Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (12 page)

I considered sending Ethan a text and asking him about their chat in the restroom, but that, of course, was a dumb idea. He would hate me for listening in where I wasn’t welcome, and if he kept things from his own twin brother, I was certainly the last person he’d tell them to.

But the conversation swirled in my head and kept sleep at arm’s length. Frustration made me toss and turn and sigh at regular intervals—until I finally switched the bedside lamp on again and reached for my cell phone, my mind set.

Are you still awake?
I keyed in and sent the message off to… Yeah, who would I send it to? Ethan or Chris?

My head dipped forward onto my bent knees and a sinister growl left me. Ethan would be the better choice for sure, just because it was about him and me, and we connected so easily over simple things like books and music. But the way he’d sounded earlier made me doubt he’d be happy if I confronted him about such a peculiar topic on the phone.

Chris, on the other hand, was a dick, and he would get a kick out of my texting him, but he seemed more ready to help me figure things out than his brother. Taking a deep breath, I straightened and sent him the message.

I am now
, his reply came forty-five seconds later.

It was fifteen minutes past midnight. I should have checked the time before I texted him. But since I’d already woken him, I might as well go through with my plan.

I typed another message:
Can I talk to you about something?

You can call me anytime. ;-)

Agh, I’d been hoping for a “Sure, what’s on your mind.” Calling him seemed like such a bad idea that the hair at the back of my neck protested with a standing ovation. It was like he was teasing some sort of commitment out of me. But I wanted to find out the truth…

Swallowing hard, I steeled my nerves, swiped my thumb across the screen and called Chris.

“Hey, sweetness. What’s troubling you?” Some leftover sleep resonated in his voice, but it wasn’t too bad. In fact, he sounded positively surprised that I’d jumped on his offer and given him a call in the dead of night.

“Something that you did earlier,” I confessed, carefully.

After a beat had passed, he drawled, “Starting with offering to give you a hickey, that could be many things.” His soft laugh carried to me. “Could you get a little more specific?”

Why did he have to mention the hickey, for Christ’s sake? Now a rush of goosebumps tingled across my skin as I recalled the sensation of his lips on my neck. Rubbing the spot absently, I sank back into my pillow. “I did something terrible tonight,” I started, almost whining. “When you went to the restroom after your nosebleed, I did, too.”

“Okay, that’s really not a big issue, Susan. Everybody needs to pee sometimes,” he mocked me.

I wished he was in my room, face to face with me right now, so I could flick his forehead for that. Since he was two miles way, all I could do was roll my eyes in frustration and explain, “I was outside when you and Ethan were talking in the bathroom. I heard you.”

The silence that followed almost killed me. “Chris…?”

He cleared his throat, all amusement gone. “What did you hear exactly?”

Now that was a bit hard to explain. I didn’t want to repeat their entire conversation, so I simply said, “There’s something going on, and you know it. Since it’s concerning me, I think you should tell me.”

“No, I don’t think I should.” His answer was so curt, so absolute, that a shiver raced down my spine.

“Then at least tell me why you got in a fight with that guy—Will.”

“Sorry, can’t.” The same determination as before.

Irritation started to gnaw at me. Chris was a dead end. “Fine. Then there’s no need for me to talk to you anyway.” I hung up without saying good night, but it only took him ten seconds to call me back.

“That was rude,” he said as a second greeting.

“Keeping secrets from me when you know that I like your brother is rude,” I snapped back.

“Fair enough, but I can’t help it. It’s not my business, as you told me so nicely the other day.”

A deep sigh escaped me. I didn’t like his cynicism, but he was right. I’d wanted him to lay off us earlier, so why in the name of sanity had I even considered asking him about it now? But I knew why. I was falling in love with his brother, and I needed to know the truth. “How about I take a guess, and you just say yes or no?”

“Nope.” The sound of his chuckle warmed me. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Damn, this was getting us nowhere. Squeezing my eyes closed, I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned.

“Do that again!” Chris’s voice suddenly took on a whole new layer of raspy. “And I might ask you what you’re wearing right now.”

Realizing that I’d moaned right into the phone, my cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Chris, you’re such a blockhead.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you have a date with this blockhead in a week.”

What the heck made him think that? “No I don’t.”

“Oh yes, you do. You’re coming to my house, I’m going to cook for you, and we’re eating together. Sounds very much like a date to me.”

