The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (39 page)

Susan surrendered utterly and completely. A little late, yes, but here my only Christmas wish was coming true.
Thank you, Santa! I’ll have cookies and milk ready for you next year!

As her thighs pressed against the sides of mine in eagerness, it reminded me of the little package in my pocket, and I broke the kiss. “Since it’s official now, we’re a couple,” I said with a smirk, slipping my hand into my right pocket and fishing out the present, “I guess it’s okay to give you this.”

Eyes on the little blue package in my hand, Susan’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “How did you—” The next instant, she lifted her chin with a knowing laugh and yelled, “
Sam!
”

“I’m sorry!” Samantha yelled through the closed door. And she probably wasn’t the only one who’d been holding her breath outside while I’d struggled to put the situation right with Sue. Heck, I should have known…

Laughing, I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “Guys, go away!”

“Okay!” another girl shouted from the other side of the door. “But don’t stay in there for too long. It’s almost midnight. We’re moving to the garden!”

On that cue, Susan glanced at the clock and asked me in a whisper, “Think we should go with them?” She probably didn’t want more of our private conversation to be carried out to the rest of the partygoers.

I intended to take her out to all our friends and wish her a happy New Year on the stroke of midnight. But I also wanted her to be wearing the bracelet at that time. “Open it first,” I urged her, putting the package into her hand.

Like a child on Christmas morning, Sue beamed at me and ripped the bow off the gift. Then she started picking at the Scotch tape from all sides, twisting the little box in her hand like it was a Rubik’s Cube.

I frowned at her busy fingers. She was making quite an effort to get into the package, but somehow the fricking little thing managed to stay sealed. “Heck, I’m starting to wonder if the reason you never opened it is actually because you simply couldn’t.” With a grin on her face and biting her lip, Susan cut me a glance. I grimaced sheepishly. “I did a darn good job with the wrapping, eh?”

“It certainly wouldn’t get ripped by accident,” she teased.

Maybe I should do it myself. We had, after all, only seven minutes left until midnight. I took the box from her, went behind the bar at the back of the room, and pulled a pocketknife from the top drawer where Hunter usually kept all the utensils to open bottles and corks and stuff. Making quick work of it, I sliced through the wrapping paper, then closed the knife, and put it back. A push of my hip, and the drawer shut.

Walking back to Susan, I took off the blue paper, crumbled it up in my hand, and tucked it into my pocket. Then I held the little box out to her with a broad grin. She opened it and pulled out the velvet bag, then shook her head. Yeah, a little jazzy, but hopefully the content was worth it. She tipped the bag upside down. The bracelet poured into her open palm.

Who could tell what she’d expected, but from the widening of her eyes and her gasp, certainly not this. With a finger, she stroked the tiny basketball.

“That’s a reminder of our first unofficial night out together,” I explained in a low voice, “when you tended to my bleeding wound and defended me in front of my mom.”

Her finger moved on to the strawberry.

“That’s a symbol for the most amazing kiss ever.”

Susan glanced up, and I smiled. As she examined the Super Mario next, I rolled my eyes and told her, “That one’s from Ethan. He wanted to add something to your present, too.”

Boy, she was so silent all this time, it made me uneasy. Did she like it or not? When Sue looked up again, there was a tiny grin on her lips, but she still said nothing. Suddenly she held the bracelet out to me. What the—? Was she giving it back? Knitting my brows, I took it from her and swallowed hard.

I stared at the bracelet, wondering if I should tuck it in my pocket or just toss it on the pool table. Then Susan’s forearm appeared next to my open palm. “Help me put it on?” she asked.

Ah, hell yeah! Sighing with relief, I sneaked a glance at her face and smirked before I fastened the silver chain around her wrist. She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you. It’s adorable.”

It took a fricking load off my mind as I fastened the thing around her wrist.

While Susan shook her hand, watching the delicate bracelet dangle from her wrist, I checked the time. It was just shy of midnight. The house had become silent in the past five minutes. The music was still on, but no chatter drifted through the door anymore.

“We better join them in the garden, or we’re going to miss the celebration,” Susan suggested. As she slid down from the pool table, I held out my hand. Without any hesitation, she put hers in mine. Her fingers were still cold as always, but it didn’t matter. I would warm them for her. Tonight. Tomorrow. And every day from now on, as long as she let me.

AS WE WALKED through the door out into the garden, everyone was counting down the last seconds to midnight. Susan became fidgety. She skipped in front of me, despite the high heels, and pulled me across the lawn. Dammit, girls really knew how to handle those heels, even on grass. Most of the crowd was gathered down by the gazebo. Susan, it seemed, wanted to be with her friends at the strike of twelve. I could understand that. I would have loved to be with Tyler, Becks, and Brady, too, but we were running out of time, and I would certainly not give up a New Year’s kiss to go searching for my friends.

