features, she was having trouble working out her own similar feelings.
Once we were seated and had ordered a couple of beers, I leaned back in the chair and stretched my legs beneath the table. The new position gave me a long minute to just study the captivating woman sitting across from me. It was another perfect moment for my mental video library. Perhaps its portrait gallery too. Rio looked over the menu as if she were going to be quizzed on its contents afterward. Her usually pale skin was lightly tanned, and her facial features were relaxed. The only thing that gave away the storm inside her mind was how her eyes bounced and darted from picture to explanation and then on to the next item. Her pupils scanned so rapidly; it was fascinating that she could be processing any of it.
“What are you getting?” she finally asked, looking up from the lengthy menu. Confusion twisted her adorable features, and I chuckled before answering.
“I thought you were jonesing for fish tacos?” I reminded instead of actually answering the question she asked.
“But they have so many delicious-looking things. Now I can’t decide.”
“I had a feeling this was going to happen the minute I saw the size of the menu.”
“Sean always says the—”
Well, shit.
After cutting herself off midsentence, she was prisoner to a wide, terrified stare. First, she just looked at me with those incredibly expressive eyes, as if I held the balm that would relieve the pain she’d just rekindled. Then my girl darted her gaze to every corner of the room, as if expecting her late husband’s ghost to arrive at one of the entrances and ask to be seated at our table. A pained sound escaped, even though she tried to press her lips together in a seam.
“Okay, Blaze. Breathe.” I said the words as conversationally as possible so the patrons sitting closest to us wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The dining room was crowded and loud and, I suspected, over the fire marshal’s maximum occupancy limit by at least twenty people. Tables were unusually close to one another, so our neighbors were within earshot.
When she didn’t transition from her steady blank stare, I asked, “Hey? Want to get some air? We can order to go or just eat on the boat instead?”
Her hands were in their usual place in her lap. Likely she had been digging her nails into her thighs beneath the table to focus her rioting nerves. Often, she grew anxious in public settings like this and used the trick to stay calm. Unfortunately, I couldn’t subtly squeeze them in mine to snap her focus back to the present, so I waited while a few more beats passed. When she still hadn’t snapped out of the trance she had slipped into, I did the unthinkable. I was going to get in serious hot water, but I couldn’t see another option. Under the table, I drew back at the knee and kicked her shin.
“Asshole!” Rio yelled. The only eight people remaining who hadn’t noticed her up to that point sure as hell did then.
Yeah, that was shitty. But at least it worked. “Welcome back,” I muttered, trying not to attract more attention.
“Fuck, Grant. Seriously?”
“Sorry, baby.”
“Sorry? Really? That’s all you’ve got after a stunt like that? I’m sure it’s already turning black and blue.” She leaned down, nearly resting her cheek on the tablecloth to rub her abused shin.
I leaned across the table and growled, “What did you want me to do? You were staring like a zombie. Half the staff was already panicking like they’d have to perform some first-aid procedure from a class they didn’t pay attention in.”
Rio extinguished the fiery glare with which she’d nearly been roasting me alive. “Sorry,” she muttered instead, blowing out an onerous exhale. “We can just go. I’m not really hungry now anyway.” Her sorrowful caramel stare never left her twisting fingers until I reached across the table and wrapped my palm over her knuckles.
“Blaze.”
“What?” she snapped.
“Look at me.”
Christ. One step forward, two steps back. Would life forever be like this with the woman?
Easy answer on that one. If it was, then she was worth it.
She was worth everything.
Slowly, she leveled her chin with the table again and met my waiting stare.
“You did not embarrass me. There isn’t a single thing you could do that would embarrass me. Do you understand that?” I asked in the most serious tone I could muster.