The Exception (5 page)

“Good, then you know exactly what I’m about to do.” With that, he closed the gap between us and kissed me. When I responded, he placed his other hand around my back to pull me closer and deepened the kiss.

When he finally pulled away, my head was spinning. Sure I had kissed a boy before, but I had never been kissed like that. I couldn’t keep from smiling, but in that moment I didn’t care. It had been a perfect first kiss and besides, the smile on his face seemed to match mine.

“I guess I have to get you home now.” 

“Guess
so.”

Jake climbed down the tree first, then helped me down. We walked hand in hand back to his truck, enjoying what was left of a perfect West Texas night.

The drive back to my house seemed to go by way too quickly. I was in no way ready for this night to end. When we pulled into my driveway, we both sat there silently for a minute or two staring out the front window.

“I had better get inside.” I said breaking the silence, reaching for the door and pausing to look back at Jake before opening it. “Thanks for tonight. I had a really great time.”

“Me too.” He took a deep breath in. “Listen, I know I should wait a day or whatever before calling and asking you out again, but I don’t think I could wait a couple of days before seeing you again. What are you doing tomorrow?”

I sat there for a few seconds staring at him in disbelief. I mean, I had a great time; I really did. But he’s a senior, and I barely know him and he couldn’t possibly be that into me. Could he?

“Really? Tomorrow?” I couldn’t believe it even as I was saying it out loud. And good grief, what was it about this boy that kept causing me to smile like this?

“Yes, really. What do you say?” He reached over and laced his fingers with mine, running his thumb back and forth across the outline of my hand. That one little move caused me to momentarily forget what I was supposed to be thinking about. I watched his thumb run up the side of mine and then back down and across to the base of my pinky.

Every time he touched me, my body reacted in a way I wasn’t quite used to. I was completely focused on what he was doing and had a building desire to lean over and kiss him the way he had kissed me earlier. But before I could lean in, he interrupted my thoughts.

“Emma?” I looked up and met his eyes. I could tell by the look on his face that he was enjoying the affect he had on me.

“Oh, right,” I snapped myself back into reality. Was I really about to lean in and kiss him? I’ve never been so bold with anyone. And is it that I am bolder or is it that my body seems to have a mind of its own when I’m around him.
Good Lord, I need to get it together.

“Tomorrow afternoon Maya is coming over to lay out. Then the guys are joining us later to hit on the court. You can come if you want.” I know he probably wasn’t looking to hang out with me and my friends, but I was practically willing him to say yes in my head.

“You have a tennis court in your backyard?”

“Uh…yeah.” I laughed. “My dad likes me to practice – a lot. He thinks I’m going to go pro or something one day.”

“Awesome. What time should I be here?”

“The guys are coming over around two. So if…”

“Great. I’ll see you around two tomorrow then,” he jumped in before I could say anything else.

“Sounds good.”

I couldn’t believe Jake didn’t mind coming to hang out with me and my friends. We are just getting to know each other, and he didn’t seem phased at all about being thrown in with the whole crew. How easygoing he is just makes me like him that much more.

The porch lights flickered on and we both looked at the clock.

“Holy crap! It’s ten forty-five. I better get inside before he comes out here.”

“In my defense, I had you here at ten twenty-nine, a whole minute early. And he said nothing about being inside by ten thirty,” Jake said jokingly, before running around to open my door. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at the goofy grin all over his face when I hopped out of the truck.

“Goodnight, Jake. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Night, Emma.”

He waited till I opened the front door and turned around and waved before climbing back in his truck and driving off. I was prepared for anything my dad was about to say because, frankly, nothing could ruin my mood. I can’t believe my first date was so incredibly perfect with a boy who was so incredibly perfect. I hadn’t realized that I sighed, out loud, until I heard my dad chuckle.

“The date went well tonight, I take it?”

“Oh, William, leave your daughter alone,” my mom said, walking into the room and playfully swatting my father on the arm. “No seventeen-year-old wants to talk to her dad about her first date.” Then she turned to look at me, “So let’s go upstairs so you can tell me all about it.”

