Текст книги "Misbehaving"
Автор книги: Abbi Glines
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Misbehaving (Sea Breeze #6) by Abbi Glines
Chapter One
JESS
I should’ve known better. But I was an idiot. All it had ever taken from Hank was one pitiful bat of his eyelashes and a pout, and I came running. Well, not anymore. I’d forgiven him for becoming someone’s baby daddy. But there was only so much a girl could forgive.
Hank Granger had just screwed me over for the last time. I wasn’t one to be a doormat. My momma had taught me better than that. It was time I stopped letting our history play on my emotions. He was nothing close to being a real man. The boy I’d grown up loving had become a low-down good-for-nothing. He’d never settle down, and I was done letting him trample all over my heart.
He thought parking his pimped-out truck behind the bar was smart. The boy should know better than to think I wouldn’t know where to look. Jackass. I’d found him, all right. We were supposed to have gone out tonight. He had promised me dinner. A real date. But then he’d called two hours ago and canceled, saying he wasn’t feeling good. Being the dutiful girlfriend, I’d decided to make him some soup and take it over to him. Big surprise that he wasn’t there. Not really. I think deep down I’d known he was lying.
I stepped out of the trees I’d walked through for over a mile, and into the darkness of the back of the local bar, Live Bay. I didn’t want my truck to be seen here tonight, and it would be easier to run on foot into the darkness if I needed to make a fast getaway.
I gripped the baseball bat I’d borrowed from my cousin Rock two weeks ago when I’d had to go pick Momma up from work because her car wouldn’t start. Three in the morning outside a strip club wasn’t exactly safe. Momma kept a gun, but I didn’t have a clue how to use it. When I had asked her to teach me, she’d laughed and said that I’d end up shooting Hank’s balls off one night in a fit of rage and refused. Not because she cared for Hank, but because she didn’t want me in jail.
Feeling the weight of the bat in my hands, I smiled. This bad boy would do some serious damage. Then there was the knife in my pocket. The paint job was also going to hell, and if I had time, all four tires were going down.
As I walked around the truck that Hank had pampered and treated like a damn baby for the past four years, a sense of power ran through me. He’d hurt me over and over again. This time I was going to hurt him. Me. Not Rock. Me.
I checked the dark area around me and made sure no one was out here. The busting of the glass was going to make some noise. I wasn’t sure how much I could get away with before someone caught me. Hopefully, the local band, Jackdown, would keep everyone inside entertained enough that no one would leave anytime soon.
Biting back the roar of victory I could feel pumping through my veins, I held the bat back as I shifted my feet and focused on his driver’s side door window. It was going to be the first to go. With all the anger and pain that had consumed me since the first moment I’d found out the boy I’d loved since I was ten years old had been sleeping around on me, I swung the bat. The ski mask I was wearing protected my face. The laughter bubbling up in my chest burst free, and I continued to shatter every window on his pretty little truck.
High on revenge, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife and flipped it open. I decided to write a few choice words in the paint job with my sharp blade, then bent down to jam it into the front tire.
“Hey!” a deep voice called out, and I froze. It wasn’t Hank, but it was someone.
I picked my bat back up and pulled the knife out of the tire before breaking into a sprint back into the woods. He’d never catch me, but I still needed to get this stupid mask off so I could see. Running into a tree and knocking myself out wasn’t exactly a great getaway plan.
The sound of feet hitting the pavement let me know I was being chased. Well, shit. Not what I needed. I was having so much fun. Hank deserved that. He did. He was a rat bastard. I did not want to go to jail over this. Plus my momma would be pissed.
“Hey!” the deep voice called out again. What did he expect me to do? Stop and let him catch me? Not likely.
Other voices came from the distance. Great. He was drawing a crowd. I turned off the path I’d followed earlier and headed deeper into the woods. I wouldn’t have this cover for long. I’d be coming out onto a back road in a few more feet. I couldn’t get my truck because it was outside my momma’s house. I needed everyone to think that was where I was. I’d have to stay on foot and beat anyone there. Dang it.
I couldn’t hear the sound of anyone else’s feet hitting the ground, so either I’d lost them or they were talented in the art of stealth. Breaking out of the wooded area, I stopped on the side of the road. It was deserted.
Glancing back, I saw no one. Hank would know who to come looking for, but he would have no proof. Smiling, I took a deep breath. That would be the end of us. Finally. After what I’d done, Hank would never forgive me, so I wouldn’t be tempted to go running back to him. He’d hate me now as much as I hated him.
