Let Freedom Ring

by Weston Parker

  Chapter 11

  Lincoln

  Sunlight reflected off the azure blue water of the bay, warming my skin as I lay back on my towel. I propped myself up on my elbows and surveyed the beach from behind the protective cover of my sunglasses.

  It had been ages since I’d last done this. Relaxing on the beach was a summer staple, but I hadn’t gotten around to doing it for a long time.

  The smell of the sea, sunscreen, and fried foods from the trucks parked along the promenade wafted in the air. Waves lapped gently at the shore. Children played while adults lounged or chased after the smaller kids.

  I took a deep breath, appreciating having the opportunity to visit the beach on a day like this. Lazily checking out the action all around me, I contemplated joining in a game of volleyball being started by some guys not too far away.

  I canned the idea when I saw Sofia winding her way through the crowd. Her hand shielded her eyes from the sun, even behind her sunglasses, as her head turned up and down the stretch of sand we were on.

  I lifted my hand to give her a wave when she looked in my direction again. I knew she’d seen me when a sudden smile lit her face. My head wasn’t the only one that turned for her as she strolled down the beach.

  Even the guys a little way down had stopped their huddle prior to the volleyball game kicking off when one of them had pointed her out to the others. A slight pang of jealousy stirred in my gut when I noticed them staring, but I couldn’t exactly blame them for it. Also, I had no reason to feel jealous.

  On the other hand, she was my date for the day, so maybe I did. Deciding to go with that option, I stood up and tossed them a scowl before turning back to face her. One shoved his shoulder into another one when he saw me, and they went back to their game.

  Sofia really did look incredibly fucking sexy, though. If she hadn’t been here with me, I’d also have kept sneaking glances at her like they were.

  She wore a white wide-brimmed hat with a black ribbon around its base. Her hair and sunglasses were the same inky color, while a white sundress-coverlet thing covered her body. I wasn’t sure what it was called, but it was made from that beachy material that was translucent enough that I could see the turquoise swimsuit she wore beneath it.

  A part of me, one that was very happy to see she’d shown up, wished she’d worn a bikini. Instead of that, though, it was more of a contraption-looking thing. It was a one-piece but not in the way that made her look like she was either eight or on her way to a swim meet.

  The top of it looked like a sexy, low-cut bra, which was linked to the bottoms with panels and cutouts and a whole lot of thin, strappy-looking things hanging from her neckline to her hips. It looked like it would be a bitch to get off, but I felt like I’d be able to get the job done. I knew it would be worth it.

  Over her shoulder was a gigantic bag that matched her swimwear and she clutched a pair of sandals between her fingers. With that radiant smile still on her lightly glossed lips, she was fucking beautiful.

  “Hey, Linc,” she called in an almost lyrical voice when she got close enough. To anyone else, it would look and sound like we’d known each other for years.

  There wasn’t a trace of nervousness in her body or voice or the fact that she’d just called me by my nickname again. Familiarity usually bothered me when it wasn’t real, but with her, it felt real enough.

  My mouth spread into a grin, and I pulled my sunglasses off to let her see my eyes roaming down the length of her body. “Looking good, Cantor. I’m suddenly glad I didn’t lose your number.”

  She pushed her own sunglasses down to the tip of her nose, let her gaze linger on my abs and below, and lifted her lips in a slight smirk. “You and me both. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure you were going to call.”

  “Technically, I didn’t call.” I took her towel when she fished it out of her bag, taking a step back to spread it out beside mine.

  Sofia nodded her thanks, sat down on the edge of it, and twisted to look up at me with her hand shielding her eyes again. “True. Okay. I wasn’t sure you were going to make telephonic contact of any manner with me.”

  “Neither was I,” I admitted as I lowered myself down again.

  I only just made out her eyebrow lifting between the rim of her glasses and the edge of her hat. “Really? Daddy Darling scares you that much, huh?”

