Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5)

by Katmore, Anna

  We filed in one after the other, me being the last to walk through the door. Just as it slid closed behind me, I heard the first traitorous gasp from Simone. Another followed instantly from Sam and Lisa. Sam was small enough that I could look over her head, but it took Simone, who was as tall as me, stepping aside for me to catch a glimpse of the person who had stunned them into silence.

  Ethan sat at the bar.

  My heart pounded like a bass drum—not from excitement to see him, but from anger. He turned around, maybe because he’d been waiting for someone and heard us enter, or because my friends’ loud gasps drew his attention. Whatever it was, when he saw me, he cracked a goddamn smile.

  I gritted my teeth and just followed the others past him. Strangely enough, Ethan seemed to be expecting me to stop by him, so when I didn’t, his smile vanished and a confused frown took its place.

  “Hey, Susan,” he said in a wary voice from behind me.

  Now look who remembered my name when his friends weren’t with him.

  Simone stopped walking and cast me a quick glance full of questions over her shoulder, but I shook my head, so she went to the low, rectangular table in the back. I, on the other hand, turned around and folded my arms over my chest. “What?” I snapped.

  He peered at me, tongue-tied, for a couple of seconds. His brows furrowed even more as he slid from the bar stool to stand before me. “Um, I thought we had a date at three?”

  “Excuse me?”

  At my harsh tone, the guy behind the bar, who Ethan had been talking to when we’d come in, cast a surprised glance at me. He was a pretty boy with dark hair and even darker eyebrows. His name was Ted, and I knew him from my journalism class.

  Ignoring Ted, I concentrated on Ethan as he murmured, “I’ve been sitting here the past hour, waiting for you to show up, and now you come with your friends and don’t even say hi?”

  “Whoa, dude, you’ve got some nerve. Maybe you should’ve been thinking about that before you dumped all that shit on me.” I paused and put on a sugary smile. “Have a good day, Ethan.” Spinning on my heel, I stomped off to my friends.

  Man, payback felt so good.

  By the time I sank into one of the dark rattan chairs and picked up the menu just to have something to hold on to, Ethan had disappeared from the café and the door slowly drifted closed on its own.

  “What did he say to you?” Sam hissed, shoving the menu down so it was no longer hiding my face.

  “That he was waiting for me.”

  “He did? That’s weird.”

  I grimaced. “It is, isn’t it?”

  Ted came over to take our orders and hushed us into silence. Only when we were alone once more did Lisa demand, “So, what are you going to do?”

  “Nothing. He’s a moron, obviously with multiple personalities, and I don’t have to stand for that.”

  She let out a thoughtful sigh. “I just don’t get it. I’m sure I saw Ryan hanging out with him a few times and, even though we were never officially introduced, he seemed like a nice guy to me.”

  “Whatever problems he has, it shouldn’t ruin our shopping, so let’s not talk about him anymore,” I said. Ted returned then and served each of us a hazelnut latte deluxe. I took my cup and lifted it in a salute to my friends. “He was a short chapter in my book. Very short, indeed.” I took a sip, dipping my lip into the hot milk foam, and wondered why Ted was still standing by our table.

  When our gazes locked, he said, “Your drink’s on Ethan. He paid for it before he left. And he says sorry for whatever shit he supposedly dumped on you.”

  Choking on my mouthful of latte, I put the cup down before it spilled over my pants. Sam smacked me on the back until I could breathe again.

  I wiped the foam off my mouth. “You’re kidding me!”

  “Nope.” With a smirk that made him appear several years older, Ted turned around and went back behind the bar.

  Was Ethan really that crazy? How could he forget what he’d said to me this morning? “Serious mental issues,” I thought out loud, shaking my head. “Can any one of you make sense of this?”

  All three shook their heads. A great help they were.

  I moaned. “Here I finally find someone seriously sweet”—someone who could measure up to any fictional character I’d ever been in love with—“and he turns out to be just a weirdo.”

  Leaning back in her chair and lacing her fingers over her stomach, Sam chewed on her bottom lip. “What if it was all just a big misunderstanding? Maybe he’s on some anti-amnesia meds and simply forgot to take his pills this morning.”