“JESS!” Hank’s familiar voice roared. Spinning around, I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him running through the woods behind me. Shit. Shit. Shit. He’d come after me. How’d he find out so fast? Panicking, I looked around to see where I could run to hide from him. There was nothing but miles and miles of road. No houses, nothing.
Headlights came around the corner, and I did the only thing I could think of: I ran out into the middle of the road and started waving my arms in the air, still holding on to Rock’s bat.
The car started slowing down and cut the bright lights. Thank God.
Wait … was that a Porsche? What the hell?
JASON
All I could see was a girl dressed in tight black clothing with lots of long blond hair, and she was standing in the middle of the road … holding a baseball bat. Only in Alabama did stuff like this happen. Stopping before I hit her, I watched as she ran over to the passenger-side door and knocked. The wild, panicked look in her eyes might have been disturbing if they weren’t a bright, clear blue with thick black lashes. I pressed the unlock button, and she jerked the door open and climbed inside.
“Go! Go! Go!” she demanded. She didn’t even look my way. Her eyes were focused on something outside. I turned my attention to the side of the road, where she was watching with such intensity. There was nothing… . Then a guy came bursting out of the woods with an angry snarl on his face and I understood. No wonder she was terrified. The guy was huge and looked ready to murder someone.
I shifted gears and took off before he got any closer.
“Oh my god, thank you. That was so close.” She let out a sigh of relief and leaned her head on the headrest.
“Should I take you to the police station?” I asked, glancing over at her. Had he attacked her before she’d gotten free?
“Definitely not. They’ll probably be looking for me in about ten minutes. I need you to take me home. Momma will cover for me, but I gotta get there quick.”
They’d be looking for her? Her mom would cover for her? What?
“It ain’t like he’s got any proof. The only thing I dropped was the ski mask, and it was a cheapo I bought at the Goodwill a couple of Halloweens ago. Not something he can trace back to me.”
I slowed the Porsche down as her words started sinking in. I hadn’t just saved a girl from being attacked. If I understood this babbling correctly, I had just become the getaway car driver.
“Why’re you slowing down? I need to get to my momma, like, now. She’s just two miles from here. You go up to County Road Thirty-Four and turn right, and then you take it about three-fourths of a mile to Orange Street and take a left. It’s the third house on the right.”
Shaking my head, I pulled over to the side of the road. “I’m not going any farther until you tell me exactly what it is I’m helping you escape from.” I glanced down at her baseball bat tucked between her legs, then up at her face. Even in the darkness I could tell she was one of those ridiculously gorgeous southern blondes. It was like the South had some special ingredient to raise them like that down here.
She let out a frustrated sigh and blinked rapidly, causing tears to fill her eyes. She was good. Real good. Those pretty tears were almost believable.
“It’s a really long story. By the time I explain everything, we’ll have been caught and I’ll be spending the night in jail. Please, please, please just take me to my house. We’re so close,” she pleaded. Yeah, she was a major looker. Too bad she was also bad news.
“Tell me one thing: Why do you have a baseball bat?” I needed something. If she’d knocked someone unconscious back there, then I couldn’t help her get away. They could be injured or dead.
She ran her hand through her hair and grumbled. “Okay, okay, fine. But understand that he deserved it.”
Shit. She had knocked someone out.
“I smashed all the windows in my ex-boyfriend’s truck.”
“You did what?” I couldn’t have heard her correctly. That did not happen in real life. Country songs, yes. Real life, no way.
“He’s a cheating bastard. He deserved it. He hurt me, so I hurt him. Now please believe me and get me out of here.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. This was the funniest damn thing I’d ever heard.
“Why’re you laughing?” she asked.
I shook my head and pulled back onto the road. “Because that’s not what I was expecting to hear.”
“What did you expect me to say? I’m carrying a bat.”
Glancing over at her. I grinned. “I thought you’d taken someone out with the bat.”
Her eyes went wide, and then she laughed. “I wouldn’t have knocked someone out with a bat! That’s crazy.”
I wanted to point out that smashing your ex-boyfriend’s truck windows and then running through the woods in escape at night was crazy. But I didn’t. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t agree.
“Right here, turn right.” She pointed up ahead of us. I didn’t bother putting on my blinker since no one was around us. “So, what’s your name? You look familiar for some reason, but no one I know around here drives a Porsche.”
