by Lauren Dane
Looking through Aimee’s kitchen window, she caught sight of a man jogging down the street in the early morning stillness. She leaned closer to see who it was, not that the long, powerful legs and shirtless torso weren’t enough to enjoy in and of themselves.
As if she’d shouted a name, he turned and she stilled, her hands gripping the dish towel tight. How on Earth could she still be so totally gobsmacked every time she caught sight of the man? And how on Earth did he still look so good? And forbidden, which, well come on, what girl with a lick of sense wouldn’t want that?
She did manage to lift her hand and wave. He must not have recognized her, either that or he hated her, because his wave in return was joined by a puzzled look and he kept on running.
Shrinking back from the window with a wistful sigh, she hung the towel up and headed to get dressed.
“I just saw Jace Dooley jogging,” she called out to Aimee as she finished with her makeup and came back out into the living room.
“Shirtless, right? Tell me it was one of those days.” Aimee waggled her eyebrows.
“Wait, this is a thing?” Katie Faith asked.
“Yes. He goes for a run every morning. You can see him twice if you’re up early enough. Unless it’s snowing he usually has his shirt off and tucked into his shorts. He’s one of the Lord’s finest creations.” Aimee hummed.
“I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me. What kind of friend knows Jace runs shirtless past a body’s kitchen window every single day and never bothers to say? It’s like I don’t even know you.” Katie Faith shook her head.
“You’re right. I sincerely apologize for my oversight. So.” Aimee looked her up and down. “Is this a thing then? I just need to know how to be supportive. Like should I be cheerleading you taking up jogging so you can get yourself and your jiggly boobs in his path? Or is this just an idle trip down memory lane when you had the hot and tinglies for him?”
She thought about it for a while. “I don’t know if it’s a thing yet. It could be a thing. If he’s single and I still like him. I’ve changed since then. I imagine he has too. But it’s not something I came back to town to do. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to set my alarm tomorrow so I won’t miss out. Just because I don’t have time to do anything doesn’t mean I can’t look.”
Aimee said, “It would be a crime against nature not to look at him.”
“Thanks for enabling me. I love you.” Katie Faith gave her a hug.
“Love you too. Now let’s get out the door and kick today’s butt.”
Chapter Two
Katie Faith locked the front doors of the Counter. Three weeks had passed since she’d arrived back in Diablo Lake to take over. The weight of it was frightening, even as it comforted and anchored her. She’d expected to feel trapped. Instead she carried a tote bag full of ledgers to study in the evenings after she closed up and spent a good part of her days thinking on things she could do to improve business.
All that planning and work had kept her busy enough to not obsess over her father every moment of the day though it was impossible to get the memory of him normally so hearty, pale and fragile, tubes running all over his body out of her head.
She’d grown up thinking her father was invincible. Now she knew otherwise and it terrified her.
Still, it was impossible not to smile as she turned and caught sight of Miz Rose patting her hair and straightening her sweater. “Good day today, Miz Rose. Thank you so much for all your help. I don’t know what we’d have done without you these last weeks.”
Miz Rose sent Katie Faith a raised brow. “Where else would I be? You think I got lots of social engagements I’m running out on?”
The woman was about four foot nothing and Katie Faith knew the hair tightly confined in her braided bun fell in deep auburn waves to her knees. She’d been a notoriously beautiful young woman in her day. Males from Diablo Lake, no matter their background, courted her and in the end, she’d chosen the quietly dignified Jefferson Collins. They’d made a passel of gifted kids who also had kids of their own. Miz Rose was an incredibly powerful woman and though Katie Faith loved her very much, she never forgot that.
“Miz Rose, if anyone in this town had social engagements it’d be you.”
Miz Rose chuckled low and sort of naughty. She was family. Had been the first person, after her father, who held Katie Faith when she’d been born. She’d been a wonderful role model, a woman Katie Faith admired deeply. The feeling had been returned by Miz Rose. When Katie Faith had walked back into the church after being told Darrell had run off with Sharon Woolery, Miz Rose had clucked her tongue.
Shaking her head she’d said, pouring on her disdain for extra effect, “Well, Katie Faith, you saved yourself some heartache, girl. He’s about as useless as a back pocket on a shirt. Your children would have been as dumb as stumps. Let Sharon have him.”
It still made her laugh every time she thought of it.
Katie Faith bent to kiss Miz Rose’s cheek, the soft scent of White Shoulders wafting from her, filling her with a childhood’s worth of memories.
“You will call me if you need me in here tomorrow afternoon.” An order given by someone accustomed to obedience with just a smidge of magic to underline her words.
“Thank you. I will.” She waved to Miz Rose’s grandson who waited for her at his passenger side door.
“Hey there, Katie Faith. Good to have you back in town. I guess I’ll be seeing you next week at the meeting?”
Oh yeah, all that stuff. She nodded. If she was back she had responsibilities far beyond running the Counter. Her family made up one of the Consort—what they called the group of witches who’d banded together and then been part of Diablo Lake governance from the very start.