He couldn’t really believe what he’d just said. Was he mocking me?

“And like it’s customary for a real date,” he continued, “I will kiss you before the evening is over.”

“You’re insane if you really think that.”

“So? I’ve been called worse.” He laughed softly, and I hated that the sound gave me pleasant shivers again. Moreover, it made
me
wonder now what
he
was wearing in bed. Agh!

“You should consider the possibility that Ethan, nice as he may be, just isn’t the right guy for you,” Chris added.

Well, with all their bullshit talk about me, they were actually forcing me to consider it. “But you are?” I snapped.

“At least I don’t have dark secrets.”

Jeez, so now Ethan didn’t only have secrets, he had
dark
ones. What had he done? Killed his last girlfriend and buried her in the garden?

“I think it’s late and time to end this conversation,” I replied.

“Really? Shame.” He didn’t mean it. Or maybe he did, but he just made it sound like the worst teasing ever. In a drawl, he added, “Before you go, could you moan for me again?”

“In your dreams,” I forced through gritted teeth, which only made him chuckle.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you around. Night, Sue.”

I hung up, shaking my head, and narrowed my eyes at the screen that said I’d been talking to Chris for sixteen minutes. But when I turned off the light again, a smile slipped to my face.

AFTER SUNDAY LUNCH and completing my essay for school, I called Lisa and asked her if she wanted to hang out. I knew Hunter was with her, and that would give me an excellent opportunity to ask a few subtle questions that might get me some answers in the matter of Ethan Donovan.

Lisa told me to come to her place. They were watching
Iron Man 3
, but the movie would be over by the time I got there.

Since Lisa’s house was like my second home, I jogged up the stairs to her room instead of waiting for her to come down to the door and invite me in. When I knocked, a muffled “It’s open” drifted to me. Walking inside, I saw why that had sounded so dull. The couple was lying on Lisa’s bed, she on top of him with her cheek pressed to his chest, Ryan’s arms building a solid cage around her.

Immobile, because her boyfriend wouldn’t let her go, she murmured, “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll get you something to drink as soon as the ogre here let’s me go.”

“Which will be about never,” Hunter added and smirked at me.

The first week of December had started, so they’d been together for three and a half months now…and he still couldn’t seem to get enough of her. My inner romantic lifted the back of her hand to her forehead and swooned. Sometimes, I really envied their lovely relationship. Especially since the day that I met and started to fall for Ethan.

“Never mind,” I said, smiling back. “I’m not thirsty, and I know where I can get a glass of water myself.” Apart from a queen-size bed in the middle of the right wall, Lisa’s room was equipped with a desk, a wardrobe, and a futon next to the door. I lowered myself into the swivel chair by her desk and started spinning gently back and forth, glancing out the window. Some birds fluttered about building a nest in the tree outside.

“You’ve been hanging out with Ethan so much this week, I’m surprised you found the time to stop by today,” Lisa joked.

I swiveled back to her, forgetting the birds. “We were out last night. I thought it was okay to take a break and squeeze in some time with my other friends.” I stuck out my tongue in the same playful way.

“How did you like the basketball game?” Ryan asked me.

“Hm?” How in the world did he know about that? None of the guys had been there, and I hadn’t told anyone yet. But of course, he would have heard it from Ethan or Chris. I tended to forget that they were friends, too. “Well, it was interesting, but nothing as good as soccer. The Sharks won, so I guess that’s good.”

“And dinner at Burger King afterward?” He chuckled, fully knowing just how well he could tease me today.

Still baffled, I glowered at him. And so did Lisa, as she wrestled in his arms for a little more space and planted her chin on his chest. “How do you know things about my friend that not even I know?” She tilted her head to look at me. “And when were you going to tell me about it?”

I raised my brows in a sheepish way. “Um…now?” Finding a pen on the desk and tapping it on my thigh, I briefed them through last night. Since Hunter already knew almost everything and would tell Lisa anyway, I also mentioned Chris’s black eye and that I thought it had to do with Ethan.

“Why do you think that?” Lisa demanded.

“Because I overheard Ethan and Chris talking about it. The fight started with something this basketball guy, Will, must have said.” I paused, with a quick look at Hunter. “You wouldn’t know what that was about?”

