Free Head Start (Cedar Tree #7) by Freya Barker

what used to be an aging population is slowly being replaced with younger families. At the end of the street, a trail leads into the hills to the south. I’m heading that way when my phone starts ringing. I almost jump out of my shoes before pulling it from my pocket.
    “Hello?”
    “I’m at the house and you’re not here.”
    “Observant,” I smart off, trying to hide my jumpiness.
    Neil’s response is more like a growl. “Kendra.”
    “Oh fine. I needed to get out, and was on that trail at the end of the street. I’m turning back now. Happy?”
    “Very.” That’s the only thing he says before hanging up. How very irritating. I start back down the trail at a brisk pace, tucking my phone back in my pocket.
    Before I even get back to the street, a tall figure is turning onto the trail, long strides eating up the distance.
    “Christ, you test me,” Neil says when he reaches me, grabs my elbow and starts walking back.
    Wait. What?
    “Sorry? You call, I come straight back. How is that testing you? And who the fuzzbuckets do you think you are anyway?” I’m working up a head of steam, being half dragged down the trail and onto the sidewalk. Neil makes no signs of stopping, so I stop for him, planting both my feet and simultaneously pulling back on the arm he still has in his grip. It doesn’t quite work out the way I hoped.
    “Fuck, Ken. What the hell?” He barely has time to swing around and catch me as my face heads straight for the pavement. I’d stupidly locked my knees and Neil’s forward momentum pulled me right off my feet. The guy is a freaking tree.
    “Everything all right over there?” A concerned voice belonging to an elderly neighbor comes from across the street.
    “It’s all good,” I hasten to answer, as Neil yanks me upright with his hands under my arms. “I just tripped!” I yell across the street, worried she’ll have the sheriff out here in a heartbeat if I don’t diffuse the situation. To hammer my point home, I slip my arm around Neil’s waist and with a saucy wave at the white-haired lady, start walking the rest of the way home.
    By the time we walk up my driveway, Neil is chuckling and I’m laughing out loud. I felt the woman’s eyes burning holes in my back the entire way.
    “Do me a favor,” Neil says, opening my door with the code I didn’t realize he had. “Next time, let me know before you feel the need to take a walk.”
    “Really?” I huff out, pushing past him into the house, but I don’t get far because his hand snakes out and swings me around by my arm. With both hands on my shoulders, he leans down, touching his nose to mine.
    “Please?” Lingering amusement sparkles in his baby blues. “Otherwise you’re gonna turn me old before my time, and your neighbor will never survive.”
    With some added drama, I roll my eyes, but I can’t contain the snort bursting through.

CHAPTER SIX
    N eil
    “I’m stuffed.”
    Kendra flops back in her seat, folding her hands on her stomach. “I think I ate too much.”
    I don’t know how a single damn burger and fries can fill her up, but then I’ve always had a healthy appetite. Mom still jokes I ate my way through my college fund before I was even enrolled. The truth is that I had some seriously naive and idealistic dreams about saving the world and college didn’t fit into that picture. I enlisted instead. Barely nineteen when I joined. I learned a lot, always was better at applied learning than I was at academics. Not for lack of smarts, but the abstract way of learning never suited me. How ironic that I ended up discovering I had a knack for information technology. It’s about as abstract as you can get. I was always big and bulky and the combo of brains and brawn had made me attractive in the field. Especially when it turned out I had a pretty sharp eye too. That one surprised me. I’d never shot a gun in my life; my devout parents would never allow it. Yet, the first time I was on the gun range in training,