The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (17 page)

After that, I turned off the light and went to sleep. Whatever dream was going to haunt me tonight, I hoped Sue would be in it.

ETHAN WAS LEANING against the hood of his car, ankles crossed and arms folded, as I walked out the door on Tuesday morning. “Need a ride?” he asked, lifting his brows.

Smirking, I pulled the keys out of my pocket and dangled them in the air. “Taking Mom’s. Basketball after school.” I walked up to him anyway and held out my fist for him to bump it. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

As my brother gave me a fist bump, we both knew we were back to square one and the things that had happened over the weekend were forgiven and buried. A huge rock broke away from my chest.

I ambled to Mom’s car and opened the door while Ethan walked around his. One leg inside and a hand on the wheel, I halted and called, “Hey, E.T.!”

He turned. “Hm?”

“Would you do me a favor and ask Sue what her favorite kind of cake is when you see her?”

“Sure.” He scrunched his forehead. “Why?”

“She’s coming to dinner on Saturday, right?” I asked in a casual tone, trying not to give away too much of my excitement. “I thought I could make some dessert, too.”

Studying me for a couple of seconds, Ethan smirked. “Best way to a girl’s heart, huh?”

I shrugged nonchalantly before sinking into the driver’s seat of the SUV, but I knew he totally saw through me. Ah, whatever. He seemed cool with it, so why bother hiding anything from him? Pressing the horn twice in goodbye, I drove past him and headed for school.

Roaming the halls with Brady that morning, I realized little Sue was obviously playing hide-and-seek with me, because the kitten was nowhere to be seen. Brady spotted Cassidy and smacked me on the shoulder. “See you at practice.”

He sneaked up on the girl from behind, and I headed on to first period.

The morning went by fast. Lauren was exceptionally quiet in Spanish—she glanced at me for the briefest moment as Mrs. Sanchez entered the room, and then ignored me the entire lesson. I found this highly unnerving. Lauren had grown on me, much more than I’d expected her to, considering I didn’t usually run buddy-buddy relationships with girls. Her cold shoulder now showed the reason for that particular rule in the first place.

To ease the situation, I confronted her after Spanish by snatching a fistful of her knitted sweater and dragging her back to me. “Hey, Parker, not so fast.”

Her straight black hair fanned out as she swung around to me. Giving me a polite but distant smile that trampled on the friendship we’d built in the past few months, she lifted her thin eyebrows. “What’s up?”

Uh…
“I thought we could do another Spanish lesson today.” One that concentrated on Spanish—with no sex involved for once. After all, I wanted an A on the test Friday.

Obviously, it was the right suggestion, because her gaze lit up a notch and her smile turned a hint warmer. “Sure.” She paused a moment. “Want to meet up later?”

Why not? Other than being a great language tutor, Lauren was also a girl. Maybe she could give me some good advice on how to win Sue’s heart, too. “I have basketball practice after school, but I’ll call you when I’m home.”

“’Kay, do that.” Then she looked down, where I still clasped her sweater. “You want this, or what?” Giggling, she pried my fingers loose.

“Sorry.” Letting go of her top, I ran a hand through my hair. “See you then.”

*

After showering off the sweat from playing basketball for ninety minutes, I grabbed my duffle bag and went to the parking lot where I’d parked Mom’s car that morning. I’d just dumped my bag on the backseat, and was about to get in, when a girl in the distance caught my attention. Heck, not just any girl…

The handle of the car door clasped tightly in my hand, I watched Susan standing there by the entrance to the soccer field for several minutes. Was she waiting for someone? Maybe for me?

Nah…
Discarding that thought, I clamped down on my teeth. But then…she was here. Why waste a nice opportunity? I reached for my leather jacket on the passenger seat, then slammed the door of the SUV shut, and punched a button on the key fob to lock the car. Shrugging on my jacket, I ambled toward Sue and popped a stick of gum I found in the jacket pocket into my mouth.

