The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (20 page)

I like flawless. :P

Of course she would, that witch. Never missing a chance to make a jibe at me. I laughed and replied:
I like ponytails.

Almost immediately, my phone chimed with a new message.
I like charming Chris.

Whoa! Was she serious? I wouldn’t have thought she’d tell me something this nice
intentionally
. The “you smell good” thing last Saturday was amazing, but certainly a mere slip of the tongue. While this— Dammit, my heart started knocking a little harder against my rib cage.

I like kissing your neck. You taste like coconut cream.
And hell, I still had that awesome smell etched in my memory after our friendly wrestling match in the grass.

Body butter. I’ll get you some if you like it so much. :P It’s late. Have to go to sleep now, or
I
’ll be grumpy in the morning.

Yeah, yeah… Lame excuse. The chat was getting hot, and she felt it. That was the reason for her backing out, and nothing else. No matter. She could have her way tonight, because with the past few texts she’d given me enough to make me go to sleep with a broad smile on my lips. There was only one thing left to say:
Sleep tight, sweetness.

As if she was scared too much would change, she didn’t reply to that text. I didn’t mind, hadn’t reckoned on it anyway. Turning off the light after ten minutes, and with the silly grin still pasted on my face like someone had duct-taped it there, I closed my eyes.

FOR THE REST of the week, Sue seemed to avoid me like I had some deadly disease. How else could it be that I didn’t meet her once in the hallway even though I hung out much longer than usual in places I knew she would be? It was only at lunch that I got a glimpse of her. Once or twice, she sneaked a peek across the cafeteria in my direction, but that was about it.

At least things seemed to be back to normal at her house. That’s what she told me in a text on Thursday night when I asked whether she was still sleeping on her grandpa’s couch. I knew firsthand how bad it was when parents kept up an endless fight.

Fourth period on Friday, we had the dreaded Spanish test. Having received the cold shoulder from Lauren over the past couple of days, it was no surprise she didn’t wish me luck.

The test was easy enough. An essay about a vacation in Spain. Ask for directions, order some food, call an ambulance at some point, and go souvenir shopping. I could say all of these things in Spanish. The only problem was that at every translation, I involuntarily remembered which part of Lauren's body I’d gotten to explore when I’d gotten the answer right. At the ambulance part of the essay, I banged my forehead on the desk, biting the inside of my cheek, because I really didn’t want to go there right now.

Lauren cut me a sideways glance. No doubt she thought I was failing the test. Narrowing my eyes at her, I cursed her silently for being such a
practical
tutor.

By the end of the test, I was feeling a little too warm inside my clothes.

In no mood to explain myself to Lauren about the head-banging, I rushed out of class when the bell rang and headed for the cafeteria. My lunch today consisted of a bottle of ice water, which I chugged down in big gulps.

Seeing Susan across the room ruined the soothing effect of the cold water. Instantly, my mind took a beeline back to
practical studying
, and I wondered what little Sue could teach me—or what I could teach her. Deciding not to gawk at her all through lunch, I made a serious effort to distract myself by joking around with my friends at the table. The rest of the school day went by quiet and fast.

Sue hadn’t come to see my brother the past two days. Stuck in detention in a boring house, my hopes rose when Ethan slipped on a fresh shirt later in the afternoon and styled his hair.

“Is Susan coming over?” I asked, leaning in the doorway to the bathroom, watching him in the mirror.

“Nope. Meeting her at Charlie’s,” he told me as if this wasn’t a big issue. Hell, he should’ve known how desperately I wanted to see her again. They both should’ve. Did they actually find this funny? Torturing Chris Donovan for entertainment on a Friday afternoon?

Clamping my jaw shut, I turned on the spot and retreated to my room. Might as well do my homework early and not save it until the last minute before school on Monday.

Ethan came home from his date with my girl before dinner. It didn’t appear that anything exciting had happened between the two of them, and it better not have. But the way my brother remained seated at the dinner table after Mom left the room and bit his lips made me a little uncomfortable. Something was on his mind that he didn’t want to tell me—but he would.

“What’s up?” I grumbled, taking our glasses and carrying them over to the sink.

Ethan’s sigh drifted to me.
Uh-oh.
I turned around and leaned against the kitchen counter, gripping the edge hard. “Spit it out already.”

