Page 3 of A Heart to Find (Sweetheart Island #2)

“Ten years.”

“Hold your head high, sweet dandelion. Your feelings are nothing to be ashamed of.”

Hannah tilted Keira’s chin up with a confidently placed finger. Her eyes, full of warmth and a knowledge Keira wished she possessed, urged Keira to listen.

“Ten years is a long time. A lot can change in ten years.”

Keira could only shake her head, dread welling up inside her. She refused to think about the money she had spent. The vacation time she was wasting. The pain of facing this man after he had broken her heart so thoroughly.

“Listen, rosebud. We want you to find love here. For whatever reason, you were matched up with someone from your past. I personally oversee the matchmaking process, so I can assure you that no joke has been played on you. I have to ask you to put your faith in our matchmaking systems. And also maybe a little faith in fate. And if it doesn’t work out at the end of the two weeks, I will be sure you get another two weeks and another match. Plus a full refund since this is such an unusual thing to happen. Deal?”

“Can’t I skip ahead to the next match? I don’t need the refund. I just need an out. I can’t even pretend to try with this man again.”

“Tell me, Keira. What made you decide to come here?”

Keira giggled, nervous energy releasing in a whir of silly.

“To find love. The reason everyone comes here.”

“That’s the outcome. But why here? You could find love anywhere. Why did you choose to put a great deal of money and time on the line to find love, rather than having a friend set you up or going the easy route of hanging out at your local bar? Why not a dating app? Why did you come to Sweetheart Island Resort?”

Keira’s shoulders slumped and her chest grew itchier.

“Because I want something more than basic love. I want my soul mate. And this place has a great reputation for helping people find that.”

“Precisely. You put your faith in our matchmaking systems. And we matched you with a man you think can’t possibly be your match. Everyone here has baggage they have to unpack. They all come with preconceived notions of how other people are. All I ask is that you put those ideas on the back-burner and let us guide you for the next two weeks. Stop letting the past inform your future. Trust the process. Think we can try that?”

Keira picked at her fingernails and cast her eyes downward, unable to look Hannah in the face after so ridiculously calling her out for having a broken system.

“How can I face him again? I made a fool of myself already.”

“Nonsense. You walk back in there with a smile on your face and confidence in your heart—even if you have to fake it at first. He will be thrilled you’re not bailing on him. Trust me on this.”

“I do trust you. I don’t trust him.”

“Two weeks. Go on the dates. Participate in the process. And if it’s not right for you, you will try again. I’m not going to let you leave here without your soul mate. You have my word.”

The silence in the glassed-in chamber grew louder and louder as Hannah stared her down. Keira struggled to come up with any excuse more convincing than what she had already shared.

Keira grasped at something, anything, to convince Hannah that her instinct was correct.

“I have to tell you, though, that he doesn’t want kids. Or a wife. Or anything to tie him down. And I want all of those things, so I don’t understand how our match isn’t a mistake. To be honest, I don’t even know how he got accepted into this program.”

Hannah’s bangle bracelets chimed as she grabbed Keira’s arms.

“Deep breaths, carnation. Trust the process. The matches we make are made for reasons that don’t always make sense on the surface. And you said it yourself–you haven’t known him for ten years. You’re going to trust the process, remember?”

Keira breathed deeply, as instructed.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

But she wouldn’t let her guard down. She wouldn’t let him in deep enough to hurt her. She’d leave the scabs that had formed over her broken heart and save the fresh parts of her heart for the next guy. Her real match. The soon-to-be love of her life. The one who would love her so thoroughly, he would not only refuse to add scars to her battered heart, but his love would obliterate the previous marks.

This would be her practice session. She hadn’t dated for a while—her recent awkward foray into the dating world notwithstanding. Best to work through the discomfort and awkwardness when she didn’t care about making a good impression.

This could be perfect, even if maddeningly disappointing.

“Are we ready?”

Hannah gestured toward the hallway that would lead back to the ballroom.

Mustering all the self-confidence she could dig out of the dark, dusty corners of her willpower, she straightened her shoulders, forced her lips into a smile, and exhaled a long stream of negative thoughts.

“As ready as I’m going to be.”

While awaiting Keira’s return, Jared rehearsed what he should say over and over in his head, trying to tune into Elizabeth’s voice from the past. After seeing that his match was the one and only Keira, he had no more doubts about Elizabeth’s divine intervention.

Or something less mystical. She had, after all, arranged this whole thing for him before succumbing to her illness.

He could start with, “Hey, sorry about our past, but I was young and dumb and I’ve changed.”

