Free Diablo Lake: Moonstruck by Lauren Dane

Jace, which was frustrating, but also sort of fun.
    He got delightfully annoyed when work had called, or one of the jillions of Dooleys popped over just to say hey and interrupt him when he was hurriedly trying to get her laying down or backed up against stuff.
    And when he wasn’t being interrupted, she was. Katie Faith had had to make a run, two hours away, to pick up a new fridge for her parents because their old one up and died.
    Aimee had helped get all their food into the cold case at the Counter while Katie Faith had gone to get the refrigerator. All in all, it had taken up most of the day and that night she had a girlfriends’ night out so if she planned to ever end up in Jace’s bed, she might have to steal him away to Knoxville or something just to have him to herself long enough to gain some carnal knowledge.
    Unlike that hopeful anticipation, the dread over the looming confrontation with Darrell, rat-eating-pigdog-cheater, Pembry sank in her belly like a stone.
    She’d heard he was looking for her, but since she worked in the same place every day, she wasn’t hard to find and frankly, she wasn’t really looking forward to seeing his face when he finally found his balls and decided to man up and face her.
    It would happen, one way or another so she wasn’t that surprised to look up to see him just a few feet away, looking like the egg sucking dog he was. Even so, she groaned as she slowed her pace.
    “I thought I smelled dog poop. I thought you’d stepped in some.” Aimee first looked to Katie Faith and then over to Darrell where he stood blocking the sidewalk in front of Salt and Pepper. There was a crowd inside who’d all, of course , turned to watch the much anticipated confrontation.
    “Turns out it’s just the dog crap you nearly married.” Aimee sneered up at Darrell and his handsome boy face darkened. “You so dodged a bullet, Katie Faith. Hell, he’d probably have loved it if you changed your name to Kit.”
    “Are you ever going to let that go?” Katie Faith asked Aimee with a snicker. “I swear you hold on to stuff for years. Like a hoarder.”
    Aimee flailed her hand, gesturing toward Darrell. “I kept my mouth shut about this lumbering moron and look what happened. I can’t in good conscience allow you to continue believing you’re suited to be called Kit. I need to crush all your pretensions in that direction or you’ll try it again later. Like a goldfish.”
    That made Katie Faith guffaw. “You’re a real friend. Please do feel free to tell me if I’m about to marry a hairball on legs, though, okay?” Katie Faith, now that she and Aimee got warmed up, really would have been just fine if they’d kept on walking and left this scene behind.
    She linked arms with Aimee and continued on their way.
    Naturally, Darrell needed to ruin that by blocking their path. “You’re not needed here, Benton.” The thin veneer of his charm slipped away as he spoke to Aimee, who curled her lip, crossing her arms and standing her ground next to Katie Faith.
    Katie Faith wanted to punch him in the tin cans right then for being such a jerk all the time. Other big men didn’t find it necessary to push folks around with their size. But he was barking up the wrong tree if he thought he could scare Aimee.
    Laughter came from her then. Barking up the wrong tree. Aimee turned to her, smiling and waiting for Katie Faith to share the joke.
    “I was just thinking how he was b-barking up the wrong tree if he thought he could scare you.”
    Aimee looked at her blankly for a moment and then got the joke, laughing along with her.
    “Did he do that? Bark while you were, you know...” Aimee made the universal makeout sign, wrapping her arms around herself and making smoochy faces.
    It was so terribly inappropriate Katie Faith got the church giggles and couldn’t stop.
    Finally, Darrell, grumpy he wasn’t the center of attention, cleared his throat. “Grow up, Katie Faith.”
    Which was sort of like