The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) by Anna Katmore

grew wide, and she rushed after Ethan. The door banged shut behind her, apparently her own subtle way of saying hi to me. It made me chuckle. In addition to the fact, I realized Ethan wasn’t behaving like a gentleman with her, which was another surefire clue that he wasn’t into her.
    Susan Miller was free to take and seduce. Goodbye, bad conscience—hello, freezing-hell challenge.
    Someone squeezed my hand. Oh, right. Lauren. She led the way to the front door and turned on the threshold with a quizzical look. “That’s the girl who talked to you in school the other day, right? Is she your brother’s new girlfriend?”
    I wasn’t sure how much she knew about my brother, but I definitely wasn’t going to discuss him with her. “Guess I’ll find out later,” I answered, shrugging one shoulder. Then I kissed her on the corner of her mouth. “See you tomorrow.” It certainly wasn’t the kind of goodbye kiss she’d expected, nor was this abrupt ending to our Spanish hookup lesson. Yeah, whatever.
    When she was gone, I closed the door and made a beeline for the kitchen. “Mom?”
    “Hm?” She turned with the smile of a bunny in carrot heaven. That alone answered the question I hadn’t yet asked her.
    “Is Sue staying for dinner?”
    “Hhhyesss,” she hissed, frantically nodding her head. “And isn’t she a nice girl? So polite and so pretty.”
    “Yeah.” I laughed. “Pretty.” It was hard not to pick up on her happiness and feel a slight bit of joy about it myself. Not quite because Ethan finally seemed interested in a girl, but because it gave me a chance to get to know my target a little better.
    After re-buttoning my shirt in the correct order, I started peeling the boiled potatoes Mom had put in a bowl. “Ethan said he was taking her out to Charlie’s. I wonder why they came home so early.”
    “They want to play video games,” Mom informed me, leaning her back against the counter next to me and wiping her hands on her apron. “I hope that’s just a new teenage code word for being alone.” Her crumpled look turned a shade of soulful. “Is it a code word?”
    I rolled my eyes, suppressing a snort. “Yeah, Mom. It’s a code word.” And it stands for: Ethan is a douche . Video games, gee! I could think of a hundred things to do with Sue in my room, and none of them involved a console or controller.
    But when my mother returned to preparing the salmon fillets and began humming joyfully under her breath, I didn’t have the heart to burst her bubble. I could actually feel her excitement, and it made me shake my head, amused.
    After I’d tossed the potatoes in hot butter with French parsley, she asked me, “Would you please get the two of them, Christian? Dinner’s ready in three minutes.”
    Did she for real just call me by my full name? Gross. Laughter rocked my chest. Beverly Donovan hadn’t been this nervous since the day she applied for her dream job as a real estate agent. And here I’d thought nothing in this house could surprise me anymore. Total error.
    Leaving the spicy-smelling kitchen, I walked to Ethan’s room, knocked, and opened the door—by God, almost. Fingers gripping the doorknob, a terrible memory made me shudder and jerk my hand away as though the metal was shriveling my flesh. Video games, my ass. I’d learned my lesson last time and would never again walk into Ethan’s room uninvited. Instead, I shouted, “Feeding time!” and trudged back to the kitchen.
    Less than a minute later, the supposed sweethearts showed up, not holding hands or anything a couple would do. I deemed it a good sign. The challenge of seducing Sue was on until Ethan told me to lay off—directly.
    Having a girl I wanted to seduce in the same room with my family was a little out of my comfort zone, though. Also, it would break my mom’s heart if I stole Sue from under Ethan’s nose right in front of hers. I wasn’t that kind of an asshole.
    Needing a distraction, I fetched a jar from the