Diablo Lake: Moonstruck by Lauren Dane Read Free Book Online

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