Page 21 of Love on the Run

After they both declined the wine and requested water, the waiter took the wine glasses from the table. “Do you have any questions about the menu?”

“I don’t. What about you?” she asked.

Beau shook his head and lowered his menu.

Hmm. Everything on the menu appealed to her in some way. Deciding would be difficult.

Beau’s hand slapped onto the table, and Anna jerked, startled by the thud and the rattling of the glass candle holder in the center of the table.

The breath halted in her chest as her attention jerked up to Beau. His stern expression had her heart pounding, but his focus was fixated on the young waiter.

“Eyes up here, buddy.”

The waiter’s eyes widened, and the wine glasses he held in one hand clinked together. “I—I’ll just give you some time to look over the menu.”

The terrified man sped toward the kitchen as if Beau might come after him. Couples turned in their seats to find out the cause of the commotion.

Anna leaned forward, pressing the menu to her chest. “What was that?”

“He was looking down your shirt,” Beau explained as he resumed browsing the menu.

Her neck and cheeks heated as she glanced down at the scoop neck of her sweater. It wasn’t a revealing top, but from the waiter’s angle, he probably had a nice view of her cleavage.

“You’re kidding,” she whispered as the heat spread up to her ears. She took great pains to make sure her clothing was modest and tasteful. She hadn’t thought twice about the sweater. It seemed safe enough.

“Wish I was,” Beau mumbled, engrossed in the descriptions of the food printed in front of him.

The people around them lost interest, but Anna’s heart still pounded as if she’d tripped in front ofeveryone in the restaurant. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Beau still didn’t look up. “It’s not your fault he decided to ogle you. Men are pigs.”

The tension in Anna’s forehead eased, and the ache in her chest lessened. Beau’s defense of her might have drawn too much attention, but at least he’d been looking out for her. Maybe Olivia had been right to suggest he come along on the trip.

“All men? Are you a pig too?” she asked with a grin.

“I’m ordering the mud pie,” he said dryly.

A chuckle bubbled up her throat before she could stop it. The more she tried to rein it in, the more forceful the laughter became.

Beau looked up as she pressed a hand over her mouth, but she couldn’t hold it back. His self-deprecating joke let loose a different kind of hysteria than she’d been trying and failing to hold at bay.

A slow smile lifted on Beau’s lips as she covered her face with the menu. People were starting to stare again, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The phone in her purse rang, slowly sucking the joy out of the moment. Swiping away the moisture from her eyes with one hand, she reached for her purse with the other.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Beau said.

When she glanced at the screen, the name facing her made her blood run cold. “It’s my mom.”

Beau was back to his intensely interesting menu, but he wasn’t so engrossed that he ignored her. “You still don’t have to answer it.”

But the pull to do as she’d always done was more than she could bear. She’d never ignored her parents. She’d never disobeyed.

The crushing truth crashed down on her. Even all of her loyalty and responsibility hadn’t been enough to make them loosen the chains. Anna was twenty-eight years old, and her mother still told her what to do and demanded obedience.

She’d also never made them proud. Graduating with honors, working as an associate in the family law firm, winning cases—none of it was enough.

Despite her best efforts, her mother was probably livid and ready to burst on the other side of the phone call.

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