Summer Swing (7 page)

I headed over to Gage’s house after work (I stopped calling it “Wyatt’s house” because it sounded weird when I only went there to see Gage). It was sort of my habit to
go there after work
because by the time I returned home to Lake Oswego to change and then return back to Portland, it took me an extra hour. I started just
bringing
extra
clothes with me to change into after work.

W
e had plans to go out with Dawn and Wyatt for dinner. They wer
e at the house when I arrived, making out on the couch.

“Gage is in his room,” Wyatt barely said through my sister’s face.

I made my way down the hall and stood in the doorway to his bedroom. He was sitting on the bed in just a pair of shorts watching the television. When I took a closer look
,
I could tell it was of someone’s batting practice.

“Hey, there,” I greeted.

He turned around and smiled at me. “Hey. I didn’t hear you come in.” He stood up and put a shirt on, and then came to give me a kiss. “How was work?”

“Good,” I grinned. I told him about the new changes coming up and he was excited for me.
Then I asked, “How was practice?
And how are your new teammates?”

“Good. We’re kind of starting to get familiar with each other, but I think it’s going to take some time. Maybe half the season, even,” he chuckled. “It’s different trying to mesh with a bunch of new guys
in just a week
, but I think we’ll do okay. We’ve even got a couple more guys coming up
sometime
next week from California that are going to be joining us. Another pitcher and another
infielder
.”

“And how is
your
pitching going?”

“Pretty good. Struck out seven batters today, just on
sliders
.”

“I don’t know if that’s good or not,” I admitted with a laugh.

“Aw man, didn’t your brother teach you anything?” he teased, giving me a playful shove.

“Yeah, to stay away from pitchers,” I smiled.

“Is that something you
want
to do?” he asked knowingly. He pulled me
close again and kissed me some more
.

“No, not as long as it’s you,” I said, sliding my arms around his waist.
We kissed for a bit longer, and then I asked, “Uh, don’t you need to get ready? Or is that what you’re wearing to dinner?”

“This is what I’m wearing to dinner. Oh, I guess they didn’t tell you the plan has changed.”

“No, I guess not. What’s the plan?”

“Your sister made dinner and we’re eating here. I think a few more people are coming over, too.”

“Dawn made dinner, huh,” I said cautiously. “That could be trouble.”

“No, she said it was all taken care of,” he said with a shrug. “Whatever that means.”

“It means she probably had my mom put something together and Dawn just brought it over.”

He laughed. “Actually she was in the kitchen preparing it earlier
.”

“Hmm, it must be enchiladas then.
I thought that’s what I smelled…
”

“Yep, that’s what it appeared to be. Why, is that the only thing she knows how to make?”

“Pretty much. A
nd spaghetti. But actually she’s been learning to cook more. One of the many things she does for Wyatt’s benefit. Whether he cares or not,” I added with a shrug.

“Hmm, what do you mean?”

He led me to the edge of the bed and we sat down. Gage and I occasionally joked about Dawn and Wyatt (like normally
I
would have mentioned that they were sucking each others faces off when I arrived), but I usually didn’t bring up any personal opinions about Dawn and my disapproval of Wyatt. It’s not that I didn’t like Wyat
t;
there were just things about their relationship that bugged me.

“You don’t think Wyatt cares about Dawn?” Gage asked me. “I hope you don’t think that; he talks about her
all the time
.”

“Does he?”

“Yeah, he does.”

“Like
things
about
her, or just things that are everyday occurrences like ‘Dawn came over’ or ‘Dawn brought me donuts
at work
’?”

“Mm, I don’t know. I guess stuff like that. But I’ve heard him say stuff like how sweet she is or how good her massages are. Must run in the family,” he smiled.

I returned the smile, but I was concerned for my sister. Wyatt may think she’s sweet for doing things for him all the time, but it was one thing to enjoy what a person does for you, and it was another to enjoy who they were as a person.
I guess what it came down to for me was that I didn’t believe Wyatt reciprocated what my sister did for him.

“You seem really worried,” Gage noticed. “What’s the matter? They’ve been together for a couple of years, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s got you worried?”

I sighed. “Gage, I don’t know what I can tell you and what I can’t. It’s my sister’s personal life, and I don’t want anything to get back to her that might upset her.”

“You mean you’re afraid I’ll say something to Wyatt?”

I was hesitant to answer, but he knew what it meant.

“I understand, Ellie. But I won’t say anything to him if you don’t want me to. I can keep it to myself if you just want someone to talk to.”

That was what I wanted to hear because I really did want someone to talk
to about it
. My mom and dad knew my concerns for Dawn, but they always told me that it was sweet for me to be concerned for my sister, but Wyatt was Dawn’s true love, and there wasn’t anything I could say or do to change that.

“Dawn has always been…kind of a hopeless romantic,” I began. “She just looks at Wyatt like he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her, and it really bothers me.”

“Because you don’t think Wyatt’s that great of a
guy?”

“Gage, I know he’s your cousin and—”

“That doesn’t even matter, Ellie. He’s your sister’s boyfriend right now. My personal opinion on the guy
can be neutral.”

He seemed sincere about that, so I nodded. “Okay. It’s just that I think he takes my sister for granted. She does so much for him and I can hardly tell what he even does for
her
.”

