Page 12 of A Heart to Find
Jared started to answer, but the tears welling in Keira’s eyes pushed all thoughts out of his head. What was making her sad? She blinked away the tears and doodled away, drawing little hearts with lightning bolts severing the symbols. Did she know how her doodles gave her away? How they betrayed the calm look on her face by revealing something about her inner thoughts?
He desperately wanted to know why she was hurting. He even more desperately wanted to fix it.
Realizing that everyone was awaiting an answer from him, he smiled and said, “Such a sweet person would always put her family first.”
That seemed to satisfy Dan enough to get him to move along to the other couples who answered correctly. He leaned forward and placed a hand on Keira’s knee.
“Are you okay?”
She uncrossed her legs and crossed them the opposite way, effectively dislodging his hand.
“Yeah, of course. I’m fine. Don’t distract me—it’s my turn to answer about you.”
Her weak smile didn’t convince him that everything was okay, but now wasn’t the time. He knew she hated to cry in front of people, and he didn’t need to give her any other ammunition against him.
“If your partner were eighteen years old again and someone gave him one thousand dollars, what would he or she spend it on?”
Keira’s sardonic laugh frightened him, but he scribbled his answer and they won yet another round with what to them was an easy question.
Plane tickets.
They continued to win round after round with questions that seemed almost too easy to be fair. Some did require some thought, though. Favorite color was harder than it should have been, because she always said she loved the whole rainbow. But based on the color scheme of her blouse and her jewelry, he safely guessed turquoise and was given a bonus point for not just saying “blue.”
After several rounds, they were down to only two couples. Keira and Jared shook hands with the other couple and settled in for the moment of truth. Would they be enjoying a private date in utopia, or would the other couple get the slice of heaven?
It all hinged on his ability to answer the final question correctly.
“Okay, friends. The final question is of critical importance. If you both get it right, we will have a tiebreaker. But if one of you does not answer the question correctly, we will have our winner and will announce the special itinerary for this evening!”
Sure, no pressure.
“When replacing toilet paper, should the paper roll over or under? Good luck!”
Well, this would certainly cement it. If she was anything but an “over” person, he would call it all off and head out of the country right now.
He smiled at the thought. As if he’d give up on her so easily.
Keira let out a cheer when they flipped their papers over to reveal that their answers matched. The poor sap in the other couple earned a glare and a pout at the insinuation that his partner would ever be an “under.” The dude’s feeble, “But that’s how my mama always did it” earned an even bigger pout and a dirty look from his match. Trouble in paradise already…At least Jared wasn’t the only one who had a big hole to dig out of.
“Congratulations to our winners! Come on up here!”
The crowd applauded as Dan escorted the lucky pair to the front of the room. Mrs. Love Maker grabbed each of them by the hand and held their arms in the air like they were heavyweight champions rather than personal trivia winners.
“This lucky couple must have paid attention to the list of suggested topics to discuss. Well done, you two. As a reward for winning, you will be escorted via sleigh to a private gazebo overlooking the pond, where professional figure skating couples will entertain you! We’re talking Olympics level of professional, my friends! While getting to know each other even better, you will be serviced by a full staff eager to cater to your every need. Never fear, though, the rest of you. While you won’t be getting the First Class treatment, you are all invited to view the skaters from the other side of the pond, where there will be a fully stocked chocolate bar. Save me some strawberries to dip in the fountain, won’t ya? Enjoy!”
“Not a bad setup for a first date, huh?” Jared hoped his smile wouldn’t give away how nervous he felt at the idea of being relatively alone with Keira.
He had messed things up with her once before.
He wouldn’t do it again.
Keira smiled, but he wasn’t blind enough not to see the tension in the corner of her lips. The lack of shine in her eyes.
This smile wasn’t for him. It was for all the people watching.
He would get her to smile a genuine smile before the night was over. If he couldn’t manage that, he didn’t deserve another chance.
Chapter 3
