Let Freedom Ring

by Weston Parker

  He didn’t answer but released his arms to shove his hands into his short hair. It was clear that he was quickly realizing that the fastest way to get rid of me was to take me up on my offer to help, but he didn’t like it.

  I, on the other hand, was really enjoying that he needed my help. After that display of alpha-hole behavior earlier, I found it highly amusing that Mother Universe herself had decided to knock him down a peg.

  You go, girl.

  My lips curved of their own accord, but I kept my arms tightly crossed as I tried to hold back laughter. Lincoln noticed, his jaw tightening as those intense eyes swept across my features.

  He vented his frustration in a series of mumbled curses but walked up to me and held out his hand. I glanced down at it, unable to resist giving him just a little bit of a hard time even as I turned to retrieve my jack from my trunk.

  “This kind of ruins your very grownup, ‘we shouldn’t see each other again’ tantrum, doesn’t it?” I asked as I popped the lid.

  “It wasn’t a tantrum,” he grumbled. “You insulted me, Sofia. Last I checked, people aren’t forced to spend time with people if they don’t want to.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be an insult,” I said, softening my tone. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to keep giving him shit. Despite my intentions of not meaning to do it, I had insulted him. “I was just trying to get to know you. Sometimes, my mouth forms words before my brain can catch up, and my questions come out sounding like I have the tact of a leaky teaspoon.”

  A chuckle rumbled in his broad chest, and I didn’t know who was more surprised by it. He recovered first, though. “That’s a very accurate description but an exceptionally shitty apology.”

  “It wasn’t an apology.” I shrugged, grabbed the jack, and kept it in my hands as I brought my eyes up to meet his. “I was just explaining why I said what I did in the way that I did.”

  He lifted his hand wordlessly. I pursed my lips, sighing as I handed it over. Once the heavy object was in his hands, he spun around and marched back to his truck.

  I followed him, admiring the stretching and rippling of the strong muscles in his back and arms as he worked. It probably wasn’t polite to ogle him when we were technically in the middle of a fight, but I couldn’t help it.

  The guy really was too damn hot for his own good. His bright blue swimming trunks and shirtless torso displayed far too much of his golden skin to simply ignore it.

  “Stop staring at me,” he snapped as he loosened a nut. I didn’t know how he’d known, since his gaze was narrowed in on the work he was doing, but he answered my unspoken question next. “I can feel you watching me.”

  “How did you know that’s what I was wondering?”

  His shoulders rose and dropped as he let out a heavy breath but then started shaking as he laughed quietly. “I don’t know. Intuition, common sense, predictability? Take your pick.”

  “I’m not predictable,” I objected. “But okay. I guess that question was kind of predictable.”

  When he said nothing more, I leaned against the side of his truck and did my best to keep my eyes on the lush greenery of the empty lot on our side of the road. Surely, I couldn’t ogle when he knew what I was doing and had told me to stop.

  I kept sneaking glances at him while I spoke, though. Just to check this so-called intuition of his.

  “About earlier, I really didn’t mean to offend or insult you. It felt like we were getting to know each other, and it was a genuine question. I’ve been wondering since my father told me, but I figured it’d be better to wait and ask you instead of discussing it with him.”

  “What?” he grunted. “Am I supposed to thank you for that?”

  “No.” I sucked on my teeth, trying not to snap at him to stop being childish. “I just wanted to speak to you about it in person. That’s all. If I crossed a line, I’m sorry.”

  “If you crossed a line?” He made a noise of disbelief somewhere deep in his chest. “Again, Sofia, neither you or your father know me. Let’s just leave it at that and let it go, okay?”

  I nearly drooled at the way his muscles bulged when he lifted the busted tire off and flung it to the side without skipping a beat. Lincoln must have felt my eyes on him again, though.

  “Seriously, Sofia. Quit it.”

  “Why?” I did snap back at him this time. “It’s nothing you weren’t doing to me earlier and appreciating when I did the same to you. What’s changed?”

