Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (21 page)

“So, I just thought I’d tell you.”

“Why? It was a one-time thing. We’re not what one would call a good match, actually.” A weak laugh escaped me.

It made Ethan look up with arched brows. “My brother begs to differ.”

I gulped. “Does he now?”

“He hardly talks about anything but you these days. By the way”—Ethan gave me a funny look—“he’s complaining that you don’t come over to our place anymore.”

“Yeah, well. I do miss Mario, but that’s not gonna happen for a while, I think. A little distance will do both him and me a hell of good.”

“You really want me to tell him that?” Ethan laughed. “The guy seems a little desperate to me right now.”

He couldn’t be more than I was last week. “Tell him whatever you want. I think he’s lucky I’m still talking to him”—well, texting to him as of right now—“after how he treated me.”

“Okay.” He got up from my bed and slipped into his shoes. “See you at lunch tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

After Ethan left, I called my dad and talked to him for a while. It felt like this was going to become a routine in the future. Since I had his undivided attention on the phone, I thought I could live with that.

Sometime during that chat, my cell beeped with a message. Dad was priority, but after we hung up, I opened the text with a queasy feeling in my gut as to who it might be from.

Dream Guy Material
wrote:
Seriously? Distance? How am I supposed to show you all the good sides of me then?

What good sides
, was the first thing I wanted to type back in a mocking way, but that would have been a little bit too harsh.
You can shine with your absence. ;-)
It was still a mean tease, but I couldn’t resist sending him that.

And fade out of your mind? Clever girl. Guess what? It’s not gonna happen, sweetness.

Was that a threat or a promise? Either way, soft tingles slithered down my spine as I read the words. Tempting as it was to contradict him in another text, I decided to give it a rest and put my phone away, spending the evening with my mom and Zac Efron on TV.

None of my friends came over on Tuesday, which gave me much-needed time to catch up with homework and studying for Christmas finals. Sometime that afternoon, Ethan called me. I loved how he cared for me and always asked how I was feeling before anything else.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “Doing homework. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I just thought, since you don’t want to come play Wii with me anymore, we should go for coffee again. We haven’t been to Charlie’s in a while.”

Ah…Ted. A smile curled up my mouth, but I didn’t let it enter my voice. With some faked nonchalance, I answered, “Sure. Why not?”

“Cool. How about Fri—” A crackling sounded through the line, like Ethan had tripped and cut himself off. “Sorry,” he said quickly and growled. “Some idiot left his basketball in my room.”

The visual made me chuckle.

“Anyway, how about Wednesday? Would that be good?”

Ooh, someone wanted to see Ted really soon. Too bad… “Ah, sorry, no can do. My dad invited me to his place tomorrow,” I answered with a hint of regret for his benefit.

“Okay, how about Thursday?” he suggested.

“That would work. I haven’t had a caffé latte in a while. Should be nice.”

“Cool. I’ll pick you up at five.” We hung up, but the smile remained pasted on my lips.

Three weeks ago, I wouldn’t have dared to believe I could be so happy to see Ethan working up the nerve to chase a love interest other than me. Right now, I couldn’t wait for Thursday to come to see how things turned out for him.

FOR THE DATE with Ethan, which I only called a date because I hadn’t been on one with him in a while, I picked a blue dress from my wardrobe. It was longer than the red one Chris had liked so much—the bell skirt almost covered my knees—and it tied with a narrow, black belt around the waist. With wide straps, it could be topped neatly with a white bolero cardigan that was just right for the mild December temperatures.

“There’s someone waiting outside for you, honey!” my mom’s voice carried into my room while I finished off my hair with a ponytail.

“Coming!” I slipped into my black ballerina flats and dashed downstairs. On the way out, I promised to be back before curfew and waved bye to my mom.

In front of my house, Ethan leaned against his blue Mustang, arms folded and ankles crossed. It seemed like we were on the same wavelength about color today, because he sported a denim jacket over a white crew-neck tee, which matched with his washed-out blue jeans. His blond hair stood out in spiky chaos, giving him a touch of cute as much as a touch of just-out-of-bed.

He looked so sweet that I couldn’t hold back a tease. “Trying to impress somebody today?”

His gaze lingered on me longer than usual. It seemed he hadn’t expected me to wear a dress to our casual date. Ethan reached for the shades in his chest pocket and put them on. “Are you?” He opened the door for me. Oh boy, if Ted didn’t fall for his charm, I might again before the afternoon was over.

“Just every guy in town, other than you, since that’s not working,” I teased with a grin and got into the car.

“So you were with your dad yesterday? Have a good day?” he asked on the ride to town.

“It was awesome! I had him all to myself the entire time. We cooked and ate grilled chicken, and he even made eggnog for us.”

Ethan gave me an encouraging nod. “I’m glad things are working out for you now.”

