Page 81 of A Heart to Find
“Well, luckily the snow stopped, but I’m glad you didn’t have to trudge back up to the lodge by foot while it’s so cold.”
Daisy shivered as if remembering she had ventured out without a coat, not thinking her housekeeping van would get trapped on the wrong side of a fallen tree.
“Thank you for the use of your jacket, too. Now hurry and get back up there before you miss the whole party!”
Jared accepted his jacket and waved as Daisy climbed back into her warm van. She offered him a ride, but his pounding heart encouraged him to run up to the lodge. He couldn’t take any chances that something else would go awry and keep him from seeing Keira, and he didn’t have it in him to make polite small talk on the way up.
Especially since this strange twist of fate had led him to finding Keira’s necklace.
He didn’t have a ring to propose with, but he had a feeling she’d appreciate this jewelry more, anyway.
He reached into his pocket and held the precious memento in his hand, eager to see her face when she saw it.
He had gone for a walk earlier in the evening to pick out an engagement ring from the jeweler, but he hadn’t made it before encountering the tree that had fallen across the road, trapping the panicking housekeeper.
He couldn’t pass by without offering help, which the aging maintenance men appreciated.
At first, he worried Keira wouldn’t forgive him for being late to the party. He tried to call and text, but the storm must have still kept calls from getting through, because it continuously went straight to voicemail when he called and simply said “undelivered” when he texted. Just when stress built to an unbearable level, something metallic caught his eye.
There, hanging from one of the small, broken-off branches of the tree and covered with a fine coating of snow, dangled the locket. Someone must have found it at some point and hung it on a branch in hopes the person it belonged to would see it at eye level.
But while they searched, they had searched the ground and the benches. Never the trees.
Whether Elizabeth led him to this find or Keira’s grandmother was leading them to love, he believed in the serendipity of it all. He believed in following the signs and in finding his way into Keira’s heart forever.
Once lodged there, he’d never, ever leave.
Hurrying to get up the snowy street—they had plowed the middle but the sidewalks hadn’t been cleared yet—he prayed she’d be so busy socializing and enjoying the party that she wouldn’t notice how late he was.
Bursting into the dimly lit room, he searched for her. He couldn’t wait to see her face.
Megan rushed over to him, Matt close on her heels.
“Where have you been? You might have messed up everything!”
“Where is she?” He didn’t have time to explain to Megan. He needed to save his energy for the love of his life.
“She went upstairs an hour ago when you didn’t show. She didn’t even eat first. You’d better not hurt her again, Jared. I swear, I’ll?—”
He tossed his hands up in surrender.
“I promise it’s not my intention to hurt her. There was an issue that delayed me, but I’m here now.” He ducked around her to make up a plate to bring to Keira. Not much remained, but on a far table he spotted a tray of cheeses and some hunks of bread, which he piled on a plate.
“Good luck, Jared. Please make her dreams come true!” Megan’s cheer followed him as he rushed out the door, vowing to do his best to secure those dreams.
On the way through the lobby, he spotted a package of the powdered sugar doughnuts they both had such sweet memories of. He hurriedly paid for the treats and ran up the stairs, too impatient to wait for the elevator.
Keira ignored the knock on the door.
Probably Megan, and she didn’t have the energy for her happiness or sympathy right now. She’d be a better friend tomorrow, once she fully accepted this change in the future she had so hopelessly embraced.
Then the knock turned annoying.
Jared.
Had to be.
She pulled the fuzzy blanket that had become her comforting savior up to her shoulders. When his knocks grew more urgent, she pulled the blanket over her head as if hiding from the Monster of Love Past. Buried under the thick dome, she could almost pretend she was invisible.