  He sighed, his head shaking as he replaced the tire. “You and I shouldn’t be looking at each other at all. Never mind like that.”

  “Why not?” I propped an arm on the side of his truck and drummed the metal beneath my fingers. “Because of my father? That’s bullshit. He’s retired now. It’s still brand new, but he’s done at the Navy.”

  “There are still outstanding issues he’s deciding on,” he gritted out. “Such as whether I’m officially suspended or not.”

  “Why are you—” He cut me off with a look, and I blew out a breath. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. The point is that our relationship isn’t exactly taboo or forbidden. Why can’t we look at each other however we want to?”

  “It’s taboo and forbidden. Trust me.” Lincoln looked up at me, only to let me see him roll his eyes. Then that sexy smirk ghosted across his lips again and his freaking dimples came out. “Sure, it makes it a lot more sexy, but it also makes it a lot more stupid. Besides, I don’t need to be judged by people who don’t know me.”

  He finished with the tire, pushing to his feet as he tried to hand the jack back to me. “Thank you for letting me use this. It’s too bad this is how things turned out, Sofia. I hope you have a lot of fun on your break. Good luck with finishing your degree. I’m sure you’re going to be a good doctor.”

  Lincoln held the jack out to me again, but I didn’t take it. The way I saw it, both of us had acted somewhat stupidly this morning. I shouldn’t have pried into something so deeply personal in such an offensive way, and he shouldn’t have stormed off like a toddler being told they had to wear pants in the middle of winter.

  What it came down to, though, was the fact that I wasn’t quite ready to cut all ties with him. We’d had a spat, sure, but that didn’t have to mean we never saw or spoke to each other again.

  “Thank me for helping you by taking me out for lunch,” I suggested. “It’s the least you could do.”

  “The least I could do?” Those intriguing eyes of his locked on mine. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Sofia.”

  “What if we promise not to talk about the Navy?” That was the only point of contention between us. If we could avoid it, I didn’t see the problem. We could always delve into that once we were on more solid footing as friends—or whatever we ended up as.

  Lincoln’s head dropped a fraction of an inch to the side. “No talk about the Navy at all?”

  “Not a word.” I mimed zipping my lips. “Just two friends eating and getting to know each other.”

  Slowly, he started nodding as a lazy grin spread on his lips. “Okay. I can do that. Let’s go. Do you like tacos?”

  “Love them.” I took a step back toward my car. “I’ll follow you?”

  “There’s a Mexican restaurant close by. And by restaurant, I mean a food truck that doesn’t have wheels anymore and has permanently fastened their awnings to the ground. The tables are plastic and the food is cheap but good.”

  He thrust his chin up like he was expecting me to argue, but I shrugged and shot him a smile. “Those kinds of places are my favorite. I’ll follow you there.”

  When he’d said it was close by, he hadn’t been lying. We parked in a dirt lot beside the place not two minutes later and climbed out of our vehicles side by side. After grabbing our street tacos, we walked down a path to a quiet part of the beach instead of waiting for a table during the lunchtime rush.

  “Haley, my best friend, used to live near here when we were kids,” I said after we’d walked in silence while eating o
ur seriously delicious food. “I think our names are still carved into one of these trees just off the path.”

  “You carved your names onto a tree?” he asked, sending me a look of mock horror while light danced in his eyes. “Don’t you know they have feelings?”

  I sobered my expression, letting my head hang forward. “I didn’t at the time. I was just a kid.”

  Lincoln nudged me with his arm as we walked. “It’s okay. I’m sure you’ve been forgiven by now.”

  “I don’t know.” I widened my eyes. “Maybe we should stop talking about it. The trees might hear us and object.”

  “If that were true, trees all over would be starting riots. I think we’ve all carved our names into one at some point in our childhoods.”

