AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We do?” Zane sat across from his friends at the weathered square wood table.
“It’s about your surf lesson turning into a rescue. The locals are claiming you’re a hero, but everyone else is saying you’re reckless. They think you almost let her drown because of her looks.”
“What?That’s bullshit.” Anger coursed through Zane’s blood like an out-of-control wildfire. Sophie might not be the type of woman he usually glanced at twice, but he’d never disrespect her or put her life in jeopardy.
This was all on him, though, and he hated himself for how things had gone down earlier. How he’d let Danny do the majority of the talking instead of owning up. It was the hurt in Sophie’s green eyes that had kept him quiet.
He ran a hand across his jaw. His bonehead maneuver of letting her catch her first wave on her own had bothered him the rest of the day. He should have been right there by her side, not preoccupied with thoughts of his sister.It’s cancer,her text had said while he’d been standing on the beach waiting for Sophie.I’ll call you tomorrow. Can’t talk about it at the moment.
Hell, he shouldn’t have even been in the water. He should have rescheduled. But the water was his safe place—the place where he could think without any noise. Most cases of thyroid cancer were cured with treatment, and he refused to believe otherwise, but that didn’t take away the bone-deep concern. His younger sister had a fiancé, a wedding planned for January. He hated the idea that her life could be put on hold.
“Weknow that,” Danny said. “But dammit, Zane. You’re under the microscope, and you cannot make any more errors in judgment. It’s a damn good thing you saved her.”
Yeah, Sophie’s plea for help had gotten his ass into gear. Thank God. “She say anything more about it when you had your meeting?”
“I called to check on her and asked that she join us here instead.”
“Zane,” their waitress, Midge, said in greeting as she dropped off three tall glasses of beer. Sharp and still spry given her sixty-plus years, her apron saidKiss Me, I’m Happy. “Happy” being her nickname since she was a kid. When her husband wanted to open a restaurant, he looked no farther than his wife to help name it. “Can I get you boys anything else?” she asked.
“Thanks, Midge. We’re waiting on one more,” Bryce said.
“I’ll be back, then.” She batted her eyelashes at Zane because she loved to give him a hard time about all the attention he got, and strode off.
Zane took a long drag on the pale ale before he studied his two best friends. “What’s going on? Why is Sophie Birch joining us?”
Bryce rubbed his temple, and Danny spun his watch around his wrist, sure signs that his agent and manager were up to something. “Because we need to make sure things are cool between you two. She didn’t seem particularly eager about tomorrow night,” Danny said.
“She’s running the festival, and it’s in our best interest to make sure her impression of you isn’t anything less than stellar,” Bryce added.
The flames of the tiki torches wavered in the warm breeze. Zane took another drink of his beer and inhaled the smell of something hot and sizzling on the passing waiter’s tray.
“You want me to apologize.” He hadn’t done that, had he? God, he was a shmuck and wanted to kick his own ass.
“That would be nice.” Danny leaned back in his wood-slatted chair.
Zane put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands, his attention on both men. “I should have done it on the beach, but I wasn’t thinking straight.”
His friends nodded in support. His sister, Julia, was family to them, too, having grown up tagging along after the three of them, and they were worried about her as much as he was.
“We’re thinking it also wouldn’t hurt to pay some extra attention to her. Make sure people know you’re not as shallow as they’re making you out to be,” Bryce said.
Zane narrowed his eyes. “No.” He may have a certain reputation with women, but taking advantage of someone wasn’t one of them.
“She’s perfect, Zane. The perfect girl to improve your image while we’re here.”
“I’m not going to use her to help my image. Besides, what makes you think she’d even want my attention? She doesn’t strike me as the type to like beach bums.”
While he’d been instructing her on the sand earlier, she’d picked up on the mechanics of surfing faster than anyone he’d given a first lesson to. Intelligence shimmered in her eyes, and he’d gotten the feeling Sophie was nothing like anyone he’d met before.
“You’re not a beach bum, for one. And two, we’re only suggesting that if you see her, you strike up a conversation.” Danny took a sip of his beer. “Jon Waldron will be here later in the week for the screening of your film, and we think it would be a good idea to have Sophie there with you.”
Jon Waldron. Co-founder and executive director of SHE. The man with the “yea” or “nay” power.
“She barely agreed to tomorrow night.” Zane smiled at a group of women a few tables away who kept glancing at him.
“That’s because she was nervous,” Danny said. “Dude, do we need to remind you again that nothing can go on this week?”
Zane fixed his attention back on his friend and shook his head. “No. I got it.” He wanted the ambassadorship something fierce, and honestly? He’d grown numb to the offers from hot women eager to slip between the sheets. Habits were hard to break, though.
