Adler | The Aces of St.Sinclair BOOK 1.

Check | A TWENTY FOUR

I held Shaun's arm to grab his attention. "Shaun, relax. I get it. I'm not mad and I'm not going to slap you. It's fine."

Sheer relief washed over his tensed posture. "Okay. Cool. Thanks."

"No problem."

"I almost didn't recognise you," he confessed. "You look really nice in this outfit."

A bashful smile creeped onto my lips. "Thanks. You look really nice too."

"I hope so. My mum made me spend three hours getting dressed," he stated. "So, what's your connection with that French woman?"

"She's my aunt. Not blood related though."

"Oh, sorry if I'm getting in the way of your time."

"I told you, it's alright." I slipped my fingers in between his and a part from the flutters than ran amok in my insides, it was the surprise on Shaun's face at my gesture that was most captivating. "I've never been to an art gallery before so in return, could you give me a tour?"

The stunned expression was only temporal before he broke into a gushing smile. "Um, sure."

He tightened our entwined fingers and I happily let myself be led through the artistic labyrinth. I didn't know if Shaun had been to this place before which was possible, as he was the son of an apparent big shot but I was impressed at how he moved with ease.

I'd derived from his social media platforms he had a spot for art but it had never revealed the depth. I found myself even more enamoured by the boy as I watched him describe the objective, the contrasts and tooling of the artworks we toured.

"Sorry. Am I saying too much? My mates tend to shut me up when I go overboard about this stuff."

"No no." I shook my head. "It's really interesting."

Shaun had on an adorably coy smile and I knew he'd finally relaxed now.

"And your dad and Beswick— they seem to be pretty close," I started.

"That's cause Beswick and my mum have been friends since secondary. She introduced him to my dad at their wedding," Shaun explained. "Even after taking on different career paths, they stayed closed. Like this current project Beswick is starting, it's a clothing line inspired by the Hawaiian culture. My mum was born and raised there so she played a big part in helping out. You know, my dad told me they even have sleepovers at each others houses and build pillow forts and everything."

"What? At their age?"

Shaun nodded. "Dad passed me the pics of the fort they sent him." He retrieved his phone to have my eyes see for themselves.

It was astonishing and not by the humungous stack of pillows or how hilariously funny Beswick and Mrs. Goy-Smith looked camped out in it but the sole fact that despite being past the age but still indulging childhood necessities, it was a friendship I found promoting.

"So what's this whole Steinsberg deal?" I asked. "He was saying he's your mentor and everything."

Shaun rolled his eyes. "He just started calling himself that out of nowhere."

He went on to explain the course of events that led him here.

"It started two weeks ago. Our school rugby team had this match and one of my mates points me to this dodgy bloke who's been sitting in at the matches recently but only watching me. I don't take it seriously until I see it for myself— the guy is only looking at me. Now I'm freaking out thinking it's some pedo or stalker and then the next day, the coach brings out this new sponsor which turns out to be him."