Diablo Lake: Moonstruck (22 page)

“My Pop made the band himself and my mom wore them every day until she passed. They had a good, strong love. The kind of connection you and Katie Faith have. That connection will serve Dooley well. I’m so pleased for you. She’s a good girl. I surely do like her.”

“This is beautiful. She’s going to love that it came from my great grandmother. Thank you.” He looked up to catch her gaze. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You and your brothers are my boys. I love you all so much. You’re doing such a wonderful job, all of you. I can’t wait to see what the next decade has in store for you.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I need to borrow your black pumps.” Aimee came in to Katie Faith’s bedroom barefoot, heading for her closet.

“Did you even give them back after you borrowed them the last time?”

“I can’t believe the things you accuse me of, Katie Faith.” Aimee slid the black pumps on. “So cute. Now you. Damn, girl.”

Katie Faith turned in front of the mirror, making her skirt fly out and then fall gracefully. Deep dark green, the dress hugged her best assets like her boobs, and gave plenty of camouflage to her thighs and butt.

“I hope Jace likes it.”

“He’s a guy. It shows off your tits, makes your butt look good. You’re a hot momma right now. All fecund and gorgeous.”

“Fecund? Ooh, fancy pants. But I like it. Full of life. Yeah. But not ready to start popping out babies just yet, thank you very much.”

“You gonna tell Jace about those jerks you had to kick out of the Counter today?” Aimee asked as she looked through the lipsticks in her makeup bag.

“Not unless I have no other choice. It’s Founder’s Day. I’m going out with my gorgeous boyfriend to a dinner and a dance in a beautiful dress. Like I want to ruin that with some recounting of a bunch of teen boys pushing and shoving over ice cream. It’s dumb. They knew it. I handled it.”

“I’m just sayin’. He’s only going to pout like a big, dumb baby—no lie, he’ll look good doing it—if he finds out from someone else.”

“I’m a business owner. I sell food products to the public. Do you know how many stupid and unpleasant people I have to deal with on a weekly basis?”

The young adult werewolves had a lot more testosterone going on of late. After a quiet, albeit tense, period with no open hostilities between Dooley and Pembry, it had slowly inched its way back. Once they’d had their run after the Halloween dinner without incident it was like they were done being nice and the scuffles and snarls had begun to show up again.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Katie Faith turned on some music and got closer to Aimee. “I’m afraid the dance tonight will blow up into a full on battle if I bring it up.”

“It’s only going to get worse until it explodes. My mom says about every twenty-five years or so they have some sort of kerfuffle.”

They kept their voices low, standing near with the music still playing. Shifters had amazing hearing but they’d be all right if they stayed quiet.

“I don’t want to be in the middle of some stupid turf war between werewolf packs. I didn’t come back here for that. I didn’t fall in love with Jace for that. I’m trying to get used to it.”

“For crying out loud, Katie Faith! Stop it. You’re in or you’re out. Suck it up. You love him and his family. You already chose a side. You’re not in the middle unless you keep resisting where you already are. Which is with Jace.”

She shot Aimee an aggrieved look before putting on her earrings and then her lipstick.

“What if it goes wrong again? You know? What if my judgment is so messed up and I make the same mistake? And here I am having to choose sides? I’m in over my head.”

Aimee hugged her quickly. “Are you so perfect you really see getting dumped at the altar by a guy who never loved you at all as some sort of character flaw
you
possess? Darrell was just a punk ass loser. You went away. You grew up in Chattanooga. You did it on your own. And then you came back different and better. Smart enough to know Jace isn’t a damned thing like Darrell. They’re barely even the same species. This is forever and I’ve never seen you so utterly certain of anything as you are Jace. You made the decision to love him way back when you first moved in here.”

“I don’t know how to be an alpha! I don’t know how to be a wife like Patty. She seems like all she does is bake and clean but damn, Aimee, she’s a powerhouse. How can I compete with that?”

“Don’t compete with that. She’s his Nana. Everyone fucking loves their Nana,” Aimee said. “She helped make him who he is, but he chose you. For real, your man has faith in you and your ability.”

“No pressure there,” Katie Faith mumbled.

