your point. How come I get laughed at when I say ‘the microphone guy’ because he talks into a microphone?”

“Maybe it hasn’t caught on quite yet.”

“I guess it’s not as cute as ‘lollypop
.’
”

“Or maybe it’s just because he’s called…
an ‘announcer’
,” he said, feigning awe.

“Ah-ha, I see
.”

We talked and watched another half-hour of TV, until Harlan’s phone rang. I
t was his brother
,
informing him that he’d arrived.

“I’ll be out in a few,” Harlan told him. He looked at me when he hung up, seeming hesitant to leave.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “I’m just going to stay here, my sister will be home in about an hour, and I’ll just wait for Gage to call me with any news.”

“You have work in the morning?”

“Yes, I have that to keep me busy, too.”

He slightly nodded. “If there’s anything you ne
ed, Ellie, please just call. Oh
that’s right, you passed my number along to the coach,” he
joked
.

I returned
his
smile. “Uh, yeah, I guess I did.”

He found a pen by the answering machine and wrote his number on a card for me. “If you pass it along to someone else, please don’t inform me of it.”

“Okay,” I smiled. “Uh, Harlan?” I asked as he was headed for the door.

“Yes?” He waited with his hand on the doorknob.

“Um, can I meet your brother?”

He seemed surprised at first but replied, “Sure.”

I followed him outside to Harlan’s pretty little
Boxster
sitting in Dawn’s driveway, and after a motion of Harlan’s hand, Felix stepped out of the car.
It wasn’t in my nature to be very social when it came to meeting new people, but I suppose I was just curious to meet someone in Harlan’s life.

“This is my brother Felix,” Harlan introduced. “Felix, this is Ellie Abbott.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Felix
said
, shaking my hand softly.

“Likewise,” I
replied.

“So…?” Felix began, looking from me to Harlan.

“
Eh, she’s the girlfriend of Gage Brennan,” he seemed to
clarify
.

“Oh,” Felix
replied, obviously surprised. He looked at me and said, “Is everything okay? Well I suppose it’s not because of how he left the game but…”

“Um, no, not everything is okay. His father passed away and…” I didn’t know what else to say so I just concluded with a shrug.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He didn’t seem to know what to say either, so because of our mutual connection to baseball I just asked who won the game. “Oh. Well, we did, but only because…only because Gage left early and…”

“
What was the score?”

“Four to
one
.”

My phone rang just then, so
with the hope
that it was
Gage
, I quickly went to answer it. But I saw on the caller i.d. that it was just another friend of mine from school, and I decided I could just call her back.