“Hey, Brandon. I’ll be there.” She walked alongside Miz Rose, not helping but being there in case she needed it. Pride was important. Dignity was important. Katie Faith had been raised right, so she saw Miz Rose safely into the car and stood back to watch them drive away.
She turned back to check the doors once last time before heading across the street to her next meeting. At the last all town gathering where they held a census, four thousand people called the city limits home. Of course city limits meant a pretty large area sprawling through the already isolated Smokies. Not a lot of people really, but enough to keep a few restaurants, a dive bar and a brew pub open on Diablo Lake Avenue, the main thoroughfare bisecting the town and the only way back to the series of roads leading to US Highway 441.
The Counter, which was purely a daytime joint with limited food and drink options shared the left side of the street along with the Red Door Inn, the aforementioned pub. At the farthest end of the street lay Pete’s, a creepy, windowless building where the old guys in town hung out to drink all day while bitching about the government and avoiding their spouses. It wasn’t dangerous in there or anything, but your shoes stuck to the floor and she’d rather pee outside than even go into a bathroom stall there.
Luckily, Katie Faith was headed to Salt and Pepper to catch up with Damon Dooley, who sidelined as a realtor in addition to running the general store with his twin Major.
Diablo Lake was isolated. On purpose and by design. They were far, far off the already remote US Highway 441. It kept humans away during most of the year and gave the citizens of Diablo Lake the anonymity—and safety—they desired.
But such isolation meant in order to pay bills, the denizens of Diablo Lake had to be creative and perform a variety of jobs. During the summer and fall, many locals hired out as guides through the surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Park to save up money to get them through the generally hard winters that closed roads and isolated them even further.
But they were witches, who had a solid and very important connection to the earth. Being so far out in the wilderness was good for them. And shifters. Werewol
ves like the Dooleys and Pembrys and big cats like the Cuthbert and Ruiz families all loved the freedom to shift and run wherever they liked. Guide work was a natural thing for them, they were good at it and made a hearty living. Some of them even did backcountry and snow tours during the winters.
Pale green eyes met hers as she walked through the doors of Salt and Pepper. Damon sat at a nearby table, drinking a Coke, working his way through one of the diner’s signature mega burgers and a huge pile of french fries.
The man was easily six and a half feet tall. Broad like the rest of his kind. The kind of gaze that never missed a thing, even as he’d been flirting with his server. His deep-black hair was short just then, but Katie Faith knew when it got longer it grew into curls any girl would want to run her fingers through. Not that she ever had. Damon Dooley was so far out of her league she had to tiptoe just to see the edge of it. Didn’t mean she couldn’t look now and again.
Summers in Diablo Lake were her favorite time. The boys went shirtless and the shifter boys let their hair grow. All work-hard muscles, long hair and perfect teeth. Katie Faith smiled at the memory and suddenly moving back didn’t seem so very bad at all.
Katie Faith slid into the booth across from Damon.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Katie Faith. How’s your daddy?” Damon’s eyes softened from flirting to concerned.
“He’s doing good. He starts his physical therapy on Monday. Thank goodness for Aimee. She found a physical therapist who agreed to come out here three days a week to work with Daddy at the clinic.”
He nodded. “Major told me to let you know he’d come out this weekend to see about adding some railings to the front and back steps. Should make it easier for your dad to get in and out of the house without help.”
She had been gone too long because as she heard that, tears welled up. The outpouring of love and support for her dad had touched her deeply.
Damon gave her a moment to get herself back together before he spoke again, filling her in on the rentals and places for sale available in her price range and desired area, including an apartment above the mercantile, which the Dooley wolves owned and operated.
Given the very possessive nature of werewolves, she needed to avoid any part of town controlled or dominated by Pembry wolves. Otherwise, they’d lay claim to her, like a chair or the last piece of pizza.
“I don’t want anything in the Pembry part of town.” She said it quietly even though no one around was Pembry. It was still a small town after all; smart to keep your business quiet unless you wanted everyone to know it.
“I’m going to suggest you want to be in town or at least very close, in the middle of winter.”
True. At least if she lived in town she could walk to the Counter if the roads got bad or the power went out. The market and mercantile would be close enough to get her through if they got snowed in for a few days. The main part of town was also the first to get plowed and sanded in icy or snowy conditions.
Yes, in town was the best option and, she thought, where most of the people she liked best were anyway.
“Can I take a look tonight? I do want to buy, but maybe I can rent while I keep saving. I’d like some other options. I’ve been here nearly a month so once I make a choice I’d like to get things moving quickly. I’m staying with Aimee, but I need to move my furniture from Chattanooga and get that all sewn up.”
He nodded. “Don’t know why not. I have the keys for both places. You want to look at the apartment above the mercantile? Major and I are good landlords.”
She shrugged. Of course he and his brother would manage the place. “Sure. Why not look at all my options?”
“Always a plus, in my book.” Damon grinned and her hormones did the cha cha. He was nearly as hot as his big brother. Nearly.
* * *
Jace Dooley looked up from the engine of a Chevy truck whose carb needed changing out to catch sight of Katie Faith Grady stretching those damnable legs out the passenger side of Damon’s car.
