Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5)

by Katmore, Anna

  “You and Chris are perfect for each other. Well, you’re probably more perfect for him than he is for you, but I’m not stupid, Susan. You like him.”

  I lifted my brows, wanting to object.

  “Okay…liked him,” he corrected. “But that’s not the point. He’s been working a great deal on changing his ways since you walked into his life. That’s weird because I’ve never seen him like this before. And from what I got, he seemed determined to make things work. Heck, he hasn’t been so single-minded about anything or anyone in—no.” Ethan shook his head. “Just never.”

  A slight flutter got my heart in a tangle of beats when he said all those things about Chris, but the truth was, it justified nothing. “I don’t care what his intentions were for tricking me into dating him. Why did you play along? I thought you were my friend.”

  “That’s the whole point. I am your friend. It seemed like you needed a little push in the right direction to see what was going on with Chris. He actually begged me on his knees to help him.” A grimace marred Ethan’s face as if the visual with that memory was anything but pleasant. Definitely unusual.

  “I said crap the other day about his go-to girls, I know,” he continued. “I didn’t want to make you feel insecure. Sorry. And I think if you gave him another chance, you’d be anything but. That’s all he wanted with that date, anyway. A chance to show you that, if you looked past the things you knew about him, you could still like him.”

  “And you say that because he told you to?”

  “I’m not talking to him right now, but that’s what he said when he begged me to set up the date with you, yeah.”

  A growl forced up my throat. “So that was it? A little blah blah and he got you to play along with his stupid plan?”

  “He sounded serious to me.” Ethan paused, taking a deep breath. “And he gave me his basketball.”

  My chin dropped. “Sorry, what?”

  His voice turned small. “It’s signed by Kobe Bryant.”

  “And you fancy that guy?” It was the most ridiculous thing I could have blurted out, but my tongue was faster than common sense at times.

  “No!” Offended, Ethan frowned at me. “He’s just the Lakers’ most valuable player and his autograph is on the ball…” Glancing out the window for a second, he fumbled for the right words to explain. “It’s like Harry Potter’s signature on a magic wand.”

  Okay, I grasped that comparison.

  “And it’s your fault anyway that I didn’t own the ball already.”

  I pursed my lips. Should I have known what he was talking about?

  Rubbing his neck, Ethan leaned forward. “Remember when you ended that game of chess for Chris and me with a checkmate? I think it was the day you called me out on being gay.”

  A small nod. It was a couple days after Chris’s basketball game.

  “Well, he offered me the ball if I won. Since you made me lose, I didn’t only not get the ball, but I also had to truthfully answer him one question. That was the deal.”

  “You play chess with weird rules,” I mumbled, though I wondered what that particular question was. “Did he ask you if you were—”

  “Gay? No. I already told you what he asked me.”

  The memory of that one didn’t come up, so I pulled my brows to a frown and shook my head.

  “He wanted to know if I was in love with you,” Ethan refreshed my memory.

  “Oh...” If the ball was worth as much as Ethan had said, it made no sense for Chris to offer it to his brother just to find out about him and me. And giving it to Ethan to make him trick me into a date with Chris… This was insane.

  Steepling my fingers under my chin, I propped on my elbows and gave him a level look. “So a date with me was more important to Chris than this stupid ball, but you chose the ball over our friendship. Is that right?”

  Ethan lowered his gaze and traced the scratches on the metal table surface with his finger. “It kinda makes me an asshole, doesn’t it?”

  I just stared, letting him figure the answer out for himself.

  He dragged out a breath. “Look, I’ll give him the ball back today. I told you, we aren’t really on speaking terms these days, but since he lost you in the end, I guess it’s unfair to keep the ball.” His eyes moved up until they met mine. “And I’d do anything to make you forgive me.”

  Oh boy, that look. How was a girl supposed to stay mad when someone as cute as Ethan batted his lashes? I was tempted to give in, but what good would it do me? Hanging out with the nice twin brother wouldn’t help me much in getting over Chris. “I don’t know…” I said after a long pause. “All this is really crazy and, for now, I’d rather keep a distance from both of you.”

  His gaze burned a hole into my skull. If I got a headache from it later, it was totally his fault. “Are you sure…?” he murmured.

