Diablo Lake: Moonstruck Read Free Page B

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