Because of Low

  Because of Low

  Copyright © 2012 by Abbi Glines

  Cover illustration by Stephanie Mooney © 2011 For information on the cover art, please contact [email protected]

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this book and you have not purchased it or won it in an author/publisher contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the author by purchasing the ebook from one of its many distributors.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Abbi Glines

  16125 County Road 13

  Fairhope, AL 36532

  Printed in The United States of America

  If I had known who she was when I first met her, would it have made a difference? I can’t honestly tell you. The moment Willow Foster entered my life everything shifted. While my family fell in shambles around me she remained my core. My center. Then everything she was exploded, twisting into my worst nightmare. I couldn’t hold onto them all. I had to choose. Willow or my family. There was no other choice.

  Chapter One

  Marcus

  Moving back home sucked. Everything about this town reminded me of why the hell I’d wanted to get away. I had a life in Tuscaloosa and I needed that life to escape. Here, I was Marcus Hardy. No matter where I went people knew me. They knew my family. And now... they were talking about my family. Which is why I had come home. Leaving my sister and mother here alone to face this was impossible. The scandal hovering over our heads took away all my choices and my freedom. Right now, few people knew but it was only a matter of time. Soon the entire coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama would know what my dad was doing or should I say, who my dad was doing. King of the Mercedes car dealerships along the Gulf Coast had been a high enough title for some little gold digging whore only a few years older than me to jump in bed with my dear ‘ol dad. The one time I’d seen the home wrecker working behind the desk right outside Dad’s office I’d known something wasn’t right. She was young and smoking hot and apparently money hungry.

  Dad couldn’t keep it in his pants and now my mom and sister would have to deal with the stigma it would cause. People would feel sorry for Mom. This was already devastating to her and she didn’t even know yet that the other woman was barely a woman. My younger sister Amanda had caught them going at it one evening late when Mom had sent her over to the office to take Dad some dinner. She’d called me that night crying hysterically. I’d withdrawn from school, packed my things and headed home. There was no other option. My family needed me.

  A knock on the door snapped me out of my internal tirade and I went to see what chick was here looking for Cage this time. God knew the guy had an endless line of females parading through his life. My new roommate was a player. A major player. He put my best friend, Preston, to shame. I twisted the knob and swung the door open without peeking through the hole.

  The surprise was on me. I’d been prepared to tell whatever tall willowy large but obviously fake chested female dressed in almost nothing waiting outside the door that Cage was busy with another one very similar to her. Except a very natural almost curvy red head stood before me. Red rimmed eyes and a tear streaked face gazed up at me. There was no mascara lines running down her face. Her hair wasn’t styled but pulled back in a pony tail. She wore jeans and what appeared to be an authentic Back in Black AC/DC concert t-shirt. No belly button flashing a flat tanned stomach and her clothes weren’t skin tight. Well maybe the jeans were a little snug but they hugged her hips nicely. My appreciation of her legs in the slim fit jeans stopped however when I noticed the small beat up suitcase clutched tightly in her hand.

  “Is Cage here?” Her voice sounded broken and musical at the same time. I was having a hard time digesting that this girl was here for Cage. She wasn’t anything like he veered toward. Nothing was enhanced. Everything from her thick dark copper hair to the Chuck Taylors on her feet screamed, “not Cage’s type.” And the fact she was carrying a suitcase, well that couldn’t be good.

  “Uh, um, no.”

  Her shoulders slumped and another sob escaped her mouth. One small dainty hand flew up in an attempt to mute the sound of her obvious distress. Her nails were even classy. Not too long with a smooth rounded tip and soft pink nail polish.

  “I left my cell phone,” she let out a sigh then continued, “at my sister’s. I need to call him. Can I come in?”

  Cage was out with a swimsuit model that apparently had a thing for college baseball players. I knew from the way he talked he didn’t intend to come up for air much tonight. He’d never answer her call and I hated to see her get more upset than she already was. A horrible thought crossed my mind, surely he hadn’t gotten this girl pregnant. Couldn’t he see how freaking innocent she was.

  “Uh, yeah but I don’t know if he’ll answer. He’s busy... tonight.”

  She shot me a sour smile and nodded stepping around me.

  “I know the kind of busy he is but he’ll talk to me.”

  She sounded rather confident. I wasn’t feeling her confidence myself.

  “Do you have a cell I can use?”

  I reached into the pocket of my jeans and handed it to her unable to argue with her further. She had stopped crying and I wanted to keep it that way.

  “Thanks, I’ll try calling first.”

  I watched as she walked over to the sofa and dropped her suitcase to the floor with a thunk before sinking dejectedly down onto the worn cushions as if she’d been here a hundred times. Being as I’d only been moved in for two days, I wouldn’t know if she had been here before or not. Cage was a friend of a friend who had been looking for a roommate. I needed somewhere to live fast and his place was nice. Preston was on the same baseball team as Cage at the local community college. Once Preston heard I needed a place to live he called Cage and hooked me up.

  “It’s me. I left my phone when I ran. You’re not here but your new roommate let me in. Call me,” she sniffed then hung up. I watched fascinated as she proceeded to text him. She really believed the male whore I lived with was going to call her right up as soon as he got her message. I was intrigued and growing more concerned by the minute.

