Chapter 16
TYLER
After sufferingthrough the longest five hours of my life and not seeing a single goddamn whale because I was tending to Lucy, the boat returns to the harbor and I half carry her, limp as a wet noodle, to my car. Some nice lady on the boat gave her a Dramamine, and while I’m not sure how that stuff works, at least she’s partly in sleep-land and didn’t barf once on the way back.
We get to her place and I have to hoist her up the stairs to her apartment and straight to bed. I take off her hat and coat, boots, and blue jeans, and figure she can get under the covers with the rest of her clothes on.
I look in her refrigerator and help myself to a glass of orange juice, then write a quick note and let myself out.
First, I fall asleep at our symphony date, then she gets sick as a dog on our whale watching tour. Is this some kind of sign? Should I not be pursuing this woman?
Is this how things go when you are deceiving someone, having bet on how long they will date you?
Hell, maybe I don’t deserve a nice woman like Lucy. Maybe I should stick with the puck bunnies who follow us players around like we’re gods or something, who like us for our money and status and not much more.
Or, maybe I should quit belly-aching, and keep trying.
Finally home, I shower the salt air and water off myself. My mortification on behalf of Lucy, at how she not only barfed her guts out all day but also had to do it in view of thirty-plus people, haunts me.
I throw my clothes in the wash because they are sticky from the ocean spray and find my cell phone just before I wash the damn thing. Because I was out of range all day, and occupied with taking care of Lucy, I hadn’t paid any attention to it.
I missed a bunch of calls from my father.
“Hey, Dad? What’s up?” I ask when he answers on the first ring.
He chokes. “It’s your sister, Tyler. She’s in the hospital.”
Now it’s my turn to get sick.