I should be doing with my life.”
Anna blinked. Jonas seemed like the type to have lots of thoughts about what other people should do, but it had clearly gotten Gabe’s goat at this meeting. For a horrible moment, she thought Jonas might be talking about her—maybe he’d discovered the truth about the two of them. That would be bad. That was not something she wanted for Elin or Gabe. Any of them. “Really?” Her tongue felt dry. “He wanted you to—what, to do something else?” She should be straightforward—is this about me? But it felt wrong to ask. Selfish.
“Yes. Jonas’s expectations are as high as they ever were in my family, and now…” He let out a huff. “Now, I know my business will never be enough for them. I thought if I showed them I was happy, they would change their minds. Clearly, that’s not going to happen. I’m still a disappointment.”
Anna reached out and took his hand, and he squeezed tight. It kept her grounded, though the rest of her seemed unsettled. Unmoored. “I don’t think that’s true,” she finally managed. “Chase looks up to you. He spent a good chunk of our lesson talking about how smart you are.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re not the outsider. You just have a different outlook on life. They want to be here at the lodge, and you want something else. It doesn’t mean your family thinks less of you.”
He stiffened, cutting a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. “How can you be sure of that? You don’t really even know my family.” That hurt. It was true, yeah, but that was probably why it hurt so much. “My job has never been good enough because it’s not here. My girlfriends have never measured up to my grandmother’s standards.” Gabe stared straight ahead, and Anna’s heart threatened to break for him.
The comment stung because it lumped her in with all the other girlfriends Gabe had brought here. How could Anna ever begin to fit in here? She could barely ski. And she definitely couldn’t pretend to be from a wealthy, stable family. Okay—she could pretend that, but eventually, the truth would come out.
Or maybe it wouldn’t because they wouldn’t be together. They would return home and keep working together at a careful distance. As professionals. And she wouldn’t get to fall into bed with him again. She would not.
The trick was to stay focused.
What she would do was work extra hard to win the family over tonight. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d felt like a complete imposter while doing a job, but no matter what she felt, she’d do the job to the best of her ability. Beyond the best of her ability. That was how she’d positioned herself for this moment, hadn’t she?
Anna took a deep breath and reached for Gabe. She held him close and kissed his cheek.
He laughed. “What’s that for?”
“I know what I know,” she told him. “You’re good enough for your family. More than good enough. If you want to do something different, then that’s up to you.” His muscular shoulders felt good in her arms. “But in the meantime, you know what we’re going to do?”
“What?”
“Be the best-engaged couple at this resort.”
Gabe’s hand came up, and he stroked the side of her face, his eyes finally landing on hers. They flicked down over her lips and lingered there. “How should we do that?”
“Oh, I’m not sure,” she said primly. “Do you think we should practice first? Do some exercises to get closer together before our next public appearance?”
He made a low noise in the back of his throat. “I can think of a few exercises for that.” His gray-green eyes warmed. “I have to warn you, though—they involve significantly less clothing.”
“Try me,” she said, all too happy when he took her up on the offer.
13
When they climbed out of bed an hour later, Gabe felt closer to Anna. Much closer. It still stung, the way she’d brushed over his worry about not belonging with his family, but it stung a lot less. He’d take that for now.
They stepped into the shower together, and he tried to put his heart back inside his body as he ran the washcloth down her curves, circling her breasts and tickling her hips. She leaned back against him, her head on his chest. “No more,” she said. “Or I’ll be too tired to go to dinner with you.”
“With me, Jonas, and Chase,” he