Read Online Beyond the Orange Moon (Mathews Family Book 2) by Adrienne Frances - Free Book Online

however, the one thing he had learned was to stop and admire the beauty around him; you never knew how long it would be there.  
    It was quiet as he drove; he never listened to the radio anymore. The morning drives were his time to clear his head—to make sense of the way his life had turned out. It was funny what fatherhood could do to a man. Peace and quiet came in small doses, so he took any opportunity to be alone with his thoughts.  
    He looked down at his phone, vibrating on the passenger seat. It was Mike, which he found odd. Mike never called him in the morning. It had been three days since he snapped at him. However, by the next day, Mike had gone on as if they hadn’t skipped a beat, which wasn’t surprising. Mike tended to shy away from drama.  
    “What’s up?” Charlie answered as he rolled up the window.
    “Where are you?” Mike asked.  
    Charlie paused. He wasn’t late. “I’m heading in. Why?”
    “I didn’t ask what you were doing. I said, ‘Where are you?’”
    “Scottsdale Road,” Charlie answered, still confused.  
    “North?”  
    “Just about. Why?”
    “Stop and grab me a coffee and one of those banana muffins from Lydia’s,” he demanded.
    Charlie stayed silent for a few seconds. “Mike, what are you doing?” he finally asked.
    “Just waiting for my coffee and muffin, kid,” he said, as if Charlie was the dumbest person alive. “Banana,” he reminded, and then he hung up.
    Well, damn. Charlie pulled his phone from his ear and tossed it back on the passenger seat. He should never have told Mike about going in there.  
    He pulled onto Fifth Avenue and parked his truck in the first spot he saw. He sat for a minute and tried to plot out the next fifteen minutes of his life. He needed to have it all thought out—every word and movement. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about touching her face again. When he couldn’t come up with anything other than shoving his hands in his pockets, he opened the door and walked across the street.  
    Inside, four people stood in line on a bright yellow rug. He stepped to the end and shifted to the side to get a good look at Lucy as she worked behind the counter.  
    Her blonde hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, a few pieces hanging down to brush her lean collarbone and shoulders. Her pink shirt was cut a little bit lower than the one she had been wearing before, which only made Charlie remind himself again to look into her eyes when he spoke to her.  
    The coffee machines were incredibly loud and he wondered how in the hell anyone could stand to listen to that sound all day long. It was a wonder she wasn’t deaf. He worked in construction with loud machines, too, so that was really saying something.  
    As the line dwindled, Charlie couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. He realized in that moment that he had been completely wrong about his first assessment of her: she wasn’t adorable; she was gorgeous. Adorable was the word for his one-year-old son. There was nothing childish about Lucy.  
    She swiped away a strand of hair with the back of her arm as she began making another coffee for the man ahead of Charlie, but startled when he suddenly snapped at her.
    “Today, princess!” the man yelled. “I’ve been waiting forever!”
    “Sorry,” she said over the loud machine. “Mornings are really busy and someone called in today.”
    “You’re making coffee. It’s not that hard, is it?” the man barked. “It’ll help if you move that tight ass a little faster!”
    Without a thought, Charlie shoved him from behind. Like the moment he wiped frosting from Lucy’s face, here he was moving in that automatic motion again. The man flew forward, but caught himself with his hands and knocked a few things down in the process. He turned and leaned against the counter as Charlie looked down at him with clenched fists.
    It was a cheap move, hitting him from behind like that, but he deserved it. Anyway, now that he was