“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
