Page 1 of Dandelions and Smoke

PROLOGUE

RORY

April, Six Months Ago

“Come on, baby, just like that. Good girl,” I whisper, my hand stroking the hood of my dashboard as my ride, “Miss Daisy,” and I make it through the last stretch of this twenty-hour drive from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Turtle Bay, NY.

This is definitely one of the more unhinged adventures I’ve ever been on, and there have been quite a few in my twenty-two years, but this one takes the cake. Speaking of cake, I’m starving. Beef jerky and gummy bears stopped doing it for me like two hours ago. Luckily, I’m almost to my destination… sort of. I don’t exactly know where I’m going, but I do know who I’m going to meet, and that was enough for me to pack up my entire life, albeit not much, and hit the road.

Right on time, my phone rings with a call from my cousin Lucas. He’s the one who helped me discover that I have a half-brother named Blake Bolton living in Turtle Bay. Of course, I didn’t bother calling first before driving all the way up here because, well, for one, that would make way too much sense, and two, well… I didn’t tell Lucas this, but with the way he was raised, I think he’d understand.

Growing up without having any real family is hard, especially when the ones who are supposed to love you the most in the world are the ones who choose not to. Lucas and I only recently connected after years of having no clue the other existed, and while that reunion has been better than I could have ever hoped, the idea of meeting my brother scares the hell out of me.

What if he thinks my pink curly hair is too much?

What if he hates me?

What if he’s known about me all this time and has actively chosen that he wants nothing to do with me?

It’s a lot harder to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, so with that in mind, I figure it’s more difficult to reject someone once they’re standing right in front of you rather than picking up the phone and being like, “Oh, hey, is this Blake? Hi, my name is Rory, and we have the same dad… Surprise.”

Not that I have any idea who our father is. My raging alcoholic of a mother never felt like filling me in on that one. Even on the days I spent peeling her off the floor, she never told me, no matter how far gone she was. All I was told was that he has no idea I exist, and I’m better off for it.

Most days, it felt like she wished I didn’t exist either, but what can I expect from a woman who cared more about her next drink than the welfare of her only daughter? She drank herself to death a couple of years ago, and I’ve been bouncing around from hotel to hotel, job to job, all around Florida ever since. It’s a miracle that Lucas’s friends even found me.

Oh shit! That’s right! The phone!

“Hi!” I pick up on what very well may be the last ring.

“Did you get distracted again, or were you hoping I’d finally give up?” Lucas asks, his deep laugh echoing through the phone, making my lips tilt up.

“To be fair, my mind is a very interesting place,” I counter, and it’s true.

Living with ADHD is like waking up every day on an adventure all its own. I never know what version of myself I’m going to get, or how much focus I’m going to need to get through the day. Frankly, it’s exhausting sometimes.

“Trust me, we know, and wouldn’t have it any other way,” he says, like he knows exactly what I need to hear.

Lucas Monroe is a larger-than-life hockey player for the Tampa Bay Hawks, but to me? He’s simply the big cousin I never knew I needed. He’s given me a taste of the family I’ve always wanted. He and his wife, Lettie, have welcomed me into their family with open arms, and with that apparently comes an entire hockey team.

“Hey, Rory!” voices I recognize as some of Lucas’s closest friends and teammates call out over the line.

“Hey guys!” I answer, chuckling as my chest warms with the comfort of knowing I now have people who care about me.

But what if Blake doesn’t?

The voice in my head grows louder, the constant loop that’s been playing nonstop this whole drive, but I do my best to ignore it.

“You getting in your head again?” Lucas asks softly, the noise on the other side of the line sounding quieter now, like he’s walked away.

I take a deep breath and play with the hair tie on my wrist while stopped at a red light, a sign, Turtle Bay, next right, staring me in the face.

“What do you think?” I tease, my go-to since I’ve never found a point in lying about my feelings.

I either ignore them altogether, run from them, or confront them head-on with a heavy dose of sarcasm and my wonderful sense of humor. There’s not really any in between. My impulsivity and lack of a poker face make sure of that.

“It’s going to work out,” he reassures. “And if not, the team and I will come up there and kick his ass. Problem solved.”

“Please!” I say with a laugh, pretty typical of when talking with him. “You’re already overprotective enough. I think you can put the cape down. I got this one.”