“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 him, 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 once. It seemed…pretty friendly. And 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? —she 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.
“What have you been doing just sitting out here?”
“Oh I just gave Tyse a ride home and we were talking. How was dinner with mom and dad?” I asked, redirecting the conversation.
She smiled big. “Really good. Wyatt actually had a good time playing chess with dad. Dad says he was a worthy opponent. Well come inside and we can talk more. Plus I want to hear where you’ve been tonight?” she added, eyeing me curiously.
“Oh, I’m tired, Dawn. I gotta get up so early and I just want to get to bed.”
“Yeah, okay. But seriously, where were you tonight?” She lowered her voice for some reason and added, “Ellie, have you been with Tyse this entire time?”
Brief conversation, I was thinking. But as long as we weren’t talking about Wyatt and how badly I wanted to castrate him…
“Yes.”
She raised her eyebrows, clearly surprised.
“His team had a barbecue thingy for the end of their season. It was for friends and family, and since Tyse doesn’t have anybody up here, I wanted to support him.”
“Oh, Ellie,” she shook her head. And it was clear that she was disappointed. “What is Gage going to think about that? I mean I won’t tell him or anything, but what if he finds out?”
“Dawn, Tyse is just a friend. And Gage has nothing to worry about. Tyse will be leaving town, and Gage will be coming back. I’m hoping that things can be back to normal again.”
Even in the dark I could see her frown, but she sighed and said, “Okay. I mean I’m glad that you’ve befriended Tyse—it’s probably been a good thing that someone did—but I’m just trying to look out for you. I really think he has a thing for you.”
“Pssh, I seriously doubt that. I’ve known him for how many weeks now? –Nine? –And he’s
never done anything to make me question our friendship. And he’s leaving tomorrow, so don’t you think he would’ve made some kind of move on me if he honestly liked me as more than a friend?”
She sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Anyways, I really need to get home.”
“Okay. ‘Night, Ells. I love you.”
She blew me a kiss, and after I’d done the same, I spent the entire drive home thinking about what I should do about Wyatt.
I did call Tyse that night. I not only wanted his opinion on how I should handle the situation, but I also knew it was the only way I could calm down enough to get to sleep. We talked for almost an hour, and by the time it was eleven o’clock, I felt pretty sure that Tyse had become my closest friend. Besides my sister, I really didn’t have many close friends. I’d always been so busy with school and work that one friend was about all I could handle, and that had always been Dawn. I had people that I occasionally hung out with, but Dawn was the only person I truly confided in.
But what was going to become of Tyse? He’d be going back to California in less than twenty-four hours. Were we going to be long distance buddies? I knew Gage would have a problem with that, so what was I supposed to do?
Chapter Twenty
You know how you get really into something for a while—like a new hobby or workout plan—and then you just kind of fizzle out on it or get bored with it? Work was starting to get that way for me. I did like a lot about my job, but I think there were more things that I didn’t like instead, and those things were preventing me from feeling peppy about it anymore. I got to be on the air like I’d always wanted to be, but now those few minutes a week weren’t good enough for me. I was beginning to get bored with my same old work routine, and I was dying for something more.
I dreaded going to work on Monday for two reasons. First of all I couldn’t get my sister off my mind. I still didn’t know what to do about the situation, and it really tore me down. The other reason was that Tyse would be leaving town, and I truly wished I could spend the day with him before he left. I would have taken the day off but it was an on-air day for me—the only one for that week—and then I had a staff meeting in the afternoon.
I called Tyse around noon to see if Nate had come yet, or to see if Tyse could have lunch with me even. He didn’t pick up so I had to just leave a message. That really worried me, and I was afraid that he’d already left town or something.
My phone was in my pocket when he called back at one, but I was right in the middle of our meeting when it vibrated and I couldn’t answer it. Instead I had a little texting conversation with him, hiding the phone under the table so no one noticed. Luckily I was at the back of the room and nobody bothered to look that way. However, I believe I made some kind of little noise when Tyse said Nate wasn’t coming until Wednesday now, and it looked like he’d be in town for two more days. A few heads in the room glanced back to look at me, but they returned their attention up front when I turned my gasp into a little sneeze.
“Bless you,” Jill told me.
“Thank you,” I replied, and the meeting continued on.
At one-thirty I sat down at my desk and finished up the only thing I had to do for that day. I realized I was a lot happier than I had been that morning, and I knew it was because of Tyse. I was very happy that Nate hadn’t come yet, whatever the reason was, and I decided I was just meant to spend more time with my friend. I wondered if Tyse would want to do anything fun that night, so I began to think of some things we could do.
I realized my answer to Dawn’s situation was just two cubicles down from mine. Miranda was typing away at her computer when I entered her floral-filled space. She had real flowers, fake flowers, pictures of flowers, and they all decorated her desk and the partitions that surrounded it.
“Hey there,” she smiled.
“Hey,” I said, grabbing an empty chair from next door and sitting down.
“Uh oh, you look worried,” she frowned.
“I am, and if you have a minute, I was wondering if you’d offer me a quick piece of advice.”