Ryan released Lisa and sat up, leaning against the headboard of the bed. He cleared his throat. “Chris said he had to get some things straightened out between him and the team, but he didn’t say what exactly.”

Should I believe that? I thought not. He sounded serious, all right, but with his gaze lowered and not meeting mine, it triggered my suspicion.

“Did you know that Ethan was on the basketball team as well?” I asked him, and he nodded. “Why did he drop out?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

“Take a guess.”

He heaved a sigh. Jeez, the guy was so hesitant about whatever he was going to say next that it felt like forever to get an answer. Why did everybody seem to know more about Ethan than me, yet no one wanted to spill?

Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. “I can imagine that it had to do with William Davis. They don’t get on well from what I hear.”

“That’s it?” I grimaced in disappointment. “That’s all you know?”

He pressed his lips together, hesitated a second, then nodded. Dead end, once again. Oh, how I loved this.

Massaging my temples, I closed my eyes and said to Lisa, “Since your clingy boyfriend released you, now would be a good moment for a drink, if you don’t mind.”

Lisa jumped up from her bed. “Of course. What do you want? Mineral water or OJ?”

“Whiskey would be fine, thanks.”

Laughing, she hurried downstairs, probably not really hunting for the liquor. She’d been gone twenty seconds, when Ryan’s soft voice dragged me out of my frustrated mulling. “Lisa said you kinda like Ethan. Like…
really
like him.”

I lifted my gaze to him, scrutinizing his face for the length of a breath. There was something in it that could have been stolen right from Chris’s expression when he talked about Ethan and me. Oh no, not Hunter, too. A sigh pushed out of my throat. “And now is the moment you tell me he’s not the right guy for me?”

Ryan pursed his lips. “Would you listen if I did?”

“I would listen if somebody told me what the heck was going on for a change! Does he have a girlfriend? Because that’s the only thing I’ve come up with in the past few days when I try to figure out the problem.”

“No, Miller, he doesn’t have a girlfriend.” When Hunter laughed, a hint of irony rang in it, but the reason eluded me. He wouldn’t say more on the subject however, because Lisa came back with my glass of whiskey-free orange juice. And from the look on his face, he’d already said more than he intended to, anyway.

A little later, I let them talk me into going down to Misty Beach with them, where Ryan’s parents owned a beautiful little bungalow. Sam showed up, too, but instead of her boyfriend, she brought Nick, because Tony was on bussing duty at Charlie’s, and she seemed to be as bored as I was. Lisa brought out a game of
Monopoly
from Ryan’s room. We set it up on the oval kitchen table and engaged ourselves in a financial battle that lasted until sunset.

The many houses and hotels I owned and the growing pile of money in front of me proved one thing: Lucky at cards, unlucky in love.

When Nick rolled the dice and landed on
Park Place
, where I owned another hotel, he went bankrupt and threw his arms up in defeat. “Fantastic, Susan. Mission accomplished. Nick is game over.”

“Aw, don’t sulk, little boy,” Sam said and patted him on the shoulder. “You can beat her at
Twister
next time we play.”

Yes, he probably could do that. But with my injured knee—though it didn’t hurt anymore, it still had to be treated with care—
Twister
, as well as soccer, wasn’t going to happen for a long time. Calling it a game after I bankrupted Lisa in the next round, we moved with our drinks to the front room, settling down on the white couch around a low coffee table. Hunter served us roasted peanuts. While I popped one after the other in my mouth, licking the salt off my fingers, my mind drifted to Charlie Brown and I totally spaced out for a moment.

Only when I got smacked on the forehead by a peanut that Nick had thrown at me did I managed to push all thoughts of Ethan away. Playfully, I whacked Nick’s shoulder. “Hey, did your mama not teach you it’s rude to toss food around?”

“She did.” He chuckled. “But she also said it’s rude not to answer a question.”

“Hm?” I looked at the others and sure enough, everyone in the room was staring at me. “What did I do?”

Lisa was the first to burst into laughter, the rest followed suit. “Never mind, Susan,” Ryan said and lifted his glass in a mocking salute. “I guess we got our answer.”

Dammit if my face didn’t get swamped with red. I took a sip from my mineral water to cool off and hoped the others would let me live this down.

Luckily, Sam changed the topic. “Can anyone tell me why there’s no winter formal at Grover Beach High? There’s been one at every other school in any other country I’ve been in. Why not here?”

