Pursued by the Rogue (The Fairy Tales of New York Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked finally.
    No. This unstoppable determination to present herself in the worst possible light was new. A mad mix of hope that he might still find something about her to like, and deliberate self-sabotage. “Could be I’m trying to spare you.”
    “From what?”
    “Me.”
    “How about you let me make that call?”
    The coffee came, and so did the food. Finn started on his roll with uninhibited enjoyment. Dawn tried very hard to hide her rapture at the cannoli but it was too good not to let her pleasure show. Finn watched her with every evidence of enjoyment.
    “I’m a Classic Rock fan,” she said by way of more sabotage.
    “I have a Led Zeppelin T-shirt,” he countered.
    She leaned forward, not too much, with every semblance of incomprehension she could muster. “Lead who?”
    His gaze narrowed. “Nice try, but I know you don’t mean it.”
    “I have a car,” she said, in the hope that he might disapprove. “I’ve never subscribed to the notion of not having a car. Mine’s a purring beast of at least eight cylinders. And it’s red.”
    “Australians,” he murmured sadly. “Bet you don’t have one in Manhattan.”
    “It’s true, my car currently lives upstate at my mother’s place.”
    “I thought your parents lived in Australia?”
    “Faith tell you that?”
    “Or you did. Long time ago, though.”
    “My mother brought my father back to the Adirondacks a few years back. That’s where she grew up. Her mother and sister are there. She has support there.”
    “Support for what?”
    “My father’s in a nursing home and needs round the clock care. It takes its toll on all concerned.”
    “Tough times.”
    Dawn nodded. Finn probably knew about those. He’d had to watch his mother die of cancer during his teenage years. He knew something of bodies that failed. “My mother’s a strong lady. She makes it work.”
    “Do you see them much?”
    “More than I used to. Not as often as I should.” She offered up more of herself to him than she usually would a new date. Then again, he wasn’t exactly new. “We’re not that close.”
    “Faith said they stayed in Australia and sent you to the States when you were twelve or so.”
    Dawn nodded.
    “Why?”
    “So I could get a better education than the one they could give me in Australia. I was bright. My parents were teachers. For a lot of years my parents were my only teachers. They taught in remote communities – six months here, a year there. We moved around the outback a lot . There came a time when my mother thought I needed more than what she could provide.”
    She knew now why they’d done it. Her father’s Huntington’s disease had been starting to kick in and they’d wanted her out of the way while they came to terms with what that meant.
    Nothing good.
    Not for them.
    Not for Dawn.
    The disease had stripped her father of all dignity and most of his function. Dawn had a fifty percent chance of inheriting it. If she had inherited it, she had a fifty percent chance of passing it on to her offspring.
    To his credit, her father hadn’t known he carried the Huntington’s gene when he’d married and decided he wanted children. He’d been orphaned at birth. There’d been no record of the disease within the scant family history his birth mother had provided. He hadn’t known. And the symptoms didn’t usually manifest until people were in their thirties and forties.
    These days there were tests people could take to find out early whether they had the disease or not. Dawn’s own company now specialized in detecting genetic anomalies.
    But she hadn’t taken that test yet.
    On her thirtieth birthday she would.
    She’d promised.
    Until then, she didn’t want to know.
    “My mother and my aunt are coming to visit me in a couple of weeks. They want to see a show,” she said lightly. “Maybe a musical. Any recommendations?”
    “Chicago’s got a good cast at the moment. Good chemistry between the leads.”
    Dawn felt the rake of his