Adrian falls for the daughter of his son's killer. Everyone thinks they know Adrian. He has a house and he always has weed. Blazed is how he lives but he doesn't like it. He's trying to find his way back to a sense of normalcy. His nephew Ashton was killed by a drunk driver. The pain he and his sister Angel live with hasn't gotten easier in the four years since a two-year-old they adored was suddenly snatched away. In addition, he hasn't been able to get over the beatings his father gave him when he was a boy, taunting him for being weak if he cried. He also remembers his father raping his mother and not being able to stop him. If weed helps he'll toke until he chokes.
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Maddox is twenty-one and extremely angry. His sister Delaney is eighteen. Their mom has tried to kill herself several times. Her ex-husband is the drunk who hit little Ashton (Ash) when he drove through a backyard fence while receiving a blow-job from his girlfriend.
Delaney had tried to apologized to Angel for her poor excuse of a father. Apologize for taking the life her baby whose blood she feels is on the hands of her entire family. When Adrian starts pursuing her she isn't sure what to make of it. She's known his name because she is well aware of the fact her father is responsible for the dealt of someone in his family. Maddox doesn't want her to work at night and the waitress job is the best thing she could come up with. She wants her own money and unfortunately for Maddox the night shift was the only thing open.
Adrian camps out at her station having found where she's employed. It feels weird to Delaney, it's like he's trying to protect her. She doesn't know he's doing it because he feels responsible for not being able to protect his nephew.
Adrian and Delaney start to date. It's hard, Maddox is against it completely, but she feels herself drawn to the guy who won't take no for an answer. She wants him and isn't really playing hard to get. She's trying to be considerate of what is really involved. Adrian is different, he seems to live in his head, and he loves his weed. She isn't into drugs not with a mother who keeps trying to overdose and leave her motherless.
She can't get him to stop. He seems to need it and that scares her more than his cuteness and the way he looks at her. Even his sweet kisses which are passion filled can't make up for someone who isn't willing to deal with their stuff.
Delaney feels like she needs to get away and struggles to ask Adrian to come along. As soon as she gets the question out he agrees. He talks a big game about how he is going to sex her down, but when they check into the motel he gets two queen beds. She's special and he doesn't want to treat her like a random girl.
Delaney is a virgin and they don't stay in their own beds. It's going down. Delaney is sure she wants Adrian to be her first. She's so touched when they finish that she gets out of bed and cries. When Adrian reaches for her in his sleep he wakes up when he grabs a pillow and not Delaney. She thinks that he may feel that she's crying over having lost her virginity. Nope. She enjoyed it and was thinking about the next steps. Will he still like her, did she make a mistake type questions. It felt good and she has no regrets. She wants more.
She tells Adrian why she isn't planning on going to college right away, it has everything to do with he mother's repeated suicide attempts. It has been emotionally grueling. She asks him the same question. He can't do it right now, although he wants to be a writer. He loves books and reading. But since Angel moved out and with the trying to help her and himself deal with their loss, it hasn't been the right time. For now he just works cleaning up rental properties.
When she gets home Maddox is steaming. She's stayed out all night and had the nerve to kiss some guy “that guy” in front of their house in broad daylight with an overnight bag on her arm. Delaney stands up to Maddox and tells him she is a grown woman.
While Maddox is mad about Delaney being with Adrian it is more to it. He knows she deserves a life with all she's been through with their parents. She just wished she had called and let him know she was okay. Their mother home from the hospital hadn't even missed Delaney. Maddox points that out. Delaney wonders why her mother hates her when she is the one to keep saving her. The truth is their mother really wants to die and resents Delaney for making her feel like she should stay alive.
Somehow she blames Delaney for her father's drunkenness and infidelity when they were married. Delaney doesn't see that a big part of her mother's resentment comes from her ex husband's attention to his daughter. He made it a competition that helped destroy their family.
As Maddox and Delaney talk the truth comes to the surface. Their father would take Maddox with him on his gambling nights, to see his girlfriends making him choose loyalty between his parents. When he hit little Ash he only asked Delaney to forgive him and not Maddox. He was only seventeen and his father made him hold his “grown ass man” secrets.
In a drunken night with friends Adrian lets it slip that Ash was his son and not Angels. He'd given her custody because he was only sixteen. Delaney's father killed his son. Delaney is mortified. Adrian has gone off like it used to do before they started dating. A week passes and Delaney is frantic. She doesn't know if he is the type to take pills like her mother. Weed is one thing, pill overdoses are something else entirely. She does know she can't handle anymore suicide attempts.
While she's dealing with thoughts of Adrian and his well-being her mother attacks her. She truly thinks her daughter was after her drunkard of a husband. Delaney doesn't hit her mother back. She walks away and tells her she can't help her anymore.
While Adrian was away trying to deal with things he'd run out of money, had no weed and was just trying to keep from going nuts.
Maddox has been following Adrian as he crossed over two states. He meets him at his hotel door and they go at it. Maddox tells him that he's an asshole for leaving his sister that she's been through enough. She's lost someone too, their mom. She loses her each time she tries to end her life and she hates Delaney. He goes on explaining that Delaney was the one who found her mom and goes into detail. Delaney had only brushed over the subject with Adrian he had no idea how hard it had been for her.
Maddox wants Adrian to know he isn't the only one who has lost someone and who is hurting. Instead of fighting which they were about to do, Maddox pulls a bottle of whiskey and they share it. When they get back to the city Maddox apologizes for scaring Delaney and for their fight. They make up and Delaney receives a box in the mail. There are five hundred pages of text written by Adrian about his relationship and love for his son.
Adrian makes his first stop to his sister Angel. They haven't seen each other outside of the cemetery each year since Ash died. Even there his mantra was to let her grieve in peace. He'd only go up to the site once she was back in her car. It was time to handle things differently they both loved Ash.
He and Delaney meet up and she explains some more about her mother. They go to the cemetery and see Ash's grave. Through the life and death, loss and recovery Delaney and Adrian find each other again.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked that Adrian was really loved his son.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Adrian and Delaney got back together.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked that Adrian was able to find himself and that he was able to emotionally handle learning the truth about Ash's killer.
