Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (24 page)

And dreaming about being kissed by him again was nothing I could really control. The human mind is a bitch at night, nothing could be done about that. But one day, I was sure, even the dreams about him would stop…maybe when he went away for college.

Only, that was a long time coming, and running into him after school on that last day before winter break threatened to ruin all my hard-earned composure. It might not have been an accident after all that we met outside the building. He looked like he’d been waiting for me and wanted to talk.

“Don’t, Chris. Just don’t say anything,” I cut him off while he was still drawing in that breath for a lecture, a speech, another apology, or whatever.

That breath came back out on a deep sigh. “It’s been so long, Sue. I did everything you wanted. I stopped texting you, didn’t talk to you in the hallways. What else do you want me to do to convince you to give me another chance?”

“Why do you think I’ll ever do that? Chris, we’re done.” It came out in a steady voice, but looking at his blue eyes and how his throat twitched when I said it, the strength within me threatened to collapse any second.

He frowned, tilting his head just slightly. “Are you dating somebody?”

“No.” I folded my arms.

“Why not?”

What? “Because I’m not interested in anyone else.” Duh.

He started to smile a little.

Wait—
what
? Damn! How did that slip? “I didn’t mean it like that,” I growled.

His smile grew wider and more confident. “Are you sure?”

“Yes! Of course.” Or…was I? Gah, I’d been talking to him for only twenty seconds, and already there was a headache coming on—and yeah, maybe one or two tiny butterflies, too. Irritated, I rubbed my temples, lowering my gaze. “Can we stop this now? I want to go home.” When I looked up again, Chris hadn’t moved, but he was holding something out to me.

“What’s that?”

“Your Christmas present,” he said in a low voice, the smile wiped away from his face. “I was hoping this chat would go differently. Since it didn’t, I doubt you’ll let me see you for Christmas to put it under your tree myself.”

Nope, I most definitely wouldn’t agree to that. And I didn’t reach out to take the gift, either.

“Girl, you’re one stubborn little thing,” he snarled and took my hand to put the small box in blue wrapping paper into my palm. “Merry Christmas.” He blew out a ragged breath and walked away.

Maybe I should have thrown that little present after him and knocked him out with it, but I didn’t. My gaze focused on the little silver bow. Whatever was in this box, Chris had put a lot of effort into wrapping it up neatly, and I knew it’d been him and not a shop assistant or his mother, because there was so much transparent tape on it that one could hardly feel the wrapping paper anymore. It was such a boy thing to think about safety rather than elegance.

Still, I’d never gotten a prettier present—and where that thought came from eluded me.

I shoved the box into my schoolbag and walked home. It would not go under the Christmas tree. If anywhere, it might land in the trash.

But holding it above the trash can in my room, I couldn’t let go. Instead, I pulled out my phone, took a picture of the gift, and sent it to Sam with the caption:
Guess who from!

OMG! Wait. I’m there in ten minutes.
That was her answer, but why she wanted to come over she didn’t say.

Sam stormed through my door in even less than her announced time, gasping. “Did you open it?”

The gift? “No.” I frowned. “What’s wrong with you? Did you run all the way through town just to see the present?”

“No. I was still at school. Tony wouldn’t let me go after AVE, because we had to do this project and he wanted—ah, never mind.” She waved a hand. “Where is it?”

I pointed at my desk and sat down on my bed, giving her a moment to inspect it. When she looked up, her face was all smiles. “Damn, isn’t this the sweetest thing ever? He must have spent hours sealing it like this.”

“I bet it’s even waterproof,” I joked, but then I merely shrugged.

“Open it?” she prompted, slumping down next to me and holding out the little package.

I took it from her and twisted it a few times in my lap. It was the size of a ring box, but Chris certainly wouldn’t give me one of those.

When I kept staring holes into the package instead of tearing off the wrapping, Sam’s face went puppy-like with a disappointed look. “You don’t want to know what’s in there?”

I did want to know. In fact, it was killing me not having a clue, but I shrugged it off with forced nonchalance.

“Okay, it’s too early to open it anyway. Put it under the tree and open it with the rest of the presents on Christmas morning.”

“Yeah, as if.” Making a wry face, I stood and walked to my desk where I pulled the bottom drawer open. The perfect place was at the far back. That’s where this damn little thing would go.

“Aw. Really?” Sam pouted, bouncing on my bed. “I’m sure Chris got you something totally sweet…and lovely…and adorable. Something you would never want to put away again once you saw it.”

Maybe. Maybe not. “It’s probably just some crappy thing, like a stupid eraser or…whatever. I don’t care for any present from Chris.”

Her head cocked, she scrutinized me for a long moment. In the end, she curled her lips, waggling a finger at me. “You don’t fool me, Susan. All this time you try to smile, but you always have this sad frown on your face when you talk about Chris. You do want to be with him.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but nothing whatsoever came out. Heaving a sigh, I flopped backward onto my bed. “It doesn’t matter what I want, because I’m not going to get it. Chris isn’t the right one.”

“Then who is? Nick? He’d date you in a heartbeat, I swear. Or Ethan? Somehow I don’t see you two doing anything other than playing Wii. While Chris…” She swooned, lying beside me, and gazed dreamily at the ceiling. “Did you know that you get static electricity when he’s near you?”

I laughed out loud. “What?”

She tilted her head to me. “I swear. When we met him in the hallway the other day, and I touched you, you totally zapped me.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Coincidence.”

“Maybe.” She grinned. “But your eyes sparkle when you see him. Is that coincidence, too?”

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“Nothing.” She sat up with an innocent smile and rose from the mattress. “I have to go now. Tony’s waiting for me.” She was out the door before I could get up and corner her about whatever she’d alleged here. That monster. She knew exactly how she could make me think. But I refused to. The liar Chris Donovan had hurt me and wasn’t worth another thought. Period.

