Summer Swing (38 page)

It was awkward, however, when my mom wanted to know more about Tyse,
like
where he was from, and what his family was like.
But
I really didn’t learn any more than I already knew. Tyse was great at turning a conversation to his favor, and he must have done it a
half-
dozen times that night.

But the whole night wasn’t focused on just Tyse—that was only a part of it. David introduced us to Mallory and her two little boys, Jude and Micah. Later I quietly asked Tyse if he thought Mallory was a pretty religious person because I was sure those were biblical names.

“Shows how much I know about the Bible,” he whispered back.

Jude and Micah turned out to be pretty shy, and they hardly left their mom’s side. But somehow Tyse and I got them to play soccer with us out back, and even though the older one, Micah, told me I didn’t know how to play very well, I think they still had fun. David put out the t-ball set and they played that for a little bit, but I think Tyse and
my brother
had more fun with it than the kids did. The kids went
back to playing soccer, but David
and Tyse kept talking about baseball.

Dinner went pretty
well because everyone was well
acquainted by then. My mom was a great cook, but the two little boys didn’t seem to want anything to eat. The lit
tle one stuck his nose up at all of the food dishes
, and the older one said the scalloped potatoes were gross. Mallory was pretty embarrassed, even admitting that she di
dn’t cook very often because of
her work schedule
. Her kids were used to the same simple things that were quick and easy for her to make, so they weren’t exposed to
a
large variety of foods.

“Just like our little Ells
ie
Bells,” my dad smiled at me. “Ellie wouldn’t eat a single vegetable when she was that age. Now she’s practically a vegetarian.”

“I am not,” I protested.

“I hardly see you eat meat. You’re alw
ays eating a salad or something—carrots in one hand and cucumbers in the other.
”

“Because I’m always on the run. If I could sit down and have the time to eat a steak or something, that would be my first choice.”

“I’ll have to agree with that,” Tyse interjected. “I’ve seen her inhale a pile of barbecued ribs.”

Everyone laughed and my brother
added
, “Yeah and I’ve seen her eat an entire bag of beef jerky all by herself
in one sitting
.”

“Okay, okay, enough about my eating habits. Yes, I like meat. Don’t
eat it too
much
—which is healthier
, by the way—but I do like meat.”

“So if you didn’t like vegetables as a kid, how’d you grow to like them?”
Mallory asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, but when she turned
to my mom and dad, my mom said, “We sang cute little songs about vegetables and she became interested after a while.”

My dad said, “We beat her until she ate ‘em!”

The little boys looked at him with wide eyes, probably believing that he was serious.

“I think your tastes just change
after a while,” I said. “I used to hate things like onions and mushrooms, and I wouldn’t even touch anything leafy. Now I eat them all the time.”

“She still won’t eat brussel sprouts,” David told everyone.

“Ew, no not ever,” I
agreed
. “It’s got to be the one vegetable I can’t stand. Or cauliflower.”

“I have to agree with cauliflower,” my dad said. He stuck his tongue out and made a funny face, and Micah smiled.

All of us even tried a group effort to get the boys to eat a tiny piece of scalloped potato. We all had a bite on our forks to eat at the same time, but only Jude did it with us. He ended up liking it and ate some more, so I guess it was somewhat successful.

When my mom brought out a chocolate cake for dessert, Tyse murmured to Mallory, “There’s always dessert to hold over him too.”

She glanced at Micah with a smile. “Hey, you want some chocolate cake?” she asked him.

He very eagerly replied, “Yes!”

“Okay, quick! Eat a bite of potato so you can get a piece.”

It was the funniest thing because the kid was so driven by the big ch
ocolate dessert in front of him
that he barely even noticed he’d eaten a scalloped potato for it.

We hung around for about an hour after dinner, but when David and Mallory decided to head out for the night, I decided I needed to as well.

I was pretty happy with the night. For one I thought Mallory was a pretty good match for my brother
. I wasn’t sure what her background was, but she seemed like a good person, and she and David appeared to be happy together.

The other reason the night was pleasing was that I think Tyse had a decent time. That meant a lot to me, knowing that he probably never had a pleasant family dinner with his own parents. It was just an assumption, but I got that kind of vibe from him at my mom and dad’s house.

“Your
dad’s pretty cool,” Tyse said during the drive home.

“Yeah, I kind of like my dad,” I smiled.

“He and you
r mom
seem like opposites. Are they?”

“Mm, in certain ways.
General personalities, yeah.
They
do have a lot in common though
, interests and stuff, but mainly they compliment each other with their differences.”

“I can totally see that you’re a mix of the two of them. At first I thought you were probably more like your mom, but there’s a lot of things about your dad that I can see as well.”

“My outgoing side is like my dad, I assume.”

“Yeah, your sense of humor and stuff.
But the other things—the quiet traits like your thoughtfulness and your overall compassion for other people—that’s just like your mom.”

I smiled at his observation and replied,
“M
y dad always said
I could entertain a bar full of
sailors
and whip up a homemade pie at the same time.”

Tyse laughed. “Yeah, that’s a pretty good
assessment
.”