Did I tell her who I was? I liked the privacy that Sea Breeze, Alabama, afforded me. I had a lot to think about over the next month, and making friends with the locals wasn’t on my agenda. Even if she was smoking hot.
“I’m not from around here. Just visiting,” I explained. That was the truth. I was here staying at my brother’s beach house while deciding on my next move.
“But I’ve seen you before. I know I have,” she said, tilting her head and studying me.
She’d figure it out soon enough. My brother was Jax Stone. He had become a teen rock star, but now that he was twenty-two he was a rock god. We looked similar. And the media loved to follow me around when they couldn’t get to Jax. While I loved my brother, I hated getting the attention. Everyone saw me as an extension of Jax. No one, not even my parents, cared about who I was as a person. They all wanted me to be who they expected.
“This is a Porsche, isn’t it? I’ve never seen one in real life.”
It was also one of my brother’s toys. I didn’t have a car here, so I just used the five he had in his garage. The house in Sea Breeze was where our parents used to make us spend our summers while Jax was juggling fame at a young age. But Jax was no longer a teenager and the house was his now. He’d turned twenty-two last month. And I’d turned twenty the month before that.
“Yes, it is a Porsche,” I replied.
“Turn here.” She pointed again toward the road ahead of us. I took the left and then came to the third house on the left. “This is it. Thank God no one is here yet. I gotta go. You need to get out of here so no one comes questioning you. But thank you so much.”
She opened the door and then glanced back at me one last time. “I’m Jess, by the way, and tonight you saved my ass.” She winked and closed the door before running off toward her front door. Her ass in those tight black jeans was worth saving. It was the nicest ass I’d ever seen.
I shifted the car into reverse and pulled back out onto the road. It was time I headed back to the private island where my brother’s house was. This night hadn’t turned out quite like I’d planned, but it’d been pretty damn entertaining.
The sound of something sliding across the seat and hitting the door startled me, and I glanced over to see the baseball bat. She’d forgotten it. I looked back at her house and smiled to myself. I’d be sure she got it back. Not tonight, but soon.
Chapter Two
JESS
I let the screen door slam behind me before I thought about it, then turned to lock it. Just in case Hank decided to take the law into his own hands. Not that I thought he was that stupid. He knew better than to screw with my momma.
“That you, Jess?” Momma called from the kitchen.
I might as well go tell her what I’d done. If the cops showed up, she needed to have her game face on. “Yeah, it’s me, and we might have some trouble,” I replied, walking through the small living room and toward into the kitchen. The five-room house I’d grown up in was cinderblock and nothing special, but the rent was affordable. No man had to help us get the bills paid. Momma had always taken care of things.
“What the hell have you done now?” Momma asked as I stepped into the kitchen. She was standing at the coffeepot with a cigarette between her red lips. Her favorite hot-pink satin robe was all she had on. She must have been getting ready for work and decided to stop and make some coffee.
I pulled out one of our vinyl-covered kitchen chairs and sat down. “I beat the shit out of Hank’s truck.”
Momma pulled the cigarette from her lips. “You did what?” she asked.
“He was at Live Bay with that whore he’s messing around with. He lied to me again. I’m done with him, and I wanted to make him hurt.”
Momma got rid of her ashes in the sink and, shaking her head, reached for a coffee cup. Her long blond hair was still pretty, but the face that had once been strikingly beautiful now showed hard lines from life. I was sure her smoking didn’t help things either. “Shit, girl. I need to go to work in an hour. What if the cops show up?”
I hadn’t thought of that. No alibi. I shrugged. “If they’re coming, maybe they’ll come before you leave.”
Momma took her coffee black and walked over to sit down across from me. “Did you at least get it good? If we have to deal with the poe poe, then you better have made it worth it. I ain’t in the mood for those bored shits tonight.”
I smiled, thinking about how good it had felt to see his pretty truck’s windows shatter. “Yeah, I think I got it good.”
Momma nodded and put her cigarette out, then took a sip of her coffee. “He’s a stupid, sorry-ass fucker who you need to stay away from. You’ve got a life ahead of you, and I’ll be damned if you end up like me. Hank’s already knocked up one girl he ain’t gonna marry. I sure don’t want you to be his next victim. This life ain’t easy, and you know it. You got the looks to buy you a life outta this. I intend for you to do it,” Momma said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her long legs.
