Her Vigilant Seal (10 page)

Mason watched as his friend handed off the pan of steaks to Billy and took the beers and soft drink out to the patio. He turned to Sophia and grinned.

“So when are you finally going to admit that we’re dating?”

“I’m not sure it would be a good idea,” Sophia said slowly.

“Why not?” he asked gently.

“It all seems too soon. I’m just confused by it all. You’re a bit overwhelming, Mason. Tomorrow I’m going back to my life. I live above a diner. I’m a waitress. I’m saving every penny I can to get an apartment that will be approved by DHCS for Billy to move in with me. I’m just not a good bet for someone like you. You’re bigger than life.”

“I think we’re really good together.”

“Well the…” her voice trailed off, and suddenly she found something fascinating on the floor to look at.

“What?”

“The physical part.”

“Are you talking about last night?” She nodded her head. “When I helped you get some sleep?” She nodded again without looking up. He crouched in front of her so he could look into her big emerald eyes. “Honey, it was us making love.”

“Oh Mason, I wish it had been.” She bit her lip, and he couldn’t help himself he reached up with his thumb and rescued it. Then her pretty pink tongue took a swipe of his finger and he was lost.

“Jesus, woman, you do it for me. There has never, and I mean never, been a woman who has gotten to me like you have. We’re going on a date. And then another, and then another after that.” He would have backed off if she gave him any indication she wasn’t interested, but she didn’t. Instead she seemed to be under the misapprehension this wasn’t going to work and he was going to dispel that belief. “Will you put me out of my misery and agree to go out with me this weekend?”

“Yes,” she finally whispered.

“Thank God. You sure know how to make a man sweat.” She let out a low chuckle, and brushed a lock of his hair. He couldn’t help but arch into her touch.

“I’m about done with the salad. Why don’t you go outside with your friends and I’ll bring out the food?”

“How about we both bring out the food and I introduce you?”

“Okay.”

They made quick work of the salad. Then Mason let her carry the big bowl of chips since it was the lightest thing, and he took the dips, the salad, and the dressings.

“I thought we were going to have to send a search party,” Drake yelled as they set the food on the picnic table.

“This is Billy’s sister, Sophia Anderson,” Mason said. “You already know Drake. These other two are Clint Archer and Darius Stanton.” Clint and Darius stood up and shook Sophia’s hand, and Clint held it a little longer than Mason would have liked. Mason couldn’t blame him, Sophia was something else, but he still gave Clint the evil eye and Clint grinned in return. Mason shook his head as he realized his chain was being yanked.

He turned around and saw Sophia had already high-tailed it back into the kitchen. He followed her.

“Sophia, wait up.”

“I just wanted to make sure the potatoes aren’t over cooking. I hate mushy baked potatoes.” She opened the oven with a jerk and poked them with a fork.

“Clint was just giving me a hard time.”

She closed the oven door and moved to the refrigerator and started pulling out already chopped chives, whipped butter, sour cream, grated cheese and bacon bits. His mouth watered looking at all the toppings. Then he saw her tense expression and he forgot about the food.

“Seriously, Clint was being an ass. He knows how much I like you so he was flirting with you to get my goat.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. What makes sense is he thinks we’re not together.” Fuck, he was going to murder his friend.

“You don’t have many guy friends do you.” She shook her head. “That’s the way guys tease one another. He really was just trying to get a rise out of me and it worked. I wanted to beat the shit out of him for holding your hand too long. Drake thought it was pretty damn funny too.”

“He did?”

“Yep.”

She looked at him for assurance and when she read his sincerity she smiled.

“Okay, enough with my insecurities, even I’m sick of them. We’re going on a date this weekend and I believe your friends think you like me.”

“Hall-e-fucking-lujiah, the woman is catching on.”

She let out a big laugh, and didn’t that deserve a kiss? Before he could get too carried away she pushed at his chest.

“Now I understand what’s going on I want to spend some time with your friends.”

