Yuletide Protector (Love Inspired Suspense) Read Online Free PDF

resolutely, squaring her shoulders.
    Kevin sighed, his shoulders sagging. “Then you leave me no choice. If you don’t leave, then neither can I.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m your new bodyguard.”

THREE
     
    “Y ou’re still here?”
    Kevin had parked his SUV against the curb right at the bottom of her driveway. His car was running and the frost that had formed overnight was now melted off.
    He’d been sitting in front of her house all night. Daria knew this because she’d spent the better part of the night alternating between questioning her decision to stay in her house, running financial numbers on her calculator and peeking out the window to see if Kevin’s SUV was still there. It was.
    “Don’t you have a job to go to?” she asked.
    “I will, as soon as I know you’re in your office building.”
    Daria glanced behind her toward the sound of the barking dog. Her next-door neighbor’s Labrador, Spot, was at it again. No doubt garbage would be all over the sidewalk by the time she got home and Mrs. Hildebrand would have a few choice words to say in blaming her for the mess.
    Turning to Kevin, she said, “My neighbors are going to think it’s you that’s stalking me. Not my ex-husband.”
    “No, they won’t. I’ve met them already. I didn’t wantthem to be frightened when they sawmy car sitting out at the curb all night, so I went over and introduced myself.”
    Daria’s mouth dropped open. “You did?”
    He pointed to the houses across the street. “Mrs. Parsons is thrilled to have an officer in the neighborhood. She said there’ve been a lot of hoodlums vandalizing their property for the last couple of years. Her fence has been knocked down twice in the last three months.”
    “Mrs. Parsons?”
    Kevin threw her a suspicious look. “Don’t you know your neighbors?”
    “I just moved in.”
    “You said you moved in six months ago. What have you been waiting for?”
    A fingernail of irritation crawled up her spine. “I’ve been a little busy trying to fix this house up so I can move my microwave out of my bedroom. I didn’t have time to go door to door. You know, my neighbors haven’t exactly sent out a welcome committee, either.”
    Daria glanced back again toward the sound of the dog. “Have you met Hilda yet?”
    Kevin glanced at the house directly next to hers. “You mean Mrs. Hildebrand?”
    Daria nodded.
    “Hers was the first door I knocked on. Said your house used to be quite the party hangout for the local kids when it was empty. Hence the graffiti on your siding. She’s a real nice lady. She grew up in that house, you know. She inherited it when her parents died. She baked me peanut-butter cookies, too. Want one?” he said with a lift of his eyebrows.
    Daria peered into the truck at the half-full plate of cookies. “No.”
    “Suit yourself. They’re really good.”
    Peanut-butter cookies? Daria couldn’t believe it. “You mean she was actually nice to you? You had a real conversation?”
    “Yeah, she’s a sweetheart.”
    Daria’s mouth dropped open. “She yells at me every single morning for putting my trash can too close to the property line and then blames me when the trash somehow ends up on her property. She’ll never admit it’s her own dog making the mess. Not that she’s ever seen it. She’s as blind as a bat.”
    “That much I figured out when she answered the door and thought I was her brother Edgar. She told me all about the vandalism here. It’s only been in the past few years. Probably some street kids with nothing better to do. Despite the problems here, you picked a good neighborhood to buy in.”
    “Then you can understand why it would be hard to leave.”
    Kevin hesitated. “I can understand someone like Mrs. Hildebrand wanting to stay. She doesn’t know anything else. But you just got here. You don’t have any ties to this neighborhood like Mrs. Hildebrand, or Mrs. Parsons, who’s been here for fifteen years.”
    “You got awfully