Page 39 of A Heart to Find
“I’m so sorry. This is supposed to be a date, not therapy.”
“Don’t ever be sorry for opening yourself up to me. I want to hear everything you’ve been through. And then I want to share everything with you as you experience it fresh.”
She shook her head to clear the negative clouds that threatened to spoil her newfound optimism.
“So you broke someone’s heart to come here, huh?” He dug his fork into his salad and tried to act nonchalant, but she could see he wanted details.
She grimaced. “I was honest with him and told him I’d be coming here. He asked if we could keep our weekly dinner dates. He liked going out to restaurants but not alone. Trust me, there was no heart breaking. As I said, he was perfectly adequate in terms of dating, I suppose. But there wasn’t much romantic chemistry there.”
“Not like there is with us…”
He reached a hand across the table. She backed up in her seat and took her napkin from her lap to dab at her lips. He pulled back as if he hadn’t made the gesture at all.
She struggled to regain her equilibrium. Something to drive away the awkwardness. Something to ease the hurt and rejection she had inadvertently cast his way.
“Tell me something about your travels. Your favorite place of any of the places you’ve been? You spoke lovingly about Scotland, but would you say it’s your favorite of all time?”
“That’s a tough question. I think I find something to love in all of the places I’ve been. The landscapes, cultures, warmth and hospitality of the people. Even places I didn’t love when I first arrived didn’t take long to embed themselves into my traveler’s soul.” He bit into a breadstick and gestured for her to do the same. “I am absolutely certain that this sounds ridiculous to you. Not the sort of thing that would make your spirit soar. But I’m telling you, there’s something about traveling the world that opens your eyes to so many things you thought you understood previously.”
His eyes locked with hers, and no matter how she tried, she couldn’t look away.
Luckily Demetri came to refill their glasses, breaking the spell if not killing the building tension between them.
Good tension or bad tension? Would she ever know for sure?
Laughter built in her chest as he told her more of his travel misfortunes, and her heart warmed as he shared stories of the hospitality various people had extended to him. He made it sound like the whole world was a small town like Healing Springs.
After they each wolfed down a piece of pizza, he wiped his mouth and asked her to tell him about her work as they each reached for another slice.
She sat up straighter in her seat and told him how she had achieved her dream of becoming a teacher in her hometown school. Probably being polite, he told her how proud he was of her. How in his experience most people altered their course of action and didn’t become what they had set out to be.
She lost track of time as she told him all about her students. About their individual personalities. About their struggles, their joys. How the ones who hugged her every day made her realize she was in the exact place she was meant to be, and how the more challenging behaviors made her realize she had more to learn.
She placed her pizza on her plate, suddenly self-conscious of the way he stared at her. Did she have grease or sauce on her face? She wiped her mouth and chin with her napkin, unease bubbling up inside her.
“What?” She finally asked, a nervous giggle at the end of the word.
“I’m just amazed.”
“The pizza is pretty good.”
“Not about the pizza.”
Her hands shook as she lifted a piece of gooey cheese to her mouth. She couldn’t look at him. He’d see all of her thoughts and feelings if she did, and that would do nothing but complicate things.
As an act of mercy, perhaps, Jared sat back in his seat and resumed making small talk about the restaurant décor and how it compared to some of the places he had enjoyed in Naples and Rome. Swept away by tales of his culinary adventures, a stirring tickled her belly and she suddenly wished she had a passport.
“I’d say it’s high time you get one, Keira.”
Had she spoken aloud again? She didn’t like this new habit one bit. Worse even than the giggling.
“I think coming here will have to suffice as my big adventure for a while.”
“I have a proposal for the kind of adventure you might enjoy.”
The cheesecake Demetri brought over as a gift must have brought on an avalanche of a sugar rush, because giddiness coursed through her as her heart fluttered.
“A proposal, you say?” She leaned forward and rested her chin on her folded hands, batting her eyelashes dramatically. “The whole island will be talking about it!”
