Page 8 of Primal Urges

His solid brown eyes resembled those of a deer who had just come face-to-face with a lion out in the open. There was a look of fear and panic and momentary loss of motor function.

“I… I… didn’t mean to bump into you,” the boy finally choked out once his brain appeared to recalculate.

The mysterious young man straightened up and peeled himself away from Cade’s muscular frame.

The boy looked terrified. It wasn’t his fault, yet the kid was acting like he had just murdered his goldfish.

Caden felt horrible. He reached out and placed his hand on the kid’s shoulder.

“Hey, hey. It’s alright, kid. It was my fault for not making sure the coast was clear before barreling out of the washroom like that. I’ve never been a graceful guy.”

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of the boy’s lips. Caden was pretty sure he was just about to get a smile when…

The boy gazed down at the carnage at their feet.

Shattered glass, leftover beer, and whiskey were strewn together like a last-minute Irish afterparty on St. Paddy’s Day.

“Shit. Shit. I’m such a screwup! I’m going to get my stupid ass fired.”

Before Caden could say a word, the boy dropped to his knees and began picking up the shards of broken glass and tossing them back onto the tray he’d been carrying.

What was up with this kid? It was just a couple of broken pint glasses.

Joining the boy on his knees, Caden began helping the kid clean up the mess before someone accidentally stepped on a piece and complained that they now had to have their foot amputated.

Nothing like a big, burly, tough guy getting a baby cut to make the world suddenly come to a crashing halt.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. This place probably loses about twenty glasses a week. Who knew that being drunk could make people so clumsy?”

A soft chuckle escaped from the boy. He looked up at Cade but quickly glanced away when he noticed that Cade was already staring at him.

The boy blushed.

“Yeah, well, this isn’t the first tray of glasses that I’ve completely destroyed tonight. At this rate, people are going to be drinking out of soup bowls by the end of the night.”

“Nope. Not possible,” Cade refuted. The boy looked up at him, perplexed. “We don’t serve soup here, so no soup bowls. Dinner plates, perhaps, but I wouldn’t recommend them for holding volumes of liquid. Another recipe for disaster.”

The boy chuckled again. His face seemed to relax, and most of the tension had disappeared from his shoulders.

Perfect.Now he didn’t need to worry about him accidentally dying of nervousness.

“I take it you’re new here?” Caden asked, motioning to Alexis, the bartender, to bring them a broom. Why they were using their hands to pick up shards of glass was beyond him.

“Yeah. First night on the job.” The boy was back to concentrating on cleaning his mess and was barely aware that Caden was still talking.

“And they decided it was a good idea to start you on one of the busiest nights of the week?” Caden asked, kind of surprised that Marcus would make such a rookie mistake.

“I might have lied and said that I had previous busboy experience.”

Oh, that made sense.Lying to the boss was never a smart move.

“Here,” Alexis said, passing Caden a broom before rushing back behind the bar. The bar was busy, and there were only two bartenders working the bar that night.

“Here, stand up.” Caden reached down and pulled the boy up by his underarms. “Let me.”

He began sweeping up the remaining pieces of broken glass before collecting them into the dustpan. The cleanup only took two minutes, but with the way the boy was nervously looking over his shoulder, it felt like an eternity.

The kid really was a bundle of nerves.

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