Ethan cleared his throat, his eyes on the unlit candle in the middle of the table. Slowly, his gaze slid to me. “Susan canceled.”

“Today?” I asked, confused.

“No, for tomorrow.”

My jaw dropped, my eyes growing wide. “She did what?”

“She doesn’t want to come for dinner tomorrow.”

A surge of disappointment rushed through me so fast, it felt like the ground beneath my feet had slipped away. “But why?”

Blowing out a long breath, Ethan leaned back in his chair and tipped his head on the backrest to stare at the ceiling for a long moment. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on between the two of you right now”—his eyes rolled in my direction—“but I would guess she’s feeling a little apprehensive about what you want from her.”

I frowned at him. “And will not seeing me help with that?”

“Hey, don’t blame me.” He straightened. “She’s the one who took a rain check. I would have loved to cook for her tomorrow.”

And so would I.

Growling, I pushed myself away from the counter and strode to my room. Under a pile of freshly laundered clothes that Mom must have brought in after dinner, I finally found my phone and sent little Sue a text. It was only one word, and it said it all.

Please.

She didn’t reply. By quarter to eight, I wanted to throw myself on the bed and sulk like a five-year-old. In fact, I did throw myself on the bed, but I switched on the TV, too, and watched more reruns of the
Big Bang
nerds. What else was there to do on a Friday night when you’re grounded?

After twenty minutes of trying to follow the conversation of the four oddballs, I’d reached the point where I aggressively wanted to smack the Jewish guy with the turtleneck, slap the Indian upside his head every time he went mute on a woman, and knock
myself
out when the one with the glasses slept with his girl with a flipping t-shirt on. At least the mantis-like guy named Sheldon was funny. He was the only reason I watched the episode until the end.

On the nightstand, my phone dinged. A text.
Finally!

Please what?
Sue replied. Oh my God, I waited twenty minutes for that? What the hell?

I punched in more information.
Please come tomorrow.

Five unbearably long minutes went by, and my cell remained silent. That was enough. My blood still boiled from the bomb Ethan had dropped on me earlier, but Sue giving me the silent treatment now? No freaking way! I found her name in my contacts and called her.

She didn’t answer. “Ah, dammit!” I growled, almost crushing the cell in my hand. I hung up and typed another message for her.
Pick up the phone!
Then I called again.

At long last, she answered with a raspy, “Hey.”

Feeling at the end of my patience, I came straight to the point. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” she replied, innocent as a delicate butterfly.

“Yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. “And my brother moved into the Playboy Mansion.”

That coaxed a chuckle from her. It felt good to actually hear the tension drop out of her. “Come on, Sue,” I prompted. “What’s the problem?” We were getting closer to each other, was that such a bad thing in her book? “Why don’t you want to come over tomorrow? And don’t think I didn’t notice that you haven’t been at my house most of this week.”

“Things have been a little stressful with my family these past few days,” she explained.

“Oh…” I knew that was true to some extent from texting with her, but I also knew it was just another lame excuse for not wanting to see me. She wouldn’t get away with it. “I’m sorry about that, but it’s even more reason for you to come tomorrow.”

“Is it? How so?” Her tone was a challenge.

“Because it’ll take your mind off the trouble at home for a while.” There! She couldn’t worm out of it now. Obviously, she realized that, because nothing but silence pressed against my ear. “Come on, Sue. Let me cook for you,” I pleaded. “It’ll be fun and it’ll taste good.”

A moment passed in which Sue kept me waiting. Eventually, her deep sigh traveled through the line. “All right. Tell Ethan he can pick me up at two.” Right after surrendering, however, she warned me in a snappy tone, “But you better not put any peaches in that meal.”

Goodness, I wouldn’t. Staring at the ceiling, I laughed at her stubborn determination to keep a distance between us.

“Goodbye,” she said quickly.

“Bye, little Sue,” I replied, but she didn’t hear it because she’d already hung up on me.

*

I woke up late on Saturday morning. Too late. There were a lot of things on my to-do list, and if I wanted them done, I’d better get out of bed this instant. Well, a moment’s delay was all right. Yawning widely, I sat up and shot Sue a text.
Please don’t change your mind!

This was all that had been on my mind the entire night. She couldn’t cancel again.

