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

grilling Sue about her living situation was obviously a must on her list. Ten minutes later, I knew that Susan Miller lived in a yellow two-story on Rasmussen Avenue—two bedrooms upstairs, a small but cozy kitchen downstairs, an open fireplace in the living room, and too much junk in the garage to fit a car in. Nice.
    When my mother next demanded to know the year of construction, Sue’s face went blank.
    “Don’t mind her,” Ethan came to her rescue, ending the interrogation and offering her the bread basket, from which Sue sneaked a slice. “She’s like that with everyone. Mom’s a real estate agent, always on the hunt for houses to sell.”
    “Wow, that’s a cool job.” Sue’s eyes gleamed with a whole new interest. “Must be awesome to see so many houses from the inside.”
    “It’s the best job in the world. I love houses.” Mom, who’d finished her meal by then, wiped her hands and mouth on a napkin and then leaned back in her chair with a friendly smile. “Do you already have plans for after high school? College? Traveling? Any job you’d like to do?”
    “College,” Susan shot back without a millisecond of thinking. I didn’t expect anything less from the girl that actually did homework in detention. “I want to study languages and later on find a job that gives me the chance to work with books. That’s what I love. Great stories. So I was thinking maybe a librarian, or a literary agent, even.”
    “Sounds like you have a plan,” I chipped in for the first time, though the term literary agent was something I’d have to Google later in my room. Sue nodded with real pride as she looked at me.
    The clock struck eight a couple seconds later. All of us seemed equally surprised about how long we’d been sitting in front of our finished plates, just talking—or in Ethan’s and my cases, mostly listening. “All right, guys,” Mom said then and clapped her hands once. “Dishes to do. Go play it out.”
    “Oh, come on, Mom,” Ethan whined. “I’ve got a guest.”
    Heck, it was so clear that he was going to try to worm himself out of the dishes contest. He wouldn’t stand a chance against me at hoops in the yard, which usually decided which of us had to clean the kitchen when Mom did the cooking.
    But I wasn’t in the mood to wash plates, pans, or pots either. Just for fun, I picked on Ethan’s tactics and cast a smirk toward Sue. “Yeah, right. She can do the dishes.”
    Mom pointed a criticizing finger at my face. “Your brother’s girlfriend won’t be doing your chores.”
    In that very instant, I could hear Susan’s surprised intake of a breath from where I sat. In a shy way, she lowered her eyes.
    “Mom, she’s not my girlfriend,” Ethan contradicted—fast. Despite Susan’s disappointment, this clearly wasn’t him being embarrassed by Mom calling him out on dating a girl. It was him telling Mom to lay off, because he really wasn’t .
    “See?” I said to my mother. “She’s not his girlfriend.” With a grin, I rose from the table. “She can do the dishes.”
    But of course Mom wouldn’t let me get away with that. “No way, buddy. You do your job first.” She grabbed me by the back of my collar, stopping me from leaving the room, and I laughed out loud.
    “Ah, all right, I’ll do it!” Anything to stop the mom ster from strangling me. With a quiet chuckle, I stacked the dishes and winked at Sue as I took her plate. Her shyness seemed to have eased out of her during dinner, and she even smiled at me this time. Hell was starting to cool off already… Mmm, I liked how this evening had developed.
    Since I’d evidently cracked open the door to Sue’s good side, I decided to sweeten my chances a little more. “Dessert in twenty!” I called to her and Ethan before they left the room for yet another game of Wii.
    Everything a nice cream and fruit dessert needed was there in the fridge. I lined the ingredients up on the island counter: different fruits, coconut juice,