The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (13 page)

“True,” Ethan confirmed. Immediately, I regretted mentioning his name. I didn’t want anyone inside this bubble with us right now. But it was too late. “You have to let me cook for you one day,” he told Sue.

“What? Was that an invitation for dinner next Saturday?” And of course, all of her attention was nailed back on my brother. Great. How would I ever win this challenge if she was distracted so easily?

“It certainly was. But I can’t do it alone. Chris has to help me.” Ethan shot me a look that surprised me. It wasn’t a simple request for support. On the contrary, I got the feeling he was trying to help me here. Almost as if he’d read my thoughts and wanted to make up for it.

But cooking for Sue? I grimaced. “No. I don’t like cooking for guests, Ethan. You know that.” I rummaged through the empty wrappings on my tray. There was nothing left. Still hungry, I sneaked a few fries from my mother’s plate, the only person at the table who still had some. Without a word, she held out the rest of her burger to me. Dammit, have I already said I love her? Regardless of the forthcoming house arrest, my mom was the best in the world.

“Oh, come on,” Ethan said then. “Why are you always playing down your talent?” I hated that he wouldn’t give it a rest when I’d already said no. But that didn’t stop him. “She’ll love it. You’re an excellent chef.”

And then he got backup. Sue turned her head to me and drawled the word “pleeease” with a cheesy smile.

God, but she was sweet. Still, my answer was no. Seducing a girl was one thing; breaking my rules for her was another. Not gonna happen. Chuckling and shaking my head, I shoved the last bit of burger in my mouth.

“Come on,” Sue whined, “don’t be a spoilsport. I promise I’ll eat up, even if it tastes terrible.”

What the heck?
How could she assume my food would be anything but awesome? I cast her a slow, provocative glance.
Remember the kiwi and cream, sweetness
? And if she was tired of kiwi, we could try something else. She’d love it—anything I served her, not just the food. “It won’t be terrible.”

Spellbound by my stare for a second, she took two deep breaths. Then she answered with a dry throat, “So you’re going to cook for me with your brother?”

With Ethan in the kitchen, too? What fun would that be? “Mmm…” I faked thinking about it real hard, pressing my lips together. “Nope.”

At her disappointed sigh, I thought the discussion was finally over. How stupid of me. Susan leveraged a sizzling hot look at me that begged me to throw her over my shoulder and carry her outside for some alone time in the car. Shit, was that look intentional?

Heck yeah, it was, because just when she had me catching my breath and struggling to control my testosterone, she dragged out, “You owe me.”

Oh, that vixen! If she hadn’t messed with my feelings so badly just then, it might have made me laugh. “I do, indeed.” I owed her for bringing Ethan to my game tonight. Only, was that enough to break my rules? On the other hand, having her in my house again would put me at an advantage. Funny things did happen sometimes. Kisses, for instance…

Wiping my fingers on a napkin, I leveled a smug look at her. “You’re lucky I’m grounded and don’t have anything better to do next Saturday.”

Susan’s mouth curved up. I was starting to fancy that smile of hers. It was infectious, and for the second time today, it managed to warm my gut. The only problem right now was that her happiness had more to do with being with Ethan than looking forward to spending time with me. It sucked ass.

“Ah, that’s lovely,” my mother joined in the conversation. “But you have to make sure to come early. Be there when they actually cook.” She reached out to touch Sue’s hand for emphasis. “Their meals are always delicious, but it’s even more of a delight to watch them in the kitchen together.”

What?
She wanted us to give Sue an exclusive show, too? Had we already adopted the girl? From the look in Mom’s eyes, she was certainly considering the option.

Hearing that, Susan leaned her head against the window on her left and gave my brother a dreamy look. “Is that so?”

With a flirtatious tilt of his eyebrows, he said, “Well, if my mom says so, it must be.”