When no reply rolled in, I put the cell away, got out of bed, and slipped into my sweats and a tee. Ethan was up already and sat at the kitchen table, hunched over a shopping list. “What do you need for your cake?” he asked while I poured a cup of coffee and slumped down in the chair next to him.

“Let me think…” Another yawn, and I stretched my spine to loosen up. “Flour, eggs, sugar, and some butter for the cake, but I think we have enough of that stuff here. For the topping, I’ll need some fruit. Whatever you like on yours, and then strawberries and grapes for Mom and me. Sue said kiwi, so I need three of those as well.”

Ethan wrote everything down in his neat handwriting, which I couldn’t pull off for the life of me. “And for the cream you need what?” he mumbled, still scribbling things on his list. “Yogurt and…”

“Mascarpone, some whipped cream, vanilla sugar, and an organic lemon.” I’d made this cake before. Several times, actually, because it was Mom’s favorite. It only remained to be seen how Sue liked it. “Oh, and bring me some bitter chocolate, too.”

“Got it.” Ethan looked up. “You know it’s impressive how you persuaded her to come after all.”

Yeah, the charming side of me must have taken over again last night. Grinning, I shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Rrright.” Ethan cast me a smirk, then tapped the end of his pencil on the shopping list. “Anything else?”

“Nope, that’s all.” I glanced at the paper in front of him. Two pages were filled with ingredients for today’s special dinner. “Can you run to the store
now
? I’d like to start on the cake early.”

“I’d been planning on it, anyway. The meat needs to soak in the herb marinade a few hours.”

Yep, Ethan was the steak expert, while I was all about desserts. We did make a great team in the kitchen. At one point, we’d even thought about opening our own restaurant when we were older. But with a basketball scholarship practically under the belt, I dreamed of going pro. There wouldn’t be much time for cooking if that happened.

After Ethan left, I glanced at my phone. No reply from Sue yet. She hadn’t called Ethan to take a rain check, but with her silence this morning, one could never know. I decided to send her the same message again, just to be sure.
Please don’t change your mind!
I would send it so many times it was bound to coax an answer from her.

It turned out my lucky number was seven, because she replied then,
Calm down, tiger. I’m coming, I’m coming…
The cake was already baking in the oven by then.

When we were done in the kitchen, Ethan changed to go pick up Sue, and I went to take a shower. I hadn’t yet stripped down when a knock sounded on the bathroom door and Mom called out, “Chris! I got a call from a client. Have to go.”

“What about dinner?” I asked, peeling off my socks.

“I won’t make it, sorry. But you guys have fun.”

“Okay. Bye.”

I showered quickly, toweled off, and slipped on a white tee with my favorite dark gray shirt on top. Leaving the buttons open, I worked some gel into my hair and made it stand in all directions like a forgotten stack of straw.

Through the closed door, I heard my brother return with Sue and Mom telling Ethan that she was off now. One last spray of Axe on my chest, and I was out of the bathroom, dying to see Little Miss Sunshine. And not only did I see her, she knocked right into me when I walked through the door.

Quickly, I cupped her elbow, steadying her. A smile pulled up the edges of my mouth. The light green t-shirt she was wearing highlighted her beautiful eyes. And dammit, her hair was in a ponytail. “Hey now, look who found the way to our house again,” I teased her in welcome.

Sue looked up at my face, her gaze warm and happy. She didn’t pull her arm out of my grip but smiled back at me. “Look who’s dressed up for cooking.”

“It’s how I dress up for a date, actually.”

Her smile grew even wider. “Well, then you dress up nicely.”

A compliment again. And an intentional one this time? It must have been, because she didn’t look away. My gaze, on the other hand, dropped to her tight t-shirt, which enhanced her petite figure perfectly. “Right back at you.” Sadly, all evidence of my hickey on her neck was gone already. “I see there’s no need for a turtleneck any longer.”

At that innuendo, Sue’s focus zeroed in on my black eye, which wasn’t black or blue any longer, but only a shadow of yellow with a bit of violet. It would be gone completely in another couple of days, but for now it held Susan’s interest. Her hand twitched, as if she wanted to reach up and touch it, but she held back. Would she like it if I took her hand and placed it on the spot for her? I was still holding her arm, and she didn’t complain. Our gazes locked for an infinite moment, thoughts of leaning in and brushing a kiss on her mouth invaded me. I swallowed.