He could tell her about his pride and joy—his beautiful daughter. He could tell her he’d do anything to be back in Keira’s world for the lifetime she had promised him when they were kids.

But he had promised himself he wouldn’t use his daughter as a bargaining chip—that he’d only reveal her existence when he knew his match was meant to be. He couldn’t violate that vow so soon. Keira could be a completely different person by now.

He certainly was.

Watching her walk toward him with a confidence he had never seen in her, all the careful words he had rehearsed shriveled up and died a painful death.

He had expected wrath. Dirty looks. Tears, maybe.

He hadn’t expected her to approach with a beaming smile and an extended hand.

“Jared Marshall, I’m pleased to meet you. My name is Keira Holden. You may think you know me, but you knew the old me. I’m delighted to report that person no longer exists.”

She paused, chewing on her bottom lip for a second before flashing her straight white teeth with the one crooked incisor he had always loved.

“The new me is here at Sweetheart Island Resort and is ready for an adventure.”

Keira and adventure had never been words he’d put together in a sentence. It had mattered a lot back then. But through the years of living his own adventures, he had gradually started wondering why it had mattered so much when she offered so much more than any adventure ever could.

He could feel her trying to reclaim her hand from his grasp, but he held her hand captive between two of his. The spark was still there, though she seemed to want to pretend otherwise.

As he watched the fire grow in her eyes—showing him the true thoughts running through her mind despite the bright smile she wore—joy gathered in his heart. Getting to know this new version would be fun. Getting her to reveal the fact that the old Keira—the one he had known and loved—did, in fact, still exist would be even more fun.

He allowed her to win the hand-hostage war. But he kept watching for the squint at the corner of her eyes. The one she always gifted him with when he annoyed her.

She didn’t disappoint. The narrowed eyes shot at him quickly and deadly, but disappeared before anyone else would have noticed.

“This is fantastic.”

The middle-aged woman with the smile that nearly matched the brightness of Keira’s clasped her hands over her heart.

“I will leave the two of you to get reacquainted. Please make your way into the ballroom for some icebreaker activities. We’ll begin in about fifteen minutes.”

Keira turned away from Jared the second Hannah shimmied away.

He placed a hand on her lower back, but jerked it away when she jumped.

Go slow. He needed to remember that. She wasn’t a mountain to conquer or a village to explore. She was a real woman who held a real grudge against him.

Patience would be his friend.

She swung around without warning, catching him as he stared at the light glinting off her caramel blonde waves.

“So, did you enjoy the ferry ride over?”

Small talk. Okay. He could go with it.

“It was a bit choppy, but enjoyable enough. You?”

He grabbed two cocktails from a passing waiter and watched her long lashes sweep her cheeks as she took a sip and nodded slightly.

“Mmhmm. It was lovely. I made a friend on the shuttle from the parking lot to the ferry, and we shared horror stories about past relationships during the ride to the island. It was quite therapeutic.”

His stomach clenched. He couldn’t have emerged from that conversation in a positive light.

“I’m sure your friend will appreciate the irony here, then.”

“Oh, I don’t know if you came up.”

Now his stomach felt like a lead ball had been tossed into its depths. He didn’t earn a mention in her stories about past relationships? Then a small flag of hope started waving, feeling like the proverbial butterflies in the gut. She had said they shared horror stories. Maybe she remembered their time together more favorably than he had thought?

“I didn’t want to frighten her off relationships entirely, you know? I mean, we came here hoping to find the loves of our lives. Why start the trip with too much negativity?”

He let her comments slide, though to be honest, he couldn’t come up with anything resembling a retort.

Had he really been that horrible?

“Oh look, people are heading toward the doors. I guess it’s time for those icebreakers.”

The plastered smile returned, but he could read the dread in the tortured shadows on her face.

“After you.”

He gestured in front of him, encouraging her to take the lead.

Though the clothing she wore wasn’t formal, she oozed elegance. Class. The confidence of a homecoming queen.

Something she had never aspired to be.

Neither of them attempted conversation as they filed through the crowds of couples. He listened in as matches flirted, questioned one another, and shared stories of their jobs, their families, their pets. He wanted to hear all about Keira’s life and what she had been up to, but there was a concrete wall between them, and he didn’t dare to knock on it this soon. They had two weeks. They were in the utopia of romance. There would be time. He’d win her over.

Fate would not have brought him here seeking the kind of love he had given up when he left their small hometown if this wasn’t meant to be. He had never considered himself a “what’s meant to be”

kind of guy, but he couldn’t argue with the theory now. He had given her up. He had missed what they had. He had—at the urging and encouragement of his now deceased wife—decided to seek it out. He had been matched with her. Her. The one. The only. His fated match.