We were both quiet for a minute as I took the exit for Dawn’s house. I couldn’t help feeling a little disheartened again, knowing that this was
probably
the last time I would see Tyse for a while. I was secretly hoping that Nate would be delayed again, but on the other hand, Gage would b
e coming into town the next day
and I was afraid of the slight chance that they would cross paths. I had no idea what Gage’s visit was going to be like, and I was worried about it.

“So you’ve got my number and everything?” Tyse asked as I drove down SE Hawthorne to 31
st
.

“Well not
‘
everything
.’
A
phone number is about all I’ve got.”

“So you want my email address, too?” he
chuckled. “That’s about all I have
.”

“Sure, that’s better than noth
ing.”

“Well what else can I give you?
Oh, I know…
”
He reached into his back pocket and shuffled through
his wallet
until he pulled out a business card. “Here’s where you can find me during regular hours if I’ve been kicked out of school. Otherwise I’ll only be there nights and weekends—except for baseball season.”

I took the card and tried to glance at it in the dark, but I wasn’t able to see it well. “What is it?”

“Uh, it’s a strip club.”
I scoffed and looked his way, and he started to laugh. “It’s Nate’s shop,” he said, as if it couldn’t possibly be anything else.

I kept it in my hand as I p
ulled up in front of Dawn’s
and then flipped the dome light on. I glanced over the information and said, “El Cajon? Where’s that?”

“Uh, it’s northeast of San Diego.”

“Is that also where you live?”

“Right now I live in La Mesa with Nate. It’s close.”

“Where did you actually grow up? What city?”

“Uh…” H
e looked ahead and
pointed to the house. “
I think your
sister just peeked out the window.”

“Sheesh, she’s like my mother.”

I waited for a few seconds, almost expecting her to come out the front door again, but she didn’t.
It was an awkward moment, kind of like a date when you don’t know
how
it’s going to end.

“Am I going to see you tomorrow before you leave?” I asked him.

“Uh, that depends. I can’t really pinpoint a time. The best I could do is call you when he gets here.”

“That’s fine. You can drop by the radio station, or give me a call and I’ll run an errand and meet you somewhere.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

“Okay.”

There was a very uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, and then Tyse kind of chuckled.
“Man, I feel like we’re breaking up or something.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I know how you feel. I don’t know what to say, though. I’m really going to miss you, and I wish you didn’t have to leave.”

He slowly nodded. “Well, you can call me anytime. I don’t think I’ll be calling you until Gage leaves, though. I don’t want to cause any problems. But you call me anytime you want, or text me your restaurant reviews,” he smiled.

“Okay.”

He paused for a moment. “If I don’t get a chance to say it tomorrow… I’m really glad I met you, Ellie. Thanks for taking me under your wing. If there’s anything you ever need just…let me know, okay?” He waited for me to nod my head before he added, “Well
,
I’d better let you get home.”

He opened his door and stepped out of the car. I wanted
to cry at that moment because it
already
hurt
.

He leaned into the car once more and said, “Oh, and your name—Ambrielle? –It’s beautiful, by the way. At first I didn’t know who the hell your mom was talking to.”

I smiled my appreciation, and all I could do was barely nod.

He said goodnight and shut the door, and as soon as he walked away, hot tears raced down my cheeks. Why did all the good things have to end?

Chapter Twenty-Two

As soon as I got home
Dawn called and grilled me about my time with Tyse. First of all she wanted to know if we were dating, and second of all she wanted to know if I had feelings for him. Of course I had feelings for him, I told her, because he had become such a good friend to me.

“That’s not what I mean
, Ellie, and you know it,” she
said.

We talked about it for another
ten
minutes, and it consisted of her implying the same things over and over, and me trying to shift the focus to dinner with mom and dad, or to David and his new girlfriend.
Bu
t
I wasn’t as good
at redirecting
a conversation
like Tyse was. E
ither that, or Dawn was like a pit b
ull that wouldn’t let go.

“Would you just let me go to bed, Dawn? You’re making a big deal out of nothing. I wanted Tyse to spend some time with
our
family because he didn’t grow up with something like that.”

“And what is Gage going to think? You took anothe
r guy home to meet your parents.
”

It was the third time she’d asked it, and I had to groan out loud. Finally I just said, “You know what? I don’t care what Gage thinks. It was his choice to put me on the back burner, and I’m tired of feeling guilty for being friends with Tyse! Gage has no room to complain right now because he did it himself.”

“You forced him to, Ellie.”

“What?”

“How do you think he felt when he heard you were spending time with another guy? Especially while he was back home trying to pick up the pieces from losing his dad.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Dawn. Why would you even say that? You know how hard I tried to be there for him. Even when he said he didn’t want me there I tried to be there for him. What was I supposed to do, quit my job and move down there with him?”

I heard her sigh and then there was a few second
s of silence. “I’m sorry, Ellie,
I just… I don’t know. I really like Gage, and Tyse worries me.
And
I’m worried about
you
. I don’t understand why Tyse is more important to you than
Gage
right now.”