Summer Swing (46 page)

“Thanks for getting her here safely,” he told Eduardo. “She’s very precious cargo.”

Eduardo’s smile was huge. “Yes, yes she is. Precious cargo.”
He looked at me and
asked,
“Well?
Your luggage?
You’ll be staying?”

“Yes, I’ll be staying. Thanks for everything,” I told him. I even gave him a hug.

“Oh, you are very welcome,” he replied. “I hope your visit is good. And if you need a ride to the airport, just call.”

He handed me a business card and I thanked h
im, and then he unloaded my bags
. Tyse took both of them for me, and I said goodbye to Eduardo one last time.

“I am totally confused,” Tyse said once we were in the house. He set my bags by the hallway and faced me. “Do you just have that effect on people? He acted like he’s known you forever.”

I smiled. “Nah, just since this morning.”

He shrugged. “And now he’s a huggable friend?”

With a laugh I replied, “Yeah, I guess so. I’ve had a rough morning, so he was like an answered prayer.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “A rough morning? What happened?”

He led me to the couch and we sat down. I almost panicked, realizing I didn’t know what to say about my visit to his parents’ house. Then I decided I just wasn’t going to say anything at all.
At least…not yet.

I explained my spontaneity and how I felt a little stranded at the airport. Then there was the nice couple that offered up their driver for me.

“A town car,” he kind of scoffed. “You should have just called me.”

“But I wanted to surprise you.”

“Yeah, and you did. But I would have been surprised about picking you up at the airport
, too
.”

“I know, but you had your game. How did it go, by the way?”

He groaned as he slightly stretched his body. “
Two mornings in a row…
I think I took a beating.”

“I thought Nate was on your team?” I smiled.

“He was, but
Loofah
was on the other team.”

“
Loofah
?” I snorted.

He smiled. “Yeah,
i
t’s easier than calling
him ’
50
Grit
Sandpaper.’ ”

I laughed, but I was totally confused.

“His face,” Tyse clarified. He moved his shirt and showed me some burn marks on his upper arms. “The guy has the coarsest stubble you can ever imagine. He shaves and it grows back instantly.”

“Okay, and I couldn’t help but notice—when you were standing there in your underwear—that you looked pretty bruised up.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks to
Loofah
, as well. I got tired of his face rubbing on my arms when he blocked me at the line, so I had to be quicker than him. He got pissed and started hitting me harder.” I could already see some of the bruises on his arms, but he lifted his shirt and I saw the ones on his ribs again. “That one could be broken, I’m not sure,” he added.

“What?” I asked with concern.

“Nah, I’m kidding. Anyway… So?” He looked at me with a
n eager
smile.
“Do you have any plans?”

“Uh, nope. Just this. Just sitting here with you.
But don’t let me get in your way if you have things to do. I’ll just go with the flow.
”

“
You won’t be in my way, not at all.
So what made you give up snowboarding for the weekend? I thought you were really looking forward to that.”

With a shrug I replied, “I decided there was something else that I wanted to do instead.”

He studied me carefully, and I was almost carried away by his eyes. I’d missed seeing those eyes, and witnessing their power in person was way better than just thinking about it.

“Is everything okay at home, Ellie?” he asked me.

I was a little
caught off guard
because it seemed totally out of the blue.
“What?”

He sighed. “I just feel like there’s something going on that you’re not telling me about. On the phone you ha
rdly talked about your family, which is odd,
so I just felt like something was wrong.”

“No, everything’s okay,” I lied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Dawn and her mood swings are a little out of control, so she says things that are pretty ridiculous, but all of that has become the norm lately. We’re getting used to it.”

He studied me for a few seconds again. “Well, just be patient with her. She’s pregnant, and I don’t know what that’s like, but she’s also going through a really hard time because of Wyatt. I’m sure it just feels good to lash out at people.”

Hearing Tyse defend my sister almost made me wish I could slap her right then. Would he be so nice to her if he knew of the things she’d said about him? I actually thought that he would, which made me want to slap Dawn even harder.

“Yeah, I know,” I agreed. “She’s going through a rough time.”

Thankfully the subject of families was dropped, and we began talking about other things instead.

The entire weekend was great, even just hanging out at the house. He did take me to the beach on Saturday, but it really wasn’t that warm out. It was sunny and beautiful and I absolutely enjoyed it, but he promised me a better day in the future. I really didn’t even care. I wasn’t sure what was “better,” because spending time with Tyse was all that really mattered to me anyway.

Sunday afternoon was hard because I knew I
would be leaving that evening
. I had actually made the guys a Thanksgiving dinner, and they were completely blown away. I was pretty thrilled that they were so happy—Nate was like a little kid on Christmas morning—and it made me feel good to see them enjoy it.

But the happy times ended when Tyse had taken the trash out, and somehow I admitted to Nate that I’d been to Tyse’s parents’ house. Nate seemed pretty stunned, and he grilled me about it as quickly as he could until Tyse entered the house. He was just insisting that I tell Tyse about it, and Tyse heard him say that.

“Tell me what?” he asked, looking between the two of us.

