Luna Tick: A Sunshine Novel by Angie Merriam Read Free Book Online

felt out of sorts. I'd only ever left Lincoln for short city trips–one trip to Vegas for my honeymoon and one trip to Disneyland with the kids. I was naïve to think all of Oregon looked like the Pac NW. It doesn't.
    "You been here before, bro?" I asked Ronin. He and Trish were married about six years ago and he blended well into our small circle. None of us thought Trish would ever settle down, but she did and Dade and I were both glad to call Ronin our brother.
    "Yeah, I flipped a house here years ago. Spent about a month in town. It's not a busy town like what we have up north. It's quiet, for the most part." The big Irishman was handy with tools but also knew how to handle a gun, which gave me some comfort knowing I'd be leaving my wife with him while Dade and I did police work.
    "It's all brown. Where's all the green?" Trish asked, and I could hear the disgust in her voice. One thing about Trish is she likes color. Ronin, Dade, and I spent an entire weekend painting her little cottage a very feminine buttery yellow , as Trish called it. The place was the epitome of a chick's house, but that was Trish, a little high maintenance and over the top girly and Ronin loved her for it. We gave Ronin shit for living there on a daily basis. The dude would have lived in a pink house if that's what she wanted, I respected him for that.
    "It's high desert, babe. No, it's not the lush greens but the shades of brown are beautiful in their own right. I'll show you girls some things while Matt and Dade put the squeeze on Nick." The car goes silent for a minute before erupting into laughter. I looked back at Ronin who seemed confused.
    "Did you just say 'put the squeeze on'," Sunshine asked him between giggles.
    "Yeah, is that the wrong thing to say?" He sounded genuinely confused, his Irish accent thick.
    "Babe, you gotta stop watching cop shows," Trish teased, while patting his thigh. Ronin is a contractor. He flips houses for a living and does most of the construction himself. He's an Irish handyman who sometimes says shit that catches us off guard–like that moment.
    "It's okay, bro, Matt and I are a little like those dudes on Bad Boys , only Matt's white. But we're badass like that." I reached back to fist bump Dade. "Hell yes, brotha," I replied, hoping we looked as badass as we thought we were.
    "Try Miami Vice , Dade. More like Sonny and Rico," Trish put in, causing Dade and me to look at each other with confusion.
    "You don't know Miami Vice ?" Ronin questions. "Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas Philip ?" Still nothing from either of us.
    "Don't mind them, babe. They're not very worldly," Trish teased. The irony of that statement was none of us were very worldly with the exception of Ronin, who'd done a lot of traveling. He may not have been up on modern pop culture, but he was well traveled.
    "Hey, I'm worldly," Dade replied in mock offense.
    "Yeah? How?" She questioned, a typical brother and sister show down.
    "I like tacos," he said confidently as though he'd just shown us all. Silence fell on us all before we all busted out into fits of laughter. Trish looked at her brother, disappointment mixed with pure wonder. Their relationship was unlike most brother and sister relationships. They, for the most part, have always gotten along. Dade always looked out for Trish, but also made sure she knew how to look out for herself, and she did. They rarely fought but when they did the fights were explosive and usually ended in Sunshine and me playing referee, even back in high school.
    "What? They're not American right? That's worldly and while we're at it, I love spaghetti too and that's Italian so don't tell me I'm not worldly, sis." He sat back, chuckling with the rest of us but feeling sure he'd won the debate.
    "Sunny, can you look up the directions to the hotel?" I asked when the laughter died down. She did and within ten minutes, we were there and checking in.
    "Meet you at the car in thirty minutes?" I asked Dade before