Page 15 of A Heart to Find
She stiffened. She could not, would not go down the Jared path again. That path led to pain, heartbreak, and disaster.
Smoothing her shirt over her overstuffed belly, she forced a yawn and told him she needed to get back to bed.
He accepted her lie—she was more amped up than she had ever been and probably wouldn’t sleep for the next two weeks—and stood when she stood. His hand on her lower back was meant to guide her toward the lit pathway, but the gentle, familiar touch sent shivers up her spine and an electric bolt to her heart. The pathetic organ intensified in its beat-beat-beat, drumming in her ears. A sign of warning or a rallying cry?
Definitely a warning.
The sleigh ride back to the lodge was silent, but not uncomfortable. She kept her face turned toward the chilled breeze in an attempt to keep the heat he generated in her from showing on her face. The fresh winter air cleared her sinuses and reminded her to keep her heart cold.
“I can walk you to your floor,” he offered.
She shook her head and muttered something she hoped sounded like, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” but she couldn’t honestly say if those were the words he heard.
Just about to step on the elevator, she stopped when he called out to her.
“Thank you, Keira, for reminding me of what I lost all those years ago.”
Unable to form a coherent response, she rushed into the elevator, frantically pushed the “close door” button until it finally took mercy on her, and held in her tears until she was in the relative safety of her hotel room.
Keira stretched into the sliver of sunshine that drifted across her luxurious bed. She had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she underestimated the power of the Egyptian cotton sheets and the extra cozy memory foam mattress with the pillows that made her never want to leave this nest.
Checking the time on her phone, her blurry eyes struggled to focus on the text notification on her home screen. The text was from an unknown number, but with a New Hampshire area code.
Hands shaking and palms sweating, she clicked on the notification.
“Good morning, beautiful. Looking forward to today’s date, whatever it may be.”
A message from Jared? Impossible. She hadn’t given him her number.
She tossed the phone across the bed and covered her eyes with her sweaty hands.
He had used a heart eyes emoticon.
It was too early to deal with his attempts at cuteness.
An annoying thought nagged at her brain throughout her entire shower and while she dried her hair. Why would the resort give out personal phone numbers without permission? She would have remembered giving authorization. She’d have this number long after the two weeks were up, and how awkward would it be to have to dodge messages and calls if things didn’t work out with this matchmaking thing?
When things didn’t work out. There was no “if” when it came to Jared.
Making a mental note to question staff about this policy, she plopped into the chair beside the enormous fireplace and shifted through the informational papers. She hadn’t planned an activity for today and needed to get going before he texted her again. She didn’t want to seem unprepared. Uninterested, yes, but unprepared? Never.
Rather than finding activities she might otherwise enjoy, she found herself searching for ones that would annoy Jared the most.
Childish? Yes, perhaps. But his presence here had shot a tranquilizer dart into the beating heart of her hopes and dreams, so if she could gain any pleasure from making him even slightly miserable without being outright cruel, she was all in.
Jared carefully placed the tray of paints in front of the wildly grinning Keira, then settled his aproned body onto the wobbly stool, unable to stop himself from bursting into a full smile at the gleeful smirk she sent his way.
His version of art was capturing what he could see through the lens of a camera, not trying to create something out of nothing on a blank canvas. Her twinkling eyes proved that she remembered his dislike for creating in this medium.
He’d do anything she wanted if it meant breathing the same air as Keira, though. She’d see the man he became, rather than the man he once was.
“Interesting choice of scenes to paint for someone who never wanted to leave her hometown.” Jared studied her from the corner of his eye, surprised to see her flinch before recovering.
“I didn’t have the craving for adventure that you did, but that doesn’t mean I never dreamed of escaping to a faraway castle.”
Before he could ask her all the questions that flooded his head at her unexpected comment, the instructor called them to attention and directed them to paint their canvas blue.
How this blob of paint was going to turn into a rolling Scottish countryside with a medieval castle was beyond him, but he’d subject himself to the painting class one hundred times if it meant listening to her giggle beside him as her brush glided over the canvas in a dance of merriment.
