Page 32 of The Kissing Challenge

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."

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