“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 our 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
