Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) Read Free

said girls’ business only spread across her face. “Also, he’s cute.”
    Who cared? It didn’t give him the right to take my place.
    “Who is?” Simone’s voice startled us. We both turned around to find her and Allie Silverman behind us, scanning the soccer field with spiked interest. Both of them had hair that reached to the end of their backs, only Simone was a natural Scandinavian blonde with big curls, while Allie’s hair was as black and straight as a raven’s coat. Like Lisa, they were both on the cheerleading team—the team that usually cheered for us soccer players. Only now, they’d cheer for Ethan instead of me.
    “The guy who’s dressed like a rotting banana,” I muttered in answer to Simone. “But I guess cute is a term that can be argued. I don’t like him. He’s playing my position on Hunter’s team.”
    Allie gasped. “Permanently?”
    “Temporarily,” Lisa corrected quickly. “Until Susan is fit to play again.”
    “Oh, that’s not too bad.” Simone shoved her beautiful curls over one shoulder and snickered. “He’s quite the eye candy. What’s his name?”
    Simone was the girlfriend of one of the guys on my team, and the two of them usually stuck together like glue, so her remark made us all chuckle. She’d never—not in a million years—dump Alex Winter for another guy.
    “Ethan,” I told her.
    “Did you talk to him already?” Allie wanted to know.
    “A little. Before practice started. Why?”
    “Because he’s looking at you right now,” Allie and Simone said at once with grins in their voices.
    “What?” Oh man, shoot me, because I did exactly what you shouldn’t do at such a moment. I whirled around to check. And of course, I met Ethan’s gaze, which was indeed focused on me. While my expression was dull, if not a little surprised, the corners of Charlie Brown’s mouth tilted up before his attention returned to the other players and the ongoing match.
    I slapped both hands to my face, groaning with my eyes squeezed shut. “I hate you guys! Now he must think I’m checking him out.”
    “Are you?” Lisa giggled.
    “No.” Granted, I’d done it before, but this time it was a total accident. I wanted to dig a hole all the way to China to hide in.
    When I opened my eyes, thank God, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Samantha Summers—the girl that inhaled cherry lollipops like others inhaled air and who had become my closest friend since she’d moved to Grover Beach only three weeks ago—marched through the gate and strolled over to us. She was tiny and funny and I loved her like a sister. She would back me up against the gossiping hens surrounding me.
    Sam sat down Indian-style in the grass in front of us and made a face. “Susan, you look miserable. What did I miss?”
    “Ethan,” the other three told her at once.
    “Who is Ethan?”
    “I’ll tell you if you promise not to turn around and look,” I said before anyone else could point out my replacement to her.
    Sam’s face scrunched, and it made her look absurdly intrigued. “Promise.” After I gave her the same story I’d given the others, her face split with a grin. “Okay, now you got me all curious. I have to turn around, Susan, I just have to!” She got all fidgety on the ground.
    “No! You can’t. He already noticed us watching him,” I hissed, keeping my gaze determinedly away from the players. If she turned around, I’d pull her back by a fistful of her short, black, messy hair—that was a promise on my end.
    “You’re crazy, Susan,” Lisa teased and added, “But there’s no need to turn around, Sam. You’re lucky—he’s coming over here.”
    What ? I froze at her words…gulped…and saw the soccer ball rolling toward us. It stopped right by Sam’s leg. She picked it up and sure enough, Charlie Brown was jogging our way.
    “Hiii, Eeethan,” the girls sang out in unison as he took the ball from Sam.
    Appalled, I stared into his wicked eyes. When he started to