“Oh boohoo. Too late to be worrying about that stuff. Has it ever occurred to you he’s letting you take your time with this even though you both know what’s what? What do you think it costs a guy like him to give you the space you need? Even though if you did marry him he would be stronger and he could take over as Patron with you at his side. The weight would firmly be with Dooley and we could move on to some balance with them in charge a while. No, not
them
anymore.
You.
If Jace trusts you, and I trust you, how about you trust yourself?”

Katie Faith had to look up at the ceiling to keep from crying as they hugged. “Thanks for the pep talk. I really needed it,” she said. He wanted them to move in together. Wanted to sleep not in his bed every night, or hers, but theirs.

And she did too, but living together with his grandparents just an acre away and her parents less than two miles in the other direction made her a little nervous. It wasn’t that she didn’t know they figured out she and Jace had sex. It was her hang-up she was sure.

“I want tonight to be fun. I want it to be romantic and wonderful. You’ll dance and I’ll dance and we’ll have a nice dinner and it’ll be great if we can avoid talk about stupid twenty-year-olds measuring their peckers in some sort of dominance display at the Counter. I’ll tell him tomorrow. You’re right, he should know. But let me have tonight as something akin to normal. Please.”

Aimee gave her a hard look before she sighed. “Fine. I’m glad we can agree I’m always right. Let’s eat and have cocktails and look pretty, shall we?”

Jace waited downstairs with his brothers so he didn’t see her right away. It gave her the chance to watch him without his knowing it. His hair needed a trim, but she didn’t really mind. He looked like a pirate. A werewolf pirate. That book so totally needed to be written.

He wore his serious face. He had dozens of versions. This one said he was patiently amused with his brothers but would still kick their asses if they pissed him off.

It made her smile and that’s when he looked up as if she’d said his name out loud.

He broke from the group he’d been with, making his way to her, pulling her close and swaying just a little. “You look gorgeous, little witch.”

She grinned against him. “Says the hot werewolf in a suit.”

“You ready to get going?” he asked as he set her away from him and took a long leisurely tour of her outfit. “Can’t wait to show you off. Damn, darlin’.”

“I’m so hungry,” she muttered as they got there a few minutes later. He’d wanted to walk but she had heels on and nixed that idea right quick.

“Works out nice then, that inside this building will be a lot of food.” He handed over their tickets at the door and then with a hand at the small of her back, guided her to a table already half filled with friends and family.

“I didn’t realize half these people were couples,” she said to Aimee once they’d gotten settled.

“Me either. I’m a little bummed, I can’t lie, to see Mason Braithwaite with a date. I was hoping to snag his attention a while,” Aimee replied as she passed around the bread basket.

Katie Faith buttered a piece of cornbread and tried not to inhale it. It had made sense earlier to save room for all the food at this dinner. But now she was bordering on hangry so she needed to get something in her belly.

Plus, the cornbread was really good. Good enough she had no remorse for choosing it over the rolls in the basket.

The energy in the hall was excited. Humming with holiday cheer, crackling with the tensions between packs.

Sharon, sitting next to Darrell across the way, sent Katie Faith a dirty look, which ruffled her feathers.

“I never did a thing to her. It’s all been at me from her and Darrell. She’s got some nerve to give me dirty looks.”

“I feel bad for her.” Aimee turned over her ordering card to the server who’d come to collect them. “I’d hate to think of an ex who was as pretty and talented as you are. It would seriously mess with my head. Plus, he’s a dingus so you know he probably hasn’t said much to reassure her.”

“Aw, I feel so bad.” Her tone was sarcastic, but there was some truth to it. “Having now, you know, found the person I’m meant to be with, I can’t hate her that she found it with the guy I thought was mine. I didn’t have this.” She motioned with a hand over at Jace, who blithely ignored her. “So I couldn’t know the difference. But I do now. If she hadn’t come along, I’d be a different person and not one I’m sure I could have really respected.”

“And you don’t have to worry about him running off with someone else.” Aimee tipped a chin at Jace.

“I’m not a fool, that’s why,” he said. “Stop getting her all worked up.” He frowned at Aimee, who made a rude sound.

Katie Faith grinned. He was so sweet beneath all that grump. Even Aimee saw it to tease him like a big brother.

“She’s going to be worried the whole of her life that he’ll do her the way he did you.” Aimee happily dug into her salad as it arrived. “There’s a very high bacon to salad ratio here. I approve.”

Even though Sharon had been giving her the stink eye, Katie Faith was hit with a bolt of sympathy. Being loved with total surety wasn’t anything she could have understood before Jace. But now, well, she didn’t know if she could claim she wouldn’t do whatever it took to be with Jace.

