Summer Swing (25 page)

“She’s going to have a cow anyway. You’d better do it sooner than later.”

“Do you want to do it for me?” she asked in a really sweet voice.

“Yeah, right! They’d shoot the messenger. Just leave them a message on the answering machine while they’re both at work: ‘Hi Mom, hi Dad, just want to tell you how much I love you. Oh and by the way, Wyatt and I got married by Elvis.’ ”

She was laughing pretty hard when she said, “I should totally do that! What would it hurt, right?” We had a good laugh about it, but she finally said, “Oh, Ells. I’m so happy. I don’t even care if they disapprove. This is something that Wya
tt and I decided together, and I’m so happy we’re finally
a
married
couple.”

“Well I’m glad you’re happy, Dawn. I can help you pack after work on Monday if you want.”

“Oh, that would be awesome
. But first those guys need to be re-housed, so I gotta figure out how to go about that.”

“What? What do you mean? You’re kicking out the baseball players?”

“Why is that so bad? I don’t want to be living there as husband and wife with a couple of other guys there. We’d be newlyweds. Why shouldn’t we be able to treat the house as such?”

“Oh gosh,” I groaned. “It’s not like you g
uys don’t already act that way.
Besides, those guys are supposed to be with families. It will be good for you to be there. You’d be like their den mother.”

She laughed. “Den mother? You honestly think they’d want a motherly influence in the house? I’m sure they love
not
having that.”

“No, I think you’re wrong. You
may not be older than them—maybe you’re more of a sisterly influence—b
ut I think it’s good when you’re there. You add a comfortable, family feeling to the house.”

“What makes you think that? Did they actually say that?”

“Well no, but Tyse has mentioned how much you do around the house—”

“Tyse? The weird, scary one?”

“He’s not weird,” I chuckled.

“Okay, but he is kind of intimidating. He’s
really
hot
—and he’s got that mysterious, tougher-than-nails thing going on for him—but the guy doesn’t even talk.”

“So? Why does that make him scary?”

“I don’t know, just because I have no idea who he is or what he’s all about. He’s probably got a bad rap in California, so he had to come up here to play baseball. I just don’t like quiet guys, I guess. There’s too much unknown about them.
It’s like they’re hiding something.
”

I’ll admit that I felt very defensive about her judgment of Tyse, but I understood where she was coming from. I myself had judged Tyse unfairly, and now I regretted it.

“Dawn, Tyse is a really nice guy. If you just talk to him once in a while, he really will talk to you. It’s just a matter of getting him to feel comfortable enough to converse with you, I guess. He actually thinks you’re really nice and that Wyatt is spoiled by you.”

“Really? He said that? Since when do you talk to the guy? You guys hang out or something?” she
added with a giggle
.

“Actually I had lunch with him yesterday.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

I told Dawn about the story of my car and how Tyse had fixed it for me
.

“Now I just think he’s got a thing for you, Ellie,” she chuckled. “Gage better watch out.”

“Oh, brother. We’re just friends. I think I kind of scare
him
.”

“Scare him? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he’s used to having people be nice to him or something. He had a really hard time with me paying for lunch.”

“That’s just his pride.”

“Well, yeah. But it’s a good thing
,
I think. You know…at least he’s not the type of guy that takes people for
granted
.”

“True, but I still think he’s
a
bit
mysterious
. I’m glad that Wyatt is
upfront
. He’s open and honest, and I don’t have to guess what he’s thinking.
And
he smiles
.
”

I groaned to myself. She hadn’t even gotten the hint that I’d accused Wyatt of taking her for granted.

“So you’re not really going to kick them out are you, Dawn? They only have a few more weeks left of their summer season and then they all go home.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Yeah, they’re done the second week of August.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I guess I didn’t really think about it.” She paused for a few seconds. “Yeah, you’re right. It would be really mean of me to do that. I’ll let them stay, I guess. I don’t want to be a witchy wife from the start. If Wyatt has a problem with them being there then I’ll let him deal with it. So what are you doing today? Oh, are you down in Medford?”

“No,” I sighed. “Gage had some business stuff he needed to take care of. I might head down there this afternoon, though. What are you doing right now?”

“I’m just lying around in
the hotel room. Wyatt’s stil
l asleep in the other room
.
”

“Oh,
long
night, huh?”

She laughed. “
Yep
, we had a lot of fun. You and Gage should come here sometime. Vegas
is
so
fun.”

“Uh, not to get married,” I clarified.

“Oh I know. You’re too upt
ight for that
,” she laughed
.

“
Yep, and
I wouldn’t be caught dead getting married in Vegas. No offense.”

“None taken. This has been so good for us, though. I finally feel like my life is more complete.”

“I’m really happy that you’re happy, Dawn.”

“Thanks Ells Bells. I just hope Mom and Dad can learn to feel the same way.”

“Well good luck with that.”

“Ooh, it’s almost noon and Wyatt wanted to go to that lunch thing downstairs. I need to go wake up my
husband
,” she giggled again. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay. Let me know when you get home.”

“All right. Love ya, Ellie.”

