False Start Fairy Tale by Kelly St-Laurent

Author:Kelly St-Laurent [St-Laurent, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kelly St-Laurent

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The early morning sun streams through the window and I trace the outline of the black and white rose above Finn’s heart. It has exquisite detail, the shading of the open flower realistic. “Did you get this for your sister?” I ask, my finger tracing one of the petals.

He runs his hand down my back but doesn’t open his eyes. “Yeah, but it’s covering up a different tattoo I got when I was sixteen.”

“Sixteen. Is that even legal?”

“I had a fake ID. And the place I got it wasn’t exactly up to code.”

“I wonder what Papa would have said if I’d come home with a tattoo at sixteen.”

Finn smiles as I gently draw a finger around one of the leaves. “The original was a mess,” he says.

“What was it?”

“It was meant to be a fleur-de-lis, but it came out looking like an anchor, and not in a good way.”

I try to imagine Finn as the type of sixteen-year-old who would get a tattoo with a fake ID. “I think we were very different teenagers,” I say.

He chuckles. “I don’t doubt that.”

“Did you like school?” I ask.

“No.” He opens his eyes and kisses my forehead. “I was a terrible student. What about you?”

“I always liked school. Well, the classes, that is. I hated the actual school I went to.”

“The one in England, right?” He runs his hand up and down my arm. “How come your parents sent you all the way over there?”

“It’s complicated,” I say, recalling that difficult time.

“You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

I attempt a smile. “It’s okay. I just haven’t spoken about it to anyone in a long time.” Finn runs his fingers through my hair, the effect soothing. “My parents sent my older brother, Gabe, to school in England first, wanting him to get the best education he could. It cost them a small fortune, but Papa said it was an investment. I suppose he was right since Gabe is successful. But he never came back.”

“Where is he?”

“New York. Working for a big, fancy law firm.”

Finn arches a brow. “Impressive.”

“My parents definitely think so.” I’m sure he can hear the bitterness in my voice. “I’ve never been able to impress them myself.”

“But you own your own business,” he says.

“Yes, but I’m not sure for how long.”

I feel Finn’s muscles tighten beneath me. “Adèle, I’m sorry...”

“No,” I say, meaning it. “If my business fails then I’m the only one to blame. My parents wanted me to stay in Paris, to start a company there. But Saint-Germain is my home. This is the only place I want to be.”

Finn brushes the hair off my forehead. “England must have felt really far.”

“I didn’t want to go,” I admit. “When I found out they’d enrolled me, I begged them to let me stay home. I didn’t know anyone in England. I had no friends, no family there.”

“Why send you, then?”

I stop tracing the rose. “Because Papa had cancer.”

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

“They hid it from Gabe and me for a long time.

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