This was a conversation we had been having since I was old enough to understand things. Which was since I was about nine. When your momma is a stripper in town, you learn things a lot sooner than other kids. There is no time for innocence.
“I’m done with Hank for good this time. I promise,” I assured her.
Momma didn’t look like she believed me. I couldn’t blame her. This thing with Hank had been going on for years. I really needed to let him go. He was a one-way ticket to the life I’d watched my mother live. As much as I respected her for not leaning on a man to take care of us, I didn’t want that life. I knew how much she hated it.
“My escape car was a Porsche,” I told her with a grin. I still couldn’t get over that car … and the guy in it. Way out of my league. Way, way out of my league. He was so wealthy he reeked of it. He also looked at me like I was a strange bird he didn’t know what to do with. I had probably scared the guy to death. He wasn’t from here. He was just visiting and would have gone back to whatever mansion he hailed from.
“Don’t see many Porsches around here,” Momma replied with a skeptical look on her face.
“He wasn’t a local. I imagine he’s vacationing on the island. He looked like one of those.”
Momma nodded. She knew all about those kind. I had been warned off two kinds of boys my whole life: the ones like Hank, who were “nothing but sorry shits,” and then guys from the island, who Momma said were “only after you for the sex and then they split.”
“Don’t worry about him, though. I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m a crazy person,” I assured her.
Momma raised her eyebrows and leaned on the table to look at me. “You really think that? I didn’t raise you to be so damn naive. He’s a man, baby. That’s all that matters. One look at you, and he’ll be back. You just be careful.”
I had tried to land more than one wealthy local in Sea Breeze, but that had never happened. Marcus Hardy had been in my sights from the time I was a little girl. He was my cousin Rock’s friend, but he was different than us. He lived in a big pretty house on the beach. But Marcus never saw me as anything but a fun time. When he laid eyes on Willow, no one else stood a chance. Now he was married with a kid and completely off-limits.
“I should’ve pushed you to go off to college. You could have met someone there and gotten out of this place.” She said it like Sea Breeze was a bad place. I didn’t see it the same way she did. I loved the coastal town I had grown up in.
“I didn’t want to leave,” I reminded her. I had chosen to go to the local community college instead. I didn’t want to leave this town or my momma. We had been a team all my life.
Momma sighed and pushed her chair back and stood up. “I know, sugar. I let you stay because I like having you here. Still don’t make it right. Finding a man to get you out of this life is gonna be hard, and I’ll be damned if you fall into the life I’ve lived.”
I was starting to argue when someone banged on the door. Momma looked toward the front door, fluffed her hair, and pulled the neckline of her silk robe low enough to show her very impressive cleavage. “Go on and get in the shower. I got this, baby girl. Don’t worry ’bout a thing,” she said, slipping into a pair of red heels that only made her long legs longer. Smiling, I hurried to the bathroom and turned on the shower but kept my ear to the door.
“Well, hello, Officer Ben. You know I’m not the kind of girl who takes house calls,” she said in a low, sultry voice I had heard her use a million times.
“Good evening, Starla. I hate to bother you before you, uh … ,” He cleared his throat and I rolled my eyes. I already knew good old Officer Ben was a regular at Jugs, the strip club just on the outskirts of Sea Breeze. “… go to work. But I got a call about Jess, and I need to check into that. She here?”
“Not sure who called you, Ben,” Momma said, letting his name roll off her tongue as if she were about to strip just for him, “but my baby girl has been here with me all evening. She’s getting a shower now after helping me clean today. You can even check her truck hood—it’s cold. Hasn’t driven it all day long.” Momma paused, and I heard her heels click on the wooden floor as she stepped toward him. “And as much as I like the idea of you walking in on my showers, I don’t feel the same about you interrupting my little girl’s shower,” she said in a suggestive tone.
My momma was good at this.
“Uh, um, yes, I can, uh, understand that. Sorry I bothered you, Starla. Just had to check it out. There was only one person who saw her, and I’ll be sure to check out her truck before I leave, to let them know her alibi is airtight.” He stammered all over himself, and I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. He probably had a really good view of Momma’s boobs at the moment. She used them to get her way with the opposite sex, and it always worked.
He needed to see me so that he could verify I was at home. I jerked my shirt off, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around me before opening the bathroom door a crack. Ben’s eyes moved from their lustful gaze on my momma to me as I stuck my head out.
“Everything okay out there, Momma? I heard voices,” I called out, sounding as innocent as I could.