  “Daddy Darling?” I laughed. I had to. I couldn’t hold it back. Not only because I had to wonder what the other guys would say if they heard she called him that, but also because if they were close enough for her to call him that, I should never have sent that fucking text. “I think this might have been a mistake.”

  A tiny fist connected with my bicep. It didn’t hurt, but there was a definite sting I wouldn’t have expected from someone her size. When my head whipped around to face her again, she smirked and looked at me over the tops of her sunglasses.

  “You’re not very good at taking jokes, are you?” she asked. “I’ve never called him that to his face and I never would. I love the man, but he’s not a darling. Even I know that.”

  Relief melted some tension out of my shoulders, but I still curled my fingers around the front of my ball cap. “Good, because if you didn’t know it, we’d have had a problem.”

  “We have no problem.” She extracted two bottles of icy water from her bag, handing one over to me before lying down on her back. “See? I even brought sustenance. There’s a sleeve of chocolate-chip cookies in there, too. If you’re interested.”

  “A sleeve. Does that mean they’re not homemade?” I put my hand to my chest, feigning offense. “I’m not sure I can accept store-bought.”

  A soft snort came from her, but she didn’t look at me. I could see her eyes closed behind her dark lenses. “Don’t accept them then. I’ll have them all.”

  “No need to be unreasonable,” I joked and lay down beside her, pulling the front of the cap down low. “I’m sure we can work out a compromise.”

  “Unless your compromise means you being the one baking the cookies, you’re going to have to live with store-bought.”

  I shrugged my shoulders against the heat of the warm towel, feeling my skin connect briefly with hers as I raised them. “I don’t mind baking actually, but I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re not a fan?”

  “Oh, no. I love baking. I’m just really bad at it. I can absolutely guarantee that if I ever baked cookies for you, you’d be begging for the store-bought stuff instead. Can you really bake?”

  “I can, but I should warn you, I only do it in the nude.” I smirked as I rolled my head toward hers. “If that’s okay with you, I’m down for baking the cookies. If I bake, though, what do I get?”

  “You bake in the nude? That seems dangerous.” She frowned, glancing down at my junk. “What do you want if you do the baking?”

  “I wear an apron, so it’s not that dangerous. I’m good at it. No injuries to report just yet. As for what I want?” So, so many things I couldn’t think about on a crowded beach with others in the vicinity. “What are my options?”

  She propped her hands beneath her head as she got comfortable. “Okay. How about if you bake us something, I’ll cook us a meal sometime?”

  “You can cook, but you can’t bake?” I shook my head. “How the hell did that happen?”

  “Dad isn’t a fan of the sweet stuff, so I never got much practice. Everyone’s got to eat, though. It was just the two of us growing up. He worked long hours. Eventually, it was just easier for me to start cooking before he got home. Otherwise, we ended up eating too late.”

  “It makes sense that he wouldn’t like sweet things. I love sweet stuff. It’ll just be something else we can disagree about.” I didn’t quite know how to respond to the rest of what she’d said, so I kept it simple. “Yeah, I get that.”

  Sofia’s brow furrowed in curiosity, and she pulled her sunglasses off and placed them down beside her. Hazel eyes bright and sincere on mine, she rolled onto her side.

  �
��You get it? How? Is that why you know how to bake?”

  I shrugged again. “Yep. My mom taught me. For the record, she didn’t teach me to do it naked. That part just kind of happened much later on.”

  “That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that just happens.” Amusement sparkled in her eyes. “I feel like there has to be a story behind it.”

  “If I said I just got tired of getting flour all over my clothes, would that be enough of a story for you?”

  “Nope.” She grinned, burrowing into her hands as she got comfortable. “Out with it, Dobbs. What really happened?”

  “I did get tired of getting flour all over my clothes,” I started, smiling as the memory came back to me. “But I might have had too much tequila one night. I was alone and suddenly got a craving for giant muffins. Once I started baking, my clothes got really restrictive.”