Susan was so preoccupied with staring at a forgotten ball in the grass in front of her, she didn’t even notice me coming. Hands tucked in the front pockets of her light pink sweatshirt, she heaved a sigh.

I leaned against the pole of the open gate. When she still didn’t notice me after a minute, I asked in a quiet voice, “Having a chat with the ball?”

Like a shocked bunny, Sue whirled around. Taking in my face, especially my healing black eye, probably for proof that I was
the
other twin
, she cleared her throat and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“Tuesdays I have basketball practice. I was about to head home but then I saw you. Which brings on my counter question: What are
you
doing here?” I slanted my head. “Other than trying to move the ball with a telekinetic stare, that is.”

Sue looked me in the eyes for a long moment. Whatever she found there made her talk in a soft voice, not bark at me like usual. “I don’t actually know why I came here.” One of her shoulders lifted and dropped in a helpless gesture. “Probably because I miss playing soccer.”

“Which you can’t do because of your hurt knee.” I’d sprained an ankle really bad some time ago and couldn’t play basketball for two weeks. That was a hell of a long time, so I understood how terrible she must be feeling.

Sue stared at me open-mouthed like I’d just built a house in front of her with my bare hands in three minutes. Surprised I remembered about her knee, was she? “Yeah, I do listen sometimes, you know,” I told her and chuckled. Then I walked to the ball and picked it up, an idea forming in my mind. “Hey, want to play some soccer now?”

I bounced the ball on the ground like a basketball, only in the grass it didn’t rebound. “Rubbish.” I picked it up and spun it on my finger. Yep, that worked well with any ball. “Which is your bad leg? You can shoot with the other,” I suggested with a shrug, when she still stared at me as if struck by lightning. “And I’ll stand in the goal.”

“I’m a righty, which is my bad knee, so that would hardly be fair on me.” Susan made a long face, but I didn’t intend on giving up that easily.

“Ah, don’t be shy.” I squeezed the ball under my arm and wrapped the other around Sue’s delectable waist, pulling her along with me. “I’ve never played soccer in my life, so that should pretty much even out your chances.” And that was nothing but the truth.

She did walk with me but arched her brows and gave me a sideways glance. “As far as I know, you’re grounded. Doesn’t that imply you should go home right after practice?”

“This
is
practice.” Sort of. Just not mine, and not the sport of my choice. Mom would understand. Then again, she wouldn’t know. “If I get in trouble for it later, I’ll totally blame it on your sad puppy eyes when I found you at the gate.”

With my arm still around her, I could feel her giggle. A sweet sound. And finally she gave in. From her pocket she fished a rubber band and raked her hair to the back of her head. “Fine. Let’s play.”

Sad Sue turned into playful and cute Sue, and my chest welled with the wish to yank her closer.

As we reached the end of the soccer field, I threw her the ball, took my leather jacket off, and dropped it on the ground. The goal was huge. Much taller than it looked from a distance. “Whoa, who defends this? A baby elephant and its mama?”

Sue snorted. “Nick Frederickson is our goalie, and he does a darn good job.”

Nick Frederickson was a giant—half a head taller than me, and I wasn’t on the short side. No surprise they put him in this position. I rubbed my hands, blowing out a breath, and then I placed them on my thighs, slightly bending my knees. “Okay, bring it on, girl.”

Sue dropped the ball on a white line, then shoved it a couple feet closer with her toe.

I straightened and gave her an uncertain look. “Is that the right spot to put it?”

“Absolutely!”

Sure. Her snicker said something else. I rolled my eyes but, in no mood to start an argument in a moment like this, I got back in defending-the-house-size-goal position.

Sue squinted against the sun as she focused on me. A second later, she gave a whopper of a kick. The ball came barreling toward me, but much too high. Even as a complete soccer outsider, I knew it would never land in the net. Tilting my head up, I watched as it smashed into the crossbar above me and bounced back to Susan. Once more, she set it on the invisible mark she’d chosen for her free shot.