  She finished and handed the phone back to me. A smile touched her red splotchy face and two dimples appeared in her cheeks. Damn that was cute.

  “Thanks, do you mind if I wait a little bit until he calls back?”

  I shook my head, “No, not at all. You want a drink?” She nodded and stood up.

  “Yes, but I’ll get it. My drinks are in the bottom drawer of the fridge behind the Bud Lights.”

  I frowned and followed her into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and bent down to get her hidden drink. With her bent over digging for her so called drink the snug fit of the faded jeans over her ass was hard to miss. It was a perfect heart shape and although she wasn’t very tall her legs seemed to go on for miles.

  “Ah, here it is. Cage needs to run to the store and restock. He must be letting his one nighters drink my Jarritos.”

  I couldn’t keep guessing. I needed to know who she was exactly. Surely she wasn’t one of his girlfriends. Could she be the sister Preston had mentioned dating? I sure as hell hoped not. I was interested and I hadn’t been interested in anyone in awhile. Not since the last girl broke my heart. I opened my mouth to ask her how she knew Cage when the phone in my pocket started ringing. She walked over to me and held out her hand. The girl really believed it was Cage
. I glanced down and sure enough, my roommate had called back.

  She took the phone from my hand.

  “Hey”

  “She’s such a selfish jerk.”

  “I can’t stay there Cage.”

  “I didn’t mean to leave my phone. I was just upset.”

  “Yes, your new roommate’s a nice guy. He’s been very helpful.”

  “No, don’t end your date. Get her out of your system. I’ll wait.”

  “I promise not to go back.”

  “She is who she is Cage.”

  “I just hate her,” I could hear the tears in her voice again.

  “No, no, really I’m fine. I just needed to see you.”

  “Don’t. I’ll leave.”

  “Cage --”

  “No”

  “Cage”

  “Okay fine.”

  She held the phone out to me, “He wants to talk to you.”

  This conversation was like nothing I’d expected. The girl had to be his sister.

  “Hey.”

  “Listen, I need you to make sure Low stays there until I can get home. She’s upset and I don’t want her leaving. Get her one of her damn Mexican soda thingys out of the fridge. They’re behind the Bud Lights in the bottom drawer. I have to hide them from other chicks I have over. All females tend to like those nasty drinks. Turn on the television, distract her, whatever. I’m only ten minutes away but I’m putting my jeans on as we speak and headed home. Just help get her mind off things but DON’T touch her.”

  “Ah, okay sure. Is she your sister?”

  Cage chuckled into the phone. “Hell no she ain’t my sister. I’d never buy my damn sister drinks and call her back when I’m in the middle of a fucking threesome. Low’s the girl I’m gonna marry.”

  I had no response for that. My eyes found her standing over by the window with her back to me. The long thick copper locks curled on the ends and brushed against the middle of her back. She was absolutely nothing like the girls Cage regularly hooked up with. What did he mean she was the girl he was going to marry? That made no sense.

  “Keep her there man. I’m on my way.”

  Then he hung up the phone.

  I dropped the phone on the table and stood there staring at her back. She turned around slowly and studied me a moment then a smiled broke across her face.

  “He told you he was going to marry me didn’t he,” she said laughing softly before taking a drink of the orange soda with what appeared to have spanish writing on it.

  “Crazy boy. I shouldn’t have bothered him but he’s all I’ve got.”

  She walked over and sank back down onto the old faded green sofa pulling her legs up underneath her.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not leaving. He’d rip apart my sister’s house searching for me and scare the bejesus out of her if I left. I’ve got enough issues where she’s concerned. I don’t intend to unleash Cage on her.”

  I slowly made my way over to the only chair in the room and sat down.

  “So, you’re engaged?” I asked staring down at her bare ring finger.

  With a sad smile she shook her head.

  “Not in a million years. Cage has crazy ideas. Just because he says them doesn’t make them true.”

  She raised her eyebrows and took another drink of her soda.

  “So, you aren’t going to marry Cage,” I really would love for her to clarify this because I was incredibly confused and more than a little interested in her. She bit down on her bottom lip and I noticed for the first time how full it was.

  ”Cage was my ‘boy next door’ growing up. He’s my best friend. I love him dearly and he really is all I have. The only person I can count on. We’ve never actually been in a relationship before because he knows I won’t have sex with him and he needs sex. He’s also real wrapped up in the whole idea that a relationship between the two of us before we get married will end badly and he’ll lose me. He has this irrational fear of losing me.”

  Did she know the guy had bagged over three different girls this week and apparently was having a threesome when she’d called? She was so much better than Cage.

  “Wipe that look off your face. I don’t need your pity. I know what Cage is like. I know you have probably seen the kind of girls he’s attracted to and I look absolutely nothing like them. I don’t live in a fantasy world. I’m very aware,” she tilted her head and smiled at me sweetly, “I don’t even know your name.”

  “Marcus Hardy”

  “Well Marcus Hardy, I’m Willow Montgomery but everyone calls me Low. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Likewise”

  “So, you’re a friend of Preston’s.”

