The Kissing Challenge - Cookie O'Gorman Page 0,21

away, and Captain stepped in front of me.

"Hey," Captain said. "We need to talk."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know. Is there something wrong with Liam?"

He frowned. "No, I am curious, though. It was odd seeing you together. What were you talking about?"

"Well, he mentioned some horses and water," I said. By Captain's perplexed expression, I knew he was just as confused as I was. "Do his parents own a farm somewhere? I thought they were doctors."

"They are, and as far as I know, they live in a house even bigger than yours."

"Huh, weird," I said.

"Yeah."

Shaking myself, I looked up at Captain. There was tension around his eyes, and his dark hair was tousled as if he'd been running his fingers through it. Like Liam had said, he looked gray, a hint of sadness in the downward turn of his mouth.

But he was here.

Without my permission, a smile took over my face. Captain, my best friend, was talking to me, and suddenly, everything felt right again.

"Why are you smiling like that, Anne?"

I shrugged. "I'm just so happy to see you."

Captain's answering smile was slow, but it was there.

"Really?" he said. "I thought you were mad at me."

"Yeah, right. I can never be mad at you for long."

"That's good to hear."

It's good to hear your voice, I thought.

"I missed you at practice."

"Ugh, I missed you, too."

"Did you have a good night?" he asked hesitantly.

"Not really."

"What's wrong?" he said, sounding alert all of a sudden. "Did Jackson do something? If he did, I'll—"

Putting a hand on his forearm, I shook my head at his distress. "It was bad because I couldn't sleep. Nothing happened with Jackson. I didn't even leave my room last night."

His whole body seemed to sigh.

"Oh," Cap said as his smile grew to epic proportions. "Sorry it didn't work out."

"Yeah," I said, "you look real sorry."

My sarcasm didn't dim his expression one bit.

"How about you? How was your night?"

"The guys were on me because I kept making mistakes, couldn't concentrate on the music."

I tilted my head. "Really? But you're always so prepared and focused."

"I wasn't last night."

"Something else on your mind?"

"You could say that," he mumbled.

I gulped, hoping like heck that I was wrong, but…

"Were you…thinking about a girl?"

Captain's eyes met mine then, and they were full of something I couldn't name.

"Yes," he said. "I was."

Rachel, I thought as my eyes closed on a painful blink. Of course, he'd been thinking about her. Why had I even dared to hope for anything different?

"It really wrecked my concentration," he went on.

Ugh.

"Well, I'm sure they understood that," I said and forced a laugh. "The guys in the band must hook up way more than you. I don't think you've ever had a date for as long as we've been friends."

"You're right. I haven't," he said.

"Now that you have a girlfriend"—I tried not wince, wasn't sure I succeeded judging by the look on Captain's face—"I guess you'll have a lot more to talk about."

"Girlfriend?" Captain repeated. "What are you talking about? I don't have a girlfriend."

The confusion in his voice would've been funny if not for the situation.

"Ah okay," I said. "So, you and Rachel haven't made it official yet. That's cool."

His eyes narrowed. "Are you talking about that girl from yesterday? We just met. I talked to her for less than five minutes."

"Still, I think it's safe to say she wants more from you than Starbucks."

And she's gorgeous and looks at you like you hung the moon, I thought. That had to be enticing.

"Listen, she is pretty and seemed like a nice girl."

Gah, every word added another wound to my chest.

"But there's nothing going on," he finished. "At least not on my end."

I put my hands on my hips, feeling like this was some kind of joke.

"But you just said she's pretty and nice," I said.

"Yeah…so?"

"Well, don't you think you should at least give it a shot?" I really had no idea why I was pushing this. Getting him to see all of Rachel's good qualities would only make me look worse by comparison. But there I was, shooting myself in the foot. "She's on color guard with Gemma. She called you sexy, even asked me about you."

His eyebrows rose. "What did you say?"

"Well, I told her we were best friends," I said.

"And?"

He took a step closer, and I seemed to lose my breath.

"Rachel asked if we like each other."

"Um hm. Anything else?"

"She"—I gulped as he took another step. Captain was close enough now that I could feel the heat from his body—"she