Page 6 of A Heart to Find
“Let me introduce you,” she thought she heard the lady say.
But Jared stepped forward, grabbed a hand she no longer cared was clammy, and smiled into her eyes.
“Thank you, Stephanie. Funny enough, no introductions are necessary.”
What was so funny about this?
“I think I’m going to throw up.” She tried to pull her hand away, but Jared held tight and put another hand on her back, guiding her to the corner of the room. Maybe if her hand had stayed slick, she could have slipped out of his grasp.
His voice was gentle and full of concern. “Are you okay? Here, sit down. I’ll get you water.”
He tried to flag down a waiter.
“I’m fine.” She jerked her hand away without making her displeasure too obvious to the surrounding people.
Or so she hoped.
“Who told you I’d be coming here? How did you convince them to manipulate the results? And why?” Wrath bubbled up inside her like a volcano lying dormant too long. “And whose idea of a joke is this? I spent a lot of money to be here.”
Humiliation coursed through her. She wasn’t ashamed that she had put her faith in a matchmaking system, but she never expected him to witness it.
She had spent not only the vacation fund she had been saving to treat herself to a “someday” trip out of New Hampshire, but also the money she had set aside for new living room furniture.
“I’m as shocked as you are.”
His voice was smooth and reassuring. Almost convincing. But she didn’t feel reassured, and she sure as heck didn’t want him to convince her of anything!
“You can’t be shocked if you set the whole thing up. I have to speak to someone. You’ve had your laugh. Now leave me alone. For good.”
Trying to remain calm so she didn’t shove all the happily mingling couples out of the way, Keira stormed toward the front of the room, hoping she could speak directly to Hannah. As one of the founders of this resort, she’d probably have strong feelings about this joke. Her stellar reputation was on the line, after all.
She could practically feel Jared breathing down her neck as she rushed through the crowd. Like a dragon taunting its next victim. Except dragons could be tamed.
Jared could not.
“Excuse me, Ms. Willows?”
Hannah turned around and burst into a wide, friendly smile. Wider and friendlier than the circumstance would soon demand.
“Hello, hello!” She looked at the name badge hanging from Keira’s neck. “Keira. Lovely name. Are you enjoying yourself so far?”
“The island is wonderful. What I’ve seen of it, anyway. I just have a problem I’m hoping you can help me clear up.”
Hannah held onto the podium where she had been standing and lifted her leg to pull off her high-heeled platform shoe, then switched to remove the other.
“I’m so sorry. These things are killing me.” Standing barefoot, she smiled brighter. “What can I help you with, daffodil?”
Keira shifted from one foot to the other, unsure how to tell this woman, who was obviously tremendously proud of her resort, that someone had made a grave mistake.
“Oh dear. Something is troubling you. I apologize once again for not making the match unveiling more fun. We had a whole scavenger hunt planned and prepared, but as I explained in the intro speech, I put the box with all the clues down for a minute outside and snow from the roof slipped off and buried the entire box. So we had to go with the more boring introductions. I promise we’ll make it up to you with more fun activities as we proceed.”
“It’s not that. Not at all. I have no problem with your methods. It’s just…”
“Oh and just look at the handsome man you got paired up with. That grin on his face tells me he feels like he won the lottery with his match.”
“Well that’s the thing…”
“Crunching crocodiles, the balloon tower is about to fall. Excuse me for a moment.”