Hey!
Could he stop doing that? He never showed any real interest in Sue, but the instant she seemed to warm up to me, he had to go stealing her back. Not fair! And with what intention, anyway? I doubted he was going to be passionately kissing her good night later like she was obviously dying for him to do. The most he would grant her was probably another invitation to play stupid Wii bowling tomorrow.

Shit, why did it bother me so much?

A daring theory began forming in my head. The theory was that our challenge was beginning to lose importance. If Susan let me kiss her now, I would probably enjoy it for a totally different reason. I would like it because I loved how her eyes gleamed whenever we bantered. It was actually starting to annoy me that she preferred Ethan over me.

“Are you finished, guys?” Mom interrupted my hazardous train of thought, and I shook it away.

I helped her clean up the wrappings and stuffed some into the empty French fries packs. Anything to keep me from watching Susan swoon over my possibly gay twin brother.

As my mother slid out of the booth and swung her handbag over her shoulder, I didn’t see it coming. But I bloody well felt it. Like someone head-butting me on the nose. Hard. Abysmal pain forced my eyes shut, but they teared anyway. I pressed my hands over my face, groaning. “Darn it, Mom!”

So that’s what it felt like to have your face broken twice over. I didn’t want to cry, I really didn’t. Not in front of Sue. But the pain almost had me on my knees.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry!” Mom came to my side, fussing like I was five and she’d accidentally trampled my Lego house.

Please, no touching. You’ve damaged enough.

But she ignored my silent prayers and kept caressing my head in an overload of motherly guilt. When I lowered my hands to tell her she should stop it and give me a minute to recover, I found my palms bloody. “Fuck!”

In the blink of an eye, I was up and on my way to the restrooms. There was already enough blood on my sweatshirt. No need to add more stains.

Shoving through the door as another man exited, I rushed to the sink, leaned over the basin, and turned on the water. Let’s do this one more time.

With cupped hands, I rinsed my face and splashed some cold water onto my neck. If one could believe Coach Swanson, then it was supposed to help. I did this for a couple of minutes and also rubbed my glassy eyes. Sometime during that, the door behind me opened. Not hard to guess who’d come in when no one walked toward the stalls in the back. A deep sigh also gave my brother away.

“Why did you really pick a fight with Will?” he asked me.

I was in no mood to talk. “Go away, Ethan. I’m bleeding.”

“You did this because of me, didn’t you?”

Why didn’t I just try talking a stone into jumping rope? I would have been about as successful with that as with trying to make my brother leave. A part of me wanted to growl at him:
Yes. Hell yes, I did it because of you!
But he didn’t need to feel bad about it. He didn’t need to feel bad about
anything
. My God, the only thing I wanted from him was a little trust and the truth.

Hands braced on the edge of the sink, I straightened and gazed into the mirror, letting the blood drip from my nose. Ethan was leaning against the wall next to the door, hands in his pockets. His gaze was sober, searching my eyes in the mirror. After a long moment, he said in a sad voice, “You know, you didn’t have to do this.”

I had no idea what it was, but something caused me to snap. I spun around and, tasting blood on my lips, hissed, “You’re wrong! I did have to. And I don’t regret it either. Will has been asking for an ass-kicking for a long time.” Only, it should have been Ethan standing up for himself. He couldn’t keep acting like there wasn’t something
different
and expect that I would have his back forever. He was hurting people, didn’t he see it? And not only Mom and me, but now Sue too. However hard it was, he needed to understand that. So, gripping the sink behind me for support, I added, “But you, on the other hand, shouldn’t have brought Susan home.”

Ethan lowered his chin and studied the tips of his shoes. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t play stupid, Ethan!” I wiped my nose and mouth with my sleeve. “You know what I mean.” Folding my arms over my chest, I cocked my head as he looked up at me. “What do you want to prove with her?”

Ethan pushed himself off the wall, walked two steps, and then slumped back against the door. His eyes moving up to study the ceiling now instead of his toes, he heaved a sigh. “I’m not trying to prove anything. I like her.”