My dad burst out laughing, shooing us both upstairs so I could tell my mom about my date with Jake. I told my mom where we went to dinner and what happened with the waitress. She gushed when I told her about how he got two large cups of ice cream because I couldn’t make up my mind. I left out the part about the park because I didn’t really want to discuss our kiss with my mom. My mom and I have always been close, but that still didn’t mean I wanted to go into those kinds of details with her.

“Oh, honey, I am so glad your first date was wonderful! I’m sure you can’t wait to tell Maya all about it, so I’ll get out of your hair.” My mom stood up off my bed and began to leave, pausing when she got to the door, “Night, Em. I really am glad your date went well.”

   “Thanks. Night, mom.”

I wasted no time calling Maya once my mom left. When I told her about the waitress I couldn’t keep from laughing when she said, “That bitch!” I told Maya how Jake wouldn’t pay any attention to her and how he made a show of grabbing my hand when exiting the restaurant. I waited for her to tell the guys to shut up so she could finish listening to my story. Then, I heard Gabe grumble in the background, shortly followed by a door slamming. Before telling me to go on, Maya told me not to worry about it and that he had been in a bad mood all night. I thought about Gabe briefly but quickly decided that I was not going to let him ruin my good mood and continued telling Maya about my date. She practically screamed when I told her how he kissed me.

“Wow, Em, he is too much. And the way he kissed you, it’s like something you’d see in a movie. I was still drooling over the ice cream thing, then you tell me about that. Oh, he’s good!”

“I know, right! I don’t know what it is about him, but he makes me feel…”

“Horny.”

“Maya! Oh my God!”

“I’m just sayin’. I wasn’t even there and that boy…”

“Wow. Really? Stop.”

Maya busted out laughing.

“So when do you think he’ll call you again?” she finally asked, once she had composed herself.

“Actually, he asked if he could see me tomorrow.”

“Shut up! What did you say?”

“Well…he may be coming over tomorrow when the boys do.”

“Shut up, shut up!” she screamed.

In the background, I heard Ryan yell something about not being able to hear the end of the movie that she was making them watch. I could practically feel her roll her eyes when she said she had better go.

After I hung up with Maya, I went into my bathroom to get ready for bed. As I walked out, my phone beeped. It was a message from Jake saying he couldn’t wait to see me tomorrow. I had just texted him back, when my window opened.

“From the smile on your face, I bet I could guess who that was,” Gabe said, clearly annoyed.

I tossed my phone on my bed, then folded my arms. “What are you doing here, Gabe? It’s late.” I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to come over and take out his bad mood on me. Even though I was pretty sure I was the cause of it.
Wait. Why am I feeling guilty?

“Oh, so you get a boyfriend and now you can’t hang out with your actual friends?” he uttered harshly, before storming into my bathroom.

“Seriously? Why are you acting like this? And you better keep it down before my parents hear you,” I snapped, following him into the bathroom.

“Why am I acting like what?” he shot back.

“Like this, like a dick,” I said angrily.

All of a sudden the scowl on Gabe’s face softened and a smile threatened his face. “Like a dick?”

First he stormed into my room, then he picked a fight with me, and now he’s mocking me and suddenly not angry? “What the heck, Gabe? I can’t handle your mood swings tonight.”

“Like a dick?” he repeated. This time not trying to hide his smile.

“Yes, like a dick. What could possibly be so funny about that?”

“That’s just not something I’d expect to hear coming from you. Maya, yes. But not you.”

I thought about it for a second, then let out a small laugh. That was definitely something Maya would say.

“Gabe, what are we doing? I don’t want to fight with you.”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry for acting like a ‘dick’,” he said smiling and stepping closer to me. “Can you forgive me?”

He was giving me his best pouty face, so I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine, but don’t you ever barge in here acting like that again,” I spoke as sternly as I could.

“Oh yeah?” he challenged with a cocky smirk.

“Yeah,” I said matter-of-factly, placing both hands on my hips.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” he uttered under his breath. Then, before I even realized what was happening, Gabe had me in his arms and was settling down in the bowl chair with me on his lap.