“Sure.” She spun around in the chair to fully face me.
“What do you do when you know a guy is cheating on his wife?” I asked quietly.
She raised her eyebrows. “Wife, huh. So this isn’t about you and Gage, right?”
“Oh no, not about Gage. Gage is… Well, this is about my sister, actually. Dawn. I’ve just learned something that might mean that her husband has been cheating on her, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“ ‘Might mean’… So you’re not exactly sure?”
“Well actually I’m sure, I just need proof. And I need to know the best way to break it to my sister.”
I talked to Miranda for about a half an hour. I liked the things that she advised, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Dawn was going to fall apart, and I knew there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it.
Tyse was pretty interested in my conversation with Miranda when I repeated it to him later that afternoon. I picked him up from Wyatt’s house—glad that Wyatt and Dawn weren’t home—and we spent some time walking along the waterfront. Neither of us felt like sitting down in a restaurant, so when we got hungry, we grabbed food to go at a really great café and sat in the grass at the park while we ate.
“I haven’t seen a palm tree in what seems like months,” he commented. “I do like the trees up here, but it’s just odd for me, I guess.”
“You haven’t been out of California much?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, I have, but not for several years. What about you? You travel much?”
“Nah, not really. I’ve been to California only once. Disneyland when I was seven.”
“Only once?”
I nodded. “Well, twice if you count a layover on the way to Denver a few years ago.”
“You need to come to California. And not just for Disneyland,” he smiled. “There are a lot of cool things there that aren’t really the touristy stuff. Man, if you can snowboard, then you should try surfing down there. You surf much up here?”
“Uh, no, I don’t,” I replied. “I, uh… I’m afraid of the water.”
He looked at me for a moment, almost like he thought I was joking or something. But finally he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really?”
“Really.”
“You mean you’re afraid of the ocean? Afraid of sharks or something,” he teased with a smile.
“Uh, no. I’m afraid of water in general. I can barely swim.”
“What? Seriously?”
I nodded. “I mean I can swim, probably if I had to, but not by choice.”
“Why? Bad experience or something?”
“Pretty much. Saw my cousin drown when I was nine. My parents barely let me go rafting with everyone that day because they felt I was too young—I was really scared to anyway but I still wanted to go—but me and my ten-year-old cousin got thrown out of the boat, and they couldn’t find Isaac until it was too late. Apparently he got caught between some rocks or something and got stuck under water. But all I remember is them pulling him out and someone screaming, ‘He’s dead! He’s dead! Oh, he’s dead!’ ” I took a deep breath and exhaled. “It was a pretty awful day. I was already a little scared of moving water—you know, rivers and ocean waves and stuff—but after that I think I vowed to steer clear of water in general. Occasionally I put my feet in it, just to torture myself, but… Yeah, water is not my friend.”
“And what about you? What happened to you when you fell out of the raft?”
I didn’t answer at first as the memory replayed in my head. Then I slightly shrugged. “I just remember being under water and just…freaking out. I know I ended up under the raft because I was trying to go up, and I couldn’t get anywhere. I’d hit something—the raft I later realized—and I was still under water, hitting rocks and stuff. My dad said I was under for about a minute or so, but I just remember it feeling like forever until I lost consciousness. They had t
o revive me in the boat. I’ve seen enough surfing on TV to know I wouldn’t be able to handle being under the water like that again. I panic just seeing it in a movie or something, or any kind of underwater-type thing. It’s ridiculous.”
“Well it’s understandable.”
I shrugged. “I wish I could get over it, though. I would love to try surfing someday.”
“Then don’t give up on the idea. You don’t have to be in the monster waves to surf.”
“I know. I think I just need to get in the water one of these days and let myself freak out over it. Maybe then I’d get past it.”
“Or you’ll have to do it ten more times before you’re over it,” he shrugged.
“Yeah, probably.”
“But still, as long as you’re realistic about it I think you’ve got a chance. Don’t expect it to be easy, but expect you can somehow overcome it. Believe and you can achieve,” he grinned.
I laughed and said, “Yeah, same to you pal. Get on that baseball diamond and believe.”
“Oh, I believe in myself. It’s the other stuff that gets in the way.”
“Believing in other people?”
“It’s not exactly up to me to give me a chance to play pro. My fate—ha ha,” he smiled, “—is in other people’s hands.”
“Not true. First you have to be good enough to even be considered. That’s your part in all of it. Then, if it’s meant to be, the opportunity will be presented to you. If it’s not meant to be, then there’s something else waiting for you.”
“Hmm, like what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’ll have to focus on another goal that you have. What else is on your list?”
He barely smiled and shook his head. It was kind of an “I’m not going to get into it” response, so I didn’t press it. Ever since that one day in the café—when I’d asked him what his career goals had been—I felt like I had jumped to conclusions by throwing in the whole baseball idea. He didn’t exactly agree that that’s what he’d been shooting for, but because he didn’t disagree with it, I’d automatically assumed it was what he wanted. After I thought about it for some time, I realized that maybe he’d had something else in mind, and I had totally ruined the opportunity for him to tell me.
Summer Swing Page 22
