Page 75 of A Heart to Find
She picked up on his vibe, though. Not as casually laid back as usual. A bit more intense. And… sad. Dejected. Maybe hopeful?
Once the games were delivered to the tables and the person running the event finished talking about the benefits of playing with your partner, the competition began.
Surprisingly, she lost herself in laughter and relaxed into fun.
She even managed to smile at Jared as she took one of his pieces.
But things got interesting when they played a game where couples were a team.
She and Jared, though she avoided talking directly to him, were undefeatable.
After winning first prize for their table, the other couples shook their hands and wandered off to the pizza buffet, taking the laughter with them and leaving awkward silence behind.
“Want me to grab you some pizza?” Jared offered, his normal confident tone replaced with a quieter demeanor.
“I’ll get some in a minute. First, I have something I want to say to you now that I have you alone.”
He leaned forward on the table, listening intently.
“I was wrong to be angry with you, Jared. It was so childish and immature. You created a family. That’s such a beautiful thing, and something I always wanted for you. To be angry and hurt because it wasn’t with me when we hadn’t even seen each other since I was eighteen was silly. We both lived lives apart from one another, and my only excuse is that my emotional brain got lost in the past. Rather than focusing on the man you had become over the years, I was caught up in feeling sad that you didn’t want what you now have back when you were mine.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Keira. I was wrong to keep the information from you. I went into this not wanting to use my daughter as a bargaining chip, but as soon as I knew I was matched with you I should have told you. I was a coward. You deserved to hear it from me much sooner. My only excuse is that I knew it would hurt you, and I wanted our relationship to grow before I tested it too strongly. Obviously, that was the wrong way to handle things.”
“You honestly have nothing to be sorry for. I know it could never work between us, but I’m glad we’ve cleared the air. Maybe we could be friends?”
She looked away so she could pretend she didn’t see the disappointment clouding his beautiful eyes.
Clearing her throat, she sat up straighter in her chair.
“Tell me all about Hailey. I want to know everything. Don’t leave a single detail out.”
His face brightened at her invitation. He moved into the seat next to her so he could scroll through countless photos of the adorable girl on his phone.
“She is stunningly beautiful, Jared. Oh my goodness, look at those bright blue eyes!”
The pride on his face said everything she needed to know.
Sure, maybe he had once thought he wasn’t cut out to be a family man, but the vibrant child in the photos was living proof that he had adapted to the role.
“Every night when I put her to bed, whether I’m with her at home or over a video call when I’m traveling without her, we have to act out an elaborate scene with her purple teddy bear. I keep a laminated photo of Mr. Purple Bear in my wallet for the calls.”
“Imagination and routine are so important for kids. Awesome. But really, Mr. Purple Bear? You couldn’t come up with a better name?”
“That’s what she said, too. Hey, give me a break. Creativity isn’t exactly what I’m known for.” His grin spread across his face, and he flipped through to a photo of Hailey covered in flour. “She loves to bake with grownups, but she’s excessively messy. Worse than you, even,” he teased.
“Hey!” Keira feigned offense, but asked him to tell her more.
“She doesn’t like tags on her shirt or seams on her socks. We, I, have to buy special brands to avoid meltdowns. She loves all vegetables but is fussy about fruits, though she’ll drink fruits if I blend them into a smoothie. She eats all the cheese off her pizza before eating the rest, which always results in sauce smeared all over her cheeks. She has a mud kitchen we built together out of pallets in the backyard, and her giggle when I pretend to eat her mud soup makes everything in the world seem better.”
Keira smiled as Jared shared stories of his daughter. Intimate details only an involved dad would know.
The kind of father she’d want for her own children.
Her heart bled, but she wanted to know more. The little girl with the brilliant smile and long golden curls called out to her from the small screen.
As if being in love with the child’s father wasn’t bad enough, now Keira had to resist falling for this little girl she hadn’t even met.
Maybe, if they could establish a friendship and maintain it off the island, Keira could become an auntie figure to little Hailey.