Her next kick scored—my headlong dive to the right was a jump into nothingness and I smacked into the ground. Dammit. I’d need three of me to block this goal. “Beginner’s luck!” I muttered as I got to my feet and saw how Susan danced on the spot like she’d just won a world championship.

“Why? You’re the beginner.” She laughed and only stopped dancing when I threw the ball at her again.

I waited for her next shot. Sue pretended to move right, but when I started to move there too, she went the other way and kicked. The brat! She’d tricked me. I stood there gaping at the upper left corner as the ball smoothly sailed into the goal.

Admittedly, she was good. But I didn’t need to inflate her ego even more. “I totally let that slip through for you,” I teased.

“Yeah, yeah, keep on dreaming.” The gleam in her eyes said she was enjoying our little one-on-one. Her fourth shot was another goal, right over my head. My jump was a tad too low to stop it.

Gnashing my teeth, I picked it up. “No one can possibly keep this goal safe, unless they’re an elephant. On a trampoline.”

“Give up?” Sue asked delightedly as I walked to her.

“You wish.” I let the ball bounce a couple times on my right knee. “We play against each other now.”

“Not a good idea.” Susan lifted her leg to remind me of her injury—like I’d forgotten. “Knee, remember? I can’t run.”

“But you can jog,” I countered, “slowly. Right?” To sweeten the prospect some more, I added, “And I’ll clasp my hands behind my back.”

Her ponytail swayed as she tilted her head and gave me a wry look. “You play soccer without your hands, smart ass.”

This girl was hard to please. In more than one way. “Fine. I’ll do that
and
run backward. Is that better?”

Not waiting for her approval, I shoved my hands in my back jeans pockets and went for the ball backwards, practically blind. Okay, not blind—I looked over my shoulder—but running like this was definitely out of my comfort zone.

Sue got to the ball first. She didn’t seem convinced of my suggested game and just shoved the ball out of my reach, seemingly ready to discuss new rules. That didn’t stop me. Using my heel to kick, I tried to steal the ball from her. Finally, she accepted that I wouldn’t give up, and engaged in the game with more enthusiasm. With short kicks and at a lazy jog, she headed for the goal.

Not a chance, Little Miss Sunshine!
I cut in front of her and snatched the ball, but even right in front of the goal, there was no chance to shoot. Knee injury and all, Sue was just too fast. Obviously, she found pleasure in playing with me, even if she tried to hide her wide grin every so often.

Suddenly that grin was wiped right off her face, and her eyes shot wide open. “Watch out!” she shouted. Next thing I knew, something hit me on the back, and the breath exploded out of my lungs. I swallowed my gum.

The damn goal post had gotten in the way.

Unhurt but feeling a slight ringing in my head after the collision, I dropped to the ground, feigning a faint. Susan’s hysterical laughter quaked around me. I decided to give her a moment to compose herself before opening my eyes again. Only, she didn’t calm down.
Yeah, glad you find it so hilarious when I hurt myself, sweetness.
Behind closed lips, I clamped my jaw shut, fighting to bite back a grin. Oh, she was going to regret this.

“What’s up? Did the goal knock the air out of you?” She sounded much closer now, probably right above me. Her voice still shook from her laughing fit. “Come on, I’m sure that little bump didn't hurt as much as Will’s punch to your face probably did.”

I didn’t answer, not even when she poked her toe into my ribs.

Her chuckle died. “Are you okay?”

Oh yes, I was. And she was in for a surprise the moment she squatted down beside me.

After another beat of silence, I felt the shift in the air as she lowered and leaned over me. Worry crept into her voice. “Chris?”

Perfect!
With her head blocking the sun from my face, I knew exactly where she was and reached up so fast, she had no chance to back away as I grabbed her neck. Gently enough not to hurt her, but still firm and determined, I yanked her down to me until she was so close I could see my reflection in her shocked eyes. Hands braced on my arms, she sucked in a sharp breath.

My expression as sober as can be, I said, “You laughed at me.” Then I gave in to the smirk I’d been fighting back so hard for the past sixty seconds. “That will cost you.”