  I spun around, walking backward so I’d be facing him. I remembered every twist and curve in this path. Hopefully, I remembered them well enough not to land on my ass for not looking where I was going.

  “Where is the tree that has your name in it?” I asked. “I just realized I don’t even know where you’re from.”

  “I grew up in a small fishing town in Maine no one has ever heard of.” A faraway gleam clouded his eyes, but he shook it off. “There’s an old pine tree or two there with my name on it.”

  “What’s the town called?” I asked. “Haley and I thought of going on a road trip to Maine once. I might have read about it.”

  His lips formed a smirk. “I doubt Stonington would have been high on your list of places to go girling in.”

  “Girling?” I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. “We didn’t want to go girling. We just wanted a rest. Peace, quiet, and lots of excellent wine on a quiet beach somewhere.”

  “Stonington’s got all that in spades,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “But you might have become the stuff of legend around there if you’d consumed all that wine right there on the beach.”

  “I like the idea of being a local legend.” I smiled but noticed a flicker of something in his eyes. “Do you miss it there?”

  He shrugged, his expression shuttering again. “I’ve been here a long time.”

  “Do you visit there much? It must have upset your parents when you went to the Navy, knowing how far away you’d be moving.”

  “I wouldn’t know.” Jaw clenching in a way that told me to drop it, he dipped his head back to look up at the wispy clouds floating in the sky.

  There were definitely some issues in his past, but I didn’t push it. We’d had enough of that for one day.

  Since the atmosphere between us needed some comic relief, I dove into a story from my childhood. Haley and I had gotten up to so much mischief. It wasn’t long before Lincoln’s tense muscles relaxed again.

  We sat down on a low dune, talking for about another hour before my phone chimed. It was a text from my father, so I didn’t want to read it with Lincoln right next to me.

  Our thighs were touching from how we’d sat down, and the heat of his skin against mine was sending tingles up and down my spine. While I didn’t want to lose the contact, I knew it was almost time for me to go.

  “Hey,” I said as we stood up, dusting off our asses. “There’s a big party on the beach this weekend. If you’re free, you should come.”

  His gaze snagged on mine, narrowing as he rubbed the back of his head with one enormous hand. “I’ll think about it.”

  “I’ll take it.” I grinned. It wasn’t a flat-out no. Something seemed to be brewing between us, and there was nothing I hated more than a what if.

  No, one day when I was old and gray, I wouldn’t look back on this moment and wonder what might have happened. I’d be sitting in a rocking chair next to Haley, describing in detail—because old people said gross things all the time and propriety didn’t seem to matter anymore—the orgasms the handsome SEAL had given me before we’d parted ways.

  Chapter 13

  Lincoln

  One of the first and only luxury items I’d purchased once I’d been able to afford any at all had been a boat. Eden had called me crazy, but he hadn’t been able to talk me out of it.

  Fishing was a transcendent experience for me. It was the one link I had to my childhood and the person I used to be. The boy Mom had known was long gone, but fishing allowed me to reconnect with my past and glimpse who I hoped I’d be in the future all at the same time.

  My upbringing hadn’t been one of luxury, opportunity, opulence, and the romance of living in a fishing town in Maine. Mom and I had worked hard and went to bed early. No rich man had come to town to sweep her off her feet and love her son as his own.

  That last fact was one I was immensely thankful for. I’d have fucking hated if some dickhead had come and lured Mom away from our home. Love wasn’t something either of us had ever wanted from anyone else, yet I’d caught her once or twice reading sappy romance novels about small towns.

  In the years that had passed since, I’d wondered about those books. I’d wondered if she’d held out hope until the end or if she’d been as at peace with our lives as I had been.

  Then again, I’d only been at peace with our lives until I’d learned about the Navy. I’d never have joined up while Mom had still been around, but then she hadn’t been, and I hadn’t looked back since.

  Talking about my childhood with Sofia had triggered a need deep within me to get out on the water, though. It wasn’t nostalgia or sentiment driving me, but the way the potentially turbulent waters could also provide such infinite calm.

