Hi John,
The Short description works like a Custom Excerpt. And, WordPress assumes that since you manually entered a short description, you would want the entire thing to display.
If you want to limit it, you can create a Block Element – Content Template for the Search Page. Then, add the excerpt/short description through a Headline Block. Lastly, you’ll need to filter this Headline through code to trim it.
If you are okay with this, proceed with creating a Block Element, and let us know when it’s done. We’ll help you with the code afterward.