  “Makes sense.” She tugged her lower lip between her teeth to keep from laughing, but the corners of her mouth gave her away. “I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that. It must have been hilarious.”

  “If only that was the end of it.” I shook my head, wondering if I should continue with the story.

  Sofia was entirely invested, though. She poked me in the side to prompt me when I’d paused for too long. “Was that the end of it?”

  I sighed. “Sadly, no. My playlist was still running on my computer. Some of the guys had played a prank on me just before, and they’d downloaded lots of bubblegum pop songs into all my playlists. I thought I’d cleared it all out.”

  “Oh God.” She clamped her hand over her mouth, but muffled giggles escaped. “Please tell me what I’m picturing is what happened.”

  “Depends. If what you’re picturing is me jumping around in my kitchen to really girly pop songs while being stark naked, then you’re correct.”

  Her eyes widened, and she dissolved into a fit of laughter so genuine that I joined in. Eventually, she rolled onto her back and popped her sunglasses on as her breathing evened out again.

  “Were you a SEAL at the time?” she asked. “I need details for the mental picture. It’s not something I’m ever going to forget.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah, I was. In fact, the tequila I drank was because I got home in a mood after an argument with your father. I don’t usually drink alone, but I got home, and the bottle was in the fridge. I took a shot to calm down, then another.”

  “Then another?” Another chuckle escaped her. “I’ve been there with him. He sure knows how to force issues and push buttons sometimes.”

  “Yeah, that he does,” I said, quieter now. My intense dislike of the man made it hard to reconcile the fact that I was willingly spending the day with his daughter, his only family.

  The thought was a nice reminder that, no matter what assurances she had given, I had to be careful about what I said around her. Presumably, she wouldn’t do well with my bashing of Daddy Darling.

  As if she’d sensed my mind lingering on him, she turned her head to face me again. “Did you know that he really respects you?”

  I scoffed, but it was more like I’d choked on my own fucking tongue. “Excuse me?”

  Sofia’s shoulders lifted in a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah, he does. I mean, he also thinks you’re never going to advance and that you have no ambition to do so. But he said you’re crazy talented.”

  A deep frown pulled my brows together. “He said that about me?”

  “Well, he didn’t use the words ‘crazy talented,’ but he said you have the least ambition he’d ever seen to pursue your talent or to live up to your full potential.”

  “That’s not surprising.” A ripple of irritation ran through me, followed by a burning flash of anger. “Why did you discuss me with him?”

  “We were talking about his party.” She put her hands up in the air. “Not about anything that happened between the two of us there or after.”

  “What else did he say?” I asked, my fingers curling into my palms. I fucking hated being talked about behind my back, especially by someone spewing as much shit as Charles probably had.

  “Not too much,” she said smoothly, then cocked her head as she sat up. “Is it true? Are you really not pursuing climbing the ranks? You’re reacting like it might be true, which is unexpected.”

  “No offense, but your father has no idea what he’s talking about. Frankly, neither do you.” My voice came out harshly, but she was definitely treading into territory she had no business being in.

  “Don’t worry. No offense taken. You’re right. I don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. I don’t even really know you. My father might have some valid points if you’re getting this defensive about it, though.”

  My brows rose, and my fist slammed into the scorching sand on my other side. “Does anyone like being told they’re not living up to their full potential? I sure as fuck don’t. Especially by people who don’t have the first clue about who I am.”

  Sofia turned her hands so her palms were facing me, frowning as she pulled them back toward her chest. “Hey, I didn’t mean—”

  “I think it’s probably for the best if we don’t see each other again,” I bit out, full-blown rage now rolling around in my stomach.

  Who the hell did she and her father think they were? Charles might have trained me and knew my name, but he didn’t know me. Now his daughter thought she could judge me after fucking me once?

  Yeah, I wasn’t sticking around for that. Jumping to my feet, I yanked my towel up, not caring if I got sand all over her.

