Jonas asked.
Anna’s eyes snapped back up to meet Jonas’s, her fork freezing in midair over her salad. The smile flickered away from her face and then reappeared seconds later. But Gabe noticed the slip. “What about them?”
“I don’t think we’ve really had the chance to get to know you.” Jonas popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. “All of our gatherings have been pretty Elkin-focused. Where does your family come from?”
“Las Vegas. Born and raised.” Anna shrugged, with a light laugh. “It’s not a very interesting story.”
Gabe wasn’t buying it for a single minute. Everything Anna did took the form of an interesting story. That was why she was so good at arranging conferences—why she could make an inspiring narrative out of just about anything.
Gabe searched his memory for the true story of her family, but somehow, they’d never talked about it. If she’d revealed her past to him, he would know. And now all he could think about were the ways she shifted away from those kinds of questions, or changed the subject, leaving him to wonder about her childhood. Jonas nodded slowly, suspicion creeping into his eyes. “So, you grew up in Vegas then. That sounds exciting.”
“We lived in the eastern portion, in the suburbs,” Anna said. “But honestly, I don’t like to talk about my childhood. It was an uncomfortable time.”
Chase straightened up in his seat, looking down at his salad, and Tana’s expression shifted toward sympathy.
“But what’s important,” she continued brightly, “is that I’ve managed to make it on my own, and I’m happy where I am now. Very happy.”
Anna looked back at her salad and stabbed at a piece of lettuce resolutely with her fork.
Gabe could see that Jonas wanted to ask more questions. He could see it in the intense look on his brother’s face. “You’ll be the first to know when we’ve decided about the wedding,” he said pointedly, ending the conversation.
The brothers let it drop, talking about attendance on the slopes until the main course came. But Anna didn’t relax. She spoke up every so often, usually to agree with Tana or ask Chase about his new position at the resort. Tension wound its way up the back of Gabe’s neck until it was too tight to bear. When the waiter came to clear away the dinner plates, he took Anna’s hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “I think we’re going to head out,” he announced to everyone else at the table.
Anna put on one more smile, and the two of them left. It wasn’t until they got off the elevator at their floor that her shoulders sagged. She leaned against him, trembling a little.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Jonas doesn’t know when to stop sometimes. I think he missed the class on sensitivity.”
“I don’t understand why he’s so determined to find out more,” she said through gritted teeth. Her arm went around his waist, and she held tight while he opened the door and entered their suite. Anna brushed past him to push the door shut and slam the locks into place. “My family has nothing to do with the wedding, or with me, and—”
“He’s just trying to look out for me. My family doesn’t love that I live in Vegas, where they can’t keep an eye on everything I’m doing. It is Sin City afterall.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I know—but it’s out of love. I know it is.” It irritated him, too, all the questions. Anna clearly hadn’t wanted to talk about it, and Jonas had pressed on anyway. “That doesn’t excuse the way he kept pressing for answers.”
She let out a breath, some of the color receding from her face. “I get it. It’s nice you have someone who cares one way or the other.” Her gaze flicked down to the floor, and the corner of her mouth turned down. This time, he reached up to brush his thumb over that hint of a frown. Anna met his eyes again, and he was struck by the depth he found there, and the warmth, even when she was sad.
“Tell me what’s happening with you,” he coaxed. “You’ve been tense since you knew about this dinner with my brothers. Did something happen out on the ski hill?”
“No,” she said quickly. “No, I just—I found out more about how it was for you guys—growing up. It wasn’t anything like my childhood, and I felt...I felt like a puzzle piece that had fallen into the wrong box. Like I would never fit in