Predestined (27 page)

Also by Abbi Glines

Because of Low

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 I’d withdrawn from school, packed my things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?