Page 76 of The Captain

“That’s very impressive.”

He eyed me and pursed his lips. “I feel like you’re lying.”

“I’m not!” I laughed at his face, turning my head away from him and taking a sip of beer.

“Ha, yeah right. You’re totally lying to me.” He nudged my shoulder, making me feel like we were going beyond flirting even though rational thought told me that it wasn’t. This was normal for our age, this was innocent. “You don’t like hockey.”

I shrugged, not wanting to hurt his feelings. “It’s not that I don’t like hockey, I just don’t know hockey. I’ve never seen it.”

Lincoln gaped at me, his mouth hanging open as his eyes tracked over my face. “You’ve never watched a hockey game?”

I giggled, a thrill running through me at this attention he was giving me. “Nope.”

“Well, we’ll have to change that,” he said, giving me a wink that made butterflies erupt in my stomach.

Victoria came up then, bumping my shoulder with hers. “Come on, we’re going to go party at the hockey house.”

I turned to her and frowned. “The hockey house?” That sounded ominous to my innocent ears.

“That’s my house,” Lincoln piped up, hearing our conversation. “Come on, we just go hang out. We have a pool table and stuff, it’s fun. Here.” He reached into his pocket and stole a pen off the bar, writing something on a keychain before handing it over. The number eighteen was on one side, with the Vapors logo and his address and phone number on the back. “So you don’t get lost.” He handed the keychain to me, and for whatever reason, I held it tightly in my hand.

I felt torn. Part of me really wanted to experience this hockey house party—to get out of my comfort zone and go have some fun.

But another part of me dreaded going to a house I didn’t know and being around a bunch of strangers.

I’d come this far, though, and I could handle it.

At least once.

The hockey house was exactly what I expected it to be. It was fairly kept up on the outside, and given that it was on campus property, I assumed that the campus kept it up themselves.

Walking inside was madness, and I linked my arm through Victoria’s as we walked through the front door. We’d walked from the bar like most of the students did, but we took a detour to the convenience store first because Vic had a craving for some gummy candy.

So a half hour after we left the bar, we found ourselves inside a rowdy, loud and people-packed house.

It was so not my scene.

Occasionally, I didn’t mind a crowd. There were a lot of times that I liked going to concerts and being around the same people who enjoyed the same music as I did.

But this kind of situation, where college students were drinking to be drunk and to get attention from, well, anyone, wasn’t really where I liked to put myself.

“Weren’t we meeting your friend tonight?” I yelled in Vic’s ear over the heart-thumping bass of the music.

It was way too loud in here.

“She had to bail! She wanted to study, instead,” Vic replied, yelling over the music. The only difference between her and me, though, was that she had a big smile plastered over her face.

Apparently, it was a scene Vic enjoyed.

I was disappointed about her friend bailing and wished I knew the friend so we could go study together.

Then, two seconds later, the thought left my mind as Lincoln came into view.

I didn’t know what it was about that man that got my stomach going, but every part of my body came to attention the moment his eyes settled on mine.

He made his way through the crowd, ignoring the calls from the people—mainly the girls—around him with his focus completely on me.

When he got to my side, Vic told me she was going to find a drink and disappeared into the throng of people, leaving Lincoln and me completely alone.

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