Page 44 of A Heart to Find
Be patient.
Patience hadn’t always been something he knew how to practice, but Hailey had taught him a lot. And while the patience he needed to have with his daughter hadn’t prepared him for the kind of patience he needed for rekindling a lost love, he prayed he’d be able to step up and be the man Keira wanted.
He wanted her to want him.
Plain and simple.
And he’d do whatever it took to make sure she realized that the matchmakers were right. She belonged with him.
Jared reached for another marshmallow, but stopped short when Keira started patting her hand over her chest as if searching. Panic filled her eyes, and she felt around her neck.
“What’s wrong?” He dropped the marshmallow and looked for clues.
“My necklace. My grandma’s necklace. It’s gone!”
“Are you sure you were wearing it?”
“Yes!” She snapped the words, but quickly softened the blow. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out on you. I never take it off. I must have lost it during the snowball fight.”
“When do you last remember feeling it?”
“I turned the clasp back to the back of my neck while we were getting ready to leave the pizza place.” Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked over his shoulder toward the main door of the lodge. “I have to go find it.”
“I’m sure someone will turn it in.”
“You said yourself it’s going to snow. I can’t risk having it buried. I’m sorry to cut this short, and I appreciate the fun night. But I’ve got to go.”
She gathered her coat from the back of her seat and tangled up the sleeves trying to get it on. He assisted her as she objected, then pulled the front of the coat together. Time froze for a moment as her desperate eyes settled on what he hoped were his calming, reassuring ones.
“We will find it. I promise you.”
A shaky gasp flew out of her throat as she fought tears.
“I have to, Jared. That necklace means the world to me.”
“Why don’t you wait here by the fire while I retrace our steps? It’s icing up out there, and you already suffered one injury this week.”
She straightened her shoulders, and her nostrils flared. “I’m going, too.”
He bit back his argument and nodded. “Let’s go then.”
She led the way out the door, and he once again prayed for a positive outcome. Because not only did he care about her happiness, but he had a feeling that losing this important piece of jewelry would have a detrimental effect on the way she perceived him and their future together.
Chapter 10
Keira had never fought so hard to keep her tears at bay. Not when she tore a hole in her slacks on her first day of teaching and worried she’d get fired for violating the dress code. Not when she dropped a tray of freshly decorated cookies at her class’s Valentine’s Day party and had to face the students who had worked so hard to carefully frost each treat. Not even when she failed her driving test for the first time and had to face her entire group of newly licensed friends.
Holding back her tears had been hard in all of those public situations.
But they paled in comparison to this.
And though they searched and searched, they were no closer to having the necklace back in her possession.
“Tell me about the necklace, Keira.”
She sniffed and willed the tears to stay put until she was in the privacy of her own room.
“My grandfather gave it to my grandmother on their second date. He said he knew as soon as he met her they would be together forever, and he wanted to seal the deal and make sure everyone knew she belonged to him.”