Mason followed her outside but realized it probably wasn’t as easy as she said. Obviously, somewhere her self-esteem had taken some serious hits, probably starting with her father. If the bastard made so many shitty threats against Billy, abandoned their mother when she was sick with cancer, what the fuck had he said and done to Sophia? Yep, Mason knew he was still climbing an up-hill battle with his girl but she was worth it.

****

Now that Clint wasn’t flirting Sophia really liked him. The men spent a lot of time teasing him. Apparently his flirting was normal, and he had recently winked at a captain’s wife. The wife appreciated the gesture, but the captain had not. As a result Clint’s captain decided to delegate all of his report writing to Clint, who found himself stuck to a computer screen almost 24/7.

“Clint, I dare you to tell the captain this joke,” Darius said.

“Oh God, not a dare,” Clint moaned.

“Why is he groaning?” Sophia whispered to Mason.

“For the most part SEALs don’t pass up a dare. Clint is in so much hot water with the captain already that adding to it is just mean on Darius’ part.” Sophia laughed.

Then she thought about it. “Hey Billy, can you go check on the potatoes?”

“I want to hear the joke,” Billy whined.

She turned to Darius. “Is it okay for him to hear it?”

“Yeah, it’s PG.” He turned to Clint with a broad grin.

An admiral and a captain were talking about making love.

The admiral was saying it was seventy percent pleasure and thirty percent work.

The captain disagreed and said it was ninety percent pleasure and ten percent work.

They asked the chief petty officer to settle their argument.

He said they were both wrong.

“If there was any work involved, you would have delegated it all to me,” he said.

Clint groaned and rested his head on the table while everyone else laughed.

“He’s not really going to have to tell that joke to the captain is he?” she asked the men at the table.

“He sure is,” Drake said. “And if he thinks the amount of paperwork he is doing now is bad he hasn’t seen anything yet.” Mason, Darius, and Clint nodded.

“I deserve an extra baked potato. I saw all the fixings so it’s the least I should get,” Clint said as he started loading up his plate. All the other men agreed, and Sophia watched as they piled their plates high. She was glad she’d made as much as she had.

“Sophia this is absolutely delicious,” Drake said.

“Wait ‘til you see all the deserts she made. I like the apple brown betty the best. It’s even better than her cherry pies and brownies.” Billy looked around the table, enjoying the opportunity to brag about his big sister.

Three sets of wide eyes landed on her.

“Brownies,” Drake said on a moan.

“Cherry pie. I love cherry pie,” Clint said with glee.

“My mom makes apple brown betty. I never met anyone else who did,” Darius said with surprise.

Sophia knew her face had to be scarlet.

“My sister is the best baker in the world. She learned from our mom,” Billy said proudly.

Mason squeezed her hand underneath the table, and she gripped it like a lifeline.

“Let me just go in and warm everything up so the vanilla ice cream will melt on it.” That was met by sounds of pleasure. Apparently SEALs were easily pleased.

It took a lot to get Billy to bed. He was so excited having met Mason’s buddies and the idea of surfing in the morning, it would be a wonder if he got any sleep at all. Finally Sophia handled things.

“If you don’t get to sleep I’ll be worried you won’t be alert enough to let you surf tomorrow.” The words had Billy scrambling towards his bedroom.

Mason followed her into the kitchen where she attempted to start washing one of the pans that was soaking.

“Nope, I told you that’s my job. You cooked. I clean.”

“Well, we can’t leave this to soak overnight,” she protested. Mason rested his chin on her shoulder as he looked at the gooey mess made by the apple brown betty.

“Oh yes we can. I’m thinking it needs to soak for a week.” God she smelled good. Cinnamon and Sophia—what a combination. He placed a kiss behind her ear and felt her shiver.

“Come on, honey, you need to get to bed too. You’re going to come watch us in the morning aren’t you?” She turned to look at him, her eyes sparkling.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Billy was so excited when we rented the wetsuit for him today. He hasn’t done this in forever. This is so great of you.” She turned around and found herself in his arms.