We sat there quietly, just looking at each other for a second. It didn’t take long before my mind turned to Jake and our perfect date, and I realized for the first time that neither one of us had bothered to turn the bathroom light on during this entire ordeal. So with just the light from my bedroom creeping in, I sat there with Gabe – with a hint of guilt – as my night replayed through my mind.

“I really am sorry about tonight, Em,” he spoke softly, pulling me closer.

“Me too. Let’s never do this again, OK?” I nuzzled myself into his neck – again feeling a twinge of guilt.
What? Where was this coming from?
Gabe and I were always like this together. So why was I suddenly feeling weird about it?

“I promise, Em.” Then, as he ran his fingers through my hair he whispered, “Never again.”

Chapter Five

I woke up to my sister sneaking into my room, startling her when I told her good morning.

“Jeez, Emma. You scared me.”

“Sorry. What time is it? And why are you sneaking into my room?” I asked groggily.

“It’s after ten and I was going to borrow your tanning lotion. I didn’t want to wake you up since you got to bed so late.” She raised a brow. “By the way, what time did Gabe end up leaving?” she asked humorously.

“Oh, shut up, Kenzie!” I threw a pillow at her.

Even though she is two years younger than me, McKenzie and I are pretty close. She has always known about Gabe sneaking into my room, but I knew she would never tell our parents, who would totally freak.

She picked up the pillow before climbing onto my bed. “So now that you are awake, how was your date with Jake?” she asked excitedly.

I told my sister about my date while she looked at me dreamily. “I wish Ryan would realize I’m not a little kid anymore and take me on a date as romantic as that,” she sighed.

Kenzie has had it bad for Ryan since the day that she met him. And Ryan has always viewed her as the annoying little girl that followed him around. But he is way too sweet to ever let her know that. Instead, he treats her like his own little sister, which drives her crazy. But to an almost eighteen year old, a fifteen year old is a baby.

“Kenz, a senior is going to see a freshman as a kid.”

“Really, Emma? Don’t go all big sister on me right now, OK?”

“OK, Kenz.” I checked my cell for the time. “Why don’t we get our swimsuits on and go lay out? Maya will be here any minute now to do exactly that.”

“About that, I was going to see if I could borrow one of yours.” she said mischievously.

“Sure. Just not my new black one,” I countered.

“Em! That’s so not fair!” she whined.

“And now I have to wear it so you wont sneak up here and put it on later.”

“You said you wouldn’t go all big sister on me!”

“I’m sorry, Kenz, but when I know you want to wear it because you know Ryan is going to be here later, I’m going to go all big sister on you.”

“Whatever,” she didn’t bother to try to hide her annoyance. “Can I at least wear the yellow one with the cutouts?”

“Sure. Check the top drawer though. If it’s not there it may me dirty.”

“Eeeek! You’re the best!” she squealed, checking the top drawer. “It’s here! Meet ya downstairs. Oh and by the way, mom and dad left us money on the table for food today since they wont be back till late. OK, see ya in a sec!”

All I could do was laugh as she ran to her room to change. We may be sisters, but I swear we are so different. Besides being great at whatever sport she plays, she’s brilliant – like all AP, top of her class brilliant – and has this charisma that seems to draw people to her. I’m good at tennis but challenged at every other sport, and I am not going to end up at an Ivy League school like she is. She’s definitely the queen bee in her circle of friends. She has always been the type to go after what she wants and right now she wants Ryan. This should be interesting.

As soon as I finished putting my new black swimsuit on, I started to pull my hair up in a ponytail when Maya walked into my room while ending a phone call. “Hey, biatch, you ready to get our tan on?” she called out while walking to my bathroom. When she got to my bathroom, she took one look at my black swimsuit and faked wiping away a tear. “I am so proud…I have taught you well, little Emmie.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked at my best friend like she was crazy.

“What? Like you didn’t wear that swimsuit on purpose because Jake is coming over later.”

“Oh crap!” I panicked. “Is this going to make me look like I’m trying too hard?”

Maya looked amused. “You really didn’t mean to do this on purpose? Oh well. You’re still rocking it. And I don’t know why you’re worried. You wore it to your party thinking he would be there.”