  I let out a throaty laugh. “Watched some Sci-Fi with Tony last night, did you?”

  “Why?” She looked at me innocently. “Things happen.”

  “In what universe?”

  “Fine, don’t believe it.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “But I think, for the latte alone, he deserves a second chance.”

  “You can’t be serious.” I grabbed a sugar pack from the glass bowl in the middle of the table and ripped it open. Adding the sugar to my latte, I stirred until it sank into the foam. “He totally embarrassed me this morning. How does that deserve a second chance?”

  Sam raised her eyebrows, grinning. “Tony was a complete douche when I met him. Now we’re happy together. Just saying.”

  Fair enough, she had a point. And the side I got to know of Ethan yesterday made me want to spend more time with him. It was as if we were on the same wavelength. Maybe there did exist some weird explanation for his behavior this morning. There were certainly no anti-amnesia pills involved, though. I’d rather believe Ethan was abducted by aliens. Finding out the truth tempted me… Only, was it really worth the effort?

  I doubted it, yet I wanted to hear my friends’ opinions. In eleventh grade, you didn’t make such serious decisions all by yourself. “All right. Let’s vote. What should I do?”

  Simone said, “Forget him.”

  Lisa said, “Forget him.”

  Sam said, “Talk to him.”

  “That’s two against one.” I shrugged. “Sorry, Sam, you’re out.” And that was that. I wasn’t going to talk to Ethan ever again. With that decision made, I could finally enjoy my hazelnut latte deluxe, which I didn’t even have to pay for. Win-win.

  The shopping afterward was pure delight. I found a dozen books to add to my TBR stack, a pair of skintight blue jeans, a picture frame—which I had no idea how to fill but needed to have because of the beautiful seashells on it—and some accessories for my hair. Satisfied, exhausted, and happy, I sank against the door when I got home and reveled in the silence in the house.

  My new books found a place on the giant shelf my dad had built for me some years ago and which reached from wall to wall on one side of my room. The bags with the other stuff I’d bought today, I dropped on my desk. There was no time to put them away. Quiet nights were as holy to me as Christmas Eve. I didn’t intend to waste even one minute of it. Armed with a book, I settled on my bed in the corner next to the window and stuck my feet under the crochet blanket that my grams had made for my eighth birthday. Bambi was on that quilt. It was my most valued treasure.

  Before I began to read, I leaned as far out of my bed as I could without falling. My arm was just long enough to reach the top drawer of my desk where I kept a pack of liquor-filled chocolate pralines. Placing them on the mattress next to me, I shoved a piece into my mouth. The pralines would keep my hunger in check, because no way was I going to stop reading for dinner alone.

  Around nine, Dad came home and knocked on my door to say hi. I was lucky he didn’t make it past the threshold or kiss me good night, because from all the pralines I’d consumed, my liquor breath might have gotten me into trouble.

  I waved from the bed and when he closed the door again, I finished this volume in my now-favorite series. As I turned off the light a couple of hours later, I hoped to dream of the Scottish Highlands.

  Instead, I dreamed I was swimming in a pot of caffè latte while
Ethan sat on the edge of the pot and repeatedly shouted down at me, “You can’t even play soccer right now! What made you think that you and I would be going out together?”

  Since my paddling didn’t seem to be getting me out of the pot, I stopped at some point and drank up the five thousand liters of coffee instead. Afterward, I walked up to Ethan and spit it all at his face. “That’s for playing my position!” I yelled at him.

  Luckily, I woke up after that. To say I wasn’t done with Ethan yet was a vast understatement. The guy seemed stuck in my mind like a toothpick in a cheese cube. So how could I get him out of there?

  Sitting at the kitchen table and shoving a spoonful of scrambled eggs into my mouth, I wondered if it was better to evade soccer practice for a while. At least until my knee was fine and Ethan would have to clear the field for me again. Not seeing him seemed like the easiest way to forget about him. I toasted myself with my glass of orange juice on that decision and washed the eggs down with a sip, then I got ready for school.