I was about
to say “nothing,” and Nate gave me a stern look and left the room. I didn’t really understand any of it.

“Tell me what?” Tyse asked again. “Ellie, what’s going on?”

I shrugged. “I don’t… I don’t understand…”

“Understand what?” He stepped closer to me and said, “Ellie, just tell me. What’s the matter?”

“I, uh… I met your mom, Tyse.
At her house?
In Solana Beach? She, uh… Well, she kicked me out and…”

I didn’t finish the sentence because I thought Tyse was going to completely snap.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I guess I had never really seen Tyse
mad before, and I wasn’t going to that time, either
. He didn’t snap like I was expecting him to, but his silence and
the tenseness in
his jaw really unnerved me.

“I, uh… I’m sorry if
that was totally uncalled for
,” I said quietly. “It just came about that way when Eduardo was trying to track down an address for you… I thought…”

Like a zombie he moved to the other side of the room, and I could feel myself wanting to cry again because I knew he was upset with me.

“I’m really sorry, Tyse
.
”

He turned around to face me. “Sorry? Are you kidding me, Ellie?
You’re
sorry?”

He shook his head and came toward me, and I was surprised when he took me in his arms and held me. I didn’t understand anything that was happening, but if he was holding me in his arms, he couldn’t be mad at me, right?

“You’re not mad at me?” I had to ask.

“Mad at you?” He pulled away to look at me. “No, I’m not mad at you
, sweetheart
. I’m, uh… Well, I don’t know what I am, actually. I’m worried. Yeah, I guess that’s what I am. Worried.”

“Worried about what?”

He exhaled and shook his head. “I just… I wish you hadn’t introduced yourself to my past, that’s all.”

I didn’t
speak
for a few seconds because I wasn’t sure
what
to say. Finally I said, “Well, I’m just going to get everything out
in the open
, okay?”

He only looked at me and didn’t respond.

“For one, I am completely and utterly shocked that you
r
family is filthy rich. That kind of blew me away. I pull up to the house of
Alistair
and Regina Morgan
,
and I find out they don’t really live in the ghetto.”

“What? On Solana Beach?”

“I don’t know what the hell that means! How am I supposed to know that you’ve only cut yourself off from your billionaire parents? Huh? What am I supposed to think when you’re barely getting along, paying for your own schooling, pulling odd jobs just to play baseball in a different state? What I gathered from your life is that you had
nothing
!”

“I do have nothing,” he retorted
. “I’m on my own, Ellie. I don’t rely on my parents for
anything
. I left the big house, the fancy cars, the brand name clothing, the
Harvard education, and the posh social gatherings… I don’t want to be a part of any of that. I want nothing to do with my parents or—”

“I believed that you grew up entirely different than that. I thought you grew up in poverty or something, or that you
r
dad beat you or… I don’t know,” I finished angrily. “I just feel deceived.”

“So because my dad is wealthy, growing
up
should have been easy? Is that what you’re saying?
Because I’ve never lied to you, Ellie.
I never said that I was raised on the streets, or that growing up was anything other than what I described. Why are you mad at me? I’m sorry that my mom was such a bitch to you. Trust me,
that’s
what I grew up with my entire life. I was practically raised by a
nanny
. My father wouldn’t even look at me. The only time he wanted anything to do with me was when my brother killed himself, and
my
dad wanted me to take his place in the business!”

The entire room was eerily silent. Tyse walked away from me and stood on the other side of the room with his back facing me. My heart was pounding
fiercely
in my chest, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do.

I saw him take a deep breath and rub his forehead with his hands. As I walked closer to him, he turned around to face me.

“I’m really sorry that you feel deceived, Ellie. I didn’t know how to answer your questions except for what it was
like
for me. I hate what I’ve come from, and I’m sorry that filthy rich doesn’t make the story better than climbing out of poverty—”

“Tyse—”

“No, let me finish before I lose my nerve. I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you, and I’m sorry if this changes how you feel about me. It’s kind of why I kept it under the rug. How different do you think those guys would have treated me if I’d pulled up to practice in
a
Ferrari
? Huh? I just wanted to start over, Ellie. I just wanted to be like everybody else, and get away from people that knew who I was. I left home, sold everything that was in my name, my parents disowned me, and I tried to start a different life. Unfortunately I ended up in prison, despite
everything
I tried to do
right
,” he laughed bitterly, “and I only became a big fat nothing because of it! W
hy does that happen to a person
? What kind of repayment is that? Does God just have this gigantic sense of humor, or is it his way of telling me that I’m just a huge screw up like everyone else tells me
I am
?”

He looked at me for a few seconds while the room was silent again. I don’t know what it was about that moment, but I felt like a complete nothing myself. Here was this man—my best friend standing in front of me, pouring out his entire soul—and all I could do was whine that he’d kept his previous social status from me? What the hell was wrong with me? No, I really didn’t care if he came from money or not—that was never an issue—and it really didn’t change who he was on the inside. I decided I was just more confused about him than I was before, and now that we had finally come to this point—the truth—I worried that things were going to change.

“See, you can’t even say anything,” he finally said.

“You’re not a scr
ew up, Tyse. But you are an idiot.
”