Summer Swing (34 page)

“Steer clear? Is that what you’re used to?”

“Girls like you, yeah.”

“And what does that mean?”

He only smiled but didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear an answer to it anyway. I was sure it meant he was used to wild girls, maybe girls that were drawn to bad boys, but what did that say about me? I was drawn to him;
I liked him.
I thought he was… W
ell okay, he was a hot-looking guy, and I was very attracted to him. But there was something about him that completely countered his
particular stereotype
, and I wasn’t sure if it was just one thing or a dozen, but I
liked who he was, whatever that meant.

“Well for what it’s worth, Tyse… I’m glad we’re friends. I think you were meant to be here this summer and I think we were meant to
meet each other
.”

He slightly nodded. “I agree, even though I don’t really know if I believe in fate.”

“Really? You don’t think things happen for a reason? You even told me yourself that
if I didn’t get the fill-in
spot
on-air that there might be something better for me instead.”

“I believe I used the word ‘hope
.’
Don’t give up hope. That’s just being optimistic.”

“No, now you’re totally contradicting yourself. You said not getting the job might mean that there’s something better for me. If that’s not ‘
everything happens for a reason,’
then I don’t know what is.”

He smiled and slightly shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. What about karma? How does that work?”

“Well
,
I
could
believe in karma. Everything in life is about balance, I think. You know, the whole ‘one door shuts another one opens’ saying.”

“So what’s the difference between fate and karma?”

“What do I look like,
an expert?”

He shrugged again. “Probably more so than me.”

“Well, I guess fate is something tha
t happens no matter what; karma’s supposed to be
based on what we dish out to the world. If you do something good, it’s
gonna
come back to you. And obviously it works on the opposite end. If you’re a mean and malicious person, it’s gonna come back to you one way or another.”

“Mm, I don’t know. My dad sure doesn’t seem to take any hits in life, so I would otherwise agree with you on that one. He does whatever the hell he wants and faces no consequences from his actions.”

“That you know of. How do you know what his challenges are?
Most of the time we don’t realize what people are struggling with.
”

He shook his head with a defiant smirk but didn’t reply. I guess it probably wasn’t a question I should have asked him based on his disassociation with his dad.

“I’m sorry, Tyse. I’m not trying to defend him or anything, I just… I don’t know. Sorry.”

He took in a breath of air and
let it out
. “It’s fine. I don’t really expect you to understand.”

I
studied him closely, feeling kind of hurt by
that assumption
. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I could probably understand if you were a little more open about your life.”

“I didn’t mean it as an insult to you, Ellie. I just meant it in general.”

“Well maybe
you should try opening up to me
.
Or at least
someone
.
You have friends you can talk to, or other family members or something?”

He didn’t reply.

“What about Nate? Is he that kind of friend? You said that he’s helped you out and stuff. Does he know you well?”

“Yeah, he does. But he kind of has that ‘screw the rest of the world’ mentality. Even though he’s supportive of me
,
it
really doesn’t do much for
me because I question
a lot of things.
Nate
doesn’t really think about anything beyond the day he’s living, you know?
And I’m not some mental case, Ellie,
”
he chuckled. “I don’t have a bunch of ‘issues’ that I need to work through or anything.”

We were both quiet for a few seconds and I took the opportunity to start my car. I kind of liked
just
sitting there talking to Tyse, but I figured he might want to get back to Wyatt’s house. Especially since he’d be leaving the next day. I was sure he still had things to do before he left. 

“So now is it my turn?” he asked as I pulled out of the parking lot.

“Your turn for what?”

“To ask questions.”

I laughed. “Uh, I’m afraid you already know a lot more about me than I’m aware
of.
Who knows what deep, dark secrets I divulged the other night.”

“Oh, quite a lot. So many I can’t even remember them all. Why don’t you refresh my memory? What big secrets do you have again?”

With a smile I said,
“Well that depends on how long I want to keep you around as a friend. If I choose to keep you, I’ll hold off on the soul bearing. If you’
d like to jump ship now, I’ll
eenie-meenie-miney-mo
which one I unleash.”

“Oh brother.
If you’ve seriously got that many dark secrets then I’d really like to hear one. It might be nice to know you’re mortal.”

“Ha, after Friday night? There’s your proof right there.”

“Okay, besides a little
lapse
of judgment, I really don’t think you’ve got it in you to have any sort of
bad
secret.”

“Well we all have a bit of shame under our belts. I don’t know what’s considered
bad
…”

“
Hm
m
, I doubt you could tell me anything that would be shocking, so we’ll just leave your little faults, blunders, and slip ups to unveil themselves in their own ti
me. But I think I have earned the
right to a question…”

I shrugged. “Okay. But if I don’t answer it I don’t answer it.”

“Fair enough.” He was quiet for a moment, and I assumed he was thinking of a question. But it completely surprised me when he asked, “Why do you think that Gage is the right guy for you?”

“Huh?” was my automatic response.

