Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (28 page)

I opened the lid and found a pretty little bag of blue velvet inside. Just another wrapping. At the effort he’d put into securing the gift, I shook my head and laughed again. Hopefully, this one was holding the actual present, or we’d be doing this the entire night.

Turning the bag upside down, I poured the contents into my open palm. My heart stopped and I sucked in a sharp breath of amazement.

Chris’s present for me was a delicate silver charm bracelet with charms attached to three dangling loops. I examined them all, stroking my finger over one at a time.

A basketball.

“That’s a reminder of our first unofficial night out together, when you tended to my bleeding wound and defended me in front of my mom,” Chris said with a low, intense voice. Certainly, he was dying to hear how I liked the present.

When I smoothed out the second item, a strawberry, he continued, “That’s a symbol for the most amazing kiss ever.”

I glanced up, warmth flooding my face as he smiled at me.

The third item on the bracelet was a small Super Mario. “That one’s from Ethan,” Chris explained with an eye roll. “He wanted to add something to your present, too.”

This was, hands down, the loveliest thing anyone had ever given me. I loved the design, I loved the little charms, and most of all, I loved the thought Chris had put into it. Now I wished I had something for him, too. But he looked like he would be happy enough if I only accepted his gift.

A small smile on my face, I offered him the bracelet, the silver chain dangling from my fingers. He took it, frowning. Uncertainty crept into his gaze. To release him from his worries, I held out my hand to him. “Help me put it on?”

There, my favorite smile, which was actually the smirk that made his cornflower-blue eyes gleam, appeared, and he fastened the bracelet around my wrist. With a kiss on his cheek, I breathed the words, “Thank you. It’s adorable.” Then I shook my hand, admiring the beautiful present.

We both glanced at the clock on the wall at the same time. Three minutes until midnight. Though there was still music drifting through the door, all sounds of voices outside were gone. “We better join them in the garden, or we’re going to miss the celebration,” I reasoned and slid down from the pool table.

Chris nodded and held his hand out to me. I took it, aware that I’d be doing this a lot from now on. The thought came with a cozy feeling in my chest and the return of ten thousand butterflies in my stomach.

Somewhere on the way through the house, Chris intertwined our fingers and squeezed my hand tightly.

“FOUR….THREE…TWO…”

We reached the garden as everybody was counting down the seconds until midnight. So many people stood by the gazebo that it was impossible to make out my friends, but I still hurried across Hunter’s lawn to reach them in time, dragging Chris with me.

“
One
!” the crowd yelled and many of them blew party poppers.

A hard pull at my hand and suddenly I was in Chris’s arms. I gasped as I fell against his chest. He hugged me tight, dipping his forehead to mine. “Happy New Year, sweetness.”

“Back at you,
Dream Guy Material
,” I teased.

As the people behind me started singing “Auld Lang Syne,” Chris began to sway on the lawn, holding me under the stars. “I think we should change that name in your phone again.”

“To what this time?” A lonesome firework exploding in the dark night sky reflected in his eyes. I winced at the sudden bang but turned around in his arms and more explosions followed above our heads. Usually, we didn’t have fireworks in Grover Beach for New Year, but somebody must have set up a celebration down by the beach, and everyone in Hunter’s garden craned their neck to watch the small, colorful spectacle.

His arms still wrapped around me in a tender embrace, Chris didn’t stopped swaying, even with my back against his chest. “To
Boyfriend
,” he answered my question, his mouth brushing my ear.

The sound of it gave me goosebumps of a special kind. I tilted my head back, resting it on his shoulder. “What did
you
save me as in your contacts?” I could absolutely imagine that “Little Sue” flashed on the screen every time I replied to his texts.

One of his arms dropped and I angled my head, looking down as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out his phone, swiped his thumb across the display several times, then held the cell up for me to read.

“Oh my God—you can’t be serious!” My body shook from laughing so hard.

“Totally am.” Chris planted a kiss beneath my ear as I read the line on his phone again:
She’s The One
.

When the screen’s light faded and he tucked the phone back into his pocket, I turned around in his embrace, looping my arms around his neck. “That wasn’t your name for me in the beginning, right?”

His gaze burned with humor. “No. Not from the beginning.”

“So, what did you call me?”

“Not saying.”

“Come on, I want to—”

“Here they are!” Nick’s voice intruded into our own little world and cut me short.

Turning around, I found the small group of my friends headed toward us, each of them carrying a champagne flute and a smile wider than Broadway. Lisa and Ryan handed us a glass, too. “Here’s to an epic New Year!” Ryan shouted and lifted his glass. We toasted and took a swig with him, then he flung his arm around Lisa’s middle and yanked her closer for a hot kiss.

