Blown Away: A Small Town Military Romance (The Moore Brothers Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

table at his brother who beamed at his fiancée. Ian meant what he said. He truly did envy them. And maybe one day, if he ever found someone whose head wasn’t filled with cotton candy or who wasn’t a total bitch, he’d give Lilah the chance to throw another party.
    He looked down at the speech he’d prepared and realized he’d already said all that mattered, all the rest was redundant and pretentious. “To James and Erin!” he finished, and took a long drink of his champagne while the rest of the guests echoed him.
    Ian sat down as Harrison—the youngest Moore sibling—stood up to make his own, less serious, toast. Ian only half listened as he scanned the crowd and found half the women eyeing him like they’d just found something rare and exciting. Lilah would be sure to have him in the arms of about fifteen eligible bachelorettes before the evening was over. In fact, now that Harry had finished his speech and a slew of waiters were winding their way through the tables, depositing plates of food in front of guests with efficient flourishes, Lilah stood and made her way back down to whisper in Ian’s ear.
    “Your speech was lovely. You made Mom cry, dad smile, and James couldn’t be happier. Sorry I got a little … err … stressed.”
    “Is that what you call it? Stressed? Because I have a different name for it.”
    Lilah pouted. “Shush, you.” She scanned the guests, all making happy little exclamations over their dinner. “You know you can have your pick of the single women here tonight after what you just said. Probably some of the married ones too. Very smart.”
    Ian grimaced. If Lilah thought his speech was designed to get him into some unsuspecting woman’s panties, he wasn’t going to bother to correct her. “Whatever you say, little sister.” She patted his shoulder and went back to her seat while Ian studied the food on the plate in front of him. He’d meant what he said about envying James and Erin. But he also wasn’t interested in having any of that kind of relationship with just anyone. He lifted his gaze from his plate and let his eyes wander around the women who were busy eyeing him and came up with a great big no thank you.
    Maybe, as crazy as it sounded, he really would go check up on Juliet Lane in the morning.
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    Juliet
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “What do you mean, you don’t allow dogs?” Juliet knew it was a stupid question, but after driving since before the sun even started to think about coming up and finally making it to Bliss as the sun was going down, and realizing the little town was truly everything she ever wanted, she couldn’t believe that she wasn’t going to have a place to stay.
    “I don’t think I can be much clearer, ma’am,” drawled the heavy set man behind the counter.
    “Couldn’t you just make an exception, just the once, Bobby?” Julz asked, reading the man’s name off his nametag. “I literally have nowhere else to go.”
    Bobby wrapped his arms over his considerable girth and shook his head. “I don’t make the rules, I just get fired if I don’t follow ‘em.”
    “And you’re sure there aren’t any other hotels in the area?”
    Bobby raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Bliss doesn’t warrant having one hotel, let alone options.”
    Juliet thanked Bobby for his help, even if he was kind of a jerk. Cursing herself for even bringing Lulu inside with her in the first place, Julz left the little hotel and stood on the sidewalk out front. Now what? Here she was, heart set on staying in Bliss, and she was all alone with nowhere to go and nightfall just around the corner. Well, she knew one thing for sure, she hadn’t made it this far only to be stopped from seeing the ocean. Maybe she’d get some great dose of inspiration on how to solve her problem, sitting out on the beach, watching the vastness of water and sky, lulled towards relaxation by the rhythm of the waves.
    Or something like that.
    She plopped