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

island and made a tour around the dinner table to fill our glasses with water. New plan: Catch Sue alone sometime.
    But, screw me sideways, not staring as she followed me around the table to lay out the plates required more self-control than expected. Her already short dress rode up her thighs a little higher each time she leaned forward.
    She sidled up to Ethan after she was done and asked him in a low voice, “Isn’t your father coming home for dinner?”
    “My father lives in L.A. with his former secretary,” Ethan huffed, scowling at the chair that once was Dad’s. “He hasn’t been home for dinner in almost six years now.”
    The color of embarrassment zoomed across Susan’s face. “Oh.”
    She could be a kitten with claws, all right, but tonight she was a guest in our house. Ethan shouldn’t make her uncomfortable. He deserved a slap upside his head for that retort. Since I could hardly slap my brother in front of her, I covertly poked him in the ribs with my elbow as I passed him and coughed.
    Ethan jerked his head to me. I narrowed my eyes, which he also did in return. At least he got the hint and told her quickly, “No worries.” Then he offered her a seat. Any seat. Dammit, that guy could drive me up a tree sometimes.
    Unknowingly, of course, Sue lowered into my chair. Call me finicky, but in this dining room, we’d had a certain seating order for years, and not even Ethan’s first female guest since elementary school would change that.
    I could just ask her to move over, but there was another possibility, which allowed me to touch her and might get us a lot farther. Holding my tongue, I took Susan’s hand and made her sit in the chair to the left of mine. She seemed all right with that and didn’t even flinch at the contact. Yep, we were definitely making headway.
    After dishing out salmon and potatoes for everyone, Mom lowered into the chair across from me, and Ethan sat down to my right. “I think my car needs to go to the shop,” he said around a mouthful of fish. “It’s been pulling slightly to the right since last week.”
    “Might be low air pressure in one of the front tires.” I didn’t know much about cars, but that’s something my dad had detected on Mom’s car during my last visit with him in L.A. “We can take a look tomorrow, if you want.”
    “Mm-hmm.” He sipped from his glass, and Sue did the same. Did she even know that she’d been mirroring his every movement for the past three minutes? The girl sat shy and hunched at the table, obviously trying not to draw attention to herself. Well, major fail with that red dress, sweetness.
    But where the heck was the tank with the bad manners tonight? If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said this was a total stranger and not snappy geek Sue Miller. Then again, she might’ve only been playing the nice girl for my mother…like I was playing the gentleman. We both knew better, and yet it could turn out to be fun.
    I decided it was time to include her in our conversation as Ethan had obviously shipwrecked in that department. But Mom beat me there. “So, Ethan said you know each other from school. Are you in the same classes?”
    “Umm, no.” Susan picked at her fish. “I’m a junior.”
    “Ah. Ethan wants to go to UCLA next year, did he tell you? How did you two meet, anyway?”
    Throwing a wary glance at Ethan, Sue looked like she was fighting a blush. But after a quick cough, she straightened and informed the Spanish Inquisition, “We met at soccer practice this week. He made me late getting home.” Obviously a memory that made her smile. “It was my granddad’s birthday, so I almost got in trouble that evening.”
    “Sorry for that,” Ethan mouthed at her across the table and grimaced. Although, for once, it looked more flirtatious than anything he’d done since we sat down.
    It didn’t surprise me that soon enough my mother steered the conversation toward houses. She loved talking shop when she got a chance, and