Page 25 of The Kissing Challenge

"Why?" Gemma asked.

Rachel blushed and gave a one-shouldered shrug. "One of my friends thinks he's cute," she said which shouldn't have surprised me. But for some reason, it did.

"Huh," Gemma said. Her gaze came to rest on me, and there was a challenge there. "Sounds like Rachel's friend has a bit of a crush on Captain, Anne. Do you have anything to say about that?"

My eyes narrowed on the little smirk playing about her lips.

"No," I said. "Cap's wonderful. It's only natural for girls to crush on him."

Myself included.

Rachel sighed. "So it would be okay with you if my friend said something to him? He's just so gorgeous, sexy and mysterious—but she wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes. That's not who she is. At all."

I blinked. I was almost sure now that Rachel was thefriendwe were talking about—and she'd just asked for my permission to approach Captain. Ugh. How was this my life?

"Anne?" she said.

Snapping myself out of it, I forced a smile. "I'd be fine with it. We're nottogether." Unfortunately. "And besides, Captain has his own mind. I'm sure he'd like hearing all the nice things you said about him."

I'd thought it was a solid answer, and so did Rachel because she smiled to herself. But Gemma? She was full-on frowning at me. After Rachel had gone, Gemma pulled me outside the band room and got straight to the point.

"I can't believe you," she said. "Why would you say that?"

"What?" I said. "It's true. We're not together."

Gemma shook her head. "Yeah, I know. But do you really want Rachel hitting on him? Would you be okay with them dating?"

My heart sank at the thought.

"That's not really my decision," I replied.

"Anne, I just don't get you sometimes," Gemma said. "You put on your big girl panties and kissed the guy.Twice. But now, you're willing to let him slip away."

I sighed. "It's not like Captain returns my feelings or anything."

Gemma held up a finger. "But you said he came over to your house the other day after the concert which also happened to be the morning after Kiss 2."

I giggled, couldn't help it. "The Morning After Kiss 2? Sounds like a Netflix movie."

"You said Captain was acting weird," she added, completely disregarding the comment.

"Only a little." I thought about the possibly imaginary kiss he'd left on my neck and held back a shiver. "Maybe I read the situation wrong."

"But what if you read it right?"

I waved her off. "It's not real. All of this started because of the challenge."

"I have a theory on that," she said.

"Okay…"

"Did you ever stop to wonder who posted that comment in the first place?"

I didn't know where she was going with this, but I was intrigued.

"Go on," I said.

Gemma smiled. "LonelyHeart1? I checked, and the account has zero posts and looks like it was created only weeks ago."

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