Page 49 of A Heart to Find
He refused to believe that it could be.
She’d come around. Once she knew. She’d realize she was meant to be with him, and she’d love Hailey almost as much as he did.
“Are you hyperventilating? Should I call someone over? Breathe slower, Jared. What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine. Just need to get some air. So hot in here.”
He pushed out of the chair and walked as fast as he could to the door, ignoring the creaking of the floors and the stares he knew people cast his way.
Once outside in the brisk air, he paced the walkway until Keira joined him seconds later.
He had messed up.
This would bite him. He knew it.
“You forgot this. I grabbed it from the locker.” Handing him his cell phone, she searched his face. “Wanna tell me what happened in there?”
No. Not really.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run out like that. I was too hot and needed air. I didn’t mean to leave you behind.”
“You sure that’s all it was?”
Disbelief colored the edges of her question, but at least she didn’t outright call him a liar.
Determined to fix the mistake he made, he took one of those deep breaths everyone expounded upon and reached out to grab her hand.
“Can I make it up to you with a hot cocoa?”
She didn’t respond, but she didn’t pull away.
Just as he was about to give up hope that she’d accept his offer, she arched her eyebrows and pursed her lips.
“Extra marshmallows?” she asked.
“Always extra marshmallows for you.”
Chapter 12
“He was just so weird. Weirder than his usual weird.”
Keira chewed on the side of her pinky nail and tried to enjoy the pedicure she and Megan had treated themselves to in preparation for the beach date scheduled for later that evening. True, the weather wasn’t warm enough for baring any skin, but they each hoped they’d be able to slip out of their shoes for a quick toes-in-the-sand moment.
“Sounds like he was nervous. Maybe whatever he wanted to say was something so intense he’s afraid of how you’ll react.”
“Like what, though? I’m pretty sure I know everything about him. I’ve known him since we were kids, for crying out loud.”
“But you don’t know the adult him. It’s been a long time since you were in each other’s lives on the regular.”
“That’s true, but he writes about his experiences. He’s an open book.”
“And you’ve read every word he’s written?”
“Well, no. I checked in a bit when he first started, but it was torture reading about him having so much wild fun while I was…”
“While you were what?” Megan twisted her torso toward Keira as much as she could without disrupting the pedicure process.
While I was going through the motions and working hard to keep everyone else happy.