“Are you kidding? I love surfing, and it’s fun doing it with other people. Billy is so excited about it, I’m going to have a blast.”

“But I’ve seen you surf. You’re really going to have to hold back. I appreciate you taking the time to surf at his level.”

“I remember the guys who taught me. They had fun doing it just like I’m going to have fun with Billy. It’s great seeing it from a newbie’s eyes. Also, it never hurts to focus on the basics, it keeps you sharp.” He saw the doubt begin to disappear.

“That makes sense. I’m just so happy you’re doing this. Mason, you’re a good guy. I really liked your friends. They were awfully funny.”

“They liked you too. The fact that you baked for them had nothing to do with it.” He smiled. “I saw you smuggle a container of chocolate chip cookies home with Clint. There better still be some here for me.” He loved seeing her eyes fire and her chin jut out before she realized he was teasing. She was beginning to feel more comfortable with him.

“If you keep giving me a hard time I won’t tell you where I put them.” He looked around the kitchen, continuing to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Finally he saw her glance at the bread box on the counter. He stepped over and opened it.

“How did you do that?” she asked, her eyes wide with amazement.

“Ancient SEAL secret.” He was going to have to talk her into a game of strip poker some time. He opened up the Ziploc bag and took out two cookies as he opened the cupboard. “You want some milk to go with your cookies?”

“Are you out of your mind? How could I possibly eat any more?” Looking at her, he felt she could afford to eat plenty more but he had the good sense not to say it.

“You’re not hungry?”

“We just had a huge meal three hours ago with a zillion different desserts. I’m probably not going to be hungry until lunch tomorrow.” He grabbed a paper towel and poured some milk and sat down on one of the stools at the island.

“Come here,” he said holding out his hand.

“Huh?”

“Come sit on my lap.” Mason encircled her good wrist and pulled her inexorably closer until she was standing beside him. Then he lifted her and set her gently on his lap. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder. It felt good.

She didn’t say anything just snuggled closer her head underneath his chin, as he bit into the fabulous cookie. He offered her a bite and she shook her head.

“You’re really missing out,” he said, as he finished the last bite. She twined her other arm around his waist.

“I’ve got a pretty good deal going on right here.” Mason wanted to let out a whoop at her admission.

“I noticed you took one of my W.E.B. Griffin books last night. Have you read him before?”

“No. But I was studying history. We were getting into some of the battles of the Civil War and I found those pretty interesting. So I thought his books about World War II would be good too. I didn’t know they’d be so entertaining.”

“Still didn’t stop the bad dreams though did it?” She shook her head, sadly.

“I can’t imagine how bad it is for the girl who was in the car. Can you imagine how awful her life must have gotten for her to make the decision to be a prostitute?” Sophia’s face was a mask of concern. He hugged her closer, and she let out a deep breath. “I hope the police find her. I told them to call me if they do I want to talk to her.”

“I don’t remember you saying that when you gave your statement at the hospital.”

“They called today.” She looked at him with a look of apprehension. “I meant to talk to you about it.”

“Okay.”

“I forgot until now.” She seemed nervous.

“Honey, with everything going on today no wonder you forgot to tell me.”

“The men who did those things. Well, they got out on bail and they can’t find the girl. They said your testimony isn’t going to be enough so I’m going to be their big witness. They said I have to meet with the D.A.” He could see she was upset by everything she’d said.

“What has you most afraid?” he asked as he stroked from the nape of her neck down to her lower back. She didn’t answer, and he watched as she gathered her thoughts and courage. He continued stroking, up and down and then back up again.

“I worry for the girl, she seemed so young. But I didn’t see her like you did. Was she young?” He thought back to those horrific moments and he saw them all clearly. The girl screaming and running up to him, begging him to call the cops, all but dragging him to the car. Sophia was right she’d been young, probably just out of high school if he had to guess. But as soon as he’d seen those men on top of Sophia his entire focus centered on her.