“Yeah, baby girl. It’s just fine. Just visiting with Officer Ben,” she replied flashing me a smile as she turned to look at me.
I closed the bathroom door just as Officer Ben apologized for bothering Momma again.
“That’s all right, Officer. You’re just doing your job and keeping our little town safe. Makes me sleep easier at night knowing we have brave, dedicated men like you taking care of us. That Martha sure is a lucky woman to have such a hardworking man like you coming home to her at night.”
I had to roll my eyes. The fact that men believed this stuff never ceased to amaze me. Ben had a beer gut and a balding head. Nothing about him was brave, and since I knew how much of his hard-earned money he spent at Jugs several nights a week, seeing my momma and the other women there dancing in nothing but tiny thongs, I didn’t believe Martha was lucky at all. Neither did my momma.
“Yeah, well …” He paused, swallowing so hard I could hear it from in here. “I’m glad it helps you rest easy. I do what I can. You, uh, gonna be at work tonight?”
“I’m getting all prettied up right now. You coming to see me? I hope you do. I might just have a special lap dance just for you,” Momma replied.
That made me want to gag. The idea that she could do that without throwing up in their faces blew my mind. She said she had learned a long time ago to turn off that switch in her head and remember that the better she performed, the more money she made.
“I’ll be there,” Officer Ben said. “Missed you last week due to an incident down at the station. Been thinking about that all week.”
“Glad to know I was in that head of yours,” she said sweetly.
“Always are,” Ben replied, and cleared his throat when he realized he was openly flirting with my almost naked Momma on the front doorstep. “I need to be going now and let them know Jess wasn’t involved.”
“You do that, and I’ll see you later,” Momma said, and her heels clicked as she stepped back from the doorway.
“Later,” Ben called out, and the door closed. I heard the latch click into place, and I turned off the shower and opened the door. All the doors in this house opened to the living room.
“Thank you,” I said simply.
Momma shrugged and waved her hand. “Just be glad it was Ben. He’s easy to work. If it had been David or Rooster, I’d have had to show them a lot more than some cleavage and leg to get them off your scent.
I nodded, and the guilt from forcing my momma to flirt with a married cop to get me out of trouble settled in my stomach. “I’m sorry,” I told her.
Momma stopped before walking into her room. “Don’t be. Someone needed to beat that shit’s truck up. I’m glad you did it.” Then she closed her bedroom door.
I stood there, and a smile tugged at my lips. I had never had many girlfriends in my life because no one understood me or wanted to get close to me. But my momma, she really was my best friend.
JASON
Two days later, I was still thinking about the truck-bashing blonde. She was something else. Hard to forget. I had her baseball bat standing in the corner of my room, and I was trying to decide what to do with it. I figured right now she didn’t need the evidence on her.
Chuckling, I shook my head. I was helping a girl get away with vandalism. That so wasn’t me. But it made me smile. Guess I needed a little action in my life. I intended to give it a few more days, then go see if I could catch her at home. I needed to give her back that bat, and I wanted to see her again. It was a good excuse.
I walked down the stairs in my brother’s summer house just as the front door opened and Jax and his girlfriend, Sadie, walked in. I had known they were coming down for the weekend, and I’d been expecting them.
Jax looked up at me and grinned. “Crashing your party.”
“You know me, it’s a wild one. Hope you can handle it,” I replied.
Jax shook his head and laughed. “Yeah, is it sad that I wish there was some truth to that.”
Sadie pinched Jax’s arm playfully before walking over to give me a hug. “Ignore him. I think you’re perfect just like you are. No need for wild parties.”
My brother’s girlfriend was beautiful in the head-turning kind of way. She had the kind of body and face you saw plastered on magazine covers. But Sadie was a small-town Sea Breeze girl and wanted nothing to do with the spotlight. She loved Jax and had learned to get over people splashing her face everywhere in the media, but before Jax she didn’t like drawing attention to herself. Which was impossible to avoid. The girl drew attention everywhere she went.
“Thanks, Sadie. You can drop the rock-star life anytime you want and come live the simple, ordinary one with me,” I told her, and winked at Jax, who was now scowling.
“Hands off, bro,” he said, reaching for Sadie’s arm. “Not funny.”
That never ceased to entertain me. Jax had never had insecurities. Even before he became famous, he was the most confident kid I knew. But let a guy look at Sadie, and he went all territorial. It cracked me up.
“Stop it, Jax. You’re being silly,” Sadie said, frowning at him and making him immediately look regretful. That was even funnier.