Rrrrright.
Only there was a tiny difference between like and
like
. “The same way she likes you?”

His gaze found mine. Seconds ticked by before he answered, “Maybe?”

“And maybe not.” I gritted my teeth, because I hated where I was going next, but there was no return from here. “Sue seems like a nice girl. You’re going to hurt her if you don’t tell her the truth soon.”

Immediately, his eyes narrowed to slits, and his entire body stiffened in shock. The air in the room almost bristled. “You know what?” he spat then. “I don’t care about this shit. Come outside when you’ve stopped the nosebleed.”

Yeah, that was the reaction I had foreseen.

“Ethan,” I begged as he pulled the door open. Relief filled me when he did stop and look at me over his shoulder. “I’m your brother. I don’t
care
.” I tried to infuse all the truth and power possible into an honest look. “And neither does Mom.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, and his throat twitched as he swallowed. I was hoping he was going to relent. Come back and talk this out with me. But he didn’t. Instead, he turned around and walked away.

At this point, I was pretty sure I had ruined our relationship for good.

Slamming my fist against the wall in anger, pain seared through my already hurting knuckles. Fights sucked, physical ones as much as verbal ones.

When the bleeding eventually stopped, I washed my face one last time, wiped it dry on my sleeve, and headed out to the car. Everyone sat inside already, no one talking. The moment I opened the driver’s door, Mom shot me a worried look. “Is everything all right, sweetie?”

“Yep,” I answered curtly, starting the engine.

She reached out and placed her hand on my forearm. “I’m really sorry. What can I do to make up for it?”

Chancing my luck, I gave her a sideways glance with a wry grin. “You could undo the house arrest.”

She gaped at me for a long moment, eyes shiny and bright. Then the corners of her mouth moved up. “You wish.”

Yeah, it was worth a try.

I drove off, ignoring her snicker, but soon I dared a glance in the rearview mirror to check on the other passengers. As far as I could tell, Ethan’s entire interest was in the sidewalks and streetlamps we passed. Sue stared out her window, too, though every now and then she sneaked a peek at Ethan—and never one at me through the mirror.

I didn’t like the feeling accompanying me. I’d messed up things with my brother and the girl who was obviously into him. But what almost troubled me more was the fact that this girl had started to claim a permanent place in my thoughts.

Susan had said her curfew was twelve. Even though it was still far from midnight, asking her if she wanted to come back to our place would certainly be the worst idea of the evening. So I cleared my throat as we drove into Grover Beach again and said, “Sue?”

Her eyes jerked to the mirror to meet mine. “Hm?”

“Would you tell me how to get to your house?” At the last dinner she’d told my mom she lived on Rasmussen Avenue, but where the heck that was, I had no idea.

“Yeah, sure. Just drive toward school and take a left before the parking lot. It’s not far from there.”

I did as she told me, but whenever I glanced back in the mirror, her eyes were either glued to the dark outside or on Ethan. I didn’t like it. In truth, it had begun to annoy the hell out of me. How could one night—the one of my greatest victory—go so terribly wrong in such a short time? Sighing deeply, I took the left turn at school, then asked her, “Where next?”

“Follow this road for half a mile. I’ll tell you when to turn left again.” It turned out that the next was also the final turn. We’d reached Rasmussen, and a little ways up, there was her house. Yellow and neat, just like she’d described it. There were still lights on in two downstairs rooms, but no movement behind the curtains.

Coming to a halt right in front of her drive, I pressed my lips together and gave Sue a sheepish smile in the mirror.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, not holding my gaze for longer than necessary. As my mother turned to her, Sue said, “It was a very nice evening. Thank you for taking me.”

“You’re very welcome, dear.”

Then Sue stared at Ethan with a hopeful expression that he totally ignored. “Call me if you want to do something next week.”

Ethan nodded once. “Mm-hm.” From what I could see, he didn’t even look at her when she got out. What a douche.