At Charlie’s, we claimed the same table we sat at the last time. Ted watched us coming in with an interested look, but he didn’t say anything until he came to take our order. “A hazelnut latte deluxe for you?” he asked me, a notepad in his hand, though he made no move to write anything down.

“What do you think?” I taunted him with a roll of my eyes.

Ted turned around. “Ethan?”

Ethan cast me a quick look then stared at Ted. “Hmmn, what?”

Oh dear, the boy must’ve been out of his mind with nerves. I gave him an encouraging look as Ted asked with a chuckle, “What do you want?”

“Um…a cappuccino. Thanks.”

“Whipped cream, no foam, right?”

Ethan tilted his head to Ted and studied him for a silent moment. “Yes.”

Once alone again, I leaned forward and placed a hand on Ethan’s arm, trying not to grimace too hard when I told him, “Sweetcakes, flirting doesn’t work that way. You have to smile, not scare him off with a stare.” Then again, what did I know about flirting?

He studied me for an immeasurable time. Finally, he gave a quick nod. “Yeah, right.”

“Hey, it’s cool,” I whispered, seeing he’d just figured out that I knew why he’d brought me here today. “I don’t mind you using me for cover.”

His brows knitted together. “What?”

I shrugged and waved a hand up and down his chest. “Look at you. You’re gorgeous, all dressed up. Did you really think I wouldn’t realize who you truly wanted to impress today? Actually, I knew when you mentioned Charlie’s on the phone.”

“You did?”

“Yes. And I’m fine with that. Now relax and show the guy what a great catch you are.”

His face broke into a smug smile. “So I’m a great catch, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

Ted returned with our drinks, and this time, Ethan held the smile until he was gone again.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” I encouraged him.

He let out a long breath. “You actually have no idea.”

“Don’t worry. It’s okay to be nervous. You’ll get used to the butterflies. And at some point, you’ll love them.”

Leaning forward, Ethan propped one elbow on the table and rested his chin in his palm, his fingers on his lips. His gaze pinned on me, he began to smirk. “I don’t make you nervous anymore, do I?”

Unless he kept looking at me like that… “No, you don’t.”

“Who does?”

At the mere thought of the answer hovering on my tongue, my cheeks warmed over.

“Chris?” Ethan probed.

“Well, he does…sometimes.” My gaze lowered, though I had no idea where the bashful feeling came from all of a sudden. Ethan knew almost everything about Chris and me by now. “I’m working on getting that under control.”

“So if you still get nervous when you see him, you haven’t written him off completely.” It was a statement, not a question.

Wondering how much truth it held, I let go of a sigh while I poured sugar in my latte. With a hoarse sound, I cleared my throat. “Any chance Chris asked you to grill me about him today?”

“Would you be mad if he did?”

“Not at you, of course.” I looked up, my gaze stern. “It’s not your fault.”

Ethan grimaced. “So you’re mad at
him
because of it?”

“I won’t say another word if you’re going to run off to tell him again at the first chance you get—like you did on Monday,” I scolded him, the touch of a tease in my voice still apparent.

“Okay, I won’t tell him.” He started scooping up the cream of his cappuccino. “But tell me why you don’t want to give him another chance.”

“That’s a difficult thing to explain.”

“When’s your curfew?”

“What?”

“Home? When do you have to be there tonight?”

“Um—” I scratched my head, confused at the sudden change of topic. “Nine. Why?”

“That gives me about three hours to make sense of what you’re going to tell me.” He angled his head with a taunting quirk of his brows. “I think I can cope.”

“Fine,” I laughed. “But you have to promise that you’ll never tell anybody about it.”

He slapped a hand to his heart, expression serious. “I’ll keep all the good stuff to myself, I swear!”

The foam of the latte felt warm on my lips as I sipped it. I licked my upper lip and wiped the rest of the foam away with my hand. “The problem is…Chris scares me.”

Ethan looked like I’d shocked the hell out of him. “He does
what
? Why?”

What were the right words to explain? “You see, when I met him, he was this really arrogant…popular…lionized guy.”

“Lionized?” He chuckled at that.

“Yes.” No other word would describe Chris any better. “So, I just ignored him, because—duh!—I was head over heels for you. At some point, he decided he wouldn’t let me ignore him anymore. I hated myself because he started giving me butterflies and managed to break through my defenses with stupid little things.”

“Butterflies? That’s sweet.” His eyes gleamed with mischief. “So what where those little things that brought you around?”

A sigh escaped me. “Text messages, mostly,” I mumbled. Ethan’s soft laugh made me grimace. “That’s not funny. I mean, me and the playboy? Come on, that’s just not right.”

“But you did fall for him.” He shrugged. “That’s cool.”

“No, it’s not cool. Because I kinda
really
did. And Chris is not the guy to take feelings seriously. Yet, I let you guys talk me into that stupid date at your house and it was…fun.” I paused, dropping my lids to escape his gaze, but at the next moment, I searched his face again. “And then he stole my first kiss.”