“Don’t be mad,” he said.
Sadie looked back at me. “You up for some company? I thought we’d have a little get-together tonight. I want to see everyone, and since we’re only here two days, it would be easier if we just had the gang here.” She beamed up at me.
Hell, Sadie wasn’t mine, but she was hard to say no to. I was pretty sure if she smiled at anyone, they’d do whatever it was she was asking. “Sure,” I replied.
Jax rolled his eyes at me, like he wasn’t a complete sucker when it came to her. What did he expect? I was a man. “I’ll go make sure the kitchen staff is prepared for the extra guests,” Jax told Sadie as he pressed a kiss to her cheek and started toward the kitchen.
“I already called and talked to Ms. Mary. She’s prepared,” Sadie called after him. Ms. Mary ran the staff and the kitchen here. Once, Sadie had worked for Ms. Mary, so she knew her well. That was how Jax had met Sadie. She served him dinner one night, and I’m pretty sure he was sunk then. Even though he fought it hard.
Jax stopped and turned around to give her the smile that magazines everywhere labeled as lethally sexy. “Then why don’t you help me to my room to unpack?”
I saw Sadie’s cheeks turn red, and she pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Okay, if you need help.”
Jax walked back over to her. “Lots of help. You have no idea how much help I need.”
“Either you two go to your room, or I’m going to throw ice water on you both,” I told them.
Sadie ducked her head, and Jax just grinned at me. “See you later,” he said as he held Sadie’s hand and led her up the stairs.
I decided going out to the beach and out of this house for a while was the best idea. Not sure how much “unpacking” those two planned on doing.
*
Five hours later, voices were getting louder downstairs as I stood in my bedroom, looking out over the front yard. I knew I needed to go downstairs. Jax would want me there. But those weren’t my friends. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them—I did. I just didn’t really know them. Then there was the matter of Preston Drake.
The dude was not a fan of mine. I had tried my hardest to get Amanda Hardy’s attention, only to lose her to Preston in the end. It’s hard to compete with bad boys with blond surfer hair. It wasn’t like I was in love with Amanda. Love wasn’t something I was looking for. Ever. She was just pretty and sweet. I liked that. It was easy with her.
A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts, and I turned to see my brother standing there with his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “You planning on hiding up here all night?”
I had considered it. I wasn’t great with people I didn’t know. I was on the quieter side. Jax was the personality in the family. “I was coming down in a minute.”
Jax cocked an eyebrow. “You look like you’d rather be anywhere else.”
I shrugged. “Not crazy about hanging out with people I don’t know that well. But I’m going to do it for Sadie.”
Jax walked into the room. “If you’re worried about Preston, don’t be. He’s really an easygoing guy.”
I chuckled. He hadn’t seen the side of Preston I had. “Trust me, he isn’t very easygoing when it comes to Amanda.”
“Maybe not. But he’s got her. They’ve been together long enough now that he feels secure. You were dating the woman he was in love with. I can understand his moment of insanity.”
Jax would. He had dealt with the same thing with Marcus Hardy. They were friends now. Because Marcus was married and had a kid, he no longer posed a threat to Jax. Amanda and Marcus are brother and sister, and Marcus worked at the house the same summer Sadie did.
“I’m coming down there,” I told him. “I swear. Besides, I’m hungry.”
“Good, because I suspect Sadie will be up here in the next five minutes if you don’t get down there. She’s worried about you feeling left out.”
I reminded myself that I was doing this for Sadie. “Let’s go,” I told him.
I followed Jax to the stairs and took in the crowd gathering in the foyer as Sadie opened the door again to let in more of her friends.
When I had been with Amanda at Marcus and Willow’s wedding, I had met several of them. They all seemed really nice, but Preston was one of theirs. I wasn’t sure just how well they would accept me. I left Sea Breeze on good terms with everyone after the wedding. It was easy to see who it was Amanda wanted. I didn’t even try to win her over. The girl’s heart was obviously owned by Preston.
Marcus Hardy walked in, holding a baby in a red-and-white blanket that looked like it had an elephant on it. Sadie squealed in delight and hugged Marcus’s wife, Willow, and then reached out to take the baby from Marcus. Two years ago that scene wasn’t something any of them would have imagined. Marcus had been determined to get Sadie’s attention, but he couldn’t compete with Jax. But then, no one ever could compete with my brother. I never dared to.