  A few minutes before the bell rang, I slipped into the building and headed straight for my first class. Certain that Sam would be the first to grill me this morning on the subject of Ethan and how I felt about him today, I was surprised to run into Lisa in the hallway.

  “Susan, wait,” she hissed with an urgent look. “I have to tell you something.” Only problem—she was talking to a teacher and had to finish that little chat first. Patiently, I waited at the corner of the hallway, off to the side, for a couple of minutes, until a familiar voice carried to me—and caused the hair at the back of my neck to stand on end.

  I cast a look over my shoulder. In front of the restrooms, Hunter and Ethan were engaged in a chat. It looked like one had just come out and one was about to walk into the restrooms, but both had too much to tell the other to move on.

  Instantly, I shielded my face with one hand and lowered my head. Right, as if Hunter wouldn’t recognize me the second he looked over. And probably Ethan, too. Rolling my eyes at myself, I ducked around the corner fast, so they wouldn’t see me, but their voices kept drifting through the corridor.

  So much for not going to soccer practice to avoid Ethan. I’d have to skip school, too! Seeing him today totally ruined my intention of getting the blockhead out of my mind. And heck, yesterday’s free hazelnut latte still had my emotions in a knot. Maybe we needed to talk it out once and for all—just so I could stop thinking about him and hopefully sleep better.

  But with my nerves in this state, I could hardly walk over and confront him. Gah! What misery, and before first period even started. Frustrated, I banged my head against the wall behind me, pulling at my hair.

  Lisa, who was standing with her side to me, must have caught my angst. She shot me a puzzled look, which I returned with a nod in Ethan’s direction. She bit her lip, so obviously wanting to tell me something, but the stout woman wasn’t done talking to her yet. I had no idea which subject Lisa had with her, but they seemed on very close terms. Man, what would I give to spring my friend from her teacher’s clutches and consult her about my trouble with Ethan.

  Since that obviously wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, I steeled my nerves and stepped around the corner, facing the guys in front of the restrooms. My breakfast rolled around in my stomach, but I ignored that queasy feeling and walked straight up to Hunter and Ethan, gaining speed and courage as I went.

  Ethan saw me first. Though he kept talking to Ryan, his eyes focused on me alone. Only when I stopped a couple of feet before him and stared at him did he cut off mid-sentence.

  “Okay, explain,” I snapped.

  Surprised, Hunter turned to me, too, but I ignored him.

  “Explain what exactly?” There was that same dismissive edge in Ethan’s voice as yesterday. As he cocked his head then, a taunting grin replaced his frown. “Sweetness, are you stalking me?”

  That caught me off guard and I coughed an outraged laugh. “Oh my God! What’s wrong with you?”

  “Excuse me? You’re the one who keeps chatting me up.”

  Hunter chuckled. “Susan…” I wouldn’t have paid him any attention, if he hadn’t put an arm around my shoulders, too. “Susan…” he said again and waited until I tilted my head in his direction.

  Ryan had all my respect as team captain and I valued him as a really good friend, but right now I wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face. “What?” I snarled.

  He put his other hand on my shoulder and turned me to face Ethan again. “Meet Chris.”

  “Chris who?”

  “Donovan,” Ethan said.

  “Ah right.” I folded my arms over my chest, adopting a cynical look. “And you’re Ethan’s alter ego, or what?”

  The guy who looked like Ethan smirked at me. “Brother.”

  “Brother…” My face fell.

  Ryan leaned closer and whispered into my ear, “Twins.”

  “Twins.” A second passed and the information sank in like a hot dog in a bun. “Twins?” I pivoted to Ryan, banging my head against his chest. “Nooo…” If only I could knock myself out this way.

  The duplicate of the nice guy I met Monday afternoon started to shake with laughter. “So you met Ethan? Hell, now I get it.”

  I didn’t care if anything made sense to him. He was a jerk for how he’d talked to me yesterday, and I wanted to be as far away from him as I could. And, holy guacamole, I had to find Ethan and sort out this terrible misunderstanding. After all, I still had the live album of Volbeat in my backpack.