More couples started kissing, but not all of my friends.

Allie and Sasha Torres danced on the spot, Allie flinging her head back and laughing when Sasha whispered something in her ear. Nick and Justin lay in the grass with Jessa between them, watching as those people down at the beach pumped a small fortune up in the air. Sam stood on her toes, placing a chaste kiss on Tony’s mouth, before she handed him her drink and skipped off to a group of girls nearby. I recognized Chloe Summers with Brinna, her best friend, and some others there. Sam hugged her cousin tight.

I was glad the two of them were a family again, but damn, it was weird to see them together. The Christmas celebration in Chloe Summers’ house clearly had changed a lot for the two girls.

My gaze drifted over the crowd in a nearly hopeless attempt to find the one I was looking for. Was it my straight spine and craned neck that gave me away to Chris? I had no idea, but he pointed to my left and said, “He’s over there.”

Following the direction of his pointing finger, I found Ethan standing by the guys he’d spent lunch break with before he changed tables and started sitting with us. It didn’t surprise me that Ted was with the group, too. They didn’t hold hands or even stand next to each other, but every once in a while their gazes would meet and chemistry sparked between them. Perhaps that was only my wishful thinking, though…

Ethan cracked a smile when he noticed me staring at him.

“Let’s go wish him a happy New Year,” Chris said, lacing our hands, and pulled me with him over to the guys. When the twins stood face to face, Chris held out his fist and Ethan bumped it with his own. They hugged briefly with a smack on each other’s back.

“So what’s the deal?” Ethan asked, cutting a quick look at me with a wink, and focused back at Chris. “Can I hug your girlfriend without you going shark attack on me?”

Keeping a protective arm around me, Chris pulled me against him. “Nope,” he said in a playful tone.

“Chris!” I slapped his chest and laughed, wrestling free. He chuckled as he released me. Giving Ethan a bear hug, I whispered in his ear, “How are things going?”

He certainly knew that with “things” I meant him and Ted. “We’ll see,” he replied under his breath.

Then out loud, I said, “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!”

Ethan let me slip away as some of the guests started to move back into the house. A casual arm draped around my shoulders, Chris led me inside, too. “When do you have to be home?” he asked me before we joined the others.

“One thirty.” Which was far too early to go home on such a beautiful night. But my mom would freak if I stayed out much longer than that.

“Okay, I can’t drive you home because I had a drink or two earlier, but if you like, I can walk you.”

Although some of the party guests were already saying goodbye and leaving, I was sure Chris wasn’t someone who disappeared early from any party. “That’s not necessary,” I told him. “One of the guys can give me a ride.” Simone’s curfew was the same as mine, and Alex always drove her home, so it surely wouldn’t be a problem for him to drop me off at my house.

Chris pouted. “But I want to.”

Heck, who could resist a sweet look like that? Definitely not me. I gave him a small smile. “All right. But we have to leave soon. It’s two miles.”

Nodding, he pulled me along to say bye to Hunter and my friends. “Awesome party,” I told Ryan and hugged Lisa.

“Tell me everything tomorrow,” she whispered.

“Promise.”

Sam and Tony were engaged in a tongue battle I didn’t want to interrupt, so I just waved at the rest of the group and followed Chris out the door.

Hand in hand, we walked down the street, my heels on the pavement the only sound for a while. Chris started swinging our arms between us. The jingle of my charm bracelet added to the clacking of my shoes.

“It’s weird, don’t you think?” I asked him in a low voice when we’d covered half the distance to my house.

He cut me a sidelong glance. “What is?”

“This.” I held up our joined hands. “You and me, walking here, in the dead of the night.” My brow creased with a little frown. “Being together.”

Chris contemplated this for a second. “It isn’t weird at all.” He released my hand and tugged me to his side with an arm around my shoulders. As he pressed a tender kiss to my temple, my eyes closed of their own accord, though we kept walking.

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

“No,” he told me softly and pulled me against him tighter. “I think it’s perfect.”

*

September 19
th

I sat in my room on my bed, an open book in my lap, but the words had stopped making sense a long time ago. One hundred and sixty-seven minutes ago exactly. That’s when Chris had sent me the last text.
Leaving now. See you in a bit, sweetness.

I hadn’t replied, because I’d been downstairs getting a drink when it came in, and when I read the message five minutes later, I didn’t want to distract him from the road. It was a long drive from L.A. to Grover Beach. Three hours and nine minutes—so said Google.

