Page 33 of The Kissing Challenge

"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 wanted to know if we were a couple."

"And?" he said again.

"And I told her we…aren't together."

My voice fell on the last word.

Captain put a hand under my chin, and I raised my head to meet his eyes.

"You sound disappointed," he commented. "Why?"

"I don't know. " I shrugged, thinking quickly. "Maybe I'm envious that you found someone, and now I'll be all alone. You did say you couldn't stop thinking about her."

Cap grinned. "Did I?"

"Stop playing," I said and pushed his hand away. He was still right next to me, though. So even if we weren't touching, it kind of felt like we were.

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