Chapter 1
Stone
“What do you mean, ‘Hanlon is coming to Ricochet’?” I ask my dad, trying like hell to keep the bite out of my voice in an effort to save myself from yet another lecture about how terribly I’ve treated my stepbrother these past few years.
For the record, I haven’t treated him terribly; I just haven’t treated him at all.
My dad’s laugh on the other end of the line sets my teeth on edge, and I sit up in bed, suddenly dreading having the day off. That’s too much time to think about everything plaguing my mind, and now, I get to add Hanlon to the list.
“I don’t know how else to phrase that to make it easier to understand, son,” my dad says.
He’s not being an asshole, just honest. He and my stepmom are good parents, if a little overbearing, and they’d do anything for Hanlon and me.
“What I mean is,why?When?How long is he staying?” I ask, practically begging for any information at this point.
Instead of answering my questions, my dad says, “I’ve got to run. Why don’t you give him a call and ask him? Lana sends her love and says she’ll call you tomorrow to getyour Christmas wish list, so start thinking about what you want. You know she likes to shop early.”
What Iwantis for Hanlon to stay on his own side of the fucking country, I think to myself.
“Okay,” I reply out loud.
My stepmom has a heart of gold. Her son is her entire world, but she never made me feel less than. My biological mother, on the other hand, is a piece of work. She had tried poisoning my love for Lana from the very start until my dad got full custody and my mom decided it wasn’t worth the legal battle to keep her rights.
It was all very confusing to a ten-year-old, and at twenty-six, I wish I could say I see the world a little more clearly, but that’s definitely not the case.
I stare at the phone in my hand for a full five minutes after the call ends before getting up and getting ready for the gym. There’s only one thing I can think of that will get my mind off everything, even if just for a little while: the sound of weights slamming the floor and a heart rate of one-ninety.
Things between Hanlon Winchesterthe Thirdand me are…complicated. He’s my stepbrother, but his dad died when he was really young, so he’s claimed my dad as his own since he was six. At first, it bothered me, but eventually it just became normal.
Four years younger than me, it was easy to see that Hanlon looked up to me simply because I was older. Having a kid brother might have been cool if our parents hadn’t pushed so hard for us to be instant siblings and best friends. It was clear from the start how muchtheyloved each other, but they expected Hanlon and me to follow suit just as easily, and at ten years old, I didn’t want some fuckingbabymessing with my shit. Besides, it’s a hard adjustment to go from being an only child to instantly becoming an older brother.
Suddenly, Hanlon was everywhere I was. He wanted to play with my friends, eat my favorite snacks, use my toys, and healways got to choose the movie on family movie nights. He talked a lot as a kid, asked an obnoxious number of questions, and just floated through life because everything was given to him by everyone around him to make up for the fact that his dad had died when he was four.
Not to mention, Hanlon was born with a very mild case of cerebral palsy. He had some physical development delays, but the fucker was as strong-willed as they come. Our parents couldn’t see that, though, because they were too busy trying to make life easy for him.
And I was expected to do the same.
So, while I was on trash duty, taking the cans to the end of our quarter-mile-long driveway in Vermont’s frozen January, Hanlon was emptying the dishwasher while finishing his hot chocolate inside the cozy house. It’s not a big deal now, but to ten-year-old me, it was totally unfair.
When I turned eighteen, I got the hell out of Burlington, Vermont, as fast as I could, eager to become my own person and just have myself to worry about. Hanlon probably didn’t deserve the abrupt departure, but by the time I left, I resented his presence so fucking much I wasn’t the older brother he’d wished for, anyway.
I continued to travel home for the holidays because I knew it made Dad and Lana happy. And I fuckinghatedthe smile Hanlon always greeted me with. Finally, oncehewas eighteen, I didn’t feel the need to make holidays a family affair anymore.
Besides, now he’s twenty-two, I’m twenty-six, and we should both start our own traditions away from Mommy and Daddy.
The only tradition I’ve managed to keep, however, is spending the holidays alone. I haven’t been back to Vermont in four years, and while my parents make the trek to Montana every now and then, Hanlon never comeswith them.
The ping of a text alert pulls me from my shocked stupor, only to surprise me more.
Hanlon
Fucking hell. I told Dad I’d tell you myself. Can we talk?
I can’t really pinpointwhen Hanlon and I stopped talking to each other and began to rely on our parents for updates about one another, but it’s been a while since I’ve heard his voice.
Which honestly suits me just fine.
When I don’t answer his text right away, my phone goes off again.
