Page 54 of Love on the Run

“It was just Olivia.” Anna stood and held up the swimsuit still wadded up in her hand. “I’m going to change.”

Anna slid into the piping hot water just before Beau stepped out onto the balcony. The dark night cast shadows over everything, but there was absolutely no way she could miss the sight of him walking toward the hot tub.

Beau worked out! And he’d been hiding beneath inconspicuous T-shirts this entire time.

Anna jerked her attention from Beau’s chest to the very boring water. It wasn’t nice to ogle him, especially when she’d purposely slipped into the hot tub early to hide her own body.

Not that she was embarrassed of the way she looked. She’d intentionally packed skimpy bikinis for the trip under the impression her new husband would be the only one to see so much of her.

Oh, and there was the tiny fact that she suddenly cared what Beau thought of her. She hadn’t decided what to do about that yet, but shedidn’t want to win him over with her body. It was the most unimportant part of a relationship.

Looks came and went. Bodies changed. She repeated those truths often on her fashion vlog.

Beau sank into the warm water, sitting as far away from her as possible and taking up a whole lot of space. Despite the steaming water and the chill of the night air, Beau captivated all of her attention.

He picked up his phone from the side of the hot tub and tapped on the screen. “You have ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?” she asked.

“I looked it up. You shouldn’t stay in a hot tub any longer than that.”

Oh. He wasn’t trying to be bossy. He was looking out for her.

Ugh. There was the tightening in her chest again—the tight squeeze that reminded her of Beau’s unexpected sweetness.

“Let’s play twenty questions,” she said, desperate to be comfortable sitting this close to Beau.

“I reserve the right to decline any questions I don’t want to answer. Same goes for you.”

“Of course.” He was right to suggest an out. She didn’t want to pressure him to talk about anything he didn’t want to, and it was nice to know she had the same option.

“Youfirst,” he said.

“How did you start your own business?” she asked.

He lifted his arms out of the water and stretched them out on the rim of the hot tub on either side of him. If he’d taken up space before, his area just doubled. “That’s what you want to know?”

“Yeah. It’s great that you saw something you wanted to do and went for it. You’re in control of everything. It just seems so… freeing.”

Beau shrugged. “It is. I didn’t want to work for an idiot, and at the time, I was the only person I trusted to do things right.”

Anna bit her lips between her teeth. It was such a Beau thing to say, and she loved it.

“Dad gave me a start-up loan. It took every penny both of us had, but I was determined to pay him back no matter what. I had the loan paid off by the third year. Now I need to hire more employees because we have more work than we can handle.”

“That’s amazing,” she whispered. She’d spent plenty of time at Beau’s garage. Despite his gruff demeanor, customers respected his honesty, and he had plenty of repeat business. She’d seen cars float in and out of the shop more than once over the years.

“What exactly do you do online with the fashion stuff?” Beau asked.

Oh yeah. It was his turn. “I share fashion tips and tricks for different body styles and trends.Boutiques send me exclusive pieces to share and talk about. Usually, it’s either to announce an upcoming line or gauge interest so they can anticipate trends.”

“They send you clothes for free?”

That was a separate question, but she’d allow it. “Yes.”

“Do you make money from it?”

Okay, he was running away with the questions. “My social channels are monetized, so I get paid whenever someone watches my videos. I also have affiliate links with many boutiques and companies, which means I get paid whenever someone purchases something after clicking on the link I shared.”

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