The awkward silence that followed made me curl my toes in my shoes. I knew exactly which little part of this revelation was actually news to Ethan.

He took a moment to gather himself, slowly sagging against the backrest of his chair. Finally, he pushed out a quick breath through his nose and said in a low, resigned voice, “That was your
first
kiss?”

I pressed my lips together. “Mm-hm.” Inhaling deeply, I continued, “I don’t know if you’ve ever kissed anyone. If you have, you know what that first kiss meant to me.”

“I think I do.” His voice was so soft that there was no room for doubt in his words.

“But please, Ethan,” I begged, making a whiny face as I grabbed his hand. “Don’t tell him that. For Chris, it was probably a godawful kiss, and nothing that he was used to from his other, more experienced girls.”

A wry expression crossed his face. “Oh, you’re so wrong.”

“What?”

“When Chris told me about that kiss, he said he found it pretty
amazing
. I think you should believe him this one time.”

Really? He’d said something like that to his brother? A smile sneaked to my lips, together with a warm tingle in my cheeks.

“All right, so let me recap,” Ethan said half a minute later and started to tick things off on his fingers. “You had a crush on him. He gave you your first kiss. You liked it. He still gives you butterflies…” Cocking his head, he scrutinized me with a whole new interest. “What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that I sort of take romance quite seriously. I might have been more into him than he was into me. I don’t want to be his next go-to girl.”

“Go-to girl…” he repeated, narrowing his eyes.

“Yes, you know, what you said about him and Lauren the other day. Even though I’m not one of those girls who want to wait until marriage before they…er…sleep with a guy”—my cheeks grew warm with that confession—“it doesn’t mean I’ll give it away to some arrogant womanizer either. I think the first time should be something special with the guy I love…and not just about a stupid challenge.” Stirring my hazelnut latte, I focused on the swirling foam. “But I don’t expect you to understand that.”

Ethan lifted my chin with his finger. He grinned when I looked at his face. “Did you just say that because I’m a guy?”

In fact, I didn’t know what had actually made me say it, but I was glad that he didn’t finish his sentence with “or because I’m gay.” Returning his grin, I fished a strand from my ponytail to my front and twirled it around my fingers. “Who can tell what’s really going on in that head of yours?”

“It seems you have a completely screwed up view of us guys,” he teased me. “Someone should show you one day. And I’m sure, if Chris was the one, he wouldn’t mess that moment up for you. Believe it or not, I know he’s done some serious thinking on that matter the past couple of weeks.”

“Chris is thinking about getting in my pants?” I said with dry humor. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Oh, come on. Give the guy a break.” Ethan made a wry face. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. He’s really not that bad.”

“What, are you trying to play matchmaker now? Please don’t.” My moan was torn by my laugh. “That’s my job, anyway.”

“Your job?”

“Yes. I think you brought me here for a reason.”

“And that would be what?”

“Helping you get on with your own romance.”

Utterly relaxed now, Ethan laughed. “I don’t think I have a romance going.”

“Well, maybe not yet. But with a little push you might just start one today.” I made a subtle nod at the bar, and Ethan followed my gaze.

He lowered his head, rubbing his neck. “He’s staring at me, isn’t he?”

Checking surreptitiously, yup, Ted sure was. “Well, I don’t think he’s staring at
me
.”

Ethan seemed at a loss. I started to wonder if it was a good idea to come here with him after all. If he wanted to get closer to Ted, a girl on his arm was not the way to go. “Know what?” My tone was light enough to make a balloon fly. “I’ll just pop to the loo and you go engage Ted in a nice chat. If it works, I’ll call Sam to come hang out with me.”

I rose from my chair, but Ethan snatched my hand. “No!” he hissed and narrowed his eyes to slits. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”

“Honey, it’s okay. You talked to him an entire hour a few weeks ago.” Laughing, I pulled my arm out of his panicky clasp. “He won’t eat you.”

“You can’t know that.”

Well if so, Ethan should count himself lucky, but of course that didn’t come out of my lips. “Relax. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Ethan looked ready to anchor his arms around my waist to make me stay. Giving his shoulder one last pat, I told him, “Just be yourself, and no one can ever resist you.” Then I headed to the restrooms at the back of the building.

My bladder was actually empty. The stalls were all open, and since there was no one in the restroom with me, I just leaned against the wall and glanced at my watch. Three to four minutes, that would have to do. If Ethan could get a chat running with Ted in that time, Sam would so have to bail me out of here. If not, the evening would be for Ethan and me alone. That was the plan.

Before I headed out, I prepped my hair in front of the mirror and pinched some color into my cheeks. Ethan still sat alone at the table. Phone in his hand, he keyed something in. Either a text or he was Googling away the time he’d been alone. “Oh Ethan,” I muttered on my way back.