  “Yes.” Shoving the chair back, I stood, the metal legs scraping on the tiled floor. “This is too much drama for me to handle right now. Not with everything else I have going on in my life.”

  Ethan rose, too. He pushed the chair back in and braced himself on the backrest, stalling for time. “I see why you’re mad at me—and at Chris. But you really don’t want to give him another chance? Even if we aren’t talking to each other right now, it’s painful how miserable he is. After all, he was just trying to show you how much you mean to him.”

  I told myself I didn’t care. Chris made me feel miserable most of the time, so maybe that was divine justice. “Tell him if he really cares about me, he should stop sending me texts or calling my number. And most of all, he should leave me alone at school. He ruined whatever we could’ve had, and he can’t change that.”

  After all, I wasn’t the girl for a playboy. And my first boyfriend didn’t need to be a damn liar, for Christ’s sake. I deserved better than that.

  Walking to the door and holding it open for Ethan, I made it clear this conversation was over.

  “Okay…” Lips compressed, he crossed the room but stopped in front of me for a moment. “I’m really sorry about what happened. If you ever change your mind about Mario Kart, call me.” He walked out and I closed the door behind him.

  Returning to the table, I braced my hands on top and stared at the blank wall. Soon, the heaviness in my chest got too much and dragged me down. I hunched forward, leaning on my elbows, and buried my face in my arms. A whiny shriek made it out of my throat. Thank God, no one was home. I was sick of explaining myself to everyone.

  *

  The weeks until Christmas were strange. They were empty and passed fast. I did what I’d always done around that time of the year: decorated the house with mistletoe and Christmas bells, sprayed some artificial snow onto the windowpanes since we never got any real snow in California, and drank barrels of hot chocolate with whipped cream. In the past, I usually had both my parents to help me pep up the house and watch trashy Christmas movies on the weekends. This year there was only Mom and me. And she wore that sad look all the time.

  She and Dad hadn’t seen each other in a while. From what my father told me, they’d agreed to keeping a distance—at least for a few weeks, and if that worked, maybe extend it to a couple months. Phone calls were okay, but no personal contact. It would help them get over the breakup, or so they hoped. Only, Mom didn’t seem to feel relief at that. If anything, not seeing my dad was making things harder for her. For once, I was the lucky one in this family triangle. I could spend time with both whenever I wanted to. No shouting matches attached to that deal.

  Dad looked like he’d adjusted to his new single life fairly well and really fast. Occasionally, he asked me how Mom was doing, but he always had a happy smile on his lips when I dropped by his new apartment. On the other hand, he never said if he was going out much or seeing someone else. Maybe his happiness was just a façade? Was he a better actor than my mother?

  Honestly, thinking about their breakup and a possible reunion kept me awake many hours of the nights. There was nothing I
could do. This wasn’t my fight. Not my problem. But a happy family for Christmas? Well, that was worth a wish.

  Considering my misery with the Donovan twins, however, I had little to no hope that someone above would even think to take note of my wishes. Christmas time would be blue this year.

  It didn’t help much that Ethan and Chris were obviously following my demand and staying away from me. No texts in days, not one phone call from either of them, and when Chris saw me in the hallways at school, he lowered his head and walked right past me.

  Although Ethan stayed with the soccer team at lunch, he’d moved a few chairs down the table so we wouldn’t sit next to each other anymore. That was okay for the first couple of days, but after a week, I really started to miss him.

  Boy…if that’s how it felt when my wishes were granted, I’d have to rethink the one for Christmas again.

  Thank God for my friends. Apart from Sam and Simone, who made me go present shopping with them every other day, Nick was a wonderful distraction and made me play FIFA with him a lot. First I had to force myself to leave my room and have a normal life after Chris and Ethan, but with days passing by and winter break getting closer, things took on that typical end-of-the-year smoothness that always put me in a softer mood.

  When the winter finals were done and I’d passed them all with no grade worse than a B minus, I even started to relax. It was Lisa and Ryan who told me on the last day of school that they were glad to see me smiling more again.

  Was I really? I hadn’t noticed. Although the biting pain in my chest whenever I thought about Chris—or checked my phone for messages even though I’d told him to stop sending them—had ceased to a dull ache. I tried not to think about him and our first kiss too much, but when I did, no tears stung my eyes anymore. That was some progress, right?

  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 24th 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.