He’d do better this time. He’d had ten years and a lifetime of experience. He had grown. Matured. Things would be better this time. He’d make sure of it.

She led them to an empty table in the middle of the room. He held her chair out for her, trying to catch her eye as she sat. She refused to look at him, but he hadn’t expected otherwise.

He sat beside her, fiddling with the corner of the napkin beneath his glass of water. When another couple joined them at the table, he listened enviously as Keira chatted so freely with them.

Jared wanted to be the recipient of those smiles. He wanted her to ask him the polite questions meant to pass the time. He wanted them to take turns reading off the list of suggested “getting to know you”

topics placed at each place setting. He wanted her attention, plain and simple.

But he’d wait.

He’d waited this long. He had never hoped or dreamed he’d have another chance with her. No way would he mess it up with impatience.

Jared nodded politely to another couple who joined them to his right. He was too mesmerized by the ethereal giggle coming from Keira to attempt conversation.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I start by saying that you all look fantabulous?”

The crowd cheered as the petite woman, who introduced herself as Mrs. Love Maker, started the conversation as she paced a makeshift stage with a microphone attached to her shirt.

“And dare I say that I think I sense love in the air?”

The crowd hooted and hollered their approval. Jared felt his cheeks burn. This was so far from anyplace he had imagined himself being. So different from anything he’d typically take part in.

When had he become so desperate?

But like he told his friends (who had ribbed him endlessly when they heard his plans to bail on a trip they had been planning to Bangkok in favor of trying his luck at love at a matchmaking resort—he had left out the part about his deceased wife insisting on it), it wasn’t desperation. He had no trouble meeting women. This was born of a desire to find something deeper. More meaningful. Something like what he had lost.

Something to show his daughter that fairy tales weren’t just words on paper.

And since Elizabeth had researched and booked this thing, he couldn’t mess it up.

He never imagined he’d actually get another chance at the very thing he had lost when he had deserted his small hometown. The very person he had lost.

He tuned back into the woman addressing the crowd just as she was instructing them to move their chairs to face their partner. A facilitator would join each table for a getting-to-know-your-partner game. Each couple was supposed to do their best to guess the correct answer. The winner at the end would be given a special date opportunity.

Jared would have thought it unfair since he and Keira knew each other, but how well could they actually know each other after all this time? They had been kids when they were together. A lifetime had passed.

But he still intended to win.

He leaned forward to whisper to Keira as she settled her seat in its new position.

“This is going to be too easy.”

“Ha. I wouldn’t be so sure. I don’t think you know me half as well as you seem to think you do.”

“I guess we’re about to find out.”

The facilitator at their table was a round, cheerful man named Dan. He gave them a brief overview of how he had met his match here on the island four years ago and bragged joyfully about how they were celebrating their third wedding anniversary next month. He often volunteered to help out because he fully believed in the program and, aside from his bride, he loved nothing more than witnessing couples finding love.

His speech should have given Jared the willies. Instead, it inspired him.

He watched Keira draw squiggly lines in the margins of the notepad Dan handed her. Some things never changed. She had always been a doodler. Back in high school study hall, he could always tell what kind of mood she was in based on what shapes the doodles formed. For her, squiggly lines had meant confusion. Whether she had been struggling with remembering timelines for history class or dealing with a problem with one of her best friends, he had always known that squiggly lines meant he had to provide her with chocolate and a listening ear before the end of the day.

“Okay, for the first round, Partner A will be answering for Partner B. Partner B will jot down the answer on the pad so that it can be confirmed. Security is tight, so no trying to peek! We come by love the honest way around here.”

She waited while the laughter from the audience died down, then read the first question.

“And now it’s time to see how much effort you put into getting to know your match during the mingling session. If your partner were an animal, what would he or she be?”

Keira didn’t look at him as she scribbled her answer. With the way things were going so far, she’d probably say a snake.

He wrote down the animal he most identified with, knowing it was a long shot that she’d get it, but wanting to be honest just the same.

When the buzzer went off, they held their papers up at the same time.

Dan checked all the responses and boomed to announce a point for the winners of the round. Keira had correctly guessed that Jared had said he’d be a humpback whale.

“How did you guess that? It’s not the kind of answer we usually see around here.”

Dan shoved a microphone in Keira’s face, waiting for a response to his question.

“My partner here mentioned that he likes to roam long distances. And he likes the ocean.”

