by Lauren Dane
Jace booted his computer up before heading to get himself another cup of coffee because his PC was a hundred years old and slow as molasses.
“Getting a cup of coffee,” he called out to Connie. “You want any?”
“Too hot for coffee just now. I’ll stick to soda. Thanks though. I hear you have a new tenant over the mercantile now.”
He goggled at her. That was fast, even for small town gossip.
She laughed. “You think everyone isn’t buzzing around about Katie Faith being back and how pretty she is? And you go and move her in across the hall? Granddaddy must be giggling all day long.”
That made Jace laugh. “She needed a place to live. We rented her one. But you’re right that JJ is in heaven. I’m sure he’ll find a dozen ways to rub it in some Pembry face before the week is out.” Hell, part of Jace wanted to do that too.
Connie said, “He does like to stir the pot. Not that Dwayne Pembry and his litter don’t deserve a good lesson in how not to alienate a gal as powerful and pretty as Katie Faith Grady. We’re smart enough to see her value to Dooley.”
This again? He gave his cousin a serious look. “Leave her be. Let her come back and make her way here. All this politicking is going to spook her.”
As he spoke he knew how futile the effort was. Diablo Lake was what it was. Chances were, Katie Faith knew the same and was already steeling herself for the inevitable when she moved in.
“You’re getting old. She’s pretty. Good family. She’d be a good addition to the pack. Why not you instead of any other idiot in town?” Connie shrugged before turning her attention to the ringing phone.
“Any other idiot? So I’m an idiot too?” he asked but she continued to deal with the call.
Sure he was going to settle down. Someday. And sure he’d had a thing for Katie Faith for a long time. But this would be on his damned terms if it happened at all. And he wanted it to. At least to take it a little further to see how they were together. Still, the way his family tried to marry him off like he was sixty instead of twenty-seven annoyed him.
“There’s been some vandalism down over at the Baptist church. I told Snuffy you’d be right round,” Connie said once she’d hung up.
Lucky him. Snuffy Carson was a pain in Jace’s ass. If he wasn’t such a sour old jerkoff, his trees wouldn’t get toilet papered by the youth of Diablo Lake all the time. But he took being offensive as his duty.
“Don’t tell him I’m rushing over there for TP’d oak trees, Connie. The man has to understand where his problems lie in the big scheme of things.”
“Like behind that big murder case you’re trying to crack? Or the bank robbery that never happened because this is Diablo Lake and more toilet papered trees down at First Baptist is pretty much the most egregious thing you’ll be dealing with today? He’s lonely and old and his wife died ten years ago. He probably hasn’t had any since way before that. I’d be grumpy too,” Connie told Jace. “You know how to handle him.”
The old guy would rant and rail. Jace would take pictures and a report and he’d most likely have some time to stop over at the Counter to check up on Avery Grady’s health and have a chocolate malted.
It was the neighborly thing to do.
* * *
Katie Faith put a glass of iced tea in front of her father. He wanted to come into work for a little while that day and both she and her mother thought it would do him some good.
He wasn’t able to handle much. He was still healing. He had to use a wheelchair if he was going to be out for any real amount of time because he got tired very easily. His genetics would continue to aid in speeding his healing, but it would still take time.
He could flirt with all the customers, get fussed over here and there, he exchanged gossip with his friends when they popped in. It was good for him to remember how much he was loved and appreciated and welcomed back to the community.
He was alive. He was mending. Everything was going to be all right.
“I gotta say, Katie Faith, it does my heart good to see you here, making this place your own,” her dad told her with a smile. “I sure did miss you, baby.”
“I missed you too.” And she had. The longer she’d been back in Diablo Lake, the more obvious it had become to her that she was back where she belonged. She finished cleaning up and turned back to him once more. “I have some ideas, opening up a bit earlier, staying open a bit later. And I’d like to add some simple food items to the lunch menu. Easily made ahead. Like a sandwich of the day. Chips instead of fries. I don’t think we need to muscle in on what Salt and Pepper does. We can compliment each other instead of stealing business.”
In any small town that was important, but in Diablo Lake even more given their isolation.
“Good to think about how it impacts the neighbors. I raised you right.” He winked and she was glad to see a little color in his face again. He wasn’t full strength, but he’d started physical therapy and the paralysis on the left side of his body had gone. Being back in Diablo Lake where the land did so much to help speed his healing had vaulted him forward by at least a month.
She grinned at him. “I’m thinking of buying an espresso machine for the mornings. There’s not a single coffee place for miles around. I wouldn’t be stepping on toes. Mom still wants to keep her afternoon shift. I think we should keep Curtis on too.”
The bell over the door jingled and they both looked up. Mayor Dwayne Pembry took up the doorway and inwardly she made the same sound her father made out loud.
“Like a bad penny,” her father muttered and she had to fight back a hysterical bubble of laughter.
If he upset her father one bit she was going to chase him out with the broom. She hoped that showed in her eyes when her gaze met his, holding it steady. This was her territory.
“Mayor Pembry, what brings you down to this end of town?”
“Just stopping in to say welcome home and to check on your daddy’s health.” He turned his fake politician smile on Avery. “You’re looking good. Scared everyone. Try not to do that again.”
