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

driving one, because I sure as fuck can. Nothing wrong with my imagination. It’s just that there is a world of difference between that and the little utilitarian SUV she drives now.
    “It would appear that a sporty convertible is not exactly a handy car to have when living in Durango,” she admits rather sheepishly. Cute. “It was a post-graduation phase of mine that passed as quickly as the coming of first snow. By the time I moved to Cortez, I was making better choices.” She looks a little melancholy, and I make a note to myself that given the opportunity, I’d get her behind the wheel of a Mustang again. “Come on.” She pulls me up. “Let’s see if Naomi is around to do some stitching, unless you want to drive to Cortez?”
    “Nope,” I tell her, handing over my truck keys. A little smile twitching the corner of her mouth is my reward.
    With a quick word with Seb to let Arlene know we’re off, we slip out the backdoor.
    “I’d forgotten you live here now,” Kendra says as she adjusts the seat and the mirrors in my truck. “I still think of this apartment as Mal’s.”
    “A year now, Kendra,” I snap, suddenly irritated. From the corner of my eye, I can see Kendra’s hands still on the steering wheel and I feel her eyes on me. Now I’m pissed at myself.
    “I didn’t mean anything by it,” she says softly as she starts up the truck. “It’s just that I haven’t been up there since you moved in.”
    The reminder that she so easily befriended Malachi, while keeping me at bay the entire time stings, but I know I overreacted. Reaching over with my left hand, I cover hers on the steering wheel. “Sorry I snapped,” I apologize a bit weakly.
    “No worries.” She briefly turns her hand to give mine a squeeze before releasing it and grabbing the stick shift. Easily slipping the truck into first, she pulls smoothly out of the parking lot. “ Dagnabit ,” I hear her mumble under her breath.
    “What?”
    “I forgot Naomi and Joe are in Durango this weekend, packing up Fox’s room.”
    Naomi’s son, Fox, started attending Fort Lewis in Durango a few years ago. Majoring in anthropology. Although he’d always shown a keen interest in the archeological digs around the area, spending a few months each summer volunteering on a variety of digs, his aim is medical anthropology. When I first met the kid, he was just sixteen years old but seemed far older and wiser than his years. He’d encountered some problems when first moving to the area with his mom, and ended up losing his father, so we’d ended up spending quite a bit of time together. I like the kid, although at almost twenty, and almost as tall as his stepfather, Joe, he could hardly be considered a kid anymore.
    “I forgot about that. This will be the end of his second year, right?”
    Kendra smiles when she turns to me. “Sure is, and he’s doing really well. I had him on the phone last week and he mentioned hooking up with you for some ass-kicking , as he called it.”
    It makes me laugh. Fox had a hard-on about beating me at a game I helped develop. We’d hung out gaming quite a bit, and I have to admit, the kid is good. Almost had me a time or two. “He wishes,” I tell her with a smile, glad some of the tension is gone from the truck cab.
    “Okay, so I’ll just head for Southwest in Cortez. I’ll make sure you’re in and out of there quickly.”
    The mention of the hospital turns my focus on my hand, which is still throbbing steadily in my lap. Damn.
    “Are you ready to tell me what happened?”
    My eyes take in Kendra’s profile as she keeps her gaze steady on the road. So damn pretty. Her hair is back from her face in its signature ponytail, a few strands having slipped from the elastic band holding it back, drifting around her face. Her clear and observant eyes are framed with thick, dark lashes and ringed with fine laugh lines. Evidence of the weather is smattered across the skin of her nose and forehead, with a sprinkling