“I love you too
,
Dawn.”

What was it that she just said…? Oh, it was almost noon… Tyse’s game! That’s what struck me about Saturday. I’d totally forg
otten. And then Gage had cancel
ed half our weekend, but Tyse didn’t even remind me to go to the game. Maybe he didn’t even want me to go anymore.

I
weirded
him out with the hug,
I decided. Was the guy just not used to physical contact with anyone?

I quickly changed my clothes and brushed my hair. I put on a little bit of makeup, what I normally wore, and then took off for the ballpark. It was twelve-twenty when I got there, and I was sure that I’d already missed Tyse pitch the first inning. But to my surprise they hadn’t even started, and as I spotted a place to sit where I usually did, I saw Tyse standing near the fence where I was about to pass. He saw me just as I saw him, and my heart felt relief when he smiled at me.

“You came,” he said, and
I could tell he was surprised.

“I thought I was going to be late. How come the game hasn’t started?”

“Oh, I told you noon, didn’t I? That was just to get you here on time.”

“Really?” I laughed.

“No, I just thought it was at noon for some reason. We’re about to start, though. I’m, uh, really glad you made it.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re glad.”

At the same time, I wasn’t so glad that several of the guys were staring at us. It made me feel really uncomfortable
,
like I used to
feel
w
ith Gage, but in
somewhat of
a different way
. This time all I could think about was that they were judging me for other reasons.

“Don’t mind them,” Tyse told me.
“They’re just surprised to see you here.”

“You mean without
Gage
being here,” I stated.

Tyse shrugged. “No, probably because you’re talking to
me
,” he smiled wryly.
“I’m the most anti-social guy on the team.”

I had to smile too. “Oh, then let them gossip. Oh, guess what?” I asked lowering my voice.

“What?”

“No, you really have to guess.”

“Oh. Uh… You made me a pie?”

“Great, now I feel bad.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry.”

“I’m kidding. But guess again.”

“Uh, you got a promotion?”

“Not yet.”

“Got a new dog?”

“No way. I can’t even take care of myself.”

He smiled. “Um, you got a tattoo.”

“Nope.”

“Not even to match one of mine?”

“No
.”

“Uh… Oh, I know. You mastered the whole outrageously funny checklist.”

“Not even close.”

“Uh, ten steps to better self-esteem?”

“No
pe
.”

“Good because you don’t need to work on that. You have nothing to be insecure about.”

I thought I might have blushed with that one, but I still said, “Well thank you, but that’s not it either.”

“Well it can’t be the baseball thing because I know you’re still clueless.”

“Hey!” I protested, punching him in the arm.

He laughed and said, “I’m just kidding. And that hurt, by the way. If my coach saw you do that you’d be kicked out of here.”

I totally thought he was serious.
I also thought
I’d just punched his pitching arm, too. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I totally forget
that you’re the…you know…
starter guy.
”

He was chuckling when he said, “Relax, I’m only kidding. It would take more than that to knock me out of a game.”

“I’m sorry, though.”

“Your apology will be accepted when you just tell me what the hell I’m supposed to be guessing,” he smiled. “I gotta line up for the anthem, Ellie.”

“Oh, right. Uh, my sister and Wyatt got married in Vegas last night.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and my parents are gonna crap a brick.
Each of them.
At the same time.”

He laughed out loud, and that’s when Coach Baxter noticed the two of us talking. If looks could kill, I would have been a goner. How dare I be distracting his starting pitcher, right?

“Uh, I’d better let you go,” I murmured.

Tyse followed my gaze and Coach Baxter actually motioned him over with his head.

“I’m sorry if you’re in trouble,” I whispered.

“Nah,
I can handle this. Will you stick around after the game though?
I’ve got some time between the next game.
”

“Sure
, I can do that
. Good luck, Tyse. Do your best.”

He only smiled as he left the fence to join his team.

Oh
crap, what if Gage calls and I need to leave?
I thought. I groaned to myself as I sat down on the bleachers. I didn’t expect that he would call for at least a couple of hours, but I had no idea. I figured I should just wait to deal with that
conflict
if it actually came.

Being at another baseball game felt really good, and I realized how much I’d missed it. It also made me
feel
awful for Gage because I knew how much he missed playing, too. I really wished his summer hadn’t changed so drastically.

Tyse did awesome, pitching a no-hitter until the fifth inning. After that the other team only got one hit, and by the time Tyse retired for the game after
six
innings, we were ahead 3-0
. It was two-fifteen
at that point, and that’s when Gage called me. I suddenly realized that he would totally know that I was at a baseball game just by the sounds around me, and I felt uncharacteristically paranoid. Would Gage be upset that I was at a
Bears
game?
–P
articularly to watch Tyse pitch?

I had no idea, but I decided to leave the stadium to answer the phone. I didn’t get to the parking lot in time to receive the call, but I called him right back.

“Oh, I thought you were avoiding me,” he teased.

“No, I just had to go somewhere quieter,” I admitted.

“Where ya at?”

“Um, I came to watch a
Bears
game while I waited for your call.”