“Doesn’t Dawn rave about anything he’s said or done?”

I slowly shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. But she gets excited about almost anything.”

“So what she gets excited about just isn’t something that would be thrilling for
you
? Doesn’t that just mean you two are a little different in that aspect?”

“Are you saying I expect a lot?”

“No,” he chuckled. “I’m just saying things affect people differently. Like the difference between you and Dawn is that Dawn is just a happy, giggl
y, friendly person.
Everything with her is on the outside.
You’re more reserved. You tend to absorb things first, feel them and kind of
put
more meaning
to them. You’re a little more analytical. You like to understand things better before you just accept them as
they appear
.”

“There’s another
word
for that, but you’re just being polite.”

He smiled. “I don’t think you’re always distrustful, but you’re pretty cautious when you need to be. You’re just careful when it comes to dealing with other people. I could assume it’s because you’ve been burned before, but I haven’t known you long enough to make that conclusion.”

“Well, I just—”

“You guys ready to eat?” Dawn asked, appearing in the doorway.

“Uh, sure,” I answered. “But aren’t you waiting for more people?”

“They’re already here,” she said with a questioning look. “You two been, uh, too wrapped up in other things to notice?” she smiled. Without waiting for my reply she added, “We’re
waitin
’ for
ya
,” and headed down the hall.

“Since we’re not going out, I’m going to change my clothes,” I said to Gage. “You guys can start without me.”

“Okay,” he replied, kissing
me
before he stood.

When he left, I grabbed the bag I ha
d with me and quickly changed. I wasn’t surprised when I stepped into the kitchen/family room area and found everyone watching a baseball game on ESPN. The first thing that popped into my head was that Wyatt had subtly mentioned some game he might want to watch that night, and it was all it took for Dawn to say, “Oh okay, let’s do that; I can make you dinner if you want.” And then Wyatt probably mentioned something about Mike and Sean watching the same game and Dawn said, “Oh, just invite them over; I can make dinner for everyone.”

I sighed to myself. I didn’t like being so pessimistic about my sister’s relationship with her boyfriend, but I couldn’t help it.
And Wyatt had always been pretty pleasant toward me, so it wasn’t like he was a major jackass or anything.
I decided I should probably be
fair and stop being so critical about their relationship.

Gage handed me a plate of food that he’d prepared for me and said, “I’ll eat what you can’t.”

I thought it was very thoughtful of him to serve me food, but
with a smile
I said, “Sure, and you’re just betting that I can’t eat four enchiladas, aren’t you
?”

“Surely am,” he grinned.

“Well I gift you two of them already,” I replied, putting my arm around him to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. But it was purely a savage instinct. Those guys wouldn’t have left you an olive.”

He motioned to Wyatt and his friends with a nod of his head. All three of them were positioned on the couch next to each other, facing the TV. Dawn was sitting at the table by herself, so I decided to sit across from her, and Gage sat next to me.

“This looks really good, Dawn.”

“Oh
,
thank you,” she smiled. “Thanks for showing me how to make it. Oh, and I want to try a lasagna next. I think Wyatt would really like that. Can we try that sometime?”

“Yeah, sure. Hey, m
aybe on Sunday. Gage is coming over if you want to invite Wyatt.”

“Um, probably not,” she replied. “I’m sure he’s got something else going on since it’s his day off.”

No, he just didn’t like spending time with “the parents
,
” I wanted to say. Dawn knew that too, which is why my family usually only saw Dawn when she was
without
Wyatt
. But I kept my thoughts to myself and enjoyed the evening with Gage and my sister. We ended up joining the others in the family room to watch the Braves battle the
Cardinals
.

I hardly ever cared where I was with Gage. I’ll admit that it kind of surprised me that
the
ease
we’d had
with one another when we used to talk on the phone had r
emained the same. I felt like I’d
known him for a long time, and I had to feel thankful that he’d called me up that one Friday night. I guess maybe I had my sister to thank for that, and I told myself that it was important for me to do
so
.

I liked watching baseball with Gage. I didn’t even care that the other guys were in the room because Gage and I tended to have our own little side conversations about the game anyway. I figured I’d get made fun of if I asked any questions out loud, so I made sure only Gage could hear me. But it was hard for him to explain something to me when there was always something in the explanation that he’d also have to explain as well. I felt bad that I was so clueless about the game, but Gage was patient with me. I don’t know, maybe he even liked teaching me.

“So you guys still didn’t get your schedule yet?” I asked
him
when the game was over. I hadn’t even seen him play before and I was looking forward to it.

“Oh
,
we got it today,” he replied, realizing he’d forgotten to tell me. Everyone was in the kitchen eating the brownies that I’d made during the third inning, but Gage took my hand and led me to the hallway. “I grabbed an extra copy just for you, but
they’ve also finally fixed it on the
website.
” When we made it to his room, h
e grabbed a sheet of paper from the dresser and handed it to me.

“Oh good,” I said, glancing over the times.
“Most of them are after six
.”

“Yeah, except for the
Saturday and
Sunday games.”

“But I can make those
no matter what time they’re at
,” I smiled. “But for the away games I
’ll have to see
when
they’re during the week.”