  “See you later,” I growled at Hunter and said nothing at all to Chris, but turned and trudged off, mentally banging my head on a brick wall for not realizing what was going on. Moments later, though, it hit me that I might not find Ethan or—worse—I might mistake Chris for him again.

  To avoid another disaster, I stopped in my tracks, spun around, and walked back to the guys. Hunter was laughing, but Chris still had his eyes on me. I must have made quite the impression. Not a very good one, I was sure.

  As I stood in front of him once more—and boy, the brothers did look incredibly alike—I fished a pen from my schoolbag and reached for Chris’s arm. Explaining myself wasn’t going to help me much, I supposed, so without a word, I shoved the sleeve of his white sweatshirt up to his elbow and pulled his forearm to me. Then I scribbled my number on him.

  It was funny how he let me write on his skin and didn’t even budge. Maybe my behavior startled him into silence. Good. I suppressed a sneer as I said, “Tell Ethan to call me.” I was about to walk off again when I remembered the CD and fetched that from my backpack, too. I pushed it at his chest. “Give him that and tell him thanks for the latte.”

  Chris blinked twice. His eyes were the same cornflower-blue as Ethan’s. Beautiful and captivating. He let a smirk loose that sped up my pulse. “Pleeease,” he drawled.

  “Pleeease,” I repeated, faking my sweetest smile. As I turned and walked away, I banged straight into Lisa. My schoolbag slipped from my shoulder and landed on the floor.

  “Am I too late?” Lisa whispered as I bent to pick up my backpack.

  I made no effort to keep my voice low like hers. “For what?”

  “To tell you that this isn’t Ethan and that I figured it all out.”

  I straightened and cast a crotchety look over my shoulder at the guys. Chris’s scrutinizing gaze bored into me like a lance. “Yep. Too late.”

  Chapter 4

  IT TOOK UNTIL five o’clock this evening for Ethan to finally call me. I knew it could only be him when an unknown caller ID flashed on my phone, and I picked up with a galloping heart. “Hello?”

  “Hey, sweetness,” the guy at the other end said, and with a shudder slithering down my spine I knew I had been wrong. This was not Ethan. He wouldn’t call me sweetness in that wicked drawl.

  I moaned, disappointed and twice as frustrated. “Why are you calling me, Chris?”

  “Because you gave me your number,” he teased.

  “I didn’t give it to
you.”

  “No? The handwriting on my forearm objects.”

  I took off my glasses and rubbed between my eyes, where a hard throbbing had started two seconds ago. “Fine. I didn’t give it to you to call me. Where’s your brother?”

  “Last time I checked, he was in his room.”

  “Get him on the phone, please, will you?”

  “Hmm. That means I have to get up and walk over there. I don’t think I’m in the mood to do that just now.” Was he actually chuckling?

  “Then why did you call me?” There was only a heartbeat between that and me banging my head on the keyboard of my computer where I was doing homework.

  Chris laughed, and he sounded amazingly sweet when he did. Just like Ethan had when we’d first met. “I told you, because you gave me your number,” he explained.

  “Not that again,” I whined.

  “Fine.” He paused. “Then maybe to ask you to go out with me?” By the sound of it, a smirk came with that question.

  “What?” This was so unexpected that I jerked around in my swivel chair and slammed my knee on the desk. Ow, crap, that hurt. Thank God it was my good knee. The pain came and faded quickly. “You must be kidding me.”

  “Nope. Why would I?” Was he teasing me again?

  “Because I want to talk to your brother and not you, to begin with. And aren’t you supposed to be dating Laura?”

  He hummed into my ear. “Who’s Laura?”

  “Asian supermodel? Long black hair?” I pointed out with an annoyed snarl.

  “Oh, you mean Lauren? Well, I did date her yesterday. And I might again sometime. But there’s always a free spot in my calendar to squeeze you in, sweetness.”

  “Are you actually mental?”

  “I hope not,” he answered with the same seriousness that I had put in my voice. “Why? Are you not a safe girl to date?”

  “I’m the perfect girl to date, just not for you, dumbass!”

  “Aw, don’t say that, little Sue. You don’t know me yet.”