As everyone yelled, “
One!
” and party poppers sounded from all sides, I dug my heels in the ground and made Sue stop, twisting her around to me. Falling against my chest, a breath escaped her. I caught her in a gentle embrace and touched my forehead to hers. “Happy New Year, sweetness.”

Her eyes fixed on mine, she bit her lip and grinned. “Back at you,
Dream Guy Material
.”

Oh, she’d finally come to terms with it. I kissed that bottom lip she was biting and then deepened the kiss. Somewhere close by, everyone started singing “Auld Lang Syne.” It wasn’t the best song in the world, and it was sung off-tune, but sometimes you had to take what you got. Slowly, we started swaying under the starry night, and I told her, “I think we should change that name on your phone again.”

She gave me an expectant look. “To what this time?”

Behind her, in the distance, a firework raced up to the sky and burst into a shower of gold and blue sparks. Susan winced at the sudden bang. Distracted from her question, she turned in my arms, leaned back against my chest and, together with the rest of the gang, we watched a series of colorful explosions. Even though the singing had long stopped, I kept swaying my girl, enjoying the nearness that she’d denied me for so many weeks.

Dream Guy Material
was all right, but the status had changed tonight. Sue should be reminded of that every time she got a message from me in the future, so I leaned down to the side of her face and whispered in her ear, “To
Boyfriend
.”

She made my favorite sound. The giggle probably meant my proposal was accepted.

Some twenty feet away, I caught a glimpse of my brother. As we locked gazes over the distance, he nodded and smiled, approving of the girl I held in my arms. Obviously, the evening was going quite well for him, too. Ted was in the group of guys around him. Although they both kept their hands safely tucked in their pockets, they were turned to each other in a way that left little room for speculation—for those who knew, anyway.

Sue tilted her head back to lean against my shoulder, pulling my attention back to her. “What did
you
save me as in your contacts?”

Why? Was it so unlikely I’d used her real name? Then again, I hadn’t, from the very beginning, and she obviously knew me too well. Instead of telling her that she was
the one
for me, I tugged my phone out of my pocket, found her on the contacts list, and showed her.

“Oh my God!” Bursting with laughter, she shook against my chest. “You can’t be serious!”

I planted a soft kiss beneath her ear and assured her, “Totally am.”

Tucking the phone away again, I made Sue turn back to me, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. “That wasn’t your name for me in the beginning, right?” she asked, her gleaming eyes turning skeptical.

“No.” I bit down a chuckle. “Not from the beginning.”

“So, what did you call me?”

Oh, there were many things I’d called her in my mind. Weird geek, nerd girl, Little Miss Sunshine, snappy kitten, Ponytail Sue, the love of my life… She wouldn’t hear any of them. Not tonight, anyway. I shook my head. “Not saying.”

“Come on, I want to—” She didn’t get to finish that demand, because a bunch of people rushed us then.

“Here they are!” Frederickson shouted, bringing the whole soccer gang with him.

Ryan handed me a champagne flute, and we bumped fists as he mouthed, “Good job.” I acknowledged it with a nod and grinned. Then he yelled, “Here’s to an epic New Year!”

Susan had gotten her own glass from Lisa. We all raised them to Hunter’s toast. Over his shoulder, I spotted T-Rex, Brady, and the others huddled in a group down by the garden swing. When Becky’s glance skated over to me, she smiled, slapped Tyler on the shoulder, and pointed in my direction. I toasted them with my glass before finally drinking with the others.

A minute later, Susan lifted to her tiptoes—if that was even possible in already high heels—and craned her neck. Since most of her friends were with us, it wasn’t hard to guess who she was looking for. Pointing to her left, where Ethan was still with his friends, I told her, “He’s over there.” Putting our glasses on one of the tables placed around the garden tonight, I laced our fingers and dragged Sue with me. “Let’s go wish him a happy New Year.”

Ethan gave me a fist-pound followed by a quick hug. As he released me, he shot Susan a glance and winked.

“So what’s the deal?” His gaze returned to me. “Can I hug your girlfriend without you going shark attack on me?”

“Nope.”

As I pulled Susan playfully against me, she smacked me on the chest and laughed. “Chris!”

There was no way to hold this kitten tight when she started to wiggle. With a chuckle, I let her go so she could wish Ethan happy New Year, too. Quickly.

Soon the crowd started to move back inside. As we followed, I asked Susan, “When do you have to be home?”

“One thirty.”

Oh. That was early. I didn’t want to let her go at all tonight, but getting in trouble with my new girlfriend’s mother on the first night of our brand new relationship wouldn’t be the best start either. “Okay, I can’t drive you home because I had a drink or two earlier, but if you like, I can walk you.”