Once, what now seemed like a million years ago, this man was going to be her father-in-law. He’d eaten dinner at her house dozens of times. He and Avery had been good friends even before Darrell and Katie Faith started dating. Their children’s relationship had only strengthened it. And then Darrell had done her wrong, Dwayne had badmouthed Katie Faith. Most likely he’d been embarrassed, but the damage had been done. Even though he’d finally realized just what Darrell had done and took the time to publically admonish him and apologize to Katie Faith on behalf of the Pembrys, it had been too late. He went on to lose the mayor’s office, only recently taking it back when the prior mayor was killed in a hunting accident.
“Can I get you something?” Katie Faith asked, keeping it professional and pleasant but not an inch more. “I can still make a mean vanilla Coke.”
He hesitated and then the smile he sent was more like the old Dwayne. “I shouldn’t. If Scarlett heard about me having a soda, she’d get a switch off the back tree.”
She risked a quick look at her father. Scarlett Pembry was a crazy woman. Hard, uneven, not incredibly stable and she took to making up fanciful stories when she got bored or took it into her head someone had done her wrong. It was entirely possible she would take a switch to her husband’s behind if he broke some dietary stricture.
Dwayne slid himself onto the stool next to Avery’s wheelchair. “What the heck? I haven’t had a vanilla Coke in ages. Probably since the last time you were here.” He paused as she began to make his soda.
Her father made small talk until she finished, placing the soda before Dwayne.
He took a sip and sighed happily. “This is just the thing. Thank you, Katie Faith.” His smile faded. “Is everything gonna be all right? Between you and Darrell?”
She cocked her head and l
ooked at him long and hard. “Seems to me, Mayor, that’s what they call a dead horse. There’s nothing between me and Darrell to be one way or the other.”
“This is my town, Katie Faith. I just want to be sure things run smooth-like. I know he did you wrong. But he’s got himself two younguns and a wife. I need to know right up front if you have any plans to interfere with that.” Oh that folksy thing made her want to punch him.
Anger burned through her and the lights hummed just a bit before she reined it in. “You come in here and ask if I’m going to mess in someone’s relationship? Me? If I recall correctly, and excuse me here because I’m getting angry, but I was the one who had someone else interfere in my relationship.” She shook her head and held a hand up to keep him silent. “No. You said your piece and now I’ll say mine. I came back here because my family needed me and because this is my home. I don’t want your son. I’m grateful every single minute of my day that he cheated on me and dumped me before I joined myself to him. He’s someone else’s problem. She’s welcome to him and his babies. If you’re lucky, they’ll turn out like her sister, leastwise they’ll be smarter than stumps.”
Dwayne sighed deeply. “I know he did you wrong, Katie Faith. I’ve said so before and I’ll say it now, I’m sorry for the things I did right after the wedding. He was wrong. But he’s trying now. I’m asking you to respect that.”
“Dwayne Pembry, I’ve never done a damned thing to your son or his wife. I don’t care about either one of them enough to spare their marriage a passing thought. I’m finding it hard to locate my sense of humor. I told you I don’t want a part of any Pembry, especially Darrell. I don’t care if you don’t trust my word. The God’s honest truth is that I’m the only one with credibility here. You need to go on now. I’m done with this conversation forever.” She took his glass and began to wash it.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Katie Faith. I really am glad you came home.” He stood and she looked up at him.
“You delivered your little message, now go. Rest assured I want no part of you all. Don’t you come back here to upset my father again or there’ll be the trouble you’re so eager to prevent.” His dumbass son was one thing, messing with her daddy when he was still weak? That made her furious.
With a heavy sigh, Dwayne turned and trudged out.
“And don’t you call round election day asking for money, neither,” her father called out. “Imagine! The nerve of him to come in here and treat you that way.”
She shook her head and took his hand in hers. “Please don’t get upset, Daddy, it doesn’t signify. Let it go. I have. It’s been over three years now. You can’t afford the anger right now. Your revenge is to live a long time.”
The bell jingled again, but this time the doorway held far more interesting fare than before. She grinned.
“Hey, Jace.”
He removed his ball cap, what the cops in town wore, and ran his hand through his hair. He’d probably put that hat on while his hair was still wet from the shower. Oh my. She paused a moment, going to a very happy place.
She probably shouldn’t be thinking about him in the shower. But she wasn’t talking on a cell phone and driving, that was an improvement. Right? Her internal argument faded as she watched him move like the predator he was toward the counter. His uniform pants strained at the thighs as he walked, nearly silently. His button-down shirt fit him perfectly and she wanted to lick him. A lot.
He looked good. Taut and muscled and sunkissed and hot damn, delicious.
“Good afternoon, Katie Faith.” He smiled, a quick flash of white teeth. “Mr. Grady, how are you?”
“Sit down, son.” Her dad indicated the stool right next to his. “I’m working on getting better. It’s hard with two women hovering over a body all day and night.” Her father sent her a look and she rolled her eyes.
“Must help that they’re both so pretty, though.” Jace grinned and winked at Katie Faith, who snorted.