Scowling at the bottom drawer of my desk, an angry snort pushed out of my nose. I grabbed a book for distraction and banned the guy from my mind for the rest of the day.

*

December 24
th
was a bit of a jumble. I spent the afternoon with my dad in his apartment. He had a mini Christmas tree with a couple of presents underneath. One was for me. The other had a tag with ‘Sally’ on it.

“Would you take this home and give it your mom?” he asked me when he caught me spacing out at the sight of it.

I lifted my head to him. “Sure. But will you call her at least? She’s really depressed nowadays.” Okay, that was a fib. She’d been feeling down ever since the day he moved out, but I didn’t want to rat her out.

“Tonight. And tomorrow in the morning. I promise.” A smile appeared. Only he could look so happy when he heard about my mother’s depression. I knew exactly what it meant to him. It was the same reason Chris had seemed pleased to hear I’d left school after running into him with
Rebecca
. I rolled my eyes at that memory.

Rising from the floor and sitting down on the couch, I handed Dad my presents for him together with a kiss on his cheek. While he opened them, I started to unwrap what was mine. A planner in green leather and two tickets to the movies. “I thought you and I could go to a movie together during your winter break,” he offered.

“Of course. Thanks, Dad.” I flung my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek again. Then I let him get up and change his old key ring for the one I’d just given him. Next, he placed the picture frame with the seashells I got a while back on a shelf close to the TV. Three happy Millers smiled from the photo. It had taken several days for me to finally find one of the three of us that I thought could remind Dad that we could be a happy family again, if only everyone put a little effort into it. He stared at it for a long time, seemingly forgetting that he wasn’t alone. Absently, he stroked his thumb across the picture.

A smile pulled at the corners of my mouth when I saw that it wasn’t the whole picture he caressed, only the part with my mom in it. I wanted to go hug him and tell him that everything was going to be all right. With them—with us. One day, we would be a complete family again, I just knew it. But for now, I remained on the couch and gave my father a couple more minutes in his private little world.

Later, we drank a cup of eggnog and around five he drove me home to my mom. Since it was Christmas and he knew she was having the blues because of him, he wanted me to spend the evening with her. He’d planned to drive out to his parents near San Francisco and spend the next couple of days with them anyway. At least he wouldn’t be alone.

Mom and Gramps had set up a beautiful dinner table when I got home. The turkey Mom made was a great deal smaller than the usual one we had on the twenty-fourth, but we were also short one big eater tonight, so that was okay.

The three of us watched
A Christmas Carol
at Grandpa’s house after that delicious dinner and later just sat together around the coffee table with cookies and hot chocolate and talked about how nice it would be to have actual snow for Christmas. It was close to midnight when Mom and I went home. She locked the door, turned off the lights, and went upstairs to her room after a long hug that I’d desperately needed.

But before I went to sleep, too, I sneaked downstairs again to put the present for her from Dad under the tree. With no light to guide me, I knocked into the couch, which pushed a snort from my chest. Feeling my way over to the corner where the tree was, my toe caught on the coffee table. I bit down a moan and a curse, but when I nearly poked an eye out on a protruding twig of the Christmas tree, I decided no surprise was worth this torture.

Switching on the light, I set the package from Dad next to mine for Mom. We’d done a great job decorating the tree this year. It was a pity Dad couldn’t see it. Remembering the lousy excuse of a Christmas tree he’d gotten just because of me, I was glad he was spending the holidays with his family. Nana and Grandpa Seth always had the most beautifully decorated house on their street. Their tree would be big enough to house a clan of squirrels and probably a stork, too. Dad was going to be in a warm place…probably much warmer than it had been in this home for years.

I stroked one of the red baubles on a twig, catching the reflection of my nostalgic face in the shiny surface. A deep sigh escaped me. All the presents were here now. All but one. Chris’s gift for me still sat in the drawer of my desk. Should I go get it and put it with the other presents?

Say I did, what would that mean? That I forgave him? Because that certainly hadn’t happened. He’d done too many cruel things to get back on my good side so fast. Oh my
freak
, all the things I told him at the café…things about us. About him being my first kiss and how he gave me the romantic chills. This couldn’t be brushed off, not even with a Christmas present.

Dragging my feet along, I trudged back to my room, closed the door, and slumped with my back against it. My gaze on the bottom drawer, the tiny voice inside my head tried to bribe me into giving in to my curiosity and just opening that damn package. Sam had almost gotten me to open it the other day. She was one curious little monster.

I’d refused back then, but tonight was Christmas Eve. And this was a Christmas present. If I didn’t open it now, I might never. I stalked to my desk and pulled the drawer open. There it was, small and blue, and oh so sweetly wrapped up.

I swallowed. Chris had hurt me. More than once. The incident two days ago after school changed nothing. I’d been doing so well, I could go on distracting myself and finally I’d forget him. And all would be good. I just had to tell myself this often enough…

Slamming the damn drawer shut, I changed into my PJs and went to bed. As I turned off the lamp on my nightstand, a small blinking light on my phone made me aware that there was an unread text. It must have come in during the past ten minutes while I’d had a one-on-one with the Christmas tree, because the cell had been silent all evening.

A message so late at night? None of my friends would do that, and all of them had sent me texts earlier today, and some just called, or I rang them. It wasn’t unusual for Chris, however, to send me a text this late…but did I really hope it was from him?

The stutter of my heart said
yes
. The grumpy voice in my head shouted
no
. The sudden tremble of my fingers said,
you can’t handle a text from him right now
. And the small, red-skinned devil on my left shoulder said,
you’ll never find out if you don’t read it, stupid
.