Ah, my heart in a permanent rave-like pounding, I glanced at the clock on my phone for the thousandth time this evening. Maybe I shouldn’t have declined Nick’s offer to drop by his house and play some video games. But I wanted to be home when Chris arrived. I hadn’t seen him in eleven days. Hadn’t hugged him or kissed him or just breathed in his mind-blowing scent. Okay, the last one was a lie. He’d given me a blue t-shirt that he’d worn all day before he left for college. Keeping it in a box, I only took it out when the longing for him overwhelmed me and made a normal life without him hard. I sniffed the t-shirt in those moments, once or twice, and put it back quickly to save as much of his scent as possible.

Chris had laughed at me when I told him what I intended to do with his shirt, but his eyes had warmed with this loving gleam, telling a story of their own.

Another glance at the clock. One hundred and seventy-two minutes. Boy, I was a wreck. Banging my head against the wall behind me, I moaned. How much torture was a girl supposed to take? And then I heard a noise.

Was that a car door? Jerking off my bed, the book in my lap went flying and landed with a thud on the floor. Hands braced on the windowsill, I pressed my nose against the glass and peered down. A silver Honda—Chris’s graduation present from his dad. My breath went out of control and fogged up half the window before I could make him out walking toward the front door.

Squealing like a guinea pig, I skipped out of my room and around the corner into the hallway, where I skittered to an abrupt halt.
Relax
! Two deep breaths… Ah, what the heck, one more couldn’t hurt. Chris was always the epitome of cool, and I didn’t want to run him over like a derailed tank engine.

My mom must have heard him coming, too, and answered the door before he could ring the bell. “Happy birthday, Sally,” his voice drifted up to me. This was so much better than just hearing him through the phone.

When I felt calm enough to face him—or it could’ve been that my legs just wouldn’t hold still any longer—I walked down the stairs and stopped at the landing between the floors. Mom had caught him in a brief hug. Damn, he looked so gorgeous in that white sweatshirt, the sleeves shoved up to his elbows, and the washed out jeans I liked best hanging loosely on his hips. His blond hair was the usual mess, standing on end. My mouth watered and I wanted to eat him alive.

“Thanks, honey,” my mom said. “Now tell me, how’s college?”

“It’s great.” Chris released her and smiled. “But I really miss Grover Beach.” Then his gaze wandered across the hallway and up the stairs to me. As our eyes met, time stopped for an infinitesimal moment. “And you…” he mouthed.

Screw those calming breaths and the crap about keeping a grip on my excitement. I let go of the handrail, flew down the stairs, and ran into his arms. Chris caught me, lifting me off the ground, and hugged me so tight, breathing wasn’t possible for a whole ten seconds. “Hey, baby,” he said in a low voice, meant for me alone.

I never wanted to let go of him again.

But we had plans for the evening, and since his last college classes this Friday had lasted until four thirty, he’d just made it in time. Wearing the blue dress he’d seen me in on our first date—the one that started as a tragedy—I was ready to go out. On the floor stood a black duffle bag, so he probably wanted to change clothes before we headed off to a restaurant in Arroyo Grande to celebrate my mom’s birthday together.

Taking his hand, I dragged him upstairs with me and closed the door when we reached my room. After he put the bag on my bed, he bent down and picked up my book, cracking a smile. “Left the room in a bit of a rush, did you?” he teased.

I snatched the book from him, cheeks hot like baked potatoes, and stuffed it into an empty spot on my shelf. In the meantime, he pulled open the zipper of his bag, and the first thing that appeared was…my green tee?
Hello, my friend
! And here I’d wondered if the washing machine had eaten it when I couldn’t find it the past couple of weeks. That rascal had taken it without a word. And after laughing at me for borrowing his shirt, too.

Chris tossed the t-shirt at me without an apology for stealing it. The only thing he said: “Wash it, wear it, and give it back to me before Monday.”

There was a sexiness to his commanding tone that made me smirk. “What do I get in return?”

He pulled his UCLA sweatshirt off over his head and tossed that at me, too. Staring at his toned abs and pecs, I sniffed the sweatshirt and sighed. Ah, a girl’s heaven. I put it into the box in exchange for the blue shirt, which vanished into his duffle bag. Chris had dressed again and was now wearing the graphite gray shirt that I still considered my favorite, unbuttoned over a white tee with some rock band’s logo on the front. Zipping his bag closed again, he walked toward me, placed his hands on my hips, and pulled me in for a really hot kiss that was all tongues and craving. About time! I’d started to wonder if he wanted to wait until after the celebration.

When he let me come up for a breath, I leaned my brow against his, my arms loosely draped around his neck. “How are Justin and Ryan doing?”