The winning couples from each table were instructed to move to the center of the room, where chairs were hastily set up. The couples who didn’t answer correctly were invited to fill their plates from the cheese and fruit buffet.

Sweat gathered around the edges of his scalp as pressure built. She had guessed a difficult question. If he didn’t get this one about her right, he’d never forgive himself.

“Okay, love matches! Get those pencils ready for the next question. Here goes! What does your partner value above all else?”

Relief released the tight hold anxiety held on his throat. Easy question! He jotted down his answer and sat back in his chair, pleased that he hadn’t had to think too hard.

“We have a winner! Keira and Jared—well done. How did you guess that family bonds were what she valued above all else?”

Jared started to answer, but the tears welling in Keira’s eyes pushed all thoughts out of his head. What was making her sad? She blinked away the tears and doodled away, drawing little hearts with lightning bolts severing the symbols. Did she know how her doodles gave her away? How they betrayed the calm look on her face by revealing something about her inner thoughts?

He desperately wanted to know why she was hurting. He even more desperately wanted to fix it.

Realizing that everyone was awaiting an answer from him, he smiled and said, “Such a sweet person would always put her family first.”

That seemed to satisfy Dan enough to get him to move along to the other couples who answered correctly. He leaned forward and placed a hand on Keira’s knee.

“Are you okay?”

She uncrossed her legs and crossed them the opposite way, effectively dislodging his hand.

“Yeah, of course. I’m fine. Don’t distract me—it’s my turn to answer about you.”

Her weak smile didn’t convince him that everything was okay, but now wasn’t the time. He knew she hated to cry in front of people, and he didn’t need to give her any other ammunition against him.

“If your partner were eighteen years old again and someone gave him one thousand dollars, what would he or she spend it on?”

Keira’s sardonic laugh frightened him, but he scribbled his answer and they won yet another round with what to them was an easy question.

Plane tickets.

They continued to win round after round with questions that seemed almost too easy to be fair. Some did require some thought, though. Favorite color was harder than it should have been, because she always said she loved the whole rainbow. But based on the color scheme of her blouse and her jewelry, he safely guessed turquoise and was given a bonus point for not just saying “blue.”

After several rounds, they were down to only two couples. Keira and Jared shook hands with the other couple and settled in for the moment of truth. Would they be enjoying a private date in utopia, or would the other couple get the slice of heaven?

It all hinged on his ability to answer the final question correctly.

“Okay, friends. The final question is of critical importance. If you both get it right, we will have a tiebreaker. But if one of you does not answer the question correctly, we will have our winner and will announce the special itinerary for this evening!”

Sure, no pressure.

“When replacing toilet paper, should the paper roll over or under? Good luck!”

Well, this would certainly cement it. If she was anything but an “over”

person, he would call it all off and head out of the country right now.

He smiled at the thought. As if he’d give up on her so easily.

Keira let out a cheer when they flipped their papers over to reveal that their answers matched. The poor sap in the other couple earned a glare and a pout at the insinuation that his partner would ever be an “under.”

The dude’s feeble, “But that’s how my mama always did it”

earned an even bigger pout and a dirty look from his match. Trouble in paradise already…At least Jared wasn’t the only one who had a big hole to dig out of.

“Congratulations to our winners! Come on up here!”

The crowd applauded as Dan escorted the lucky pair to the front of the room. Mrs. Love Maker grabbed each of them by the hand and held their arms in the air like they were heavyweight champions rather than personal trivia winners.

“This lucky couple must have paid attention to the list of suggested topics to discuss. Well done, you two. As a reward for winning, you will be escorted via sleigh to a private gazebo overlooking the pond, where professional figure skating couples will entertain you! We’re talking Olympics level of professional, my friends! While getting to know each other even better, you will be serviced by a full staff eager to cater to your every need. Never fear, though, the rest of you. While you won’t be getting the First Class treatment, you are all invited to view the skaters from the other side of the pond, where there will be a fully stocked chocolate bar. Save me some strawberries to dip in the fountain, won’t ya? Enjoy!”

“Not a bad setup for a first date, huh?”

Jared hoped his smile wouldn’t give away how nervous he felt at the idea of being relatively alone with Keira.

He had messed things up with her once before.

He wouldn’t do it again.

Keira smiled, but he wasn’t blind enough not to see the tension in the corner of her lips. The lack of shine in her eyes.

This smile wasn’t for him. It was for all the people watching.

He would get her to smile a genuine smile before the night was over. If he couldn’t manage that, he didn’t deserve another chance.