  There was only one other thing that did that for me, but since going into battle was out of the question, fishing would have to do. After I’d thrown some supplies into my ratty cargo backpack, I put in a call to Eden.

  My best friend answered groggily, which made sense considering it was hours before sunrise. “What the fuck do you want now?”

  “I’m going fishing. Want to come?”

  “Right now?” He groaned, then replied to his own question. “Of course, you’re going right now. Give me twenty and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

  Sooner or later, Eden and I would have to take up more permanent quarters again. We’d been in and out of the country so much the last year that we’d given up the place we used to share to some friends.

  Our minimal amount of stuff was in storage. The clothes we needed from day to day remained in the hotel between trips, and our vehicles had spaces on the base.

  My boat was really the only possession I cared about. There was some old stuff of Mom’s in my storage unit, but I hadn’t seen any of it in years.

  As I closed my room’s door behind me, I vowed to at least check up on the storage unit soon. I owed my mother so much more than that, but that was all that was left I could do for her.

  Eden somehow beat me to the lobby. Probably because I’d been spending so much time in my own head this morning. He narrowed his eyes when he saw me.

  “What’s up your ass?”

  “Nothing.” He was one of the only people in this world who really knew anything about my past. If anyone would understand the memories my conversations with Sofia had stirred up, it would be him.

  But that didn’t mean I wanted to fucking talk about it. My life wasn’t a talk show, and I wasn’t a host.

  The corners of his lips turned down, but he didn’t question me any further. Eden could always tell when to keep quiet, and this was one of those times. Which was why he was also the only other person who had ever stepped foot onto my boat.

  Silent companionship and someone to shoot the shit with when the mood struck was really the only thing either of us wanted out on that water. Eden actually hadn’t grown up very far away from me. Also a Maine boy, he’d grown up fishing, too.

  While he hadn’t agreed with my purchasing a boat because of the maintenance and the frequency with which it would be left without, he understood my compulsion to get out on the water. He’d suggested at the time we look into renting a boat, but that hadn’t been good enough for me.

  Sure, my litt
le sailboat would never be featured on the cover of a magazine, but she was sturdy and reliable. Somewhat reliable anyway. I needed to get a few things repaired, but I hadn’t had time before.

  Maybe that’s something I should look into doing while I’m not really working. Hopefully, though, this whole not-going-on-missions thing would end soon. Either way, I made a mental note of looking into local shops that might have what I needed.

  Eden and I spent the next hour preparing ourselves and the boat for the day. Once we were headed out of the marina, the sun was just starting to rise.

  The ocean glittered beneath the hull, gulls squawking overhead as they zoomed through the early morning air. There were a few other boats around, but we soon steered clear of them.

  Once we were out on the open water, Eden handed over a thermos of coffee he’d picked up earlier and shot me a wide grin. Standing beside me, his short hair barely moved in the wind but his cheeks were pink and his expression open and happy.

  “I’m glad we decided to do this. I fucking needed it after the time we’ve been having.”

  I nodded, my knuckles whitening around the ancient steering wheel. “It’s way past due.”

  “Agreed, but it’s not like we’ve had tons of time on our hands since getting back.” The grin slid away from his face as he gave me the side-eye. “Are you still seeing Charles’ daughter? Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard anything yet. They’re searching for perfectly sized apples to stuff in our mouths before they roast us.”

  A bark of laughter came out of me, but the sound was humorless. “I’m not seeing her, and I doubt it. We haven’t heard anything because they’re stringing us along.”

  He dragged in a deep lungful of fresh, salty ocean air, shaking his head. “If you’re not seeing her, please tell me you haven’t seen her again? I think the only thing worse than seeing her is just seeing her when you fuck her.”

  “I haven’t fucked her.” I tilted my head. “Well, not since the first time. We hung out a few days ago, though.”