My Only Exception (4 page)

As much as that statement made perfect sense, for some reason in my drunken state, it highly pissed me off.

I pulled away from him and swayed slightly without the support of his body. He reached out to steady me, but I snatched my arm back, almost falling if it hadn
’t been for Ryan’s hands grabbing me from behind to prevent it.

“Whatever, Braden. There won’t be a next time.” Somehow I could think straight enough to know
that
much about what my feelings on Braden were supposed to be, but I also knew what my feelings for Braden
actually
were. And the filter from my brain to my mouth in my drunken state was currently
not
working. “But just so you know,” I continued on, “if you weren’t so much of a womanizer, I’d be all. Over. You.”

Oh God, did I really just say that out loud to Braden
’s face —in front of everyone?
Even in my drunken state that horrifying realization got through my foggy brain.

Another burst of laughter from those around us followed this statement and Braden smirked at me, obviously amused.
“Uh, Presley? I think you already threw yourself at me.”

Bree giggled next to me and grabbed my arm.
“Come on, Pres. Let’s get you home. You are
torn
up!”

Jack
’s girlfriend Katie appeared on my other side and the two of them steered me toward the door. Once we were just through the doorway, I turned to get one last look at Braden.

And what I saw royally ticked me off.

The tall, leggy brunette from earlier had herself wrapped ridiculously around Braden now. He was laughing and appeared not bothered at all by the new appendage to his person.

Groupie
, obviously.

And I was boiling. Not that I had a right to be. But the fact that he
’d just blown me off, and now had already moved on to some random girl, had me unreasonably livid.

Braden glanced over and our eyes met. His widened slightly when he saw the look on my face, but I didn
’t stick around to see any
more than that. I stormed clumsily to Katie
’s car and then promptly threw up on the ground next to it.

I entered Luigi’s Italian Grill from the back entrance, stepping into the busy kitchen bustling with cooks and waiters rushing every which way. It had taken me a full day to recover from the horrible hangover I had from my night of overdrinking. This was the first day that I actually felt like myself.

I smiled and waved at the head cook, Johnny, as I passed by. He was wearing a white chef’s shirt with the green logo of Luigi’s Italian Grill embroidered over the left pocket. Johnny was a fairly large man with an equally large personality and he spoke Italian fluently, often combining both English and his native language whenever he spoke. Most of the time I could make out what he was saying based on the words I understood and then guessing at the rest.

“
Salve
, Presley!” he called out. He had a way of rolling his r’s that I could never quite replicate.

“Hello, Johnny!” I called back. I gave him and the other line cooks a quick wave as I made my way to the employee break room to put my things away. I was working the closing shift that night and I’d packed a few high protein snacks to get me through. If I was lucky, I’d get a chance to stop back by my locker and grab a snack between running around waiting on my tables.

As I slid my things into my locker, I was greeted by the one person that I was dying to see but would die before I let him know it —Braden Worthington.

With his dark tousled hair, gorgeous face, and a lean chiseled body that made girl’s everywhere fall all over him, he was by far the most popular male waiter that worked at the grill. Of course, the fact that he was also the lead singer and guitarist for Chronic Need, had girls traveling from all over the place to eat here. They’d wait hours just to sit in his section.

I wondered if it had always been that way for him. From what I knew, Braden had grown up the middle child of three rowdy and equally good-looking brothers. When his brothers stopped by the restaurant with him, I nearly fell over at the gorgeousness of the three of them together. I also knew that his parents were missionaries and he and his family had lived a little bit of everywhere. I had a feeling that he’d broken a lot of hearts all over the world before settling here in Wilmington. Hell, he’d broken a lot of hearts just in the past year that I’d known him.

Braden’s eyes lit up when he saw me, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Well, hey, beautiful. Feeling more yourself tonight?” He watched me with amusement as I rolled my eyes and shut the door to my locker. There was no way I was going to let my drunken behavior the other night change things between us. I was sticking to the usual game we played. He flirted with me outrageously, in hopes that I’d eventually cave and go out with him, and I blew him off. I felt much more comfortable with that arrangement than the one where I spilled my feelings for him and very nearly dragged him off to bed. I
had really hoped he would forget all about the other night. But knowing him, he’d kept his drinking to a minimum and remembered every embarrassing detail.

I took a second to glance in the full-length mirror that one of our fellow waitresses, Angie, had installed on the wall. She had put it up after she’d walked around an entire shift with marinara sauce on her bottom that all of the other staff had been too busy to notice. She’d been mortified and I couldn’t blame her. I would have too. In fact, during my short breaks I always checked my back-side in the mirror to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to me.

