Flourish by the Night: A steamy second chance romance set in Ireland by Laura Foley

Author:Laura Foley [Foley, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laura Foley
Published: 2024-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Dublin 2016

Fionn

A torrent of terrible feelings weighed on Fionn, burrowing into the pit of his stomach where he hoped they’d digest just to be free of them. The tiny room, formerly a gift, had become smaller and hollowed to the shape of him alone. Within this smothering constriction, his lips jittered, still inches from Áine’s. Inches from the fading path in a yellow wood she’d chosen not to venture.

“Sorry,” Áine whispered from unmoving lips like she was a dummy to the ventriloquy of sudden sense that he wasn’t worth kissing.

Fionn huffed a slight laugh, his hand cupping the back of his neck as he made peace with her decision.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t have the urge to forfeit all his future love for how insanely wasted it felt in this moment. But wasn’t it fitting? Only right for the balance of the world’s axis that she’d chosen to reject him when he had all but emphatically pleaded her lips delicate touch.

Now he understood all those years ago how she felt when he left her in the cold at a riverbank.

He wished his current self could visit past her in the dire moment. Take her hands in his as he swore it wasn’t her fault. That it was the boys. He was just too afraid of what would happen next. Too pervaded by virulent fear that the illusion of who he was to her would be tarnished by the truth of his misfortunate life. If he let her in, she’d be forced to see his hidden parts, beyond the mess of his house. And no one in their right mind, by Fionn’s youthful regard, deserved that.

A stanza from a W.B. Yeats poem came to him, blooming the riverbank memory both more sad and more beautiful into his ever-tortured mind:

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.