Page 10 of A Heart to Find
“This is fantastic.” The middle-aged woman with the smile that nearly matched the brightness of Keira’s clasped her hands over her heart. “I will leave the two of you to get reacquainted. Please make your way into the ballroom for some icebreaker activities. We’ll begin in about fifteen minutes.”
Keira turned away from Jared the second Hannah shimmied away.
He placed a hand on her lower back, but jerked it away when she jumped.
Go slow. He needed to remember that. She wasn’t a mountain to conquer or a village to explore. She was a real woman who held a real grudge against him.
Patience would be his friend.
She swung around without warning, catching him as he stared at the light glinting off her caramel blonde waves.
“So, did you enjoy the ferry ride over?”
Small talk. Okay. He could go with it.
“It was a bit choppy, but enjoyable enough. You?”
He grabbed two cocktails from a passing waiter and watched her long lashes sweep her cheeks as she took a sip and nodded slightly.
“Mmhmm. It was lovely. I made a friend on the shuttle from the parking lot to the ferry, and we shared horror stories about past relationships during the ride to the island. It was quite therapeutic.”
His stomach clenched. He couldn’t have emerged from that conversation in a positive light.
“I’m sure your friend will appreciate the irony here, then.”
“Oh, I don’t know if you came up.”
Now his stomach felt like a lead ball had been tossed into its depths. He didn’t earn a mention in her stories about past relationships? Then a small flag of hope started waving, feeling like the proverbial butterflies in the gut. She had said they shared horror stories. Maybe she remembered their time together more favorably than he had thought?
“I didn’t want to frighten her off relationships entirely, you know? I mean, we came here hoping to find the loves of our lives. Why start the trip with too much negativity?”
He let her comments slide, though to be honest, he couldn’t come up with anything resembling a retort.
Had he really been that horrible?
“Oh look, people are heading toward the doors. I guess it’s time for those icebreakers.”
The plastered smile returned, but he could read the dread in the tortured shadows on her face.
“After you.” He gestured in front of him, encouraging her to take the lead.
Though the clothing she wore wasn’t formal, she oozed elegance. Class. The confidence of a homecoming queen.
Something she had never aspired to be.
Neither of them attempted conversation as they filed through the crowds of couples. He listened in as matches flirted, questioned one another, and shared stories of their jobs, their families, their pets. He wanted to hear all about Keira’s life and what she had been up to, but there was a concrete wall between them, and he didn’t dare to knock on it this soon. They had two weeks. They were in the utopia of romance. There would be time. He’d win her over.
Fate would not have brought him here seeking the kind of love he had given up when he left their small hometown if this wasn’t meant to be. He had never considered himself a “what’s meant to be” kind of guy, but he couldn’t argue with the theory now. He had given her up. He had missed what they had. He had—at the urging and encouragement of his now deceased wife—decided to seek it out. He had been matched with her. Her. The one. The only. His fated match.
He’d do better this time. He’d had ten years and a lifetime of experience. He had grown. Matured. Things would be better this time. He’d make sure of it.
She led them to an empty table in the middle of the room. He held her chair out for her, trying to catch her eye as she sat. She refused to look at him, but he hadn’t expected otherwise.
He sat beside her, fiddling with the corner of the napkin beneath his glass of water. When another couple joined them at the table, he listened enviously as Keira chatted so freely with them.
Jared wanted to be the recipient of those smiles. He wanted her to ask him the polite questions meant to pass the time. He wanted them to take turns reading off the list of suggested “getting to know you” topics placed at each place setting. He wanted her attention, plain and simple.
But he’d wait.