“No, I didn’t do this on purpose. I was trying to prevent Kenzie from wearing it. She was planning on parading around in front of Ryan. And good point.”

“Gotta hand it to little Crawford. That girl has balls.”

I just shook my head as we headed down to the pool. The three of us laid out for a while until we decided that we were hungry. We had just gotten back outside with our snacks when the boys showed up. Early. Typical.

I hadn’t really thought about today being weird with Gabe until he got here. And it was weird. Luckily, Maya was distracted with Dylan. A little too distracted. I would have to ask her about that later but was thankful for the distraction at the present. Hopefully, now she wouldn’t pick up on me and Gabe. My sister, on the other hand, was completely focused on getting Ryan’s attention, so this could be good. Maybe no one would notice.

When Gabe saw that Maya and Dylan were completely captivated with each other and Ryan was busy trying to convince my little sister he just wanted to lay by the pool and listen to his music, Gabe walked over to me.

“Hey, Em,” he said wrapping me up in a bear hug like he always does. “So, are we just going to swim or are we actually going to play tennis?” he asked, glancing around at everyone else.

“Doesn’t really look like they’re up for tennis, does it?” I said, putting my hands on my hips, evaluating the situation.

“Swimming it is!” Gabe exclaimed, scooping me up and jumping in the pool.

When I popped back up, I noticed Gabe had swum to the other side of the deep end. I quickly swam over toward his direction. This means war. “Gabe, I bet you think you are so funny,” I called out once I was closer to where he was.

“Not too fast princess, you don’t want to pull a muscle.”

Oh, it was definitely on. When I finally got to where Gabe was, I threw all my weight into dunking him. As he went down, I had the thought that he went under way too easy. But before I could swim away, he had both my legs and was pulling me under with him.

This time, when we surfaced, we were both out of breath. I looked up to see Ryan yelling “fore” while tossing a float in our direction and then jumping in himself. Gabe grabbed the float and then made sure I could grab on before moving closer to me.

“Emma, about last night…” he began, at the same time my sister jumped in the pool, practically on top of us.

“What the heck, Kenz?”

My sister looked at me and then toward the house. I followed her gaze and saw Jake walking out toward us.

Oh crap! Oh crap! This probably looks so bad. 

I quickly swam closer to my sister who mouthed “you’re welcome”. I gave an appreciative smile. The last thing I want to do is complicate the me, Jake, and Gabe situation. Then I realized it’s probably not a good thing if I have a “situation” in the first place. How did I get here?

I swam over to the edge of the pool as Jake walked up holding his tennis racquet. He came ready to play tennis. It never occurred to me to tell him to wear or bring swim trunks just in case. The guys just always have.

“Hey, Jake. Sorry, I didn’t think to tell you to bring a swimsuit,” I nervously bit my lip.

“No problem. I can just swim in my shorts.”

“OK great,” I smiled, wondering what he saw when he walked up. Hoping he didn’t get the wrong idea, because there wasn’t a wrong idea to get. So why do I keep feeling guilty for interacting with Gabe like I always have? When the heck did this get all complicated?

Just then I noticed a very smiley Maya and Dylan walking toward us from the gazebo. Oh, she definitely has some explaining to do. She looked over at me, and I looked at her questioningly. Then she looked over at Jake and her jaw fell open.

I looked back in his direction to see that he had put his racquet on the table and had pulled off his shirt. Holy crap! That boy looked like he had just stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch magazine. When I managed to pull my eyes off of him and look back over at Maya, who was now at the pool herself, she mouthed “damn”. All I could do was nod my head in agreement. I had just turned back toward Jake’s direction when he jumped in and pulled me over to him.

“I’ll make sure I bring a suit with me from now on,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around my waist.

The feeling of his skin on my skin sent a shiver down my spine, and my body broke out in goose bumps. I was silently praying that Jake wouldn’t notice my body betraying me, but the look on his face said otherwise.

“I really am sorry, Jake. I didn’t even think to mention that we might swim.”

“Trust me. There is never a reason to apologize if it means you in a bikini,” he said huskily.