“That’s not necessary,” she replied. “One of the guys can give me a ride.”

“But I want to.” I put on the sweetest pout I could manage, and it obviously worked.

Leaning into my side as I draped an arm around her, she gave me a small smile. “All right. But we have to leave soon. It’s two miles.”

I’d rather be alone with her anyway, so that was totally fine with me. We said goodbye to Hunter and the others. Tyler was nowhere in sight, but that was okay. He, Becky, and all the rest would get to know Susan soon enough.

It was good to get out of the house and leave the music and noise behind. A soft breeze wafted around us. It wasn’t too cold, but Sue’s dress exposed a lot of her skin, and she hadn’t worn a coat. Too bad I hadn’t brought a jacket that I could have loaned her. When I glanced at her, she didn’t look cold or uncomfortable, though.

With our fingers laced, we ambled through the streets to her house. Eventually relaxing after all the stress of the past few weeks, I happily swung our arms between us. The jingle of her new charm bracelet sounded so right in the night.

Some time along the way, she cleared her throat and then said in a low voice, “It’s weird, don’t you think?”

“What is?”

“This.” She held up our joined hands. “You and me, walking here, in the dead of the night…being together.”

You and me
. I liked the sound of it. “It isn’t weird at all.” Needing to be closer to her, I let her hand slip away and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. With those high heels on, she was taller than usual, but she still fit perfectly under my arm. I pressed a kiss to her temple.

“It’s not?” she murmured in the dark night.

“No.” Loving the way she felt and smelled and just everything about her, I pulled her a little tighter against me. “I think it’s perfect.”

Far too soon, we arrived at her house. Light glowed through the window in an upstairs room. Her mother was probably waiting for her to get home safely.

We stopped in the front yard, and Sue turned to me, expecting a goodnight kiss without hesitation. But I wasn’t ready to let her slip away and leave me just yet. What were a few more minutes? We had a lot to catch up on after such a long time apart.

I sat down on the low stone wall hedging the driveway, took her hand, and directed a pleading look up at her. “We could sit here, just for a little while.”

Susan grinned as she swayed her hips from side to side, pretending to be contemplating the idea. I tugged at her hand a bit harder. When I drawled the word “pleeeeeaaaase,” she rolled her eyes in a sweet manner and sat next to me.

Taking off her shoes, she put her feet up on the wall, too, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her cheek pillowed on her knees, a happy sigh escaped her as she watched me.

“See anything nice?” I teased her.

“Mm-hm. Very nice, in fact.”

“Want to tell me about it?”

“Yeah…nope.” A smile on her lips, she blinked innocently.

“Come on, don’t be shy.” I tickled her side, and she jerked away with a giggle.

“Nuh-uh.”

I tickled her again. Susan started laughing, and the sound warmed my stomach. She should never stop laughing when she was with me. With my other hand, I kept coaxing that sweet sound out of her until she choked out a hiccup and squealed away, sliding down from the wall into the grass behind. Following her, I grabbed her ankle, pulled her back and fell on top of her—not accidentally. I stared down into her eyes, which reflected a sky full of stars. Then I kissed her hard.

A small noise above us made Sue stiffen. She pushed at my chest and shot upright. The window on the upper floor opened. Her mom leaned outside, obviously scanning the drive and front yard but not seeing us in the darkness.

“I’m here, Mom,” Sue said, audibly straining to keep her voice straight and any giggles out of it.

“Honey, what are you doing outside?”

“Nothing. Chris is with me. We’re just…er…sitting here.”

“Just sitting here, huh?” I whispered with a smirk. She made a hushing gesture at me, but even in the dark I noticed her cheeks flush and her mouth curve up.

“Oh. Okay,” Mrs. Miller said then. “But don’t stay out there too long. You’ll catch a cold.” The curtains fell closed again, and her silhouette disappeared, but the window remained open.

I tried to keep my chuckle quiet as I said, “She doesn’t trust me.”

Susan snickered. “No one should. You don’t play fair.”

Oh, that was a low blow. Reaching out with one hand, I placed my knuckle under her chin and tilted her face toward me, planting a chaste kiss on the tip of her nose. “Are you saying that because you lost your heart to me, sweetness?”

“Hah! You wish! Think just because you give me nice presents you already have my heart?” The laugh lines around her mouth deepened, but she fought to keep a straight face.

“What? Are you saying you aren’t actually smitten?” I arched a mischievous brow. “You know, I have ways to make you fall for me.”

“Confident, are we?” Susan snickered then bit her bottom lip, batting her eyelashes. “You’d never stand a chance in a real challenge.”

I leaned in and bit that lip for her. “Game on, little Sue.”