The Chaplain's Daughter (9 page)

Toby stuck his lower lip out in mock penance.  “Sorry Mom.  I was playing on the playground.”

Alyssa patted the couch, her usual invitation for him to sit down for their nightly discussion of life, movies, and music.  Toby joined her on the couch, excited to tell her the news first.

“Scott Potter is opening a restaurant and wants me to work with him.  It’s going to be a seafood place.”

Alyssa’s eyes lit up.  “Great!  Where’s it going to be?  In Tacoma I guess but where?”

Toby shook his head.  “No, it’s going to be up in Bellingham.  He lives in Mountlake Terrace and it will be closer for him.  He wants me to move up there, stay with him for a bit and then get an apartment of my own.  It will be great!”

Alyssa was stunned.  How stunned she was surprised even her.  Not until that moment did she realize how much these late nights with Toby meant to her.  Bellingham was only about three hours from Olympia but to Alyssa Boylan at this moment, it might as well have been New York City.  She opened her mouth to try and say something encouraging, but words failed her.  She closed her mouth and stared silently at Toby.

Toby looked at Alyssa and fell silent as well.  He saw her lovely face lit from the side by the flickering fire and from above by the soft glow of the reading light that she had been using when he got there.  Though the light in the room was low indeed, he could tell that his news, while a great opportunity for him, had struck Alyssa as a blow.

“Are you okay?” he said quietly.

She nodded quickly and forcefully, as much to convince herself as to communicate with Toby.  “I’m fine.  It sounds really good for you.  But I…I…I’ll miss you.”

She slid over until she was inside the crook of Toby’s arm that was lying across the back of the couch.  Toby put his arm around Alyssa, which was enough to release the tears that she had tried to restrain.

John and DeeDee Boylan were excited to hear about the plans that Toby had with his friend Scott.  Though they had grown to enjoy him at the house, they knew that part of him finding his future was to embark out from the comfort of their home in Olympia.  John asked Toby lots of questions about the ideas that Toby and Scott had for the new venture.  DeeDee half listened to the conversation, and half watched her daughter.  Later in the day, DeeDee sat down in the living room next to Alyssa.

“Are you happy for Toby?” DeeDee asked gently.

Alyssa put down the book that she had been trying, without much success, to read.  She looked at her Mom’s concerned eyes and nodded.

“I am.  It will be great for him.  It’s great that he has Scott to help him out.  He’s sure excited and I am glad for him.  I’ll miss him, though.  Won’t you?”

DeeDee smiled at her daughter.  She knew her well enough to know that there was more going on in her mind than what she was willing to divulge right now.  Alyssa was a firecracker at times, but also kept her own counsel at other times.

DeeDee simply answered, “I will.”

For his part Toby was having a rough time of it at work.  While he had only dropped and broken two plates in all of his months at Harbor Lights up until today, Toby had broken three plates today and his shift was only two hours along.  The third time that a plate smashed to the floor James Drake had come into the kitchen and looked quizzically at Toby.  Toby apologized for the mess (and the loss of restaurant property).  James asked Toby if he was all right.  Toby assured him that he was fine and that he would be more careful.  Toby wasn’t working with Scott so his clumsiness couldn’t be blamed on the two friends socializing.  Toby knew within himself that it was Alyssa Boylan that was on his mind.

The conversation that Toby and Alyssa had held the night before had been on Toby’s mind since.  He had tossed and turned in bed, thinking about the reaction that Alyssa had to his news.  The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was going to miss her just as much as she was going to miss him.  She had managed to travel, in the course of just a few months, from a mouthy pain in his behind to someone whose face he looked forward to seeing after a hard night at work and a hard ride home.  “Home.”  He didn’t think that the Boylan’s house would ever actually become that but it had.  The incredible hospitality of Chaplain John and DeeDee were a big part of that, but not all of it.  Toby liked coming…home…to Alyssa.

That night, Toby rode to Olympia more slowly than usual.  He knew that Alyssa would be up no matter what time he got there, and he wanted to have time to think between the times that the bus tubs at Harbor Lights were coming at him and the time that he next saw Alyssa.  He pictured her on the couch with the book.  He liked the picture.

When he arrived at the Boylans, Toby’s image of the scene was only half right.  Alyssa was there, but without a book.  She was waiting patiently for Toby to arrive.  Toby smiled at her and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from where Alyssa perched. 

“How was your night at work?” she asked.

“Not great.  I dropped three plates.  I think James was ready to send me home after the third one.”

Toby knew that Alyssa had worked that night as well.  “How was yours?”

Alyssa shook her head ruefully.  “Not great either.  One of the students asked where the book ‘The Joy of Cooking’ was, and I sent her to ‘Fear of Flying.”

Toby only half heard what she said.  He was noticing the way that her eyes danced in the reflected light of the fireplace.  He found himself glad that he had gotten to know her when the weather was cold and a fire was needed.  Somehow he doubted that she would look any worse, though, if the night was warm and summery.