  Sofia pulled her head back. She’d pushed her sunglasses into her hair and was watching me with a dark eyebrow arched. “It’s your life. You’re free to do with it what you want, Linc. If that’s not seeing me again, then so be it.”

  “That’s how it’s going to be,” I said. I didn’t need this shit in my life. There was more than enough going on as it was. “This was a bad idea anyway.”

  She shook her head but didn’t argue. There was a definite disappointed purse to her lips, though. “Sure. Have a good life.”

  “Yeah, you too.” I tossed my towel over my shoulder, grabbed my backpack, and stalked off without another word. There was nothing left to say really.

  She’d made it perfectly clear what she thought about me, and I hadn’t been put on this goddamn earth to change her mind. After I got to my truck, I shook the sand out of my towel and stuffed it into my backpack before dusting off my feet.

  I tore out of the parking lot, narrowly missing a car turning in. The driver flipped me off, but I ignored him. The truck jerked as I swerved out over the curb to avoid hitting him, but I just kept going. I needed to get away from the Cantors and their fucking good-for-nothing opinions.

  About a mile away from the beach, my truck started pulling to the side in a very telltale way. Glancing into my side mirror, I saw that my suspicions were correct. I’d busted my fucking tire.

  I must have hit something or sliced it when I’d gone over the curb. Curses even an old-school sailor wouldn’t have come up with streamed from my mouth as I slowed next to the road.

  This is just what I fucking needed right now. Changing a tire was no problem for me, but fucking really?

  Things got worse when I realized I didn’t have a jack. I groaned out loud and dropped my forehead against the hot metal of the cab. Eden and the guys had borrowed my stuff a while ago and must not have replaced the jack yet.

  Before I could grab my phone to call him with a demand that he bring me what I needed, a car pulled up behind me. I didn’t even look at it at first, not planning on accepting help from any-fucking-one.

  But then an all-too-familiar voice called to me. “What seems to be the problem there, sailor?”

  I heard amusement dancing in Sofia’s voice before I even looked at her. Fuck.

  Fucking. Fuck. Fuck. Now this? This is the last thing I need after that showdown on the goddamn beach.

  Chapter 12

  Sofia

  Alpha males h
ad serious problems. I knew that, yet I’d forgotten how irrational they could be at times. Being told they weren’t living up to their full potential would never go down well.

  I hadn’t been thinking about it like that, though. If I was being honest, I didn’t even really know what I had been trying to accomplish.

  One minute, we’d just been talking, and the next, he got all pissed off and stormed away. I’d been so taken aback that I’d just let him go. It wasn’t like I needed drama in my life, but I still liked him. I should have at least tried to explain myself, but he’d been gone before I’d come to that conclusion.

  Our morning had started off so damn well. Then my naturally inquisitive—and slightly tactless—nature had bubbled to the surface. I probably should have run him over instead of stopping to help when I saw his truck with its flat tire, but I couldn’t just leave him there on the side of the road.

  Also, the fact that he might need my help after having pulled such an asshole stunt not ten minutes ago was too good to pass up. Smiling as I thought about the irony of it all, I got out of my car.

  “What seems to be the problem there, sailor?”

  Slowly, he lifted his head away from the midnight-black frame of his cab. A scowl that would have been frightening if I didn’t know him contorted his handsome features.

  “There’s no problem. I’m fine. You can go now.”

  I took a few steps closer to him, my gaze taking stock of the tools lying at his feet on the blazing-hot blacktop. “If that’s true, how are you going to get your truck up? Unless you’re hiding a jack in your ass next to that stick that seems to have gotten wedged up there. Are you?”

  Lincoln’s vibrant, reddish-golden eyes narrowed as his thick arms crossed over his bare chest. “I just need to make a call. I’ll be fine.”

  I mirrored his stance but jerked my head toward my car after folding my arms. “I have a jack if you’d like to use it. I know you guys are strong and all, but I doubt you could lift the truck, hold it, and change the tire all without help.”