  I nodded, “Yes but don’t hold it against me.”

  She laughed for the first time and the sudden pleasure from such a simple sound startled me. I liked hearing her laugh.

  “I won’t. Preston isn’t all that bad. He likes to use those pretty boy looks of his to get his way but I’m safe from his attention. Cage would kill him if he decided to bat his baby blues at me.”

  Was it because of Preston’s womanizing or the fact he was a guy that made Cage protective of Willow. Did he really expect her to wait around until he was ready to settle down and marry her?

  “LOW,” Cage’s voice rang out as the door to the apartment swung open. His head snapped around and his eyes went straight to Willow.

  “God baby I was so afraid you’d leave, come here.” This was a side of Cage I’d never seen. Apparently the sweet little red head got to him in a way no one else could. He pulled her up into his arms, reached down and grabbed the forgotten suitcase then led her back to his bedroom whispering to her the entire way. If she hadn’t informed me that she refused to have sex with him earlier I’d have been eat up with righteous fury at the idea of him touching someone so sweet after having just left the bed of not one but two girls. But instead, I was eaten up with envy because I knew he was going to get to hold her and listen to her musical voice as she spilled out all her problems. He’d be the one to fix them, not me. I’d just met her. Why the hell did that bother me?

  Chapter Two

  Willow

  I glanced down at Cage sprawled out on the floor beside me. He’d somehow managed to find a few blankets and a pillow last night when he’d returned from his two a.m. booty call. He reeked of whiskey and sex. I didn’t allow him to sleep next to me when he’d been out screwing some nameless chick, crazy boy. I resisted the urge to reach down and brush the long black hair out of his eyes. I needed to leave and if I woke him up he’d stop me. My sister was expecting me to keep my niece Larissa today. I was still furious with her but Larissa was a baby and she needed me. She couldn’t help the fact her mommy was a selfish brat.

  I took the quilt off the bed as I stood up and gently covered Cage’s half naked body. He’d stripped down to his boxers last night in his attempt to get rid of his smoke, whiskey, and cheap women infested clothing. Didn’t matter he still smelled like all those things. The ridiculously chiseled body of his was always a golden brown. His mother had been one hundred percent Indian and it was obvious in his features. The intense blue eyes of his had to be the only thing his dad gave him genetically and physically. That was one of the many bonds Cage and I shared, absent fathers.

  My suitcase held the only three clean outfits I currently had. My dirty clothes were piled up over in the corner of Cage’s room in a plastic laundry basket. I really needed to make time to do the laundry. Grabbing a pair of jeans and a “Hurricane’s Baseball” t-shirt Cage had given me from my meager supply of clothing, I dressed quickly and quietly. After I’d brushed my hair, I closed my suitcase and threw my clothing from last night into the dirty clothes basket.

  Gently closing the bedroom door behind me so I didn’t wake him, I turned and headed for the fridge. I needed some coffee and I wanted to leave some ready for Cage when he woke up. Lord knows he’d need it after his late night.

  “I thought you left last night.”

/>   I spun around to see Marcus Hardy sitting at the kitchen table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee already in his hands. I really wish he wasn’t so dang gorgeous. Marcus Hardy wasn’t in my league or even my atmosphere. How Cage had landed a Hardy for a roommate, I had no idea. Preston must be really tight with Marcus which seemed odd since Preston grew up much like Cage and me.

  “Um, no, that was Cage that left last night.”

  Marcus frowned that disapproving frown I’d seen last night again. He really didn’t get Cage and me at all. I wasn’t sure if he was judging me or Cage but it annoyed me. Even though he had the prettiest green eyes I’d ever seen on a guy in my life.

  “Cage isn’t here?”

  I shook my head, “No, he’s back. He had a um, call last night and he went out. He got back a few hours ago.”

  “So he left you here while he went... out”

  I sighed and reached for a coffee cup.

  “Yep”

  “I was going to make me some eggs and toast. You want some?”

  That hadn’t been the response I’d expected. I was sure he was going to beat this thing with Cage and me into the ground. Instead, he was offering to fix me breakfast.

  “No thanks, I’ve got to go keep my niece today.” I held up the coffee mug in my hand, “I take mugs full of coffee with me when I leave but I always bring them back.”

  Marcus shrugged, “No worries. They aren’t mine anyway.”

  “I know. I bought them for Cage when he got this place.”

  Marcus stood up and walked over to the fridge and began getting eggs and butter out. If I was honest with myself I really wanted to stand here and watch him cook. Then eat breakfast with him and see if I could make him smile. I felt sure he had a really nice smile. Those green eyes would probably twinkle.

  “If you’re sure you can’t stay. My cooking is pretty damn impressive.”

  Marcus reached over to open the drawer beside me. The clean soap smell mixed with coffee and something else that reminded me of warm summer days met my nose. I fought the urge to grab his shirt and take a deeper whiff. He’d think I was crazy. I’d always thought the way Cage smelled when he came home from celebrating a victory game was the best smell in the world. But Cage’s sweat, beer, and cigarettes couldn’t compete with clean Marcus Hardy.