“Oh.” He had been here for all of five minutes and I was already blushing.

I had completely forgotten about Gabe until he swam up right
next to us. He must have noticed my now red cheeks because he cocked his head to the side and raised one of his eyebrows at me before turning to Jake.

“Hey man, glad you could make it,” Gabe said, offering a fist.

“Glad to be here,” Jake responded while bumping fists with Gabe.

After their little interaction, Gabe looked at me and winked before swimming off toward Kenzie. I was officially confused. I was not expecting Gabe to go from pissed about Jake to starting a bromance with him. What the heck? And what was he about to say before Jake walked up? He is going to give me whiplash from his mood swings if he keeps this up.

“So who is that with Gabe?” Jake asked, nodding toward Gabe and Kenzie.

“Oh, that’s my little sister McKenzie.”

“Little sister?” he asked in disbelief.

I wasn’t surprised when Jake was shocked Kenzie was my little sister. I even think she looks older than she is. People are always assuming that I am the little sister. Kenzie may be fifteen, but thanks to her long legs, C cup boobs, and overall killer figure she definitely looks like she’s in high school. Now add platinum blonde hair and bright green eyes to the equation, and you can see why she’s never had trouble wrapping guys around that tan little finger of hers.

“Yes. Little sister. She’s only fifteen. So pick that jaw up, mister,” I informed, pointing my finger at him.

“Hey now. There is no jaw to pick up. I just would have never guessed she was fifteen,” he said, throwing his arms back innocently.

“Whatever,” I let out a small laugh and rolled my eyes at him.

“And were you scolding me, Miss Crawford?” There was a playfulness in his voice, as he was once again closing the gap between us.

“Do I have reason to scold you?” I teased.

Jake leaned in close enough for me to feel his breath on my neck. “Oh, I can be a Very. Bad. Boy.” Then he scooped me up, cradled me in his arms, and took a squealing me under.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Once we were all way past pruney, we decided to lay out so we could dry off, and the boys declared that they were starving. As soon as they were caught up debating what type of pizza we should order for dinner, I rolled closer to Maya.

“Care to share what is up with you and Dylan?” I whispered.

“Please. There is nothing going on with me and Dylan,” she said dismissively, waiving her hand in the air.

I pushed up onto my stomach and gave her an “I know you’re full of it” look. “Really? You disappear earlier and come back all smiles and giggles. And you haven’t been further than two feet apart all day. You really want to stick with that story?” I questioned.

“Shhh. Hot damn, Em. Lower your voice. OK, so there may be something, but it’s too early to tell and I don’t want to jinx it. OK?” She gave me a pleading look, and I knew she had it bad. My best friend doesn’t do serious or relationships. For her to be acting like this was saying something. “And he may have kissed me behind the gazebo.”

“Eeeeek!” I squealed as I jumped up into a seated position. Apparently I squealed louder than I meant to because all the guys instantly looked over at us. It was obvious that Dylan knew exactly what I was squealing about because he immediately looked at Maya, who just shrugged at him. Smiling, Dylan shook his head at us, then the boys returned to their conversation about dinner.

“Oh my God! Spill! Don’t leave out anything!”

Maya gushed about how he pulled her behind the gazebo and told her that if she was going to keep wearing bikinis like this, he wasn’t going to try and hide his feelings anymore and then kissed her. Leave it to Maya to be subtle. Apparently after, she told him “it’s about damn time” and so he kissed her again. Then they walked back over to join the group.

“That definitely explains the look on y’alls faces when you guys were walking over here,” I laughed.

“Shhh, here they come and I don’t think Dylan said anything to the guys yet.”

I turned around to see the guys walking over to us. Ryan approached first, asking if we had seen his headphones.

“Those headphones?” I asked, pointing at Kenzie who was listening to music with her eyes closed.

“Son of a bitch,” Ryan mumbled.

A clearly frustrated Ryan walked over to Kenzie while the other guys sat down to run their dinner idea by us. Jake pulled me between his legs and reclined me back onto him as he wrapped his arms around my waist, while Dylan ran the different pizza topping options off.