Summer Swing (43 page)

I hung up before he could respond, and then I really did pour myself a bath. I was glad that Kailey was gone for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I had the house to myself. I wasn’t sure if Dawn would be coming
home
that night or not, but I assumed she was going to stay at my parents’ house
instead
.

My cell phone rang just as I got into the tub. I don’t know why I always bring it into the bathroom with me, especially when I’m trying to relax, but there it was, ringing with a phone call from Tyse. I almost didn’t answer it because the fight with my family was still fresh
,
and I didn’t want Tyse to know about it
. But I decided the need to talk to him far outweighed how awful the day had ended.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered cheerfully.

“
Hm
, I think you’ve got some explaining to do,” he replied.

My heart raced. “Uh, what?”

“I got something mail
ed to me at the shop
today.”

I had to laugh out loud. “Oh, yeah? Was it anything cool?”

“Yeah, super cool.”

“Was it all intact? No eyeballs fell off, or no molting feathers?”

“Nope, it looks pretty nifty.”

“Awesome. So what do I have to explain?”

“What motivates you to turn a pine cone into a turkey?”

“Well,
a group of awesome kids at
Doernbecher
Children’s Hospital, actually. I happened to arrive for craft hour, and decided to make you a turkey.”

“Aw, that’s really cool, Ellie. You’re amazing.”

“My artistic skills? Thanks.”

“No,” he chuckled. “Your big heart. But you’re pretty crafty too, because this is the coolest turkey I’ve ever seen.”

“Maybe it can be your mascot for the turkey bowl in the morning.”

He laughed again. “Yeah, maybe so.”

“You’re still playing, right?”

“Yep. Drew teams tonight, so now I don’t have to worry about being pummeled by Nate since he’s on my same team.”

“Hmm, yeah that would give me nightmares too. Wait, I have been hit by Nate.”

“Oh, that was ages ago. Can’t you forgive and forget?”

“I can forgive. But a woman never forgets.”

“Yeah, I think they teach us that in kindergarten.”

I laughed. “That’s right. But I don’t
even
know why. It doesn’t get through to you guys until you’re, like, fifty, right?”

“Exactly,” he chuckled. There was a pause and then he asked, “Are you in the bathroom?”

“What?” I said automatically. “Uh…”

“I can hear the echo.”

“Oh.”

“You wanna finish your business and call me back?”

I laughed. “I’m not
going
to the bathroom.”

“Oh.” There was silence again and then, “
Oh
.”

“Yep, sorry but I just got in here when you called.”

“Why do you take your phone in
while you’re taking a bath?”

“Just wa
iting for a call from
one of
my VI
P
’s.
”

“And?”

“And I’m talking to my number one.”

“Ah-ha. Who’s your number two?”

I paused because I didn’t know if I should make a joke or just be honest. “Probably Dawn,” I admitted.

“You put me above your sister? I’m flattered. Wait, Dawn must be majorly hormonal today, right?”

“Totally. But hey, a win is a win, right? Who cares how you earned the number one spot.”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but I like to win because I did better than the other person, not because they made a mistake.”

“Hmm, I see your point. It feels better that way.”

“Yep. So what’s going on with Dawn? Is she doing okay? How is she feeling lately with her pregnancy?”

It almost hurt to hear Tyse be so concerned about my sister—my sister that had just ripped him apart only
two
hours ago.

“Um, she’s doing okay. She’s really cranky about everything, and pretty much a rollercoaster of emotions. You should have seen her in the grocery store. I almost had to hold her back from eating all the cheese samples. The sample lady
looked
pretty
frightened
.”

He laughed. “I guess she probably doesn’t show much since she’s, what, three months?
People can’t automatically give her a f
ree pass if they can’t tell she’s pregnant.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, at least you were there to tame her if needed.”

“I don’t know;
she’s hard to tame lately.”

“Just tell her she’s having a girl and all will be well.”

“A girl, huh? Just to shut her up, or because you really think that?”

“Both.”

“Expound.”

“Don’t women crave dairy when it’s a girl?”

I chuckled. “You reading up on your issues of
Motherhood
?”

“Nah, I just heard that somewhere. Or maybe if you want a girl you eat a lot of dairy… I don’t know. Either way I think she’s having a girl.”

“Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know;
it just seems that way.”

For some reason we spent a few minutes talking about weird pregnancy things, and I had to laugh when he told me Nate thinks pregnant women are hot.

“Do I want to ask why?”

“I don’t know, do you dare?”

“Hmmm.”

“Actually Nate just thinks a woman that’s carrying a baby
is pretty sexy. You know, life within a life? Something
like
that.”

“Well,
maybe he should just get
a tattoo of a pregnant woman. Then he’d have sexy right on him.”

Tyse laughed. “I’ll have to tell him you said that. No, maybe I won’t because he’ll do it. All his tattoos have some sort of strange meaning to them. Well not all of them are strange, but some are pretty unique.”

“And what about yours? Do yours have significance?”