“I’m just curious. I just don’t see it, so I was wondering if you could clue me in.”

“You do know that’s kind of a touchy subject right now, right?”

“I do know that he pretty much dumped you. And I do know he’s coming back this week to see you. The guy is stringing you along? I’m just wondering why you still think he’s the right guy for you.”

“Wow, you really don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

I think he
shrugged, but
it was hard to
tell
since
I was driving.

“Gage is going through a lot right now,” I said in his defense. “
He’s had a really tough time since his dad died, and
I don’t really think he knows what he’s doing sometimes. I’m just trying to be patient with him.”

“You didn’t answer my question. I asked why you think he’s the right guy for you. What is it about him that you see as a long term fit for you?”

I was silent for quite a while. It was just a question, right? Why was it so hard to answer? I knew how I felt about Gage, my family knew how I felt about Gage, but why couldn’t I repeat it to
Tyse
?

“You don’t have to answer,” he finally said.

I sighed. “It’s just… I don’t know. With Gage things are easy. He’s easy to get along with, he’s thoughtful, he’s attentive,
he
tries to do his part in a relationship… He’s just the kind of guy that I want to be with. I trust h
im, and that’s important to me. He’s just an all-around great person
.”

“You trust him how? Like in the way he regards you, or you trust that he’ll be faithful in your relationship?”

“Both.”

“You don’t see him as the type of guy to cheat on you?”

“No,” I replied quickly. “Gage isn’t like that.”

“How well do you know that?”

“What do you mean? Come on, Tyse. Please don’t tell me you know something about Gage that I should know about.”

“No, I just- I mean… Well no, not about Gage…”

I tried to glance at him as I took the exit I needed. “What are you saying? Just spit it out.”

“I think Wyatt is seeing
someone else
. I think he’s cheating on your sister.”

“
What
?!
” I exclaimed. “That is not an accusation you toss around lightly!”

“Which is why I wouldn’t unless I was sure.”

“You’re sure about it? How?”

“Well… I just heard him on the phone on
ce. It seemed…pretty friendly. A
nd he wasn’t talking to your sister.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he called her ‘Lil
.’
”

“Lil? Like short for Lily or something?”

“I don’t know. And he used words like ‘babe’ and ‘
hon
’… Things he says to Dawn too, but he wasn’t talking to Dawn.”

“What else did you hear?”

“Nothing, Ellie,
I just… I don’t know. It wasn’t like I was listening in on his conversation. I was up early to go to work, was in the kitchen, and I just heard bits and pieces of him talking in the other room.”

“Oh
,
my gosh
,” I moaned. “I just… Well, I’d say that I can’t believe it, but sadly I can.” I knew I was muttering to myself as I
pulled up to the house
, grumbling about Wyatt and what an ass he was. But mainly I was worried about my sister, and I knew when Dawn found
out—I had to tell her, right? —
s
he
would be crushed. I didn’t know what to do with the information, and even though my first instinct was to run into the house, find Wyatt and strangle him, Tyse stopped me before I could get out of the car.

“Think it over first, Ellie.”

“Think what over? That jackass is cheating
on my sister!”

“Yes, that’s what he appears to be doing. But maybe you should gather some facts first, okay?”

“Like what? What’s wrong with just barging in there and accusing him face to face?”

“He’d probably just deny it. Claim that Lil is just a friend, or that I didn’t hear what I thought I heard. You think Dawn would take my word for it, or just believe Wyatt?”

I sighed. “You’re right. She thinks you’re weird.”

He laughed, and it felt good to have a light moment—considering the circumstances. “Well I’ll take weird, I guess.”

“And scary.”

“Ouch.”

I took a deep breath and dropped my head against the seat. “This is
gonna
kill her,” I whispered.

He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze
, and it did make me feel better for a
moment
. But then a thought hit me
.

“Wait a sec,” I said. “Was this before or after they got married?
The phone call?
Was it before they got married? Because maybe Wyatt just finally realized that he was meant to be with Dawn, and if he was kind of fooling around on the side, maybe he just decided that he wanted to marry my sister—”

“It was after,” he interrupted quietly.

“After?” I almost cried. “Oh, gosh…”

“It was about a week ago.”

I didn’t even know what to say. I
knew
I shouldn’t
take
the news as fact—I probably should have gathered more
information
like Tyse suggested—but I already felt that it was true.

“I wonder where she lives… All those weekends out of town that little weasel took…” I was basically talking to myself, wondering if those were really outings with his “buddies.”

Just then the front door opened and my sister poked her head out. I know I groaned when I saw her, and I knew she was going to inquire why I was just sitting in my car.

“Take a deep breath,” Tyse told me quietly as he opened the door to get out. “Keep your conversation brief if you can. Just call me later, okay? I’ll be up for a while.”

He got out of the car and grabbed his bag, thanked me for the ride, and passed my sister on the walkway. I could tell she was really curious as to why Tyse was getting out of my car, and after she seemed to say hi to him and nothing more, she came to my door as I rolled down the window.