“We had them in years past,” Lisa informed her. “This year’s an exception.”

“Why?”

“Budget,” Hunter said and shrugged. “At least that’s what I was told.”

Sam puckered her lips. “That’s a shame.”

And it totally was. This year I might have finally had a chance to go with a real date. The dances in the past had always been fun. I’d gone with a whole bunch of people, not caring who partnered with whom. But since my closest friends all had boyfriends now, it would have been nice to show up on a guy’s arm as well. Ethan could have been that guy.

Or maybe not…

If only they’d spill what that freakin’ secret was so we could all move on.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Lisa blurted out all of a sudden, sitting up straight and tucking her legs underneath her. She clutched Ryan’s arm and looked him in the face. “We could do some sort of winter ball at your house.”

He studied her with his head tilted and lips pursed. “Hmmn. For Christmas?”

“Yeah. Or for New Year’s. That would be nice, don’t you think? It would be like a party, but not really a party. Everyone has to dress up and stuff.”

“Hey, we girls can wear ball gowns and get our hair done,” Sam suggested with the same enthusiasm as Lisa.

Admittedly, the idea was nice. Somewhere in my wardrobe, my knee-length satin dress with the spaghetti straps would still be hanging. I’d only worn it once and now that I finally had curves, it would fit so much better.

Hunter started to grin. It was clear that he’d reached a decision, and he didn’t hesitate to announce it. “That settles it. New Year’s Eve ball at my house. Should be fun.”

Lisa clapped her hands and cheered, “Baby, you’re the best!” She gave him a sidelong glance, her eyes narrowed. “Just don’t invite all of Grover Beach and the surrounding towns this time.” We all knew where that had come from. Normally, Hunter’s place burst at the seams on party nights. Three hundred guests wasn’t unusual. “Small and nice, for once, what do you think?” she nudged him.

“All right. One hundred?”

She cast him a sheepish smile. “I was thinking fifty, maybe sixty.”

“Really?” He made a face. “How can you call that a party?”

“I don’t. I call it a ball just for close friends.” She kissed him quickly on the lips and the deal was sealed. He could never say no when Lisa batted her huge green eyes at him.

“Fine. So it will be just the soccer team and then some. But you better make up for it and wear something backless that night, Matthews.” He wiped her hair aside and kissed her neck. Keeping her at his side, he asked, “Who wants to play
Catch Phrase
?”

*

It was long after dark when I got home that night. After my awkward chat with Hunter, we’d played
Catch Phrase
and
Pictionary
for hours. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard; it felt like I’d lifted weights with the corners of my mouth all afternoon.

Unbelievable, how much a few enjoyable hours with friends could lighten up my mood. I’d really needed that to get my mind off Ethan and the issue surrounding him—whatever that was. Anyway, how bad could it really be? Hunter said he didn’t have a girlfriend, and Hunter could always be trusted a hundred percent. And Ethan sure wasn’t an axe murderer, going after the girls he dated. Was he? Oh man, I couldn’t let that ridiculous slope of thinking take hold. I’d rather believe he was just gay.

I laughed at that idea…until it came right around and hit me straight in the face like an eighteen-wheeler.

Oh Jeez
! Sit—I had to sit down. There wasn’t enough air in the room for me to breathe all of a sudden.

Ethan—gay. Could it be true? He was so nice, so polite and understanding. So charming and incredibly sweet. I whined as I covered my face with my hands. Could all these things be indicators? The fact that I truly felt so comfortable with him…like I did with a girlfriend?

No.
No
! I shot up and paced the room. Any straight guy could be just as sweet as that. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions here. Especially not ones as grave as this. It just couldn’t be. Ethan having a girlfriend? I could handle that. I’d just make him leave her and fall for me. Ethan being a serial killer? Fine. I’d wait until his jail time was done. But him not being interested in girls at all…? What could I ever do to change that?

My heart beat so fast, it would bring my house down any minute. My knees trembled. I sank into my chair and banged my head on the desk. Please, anything but that. “God, please, give me a fair chance at least…”

My cell phone dinged next to me and made me jerk up my head. Why I even let my hopes get high was inexplicable. Ethan wouldn’t send me a text after ten in the evening. But Chris would, and I pushed out a sigh through my nose as I read it.