I glanced down at my fitted khakis and white button-up shirt, the standard attire for the wait-staff at the grill. I’d added a black cardigan and comfortable black flats. My long blonde hair was pulled back from my face and my skin glowed golden from all the beach time I’d been putting in lately. It was my absolute favorite place in the world to be and I logged countless hours laying out there and reading while listening to the waves crashing. It was pretty much certain that if I wasn’t at school or work, then I was at the beach.

Braden’s grin widened as I turned to face him. “Don’t worry. No need to check yourself. You look gorgeous, as always.”

Despite my anger at Braden the other night, or what I remembered of it, I just couldn’t stay mad at him. And in spite of myself, I grinned back. He was
such
a shameless flirt that I’d be crazy to believe a word he said. And here I was half-way in love with him. 

“Thanks Braden,” I said, “but I’ve heard you use that line way too many times to believe it.”

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “I meant every word I said, promise. With you, I don’t have to exaggerate.”

I smiled at him, grabbing my half apron and then playfully rumpling his hair with my hand as I walked by. Secretly, I was enjoying the feel of it running through my fingers, but I’d die before I let him know that.

“Later, Braden,” I called back as I slipped out the door and into the busy kitchen. I tied my black apron on as I walked out, dodging coworkers balancing trays full of food.

As I was picking up my order book, a deep voice called my name. “Presley!” I turned around to see Wyatt striding up to me. He lifted me off my feet with the ease and comfort of someone I’d known my whole life, twirling me around before setting me back down. “I guess I get to work with the best of the best tonight.” He winked at me and laughed when I swatted playfully at him.

I smiled back, genuinely excited to see Wyatt. It seemed our school schedules never allowed us to work the same shifts. We were both attending Wilmington University: him for criminal justice and me for business. And it wasn’t a coincidence that two friends from Tennessee had ended up here. When I’d applied to Wilmington University, he had too, with the excuse that someone needed to keep an eye on me.

I was really blessed that he had decided to go to the same school as me. I couldn’t imagine coming so far away and not knowing a soul. But lately, we were lucky to squeeze in a quick lunch together, so it was a real treat that we were scheduled for a shift working at the same time.

I sighed. “Ditto. Not that we’ll have much time to see each other, judging from the crowd out there.”

“Well,
you know who
is working tonight, so that means we’ll be slammed.” I looked back to where Braden was coming out of the break room.

He walked up to us, leaning in front of me to grab a ticket book. “Yeah,” Braden inserted. “You can thank me for all the extra tips you’ll bring in tonight. You’re welcome.”

Wyatt shot Braden an irritated look and walked off, pushing through the kitchen doors before going out into the dining area of the restaurant.

Braden glanced to the doors Wyatt had disappeared out of. “See, not everyone’s a fan.” He smiled good-naturedly, obviously not bothered at all. 

I raised my eyebrows at him. “True.” Wyatt and Braden had never really gotten along. If you asked me, it was more that Wyatt didn’t like Braden than vice versa. I think it worried him that I might eventually give in to Braden’s seduction and then end up hurt. And if there was one thing that got Wyatt furious, it was me getting hurt. He’d always tried to protect me growing up, manhandling anyone who tried to bother me, and it hadn’t stopped when we’d reached adulthood.

I raised my eyebrows at Braden. “As far as more tips go, that’s only
if
they’ll agree to sit in anyone else’s section. There were girls that waited four hours for one of your tables the other night while practically my whole section was open.”

He gave me a knowing look. “Except for the party of ten that sat in
your
section for hours. All male, and all members of the university’s baseball team. And every one of them checking your ass out every time you walked by. You’re one to talk, Presley.”

I felt my cheeks heating up recalling that night. I had thought the guys would never leave. I was asked out twice by the time they finally left and had been forced to turn them down in a way that wouldn’t offend them. Luckily, I’d succeeded without insulting anyone and the tips had been awesome. Thank goodness, because it seemed most of the patrons had been waiting to sit in Braden’s section.

Time passed quickly as I juggled the busy Friday night crowd. It meant great tips, but also meant that I was running my tail off without so much as a water break. By the time I clocked out and retrieved my things from my locker, I was beat. All I wanted to do was take a long, hot bath and go to bed. I threw my bag onto my shoulder and called out a goodbye to the few kitchen staff who were still closing down for the night.

As I was making my way toward the back door of the building, I heard Braden’s voice from behind me. “Presley, wait up!”

I suppressed the little shiver that just hearing Braden’s voice call my name produced. I could listen to him say it all day.

I turned around and waited for him to catch up to me.

He gave me a grin, showing his perfect set of even white teeth. He’d obviously had a killer orthodontist growing up. I shuddered just remembering the almost four years I’d had to wear my braces.

“Walk you out?” he asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Sure.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see one of the other waitresses, and one of Braden’s former flings, Kylie, shooting daggers at me.