He pau
sed for a few seconds before he replied,
“Yeah, of co
urse they do
.
”

I thought I was going to have to pry, and he would probably refuse to tell me, but he volunteered the information on his own.

“Uh, the one on my shoulder? –The tribal one? That, uh, represents
a man’s peace with himself… You know,
accepting
yourself and your life as it comes to you. Uh…the one around my other arm… I guess it’s easier to explain if you were looking at it, but…”

“I remember
it. It circles your arm and has
kind of…
a pattern to it? The line dips, and then it comes up and wavers a little, and then it really peaks, and then it comes down and wavers again, and then it dips… And it repeats, right? All the way around?”

He softly chuckled. “Yeah. You’ve studied my body more than I thought.”

I kind of snorted, but I could feel my face turn red. Maybe I’d just been in the bath too long.
“Well yes, I guess so,” I tried to reply casually. “So what do the ups and downs mean? The tattoo.”

“Where the line dips—
”

“The lows in life?”

“No, actually the opposite
. The dip is like a safety
net
;
a protective valley that k
eeps you secure and comfortable. It’s the moments in your life that make sense; the moments that you’re with the right people, mak
ing choices you feel good about—a cozy hammock where you can relax and feel content with who you are and the way your life is going.

“Then comes the things you have no control over
—the line that’s wavy with the gener
al ups and downs of life. Then y
ou come across the big challenges in life—the jagged mountain that’s the toughest to get over. And…so life repeats itself, I guess. You come back down to the safe valley after
you’ve been
refine
d by the fires of tribulation
. But that peace and contentment can only last for so long because you know the waves of the world and the jagged mountain are coming soon enough.
Still…you push along because you know you should.
”

I was totally speechless. I had no idea a patterned line held so much meaning to it.

“Wow, i
nteresting. But your tattoo isn’t just the lifeline, right? You’ve got a straight line that runs above it and below it.”

“Well there’s a straight line on the top. Smooth and clean
, easy sailing—y
our ultimate goal. No
surprises,
just complete
perfection
.”

“Heaven?”

“Sure.”

“And the bottom line? I guess it was a thicker line, right?”

“Mm, it’s thicker, and it also has dips, but those aren’t the dips you want to be stuck in.”

“Ah, I see.
Black pits of despair.
Or hell, whatever you wanna call it.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. Pits of despair, hell, it’s all the same. Purgatory.”

“Yikes. I think I’d rather be on the jagged mountain.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“It puts life into perspective that way. I really like that. I can’t wait to see it in person again.”

“Hmm, well I guess Christmas, right?”

“Uh, yep. Did you book your flight yet?”

“No, not yet,” he laughed. “We just talked about it this morning, remember?”

“Are you having second thoughts? Because if you really don’t want to come—”

“There you go again, giving me an easy out.”

I sighed. “I know. I just
want
you to want to come. I don’t want you to do it if you’d rather not.”

“I’d rather
see
you. It doesn’t matter how or where. But I did have one question…”

“Yeah?”

“Well, where would you want me to stay?”

I paused for a few seconds. “Uh, I just thought you could stay with me.
Unless you’d rather not.
I mean you could always stay with Wyatt again,” I
smiled
. “Uh, he kind of lost his roommate.”

“That’s really not funny, Ellie,” he replied, but I could tell his tone was light.

“I know. But I just thought you’d stay with me.”

“With your sister and your other roommate there? Are you sure there’s room for me?”

“Kailey will be in Hawaii with her family, so it would just be Dawn…” I guess I would have to think about that one. I assumed Dawn would probably end up at my parents’ house, refusing to stay in a house with an ex-con again. That would mean I’d be rooming with Tyse all by myself…

“Well
whatever works for you, I guess,” he said.
“
I just don’t want to impose.”

“You won’t be
. It’s going to be so much fun. You can even make pies with me.”

“Super.”

We talked about the holidays for a bit, from some of the crazy things that happened at my family gatherings to my snowboarding addiction. I was happy when he said he wanted to snowboard with me.

“You think you can survive the mountain with me, huh?” I teased.

“Yeah, I wanna survive the mountains with you, Ellie.”

Again my face felt flushed, but maybe I read into the comment wrong…

“So aren’t you going snowboarding this weekend?” he asked.

“
Uh, yeah
. Friday to Sunday.”

“Cool. Who goes with you?”

“Uh, I go with some friends from high school. I stay at their cabin up on Mt. Hood.”

“Hmm, sounds fun.”

“We can do that when you come for Christmas, too.”

“Whatever you want. I’m just along for the ride.”

“Ha. Don’t tell me that because I’ll drag you all over the place.”

“That’s fine. I’ve got the easy job when you come here. All I have
to do is sit on a beach
.”

With a laugh I replied, “Yes, and I’m looking forward to that.”

“Me too. Especially because
California is
too cold
for me
right now. I missed most of the warm summer days.”

“Aw, poor b
aby. Wasted your summer in the N
orthwest.”

“Definitely not a waste, but it made my life a little more complicated.”