Almost Married by Francine Pascal

I just finished SVH #102 Almost Married. This is book 2 in a 3-parter. In this book, Elizabeth & Bruce find damning evidence that makes it appear that her mother & his father were once married. Adding fuel to the fire - Bruce's mom is moving out, and Liz's mom & Bruce's dad are supposedly away on business together. During the course of their playing Nancy Drew & Frank Hardy and finding all this stuff out about their parents, they inevitably get in a lovey-dovey mood. This all blows big time for Liz's boyfriend Todd & Bruce's (long-suffering) girlfriend Pamela. There were some smoochie moments but in the end it's Liz & Todd back together at the end.

However, during the majority of the book......poor, poor Todd. I really did feel bad for him in this one. Todd's feeling a little guilty for treating Elizabeth shabbily in recent books so when his parents are away for awhile and by happy coincidence her parents are away.... he thinks it would be cool for him to camp out at her house. "If we're together all the time, I can make sure she never falls in harm's way, Todd meditated."

TODD: So, what do you say? The timing's perfect - I could bring my stuff over this afternoon. Just think, Liz, we can cook dinner and do our homework together and stay up all night talking and watching TV - we can be together 24 hours a day!

ELIZABETH: 24 hours a day? (feeling somewhat dazed)
TODD: OK, not 24 hours. I'll sleep on the couch or in Steven's room.....

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TODD: I think I could get used to this living-together thing. We've struck a nice balance, don't you think? We went out for ice cream and now we're watching some TV, but we did our homework first. Pretty mature and responsible of us, eh?"

You just have to smile at stuff like that. Lol. The catch is that they (and it ends up being pretty much just Todd) have to do Jessica's chores for the week and make her breakfast so she won't squeal on them to the parents. I think Todd got a pretty raw deal out of all this. He gets stuck with all the grunt work, his car breaks down (only for him to be picked up by Liz & Bruce), he has a laundry mishap, he passes on going swimming out at the lake w/ his buddies all in an effort for together time w/ his girlfriend - who ditches him at every opportunity to hang out sleuthing, swimming, & salsa dancing w/ another guy - the same guy who tried to force himself on her in SVH book #3. I'm just sayin'.....