She turned, pushing her sunglasses up to the top of her head and he felt it to his toes. Damn she was pretty. Always had been, even when she was small. But now she’d grown into herself. Her once unruly hair now tousled around her face, still curly but she’d tamed it somehow. Made the curls behave. The color was rich, not the shade she was born with, but what did he care? He liked the way it looked in the late day sun, like dark red wine and chocolate all bound together. It worked with her skin and eyes. Big hazel eyes. Eyes she’d gotten from her daddy’s people. Eyes that branded her. And that scared him as much as it excited him.
She moved with purpose, as always. But grace had replaced the clumsiness she’d had as her legs kept growing all through high school until he wanted her so badly he’d nearly punched that idiot Darrell in the face for having her. But for a few hours on one night he’d never forgotten.
Of course, sadly, people run to type and Darrell had pissed it all away to sneak off with Sharon. Well, they deserved each other and he hoped Katie Faith knew what she’d so narrowly escaped.
Jace continued to watch like some pervert as she followed Damon up the stairs to the apartment above the mercantile.
That’s when he realized what was happening. Oh hell no. Standing up straight, he banged his head against the hood and didn’t stop the curse from escaping. Guiltily, he looked around, relieved his grandma had gone back inside and hadn’t heard that one.
Crap. He wiped his hands off on a nearby rag and headed toward where they’d disappeared. If Katie Faith lived across the hall from him, he was pretty sure he’d die of want. Or he’d go to hell for all the self love.
At the top of the stairs, he caught her scent lingering in the air. Like catnip, electric and spicy. Her magic danced through it, calling to him.
Like it had years before.
Like it had and he’d pretended it away.
The door to the vacant apartment was open and he followed the sound of voices, hers a soft, sweet song, brushing against the low rumble his brother possessed.
They turned as he entered. Damon didn’t bother to hide his smug smile as he sent a look of challenge to Jace. Jace picked it right up. “You were right, Damon.” He grinned and looked to Katie Faith. “It was you who waved at me through Aimee’s window a few weeks ago, right? Damon said you’d been staying in town. Glad to hear your daddy is back home.”
She blinked up at him a few times and he noted the increase in her heartbeat. Not in fear. Not at all. When she licked her lips before speaking he nearly growled. Her skin warmed as she blushed, bringing her scent to him where it grew claws and dug in.
“Yeah, that was me. Good to see you, Jace. Or should I say Officer Dooley? Thank you. He’s doing much better.” Her voice had gone breathless in a few parts, which only got his attention more.
“Jace is just fine. Unless I’m arresting you. You plan to disturb the peace?” He stepped closer, unable to stop himself.
She continued to look up at him, those big eyes of hers blinking slowly. Every time she licked her lips he had to root himself to the spot to keep from bending to take a taste of that mouth.
Damon rocked back on his heels, clearly pleased with himself. “I’m showing her the apartment. Mind if I show her yours? Just so she can see what it looks like with stuff in it?”
He did not need her scent in his house. He did not need her to live next door. It was too much. He’d never be able to avoid her.
Like he hadn’t just thought all those very rational things, he found himself smiling down at her as he spoke to Damon. “Sure. Lemme go make sure it’s picked up.” He backed from the room and went to his door, cursing himself the whole time.
His place was relatively clean. He suspected his grandmother came in a few times a week when he was out to tidy up. Good reason to keep the special magazines and movies tucked
away.
It wasn’t too many minutes later when Damon walked right in with Katie Faith. She reached out to knock on the door as they passed through the entry, ever a girl with manners. He stifled a smile.
He made the mistake of taking a deep breath and he was done.
Chapter Three
Katie Faith took the place in while pretending she was totally cool. Meanwhile, in her head, she giggled while doing a dance at sharing a small space with two of the most intensely male specimens she’d ever seen.
Being around Jace transported her back to high school. The first time she’d seen him, she’d been out on the track, pretending to run laps when Jace, then a senior to her freshman, shirtless and sweaty, lapped her and her friends.
Katie Faith wasn’t totally sure but she might have seen the Promised Land. All sorts of things happened to her body that she wouldn’t really understand for another few years.
But she did now. Boy howdy, did she! The adult Katie Faith knew the pleasure—and the danger—of the major tinglies when a man like Jace doled them out.
Moving in across the hall would be flirting with trouble. She knew she had an affinity with the Dooley wolves, just as she had with the Pembrys. That was one of the ways Diablo Lake and its protective magic continued to be strong and vibrant.
Wolves and witches clicked. Their magic was complementary. Some wolves and some witches really clicked in the romantic and biological sense. Sure she could date and fall in love with anyone. It happened from time to time. But that affinity between witches and shifters meant she had a connection to them in ways she’d never have with other males.
After that little exchange back at Salt and Pepper, when she and Damon nearly broke light bulbs just by touching, being in this apartment would be like waving a red flag at a bull. Or worse, she’d be the juicy steak and all the Dooleys who came around would salivate.
Coming back to Diablo Lake meant facing the political and social realities of town. A witch living in the territory a wolf considered his would be a shiny lure. They’d want to collect her. Claim her for their family.
