“That might not be such a good idea.”
“Exactly, so I’m glad we won’t be crossing paths.”
“Unless he comes earlier.”
“Isn’t he supposed to come Wednesday night?”
“Yeah, as far as I know.”
“Well I’ll start walking if Nate doesn’t come before noon.”
“So I’m not going to get to hang out with Nate?”
He smiled, and I was glad the previous conversation was over. “Should we drop by your place of employment?”
“Uh…”
“We’ll bring cookies.”
I laughed. “I don’t think that would help.”
“No?”
We talked about Nate for a few minutes, and I got the impression that he was kind of a goofy guy. Yeah he wanted to kill me in the parking lot, but apparently he comes across pretty strong at first.
“You just have to get to know him. He’s a good guy. Pretty bad family life growing up—when he was fourteen he watched his dad kill his mom right in front of him. He was in foster care for four years, and Lindsey for six. Nate was in and out of jail until he was about twenty-two, and then one day he just kind of…changed. You hear Nate tell the story it’s kind of funny: ‘And here I was, just beatin’ the hell out of this guy—I didn’t know who he was or why I was even kickin’ his ass—but I thought to myself, Nate, what the hell are you doing? Why are you such a shithead?’ ”
I laughed at the way Tyse had changed his voice to sound just like his buddy.
“So I guess he just kind of had an epiphany,” I concluded.
“Yep, I guess he did. He got his act together and him and his buddy Quinn built their shop from the ground up.”
“In California? How’d Quinn end up in Seattle?”
Tyse smiled. “A girl.”
“Ah, I see.”
“He sold his half of the business to Nate, and then started another one up north. In Tacoma, I think?”
“Yeah, Tacoma is just south of Seattle.”
He nodded. “Yeah, so Nate’s got his business running pretty well. Well enough to spend the summer in Washington. He’s got another buddy looking after it for now.”
“Do you like working with him?”
“Oh, yeah. We have a lot of fun. Uh, I mean we work a lot too…” He smiled.
“Yeah, sure.”
“You should come visit,” he said.
“The shop?”
“Well, I was thinking California in general, but if you want some body work done…”
I laughed. “Yeah I might need some ‘body work’ done to fit in in California.”
“Oh, bull. If you came you could tip the scale a bit.”
“You’d really want me to visit?”
He looked at me with confusion. “What do you mean? Of course I do. Am I ever going to see you otherwise? I’ll try to make it up here again.”
“Really?”
“Sure. I think I’m going to miss it. I like it up here.”
“Maybe you should move here after college. You know if things, uh, work out that way. Oh wait, we mustn’t map out options publicly.”
“Oh whatever,” he smiled. “Now if I were to say that out loud—that I’d consider moving back here if, uh, my career goals don’t work out—then I would feel pressured to make it happen. What if I’m a complete failure and you say, ‘Now you can move to Portland, Tyse,’ and then I feel like I have to?”
“Oh gosh. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. It was just an idea because I would selfishly love the possibility.”
“Well I love that you love the possibility, but what about you coming down to California? I could find you a radio station to overtake.”
“Oh yeah?”
He shrugged. “It’s a very big possibility. You should look into it.”
We talked about several ‘possibilities,’ but my future was pretty dependant on my relationship with Gage, and Tyse knew that.
We ended up getting ice cream, and then I took him over to the planetarium across the river. I loved the laser light shows there and we had a lot of fun. At the end of the night, as I was taking him home, I asked, “What are you doing for dinner tomorrow night?”
“Uh…nothing, I’m sure. Why?”
“Well remember how I told you about my brother and his new girlfriend?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to come with me? I’d love for you to meet the rest of my family. As long as you’re not put off by my mom’s over-concerned nature.”
He lightly laughed. “I’m sure I’d like your mom.”
“So will you come with me? Actually I was going to head there straight after work, so I guess it would be a little longer than just dinner…”
“No, that’s okay, I’ll come. Thanks for the invite.” Then he decided to add, “Uh, what do your parents know about me? I mean most people really don’t like having an ex-con in their house—”
“I wish you wouldn’t call yourself that. It doesn’t sound right. And no, my parents don’t know you’re a criminal,” I smiled wryly.
“Okay, so should I break that out before dinner, or during?”
I laughed. “Whatever is comfortable for you.”
I had no doubt that my parents would be friendly to Tyse, and they were. I’d called my dad at lunchtime the next day to let him know I was bringing a friend, and I pretty much made sure he knew it was a ‘guy friend,’ just so no one was surprised.
I think Tyse was surprised with my folks, though—particularly my dad. I knew Tyse noticed his tattoos right away, and I wondered what he thought. Whereas Tyse just had tattoos that were usually covered up by the sleeves of his t-shirts, my dad had tattoos on his shoulders, his back, and his forearms. And if he’d been wearing shorts, you could even see the one he had on his leg. At some point during the night I knew he’d bring up something about the Navy, and when he did, Tyse was pretty interested in hearing about which ships he’d served on, and what it was like to be a medical officer. I could tell that my dad liked Tyse right away.
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 little 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 didn’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 Ellsie 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 always 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 chocolate 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 your 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, “My 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 be 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 31st.
“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 nothing.”
“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 pulled 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…” He 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. But I wasn’t as good at redirecting a conversation like Tyse was. Either that, or Dawn was like a pit bull 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 another 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 seconds 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.”
“He’s not. My relationships with them are entirely different.”
“Truly Ellie? I mean you’re not… I mean with Tyse you’re not…”
“No,” I scoffed. “Dawn, we’re just friends.”
“Well I don’t even mean sleeping together, Ellie. I just mean that you’re not cozy with him, and you don’t hug and kiss each other or anything like that? It’s nothing romantic?”
Summer Swing Page 24
