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amount of time because he got tired very easily. His genetics would continue to aid in speeding his healing, but it would still take time.
    He could flirt with all the customers, get fussed over here and there, he exchanged gossip with his friends when they popped in. It was good for him to remember how much he was loved and appreciated and welcomed back to the community.
    He was alive. He was mending. Everything was going to be all right.
    “I gotta say, Katie Faith, it does my heart good to see you here, making this place your own,” her dad told her with a smile. “I sure did miss you, baby.”
    “I missed you too.” And she had. The longer she’d been back in Diablo Lake, the more obvious it had become to her that she was back where she belonged. She finished cleaning up and turned back to him once more. “I have some ideas, opening up a bit earlier, staying open a bit later. And I’d like to add some simple food items to the lunch menu. Easily made ahead. Like a sandwich of the day. Chips instead of fries. I don’t think we need to muscle in on what Salt and Pepper does. We can compliment each other instead of stealing business.”
    In any small town that was important, but in Diablo Lake even more given their isolation.
    “Good to think about how it impacts the neighbors. I raised you right.” He winked and she was glad to see a little color in his face again. He wasn’t full strength, but he’d started physical therapy and the paralysis on the left side of his body had gone. Being back in Diablo Lake where the land did so much to help speed his healing had vaulted him forward by at least a month.
    She grinned at him. “I’m thinking of buying an espresso machine for the mornings. There’s not a single coffee place for miles around. I wouldn’t be stepping on toes. Mom still wants to keep her afternoon shift. I think we should keep Curtis on too.”
    The bell over the door jingled and they both looked up. Mayor Dwayne Pembry took up the doorway and inwardly she made the same sound her father made out loud.
    “Like a bad penny,” her father muttered and she had to fight back a hysterical bubble of laughter.
    If he upset her father one bit she was going to chase him out with the broom. She hoped that showed in her eyes when her gaze met his, holding it steady. This was her territory.
    “Mayor Pembry, what brings you down to this end of town?”
    “Just stopping in to say welcome home and to check on your daddy’s health.” He turned his fake politician smile on Avery. “You’re looking good. Scared everyone. Try not to do that again.”
    Once, what now seemed like a million years ago, this man was going to be her father-in-law. He’d eaten dinner at her house dozens of times. He and Avery had been good friends even before Darrell and Katie Faith started dating. Their children’s relationship had only strengthened it. And then Darrell had done her wrong, Dwayne had badmouthed Katie Faith. Most likely he’d been embarrassed, but the damage had been done. Even though he’d finally realized just what Darrell had done and took the time to publically admonish him and apologize to Katie Faith on behalf of the Pembrys, it had been too late. He went on to lose the mayor’s office, only recently taking it back when the prior mayor was killed in a hunting accident.
    “Can I get you something?” Katie Faith asked, keeping it professional and pleasant but not an inch more. “I can still make a mean vanilla Coke.”
    He hesitated and then the smile he sent was more like the old Dwayne. “I shouldn’t. If Scarlett heard about me having a soda, she’d get a switch off the back tree.”
    She risked a quick look at her father. Scarlett Pembry was a crazy woman. Hard, uneven, not incredibly stable and she took to making up fanciful stories when she got bored or took it into her head someone had done her wrong. It was entirely possible she would take a switch to her husband’s behind if he broke some