Page 24 of A Heart to Find
If she was drawn toward her cutest outfit to change into for dinner, that didn’t mean anything. And if she spent a little extra time on her hair and makeup, that didn’t mean anything, either. She just didn’t want to be embarrassed amidst all the other well-groomed women on the island.
And if all her daydreams incorporated the very man she swore she’d never fall for again, well that didn’t mean anything at all.
Chapter 5
Why, oh why did he have to look so handsome?
Ugh.
And why did he have to smell so good?
Double ugh.
Keira didn’t know if his cologne was making her tipsy or if she was slipping on the ice in her high-heeled shoes, but she kept bouncing into his arm.
She hated the thrill that jolted through her every time they accidentally touched.
He must be feeling pretty tipsy, too. Or the ground truly was slippery. Because while she attempted to walk as straight as possible, he kept bumping into her.
She had never known him to be a clumsy man.
“Hope you don’t mind that I picked an Italian place. Kind of had pasta on my mind for some strange reason.”
“I’m quite partial to Italian myself. But thank you for not insisting that we eat what we made.”
Their laughter came out as billows of steam cutting through the cold night air.
“Are you sure you’re okay with having Megan and her smitten kitten join us?”
“Her ‘smitten kitten’? Sounds like a band name. ‘Folks, put your hands together for Megan and the Smitten Kittens!’”
“Hmm, I kinda like it.” Keira slipped—for real—on a patch of black ice. She grabbed his sleeve to keep from going down. “Probably should have stuck with boots tonight. I forgot that all that warm air earlier would lead to a layer of ice as soon as the sun set. You’d think I’d never lived in New England. But anyway, ‘smitten kitten’ is a great way to describe him, but his name is Matt.”
“I think I’ll call him Smitten Kitten. It has sticking power.”
“Don’t you dare!” Ugh, she sounded like a flirty teen. And she was powerless to stop it. “There they are.”
He hadn’t lost his ability to charm anyone he met. He and Matt hit it off right away, and Megan fanned herself dramatically when the guys weren’t looking. Keira rolled her eyes at her friend. She wasn’t about to admit that she agreed.
Over dessert, Megan started bouncing in her seat and leaned forward as if about to confide the world’s most shocking secret.
“Did you hear there’s already been an engagement on the island this week? They say it might be a record breaker!”
Keira dropped her spoon and suddenly felt sick.
“Seriously? We’ve been here three days. Do they even know each other’s middle names yet?”
Megan lifted her spoonful of lava cake and brought a bite to Matt’s smiling lips.
“I guess when you know, you know, right?”
Keira made a gagging face at Jared, who for once seemed to be on the same page as her.
“What?” Megan said, not seeming the slightest bit embarrassed over her sugary-sweet treatment of her new infatuation. “You said yourself that the system they use is practically foolproof. So why not dive in as soon as you feel the spark? All those tests we took and questionnaires we filled out were meant to save us from having to do the dirty work of searching blindly for the loves of our lives. You said that, Keira.”
“Oh you did, did you?” Jared sat back in his seat, licking hot fudge off the tip of his finger.
“I was trying to help her settle her nerves.” Keira turned back to Megan. “Of course I believe in the system. And obviously it worked for you. I just find it hard to imagine getting engaged to someone I’ve known for three days. But that’s just me. I’m not gonna judge.”
