Under the Orange Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

when you call me that.” He rubbed the top of her head as he headed to the beer cooler in back.
    “Weed, grab me a beer, would ya?” Charlie asked with an inquisitive smile. “Oilies still got a thing for you, huh?”
    Dylan handed Charlie a beer, ignoring his comment. “Where’s your wife tonight?”
    “No wife yet, baby sister.” Charlie took a large swig from his bottle. “Only a fiancée, who’s home at the moment.”
    Charlie was easy going, a polar opposite of the oldest brother, Brandon. He was a football hero in high school that, with reasons not a soul could understand, dropped out of college and became a construction worker after not even a year’s time. He carried huge loads on his tan shoulders all day long and enjoyed every minute of it. He simply loved the hard labor and the hot sun on his back.
    The biggest surprise to the family was when playboy Charlie came home to say he was engaged. Dylan and her mother had only met Meredith once, making it hard to take him seriously for a while. Now, six months later, with a wedding set for the spring, it seemed as though he wasn’t kidding after all.
    “When are you going to get a boyfriend?” Charlie asked, half smirking at the thought.
    “When men aren’t pigs,” Dylan answered, raising another shot of tequila into the air. “So I guess never.”
    Charlie watched his tiny sister throw her shot back like a pro. “Anyone in particular we’re talking about right now?”
    Dylan only glanced Ben’s way. “Nope.”
    Ben could feel Dylan’s glares without even getting a solid good look at her. He positioned himself in such a way that he could watch the bar from the corner of his eye, a way to see every movement that she made without being obvious about it. After watching Michael Olerson drool all over her, however, Ben was beginning to rethink his decision to spy.
    He cringed as Dylan fluttered her long lashes at Michael, and thought, Look at me like that . The only thing he found remotely entertaining in the grotesque display behind the bar was that, despite her girlishly stupid smile, he knew her well enough to know that she was completely uninterested in Oilie and his attempts to flirt.
    He still knew her well enough to read her like a book, he noticed. He had to laugh at his ability to unconsciously infuriate her. He enjoyed irritating her for reasons that he couldn’t even explain to himself. It was a turn on, perhaps.
    There was a wit about her that enthralled him to no end. Even her strange little quirks puzzled him. From her fear of birds to the strange way she despised the feeling of chalk in her hand. He still remembered clearly how much trouble she got into in fifth grade when she refused to write on the board. She stubbornly sat with her arms crossed until the teacher could no longer legally hold her after school. Perhaps he found it adorable. Though, he wouldn’t dare admit it out loud. 
    Ben nodded along to the redhead that remembered his name, but for the life of him, he could only remember her lopsided chest. He was a champ when it came to appearing as though he was listening. Throwing out an “uh-huh,” an “oh?” and a nod every few minutes seemed to satisfy this one very much.
    He had been standing there for what seemed like two NBA games worth of listening to the chatty girl with whom he had the unfortunate luck of being stuck with. A quick glance above Dylan’s head to the flat screen on the wall proved him wrong when he realized the Suns were still playing, but long into the fourth quarter.
    Charlie finally stood up, leaving the path perfectly clear to Dylan. Ben took his chance the moment it presented itself and left the lopsided girl in mid-sentence.
    “How’s the legend Michael?” Ben asked, as he slid onto the stool in front of Dylan, praying he didn’t sound jealous.
    “He’s fine.”
    “You know there are laws about sexual harassment that he should probably look into.”
    “Oh?” Dylan smiled. “I thought