“What can I get for you?” Katie Faith leaned over the counter. “It’s on the house if you’ll answer some marketing questions.”
He laughed and settled in, resting his arms on the counter. His gaze locked on hers and she couldn’t have looked away even if she had wanted to. Not that she wanted to.
“Shoot. I’m all yours.”
Good Lord above, he made her all flustered. “What’ll it be?”
“Is it too early for a milkshake? Chocolate?” He looked hopeful.
Werewolves and chocolate. Almost as bad as witches and their obsession with peaches. She smiled. “Never too early for a chocolate milkshake.”
He made small talk with her father as she scooped the ice cream, followed by milk and chocolate syrup. It was like breathing, she’d done it so many times. She’d worked behind this counter since the age of ten or so.
Deftly, she poured the shake into a frosty glass. “I’m assuming you want the whole shebang? Whipped cream, nuts and a cherry?”
He just looked at her like she was crazy to even ask so she poked a straw through the pretty mountain of whipped cream and slid it to him with a spoon.
“Would you come in here for coffee if we served lattes and such in the mornings?” she asked him.
“Oh is this the marketing portion of the program? I need to serious up.” The smile hovering at the corner of his mouth made her a little dizzy.
“You’re awfully saucy for this early in the day.” She sent him a mock frown.
“My grandmother tells me I was born this way.” He took a draw on the milkshake and moaned. “This is heaven in a glass. And I think it could work. There’s no fancy coffee for miles and miles.”
“You think people would spend four dollars for a cup of coffee here in Diablo Lake?” her father asked.
Jace thought and shrugged. “Four bucks?” He winced. “Maybe two fifty. We’re backwater, not backwards.”
Katie Faith waved it away. “I wouldn’t charge four dollars anyway. That’s city pricing. I just thought I’d have some coffee and a few baked goods in the mornings, a sandwich at lunch, just one and then close up at five instead of three. Nothing major, just hopefully some extra business.”
“Six to five is a lot to do on your own. Still, I like that you’re digging in. Putting roots back down.” Jace’s comment seemed flip but his eyes were serious. She just had to figure out if it was as a friend or if he was serious about her on a romantic level. Not that she should be sniffing around a werewolf of any make much less a Dooley. The generations old beef between the upper class Pembry wolves and the blue collar Dooley wolves made any notion of dating either a stupid idea.
She shrugged, trying not to blush. Her father raised his eyebrows, looking back and forth between them, a ghost of a smile on his lips.
“My mom still wants her afternoon shift. Curtis will still be a part-timer so I think it’s definitely doable.”
More customers came in, half wanting to get a look at Katie Faith being back, but even those she lured in with sweet treats. Maybe she’d be better at this than she thought.
Not one failed to notice who and what was sitting at her counter, though. By nightfall she could only imagine how tongues would be wagging.
“I need to get back to the station to fill out some paperwork.” Jace grumbled something about toilet paper. “Thank you for the company and the milkshake.”
“Oh I see, come in, be seen, get the gossips all worked up that you’re here and dash out again?” she teased.
“It’s my greatest joy,” he said, deadpan. “Especially if it comes with milkshakes.”
“Any time.” Like at two in the morning and he was in his boxers and came knocking on her door. She could whip up a milkshake whenever he needed.
He shook her dad’s hand before turning back to give her a long up and down look. “I suppose I’ll be seeing y
ou soon enough, neighbor.”
He looked damned good walking away in those uniform pants.
“That boy sure is sweet on you.” Her father smiled into his tea.
“He’s just being friendly.”
“Pull the other one,” he mumbled.
“Momma’s gonna be here soon to pick you up. I’ll be by later on for dinner.” She wanted him to drop the subject.
“You be careful round them Pembrys. You hear? I don’t like it what they came over here. It’s as if they’re preparing for Darrell doing something stupid.”
She sighed and wiped the counter down. “I can handle them if a problem comes up. Which it won’t because I have no interest in a single one of those lunkheads.”
“Darrell Pembry is an idiot. Makes him more dangerous, not less. This isn’t about your interest in them. You’re a powerful girl, anyone can see. Power’s a lure. Especially in Diablo Lake.”
Katie Faith frowned a moment. “He’s a fool. Even if I didn’t already think he was worthless, I sure as heck wouldn’t get involved with a married man. I’m better than that!”
“‘’Course you are. That’s not what I meant and you know it. You’re strong. Stronger than you were when you left. You need to work with Miz Rose on some stuff. I’ll help when I’m all healed.”
Before she could follow up, her mother came in and collected her father to take him home. It was easy enough to manage the fountain by herself for most of the time but right after the middle and high schools let out, things got very busy. Those hungry kids with some disposable income would give her afternoons a profitable boost if she handled it right.
She picked up the phone and dialed Aimee. She had planning to do and the movers would be arriving the following day with all her stuff so it would be her last night in Aimee’s spare room. They’d get together with their other friend Lara to celebrate when everyone got off work for the day.
Chapter Five
At a little past noon the following day, Katie Faith tipped the movers and said her good-byes to them. She’d see them all again soon enough as the moving crew had been a bunch of local Dooleys with strong backs and a big truck.