And if she didn’t have that, she had a man she couldn’t trust. Which was a fate she truly wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Years later, mainly all she had for Sharon was pity. Darrell she had no respect for. He was in the DTM file. Dead to me.

Ignoring him had been a good strategy over the last several weeks since his dumb ass nearly taunted her father back into the hospital. But if she saw him in town she looked right through him. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

She’d chosen a fantastic onion soup with a cheesy piece of bread broiled on top. But once she’d finished, Jace stood, holding a hand out.

“Come dance with me, little witch.”

She waved her napkin at her face a few times before standing and letting him lead her to the dance floor where Otis Redding’s “Long Time Coming” started playing.

“You noticed, huh?”

He swayed with her, holding her close enough to envelop her in his heat and the scent of him beneath that.

“You like to play it when we fuck,” he murmured as he bent to her ear, sending shivers through her.

“You’re naughty,” she told him as he stood again.

“I can only make you feel as hot for me as I am for you right now. Truly, you’re a sight. That dress is the prettiest wrapping on the best present I’ve ever been given.”

“Wow. You’re really working it tonight. I like it.” She smiled up at him as he twirled her at the song’s end and led her back to their table.

“You’re making everyone look bad,” Damon said as the appetizers came out.

“On account of me being so awesome?” Katie Faith asked as she grabbed some stuffed mushrooms for her plate before passing it to Aimee.

Damon looked over to Jace, who just shrugged.

“Oh so you know she’s a weirdo?” Damon demanded of his brother.

“Like I have a say in it?” Jace asked.

“I’m such a cross to bear,” she tossed in, before turning to Aimee.

“Are you mad at me now, Katie Faith?” Damon asked. “I don’t think she’s mad,” he said to Jace.

“If she was mad, you’d know it. She’s not one of those silent suffering martyrs. She’ll shove her grievances up your ass until you pay attention.”

Major thought that was hilarious. Jace had to admit it was pretty funny. And sexy. She wasn’t just going to sit around and mope or hope things happened. Everything she did, she did for a reason.

Just another thing he adored about her.

“I can’t help if you all have no game and feel outdone by mine,” he told his brothers.

“You had a song arranged for her. Everyone here knows it now.” Damon shook his head. “I can’t recall a time you did something sentimental like that.”

“I can’t recall ever wanting to before she barreled into the apartment across the hall. Seems like decades since that moment.”

Funny to think about that. They’d just fit, closely and well from the start. He reached out for her and she was there, warm and giving. She was smart and fierce and was, as his brother said, a weirdo. But in just under three months his entire world had changed and it felt like it’d always been just waiting there, patiently holding until that time when they came together as they were supposed to.

He didn’t normally go in for all that stuff, but in this case, it felt like it was meant to be. Not back when she was in high school. Not when she’d left town. He wasn’t right for her until this precise moment in time and for that, he had no choice but to believe it was part of some bigger, wiser plan.

More food came as the entrees appeared. A few couples’ spats had broken out and he’d been keeping his eye on a few wolves who’d been drinking pretty steadily for the last hour. He just wanted the evening to go well if for no other reason than Katie Faith wanted to have a nice night out and what she wanted, he’d bend over backwards to give to her.

He didn’t much like the renewed outbreaks of trouble between Dooley and Pembry around town. Darrell appeared to have sprung himself free of his time out and was talking dirt all over town. Striking tempers and getting everyone all wound up once more.

If Dwayne didn’t hurry up and control his wolves, he’d lose a lot more ground than Jace first figured. On one hand that was good for Dooley wolves. But on the other, it wasn’t good for the town as a whole.

“Stop thinking about work, honey,” Katie Faith said in his ear as she put her fork down with a happy sigh.

Aimee had gone out to dance, along with a lot of other folks, leaving their table deserted at their end.

“I could say the same for you.”

“Me? Dude, I just ate a slice of cake as big as a side of beef. I wasn’t thinking about anything but cream cheese frosting and your abs. At the same time.”

Their little game had been escalating all evening, starting with that dress of hers, though he did his part with playing Otis and making that comment about sex music. She had a penchant for Otis Redding and so every time he heard it now, he thought about the way she looked, rising above him, candlelight on her bare skin, gleaming against a sheen of sweat.