Toby realized that Alyssa was still talking, or rather had stopped talking and was looking to him for an answer.

“Sorry,” he said.  “I guess I was daydreaming.”

“I asked if you know when you’re going to be moving out.”

Toby brought his mind away from his mental picture of Alyssa in a sundress by the window and to the conversation at hand.

“A week or two, I think.  Scott has taken possession of the restaurant.  They are ripping part of it out to make it look more like a seafood place.

Alyssa nodded.  She had been hoping that Toby was going to be staying for a little longer, but two weeks, three weeks, or four wasn’t going to change what she had to say.

“Toby I am just so proud of you.  I could tell you a thousand times that I’m sorry that I didn’t believe in you but I hope that’s all in the past.”

Alyssa faltered a bit, and then continued, “I like you Toby.  I like you a lot… I guess that’s what I wanted to say.”

Toby looked at Alyssa.  He could see, even in the dim light of the living room that her lower lip was trembling a bit.  He thought that her eyes were shining too, but that could have been the firelight.  He couldn’t be sure.

“Alyssa, you don’t have to say you’re sorry about before.  Ever again.  I would probably have thought the same things about me if I wasn’t me, you know?  I’m glad I came to this house.  I’m glad I met you.  I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Alyssa came to Toby and hugged him hard.  Toby held her and they stood together in the living room for the longest time.  When they finally broke apart Toby said, “I better go to bed.”

Alyssa nodded, “Me too.”

For the second night in two nights Toby tossed in his bed, unable to sleep.  He threw the covers off, rolled from side to side and pulled the covers back up.  He stared at the starlight sequin pattern on the ceiling, as reflected from a streetlight outside.  He replayed the scene in the living room.  He should have been very happy about the exchange with Alyssa, but he wasn’t.

The next night Toby and Scott worked together.  It was Scott’s last night at Harbor Lights, as he was devoting full time to his new venture.  He asked Toby what he thought of the name Mariner’s Cove for the seafood house that the two friends were going to operate.  Toby threw out a couple of other ideas.

“What about “Crabs?” Toby said, using his hands to hold up an imaginary sign.  Or “The Lagoon?”

Scott took off his apron and threw it at Toby.  “Whaddya’ want, for us to go broke inna week?  Nobody is going to want to eat at “Crabs.”  Not even if they’re going to order “Crabs.”  Scott punctuated the word crabs with the imaginary sign pose that Toby had used.  “The Lagoon” is a little better but maybe you should stick to what you do best.”  Scott paused for effect.  “What was that again?”

Toby wadded up Scott’s apron and rifled it back to him.  Just then James Drake put his head in the kitchen.  Toby and Scott busily went back to work.

For all of the levity that Toby enjoyed with his friend Scott, he was still troubled by the conversation with Alyssa the night before.  Truth told the girl made him a little bit tongue tied.  She just seemed so…alive.  Toby liked that about her but it made it hard for him to talk to her.  Toby couldn’t begin to understand what it all meant but it made his stomach hurt.

That night Toby pedaled hard, all the way to the Boylans house.  He thought that the rush of the air would clear his head.  He pumped the bicycle with legs hardened to the task.  He gulped air into his lungs and asked his body for more.  Harder and harder he rode, trying to find the thoughts that seemed to elude him where Alyssa was concerned.  He arrived at the Boylans house way before he normally got home.  Exhausted, Toby staggered to the steps.  Once inside, Alyssa met him at the door.

“Toby, did you get a ride, you’re early?” she said, before getting a good look at him.  After she saw the sweat streaming down his face, she exclaimed, “Toby!  Are you okay?”

Toby gulped for air and put his hands on his knees.  Finally he looked up and into Alyssa’s worried face.  Her eyebrows were scrunched together in the way that he had noticed they did when she was concerned.

“I’m fine, but we need to talk.”

Alyssa nodded silently and followed Toby into the living room.  She sat at her usual end of the couch and waited for Toby to gather his thoughts and begin to speak.  After taking a couple of deep cleansing breaths Toby spoke.

“Alyssa, last night you said that you liked me.  I should have answered that.  We talked about other things but I should have answered what you said. The truth is I like you.  I like you so much...”

At that point Toby faltered.  The rest of want he had to say was a risk but he couldn’t stop right now.  He would forever wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t stopped.

“Alyssa, I’m falling in love with you.”

“There,” he thought.  “Even if she laughs in my face or dismisses it with a joke, I said it.”

Laughing was the last thing on Alyssa Boylan’s mind.  She was a little stunned at Toby’s frank admission.  Sure, she thought about him when he wasn’t there and looked forward to him coming home.  Sure she worried if he was late.  Of course she was a little heartsick over him moving so far away and opening a restaurant with Scott.  Certainly she had wondered what it would be like to be there waiting for him every night for the rest of their lives, sharing their joys and frustrations of their days at work, laughing together, loving togeth…