Summer Swing by Delia Delaney Read Free Book Online Page B

two are a little different in that aspect?”
    “Are you saying I expect a lot?”
    “No,” he chuckled. “I’m just saying things affect people differently. Like the difference between you and Dawn is that Dawn is just a happy, giggl y, friendly person. Everything with her is on the outside. You’re more reserved. You tend to absorb things first, feel them and kind of put more meaning to them. You’re a little more analytical. You like to understand things better before you just accept them as they appear .”
    “There’s another word for that, but you’re just being polite.”
    He smiled. “I don’t think you’re always distrustful, but you’re pretty cautious when you need to be. You’re just careful when it comes to dealing with other people. I could assume it’s because you’ve been burned before, but I haven’t known you long enough to make that conclusion.”
    “Well, I just—”
    “You guys ready to eat?” Dawn asked, appearing in the doorway.
    “Uh, sure,” I answered. “But aren’t you waiting for more people?”
    “They’re already here,” she said with a questioning look. “You two been, uh, too wrapped up in other things to notice?” she smiled. Without waiting for my reply she added, “We’re waitin ’ for ya ,” and headed down the hall.
    “Since we’re not going out, I’m going to change my clothes,” I said to Gage. “You guys can start without me.”
    “Okay,” he replied, kissing me before he stood.
    When he left, I grabbed the bag I ha d with me and quickly changed. I wasn’t surprised when I stepped into the kitchen/family room area and found everyone watching a baseball game on ESPN. The first thing that popped into my head was that Wyatt had subtly mentioned some game he might want to watch that night, and it was all it took for Dawn to say, “Oh okay, let’s do that; I can make you dinner if you want.” And then Wyatt probably mentioned something about Mike and Sean watching the same game and Dawn said, “Oh, just invite them over; I can make dinner for everyone.”
    I sighed to myself. I didn’t like being so pessimistic about my sister’s relationship with her boyfriend, but I couldn’t help it. And Wyatt had always been pretty pleasant toward me, so it wasn’t like he was a major jackass or anything. I decided I should probably be fair and stop being so critical about their relationship.
    Gage handed me a plate of food that he’d prepared for me and said, “I’ll eat what you can’t.”
    I thought it was very thoughtful of him to serve me food, but with a smile I said, “Sure, and you’re just betting that I can’t eat four enchiladas, aren’t you ?”
    “Surely am,” he grinned.
    “Well I gift you two of them already,” I replied, putting my arm around him to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. But it was purely a savage instinct. Those guys wouldn’t have left you an olive.”
    He motioned to Wyatt and his friends with a nod of his head. All three of them were positioned on the couch next to each other, facing the TV. Dawn was sitting at the table by herself, so I decided to sit across from her, and Gage sat next to me.
    “This looks really good, Dawn.”
    “Oh , thank you,” she smiled. “Thanks for showing me how to make it. Oh, and I want to try a lasagna next. I think Wyatt would really like that. Can we try that sometime?”
    “Yeah, sure. Hey, m aybe on Sunday. Gage is coming over if you want to invite Wyatt.”
    “Um, probably not,” she replied. “I’m sure he’s got something else going on since it’s his day off.”
    No, he just didn’t like spending time with “the parents , ” I wanted to say. Dawn knew that too, which is why my family usually only saw Dawn when she was without Wyatt . But I kept my thoughts to myself and enjoyed the evening with Gage and my sister. We ended up joining the others in the family room to watch the Braves battle the Cardinals .
    I hardly ever cared where I was