Free Yuletide Protector (Love Inspired Suspense) by Lisa Mondello

situation was to Kevin only made her feel worse.
    “I spent all of last night trying to figure out a way to go away even for a little while. But I can’t keep up the house payment and upkeep here and afford to stay at a motel somewhere else. As it is, my paycheck barely covers my personal expenses, and what little is left over goes to building supplies.”
    “Can’t you ask your parents for a loan?”
    Daria laughed softly. “My parents live a very modest lifestyle. Right now they’re not even in the country. Where they’re staying they don’t even have a phone.”
    “I see.”
    “No,” she said, “I don’t think you really do. But it doesn’t matter. I’m going to go into my bedroom, find a nice comfortable pair of sweats and then go take a long, hot bubble bath in my big claw-foot tub. It’s been a long day. I think I’m due.”
    Kevin’s crystal eyes stared back at her with sympathy and it shamed her. Did he believe her to be as much a failure as she felt right then? She was an accountant. She knew better than to leave herself exposed without any money in reserve for emergencies.
    Daria dragged her gaze from him. She wanted to know what he was thinking as his eyes grazed the windowpane, but she was afraid to ask. Was he angry withher for the position he seemed to be in, feeling as if his life was on hold because she refused to leave?
    But instead of scolding her or making judgments, he said, “You may be more comfortable holding off on that bath until the boys have had a chance to dust the porch.”
    She held his gaze for as long as she could stand it. In the end, she wasn’t as strong as Kevin. Daria finally nodded and walked to the bedroom.
    Kevin was still watching her as she closed her bedroom door. Such fortitude, such strength, she thought. As irritating as this situation was, his steadfastness was something she admired about Kevin. It was a quality she’d hoped to find in a life partner some day in the future. If she’d met Kevin under other circumstances, she’d be thinking of the possibility that this man could be something more than her protector. He could be part of her future.
    It looked as if George had destroyed her chance at that, as well.

SIX
     
    T he “boys” had come and gone. Kevin had left the house along with them. Scrubbed clean from her bath, Daria paced the bedroom in her slippers, sleep eluding her again. It was hard enough to handle the idea that someone had come to her house with the express purpose of trying to scare her. But knowing that Kevin felt the need to stay outside her door to protect her from that danger was unsettling.
    The wind rattled through the rafters of her old house, finding the drafts and holes she’d put on her list to fix eventually. In a few short months spring would tease the air again and she’d be able to get to her to-do list. But right now the temperature outside was freezing, and the wind howled like a lone wolf in the distance. The cold wind, along with the quiet creak of the floorboards beneath her feet, only made her more restless.
    After slipping into an old, comfortable terry-cloth robe, Daria pulled open the lid of the trunk at the foot of her bed and grabbed the extra blanket she kept stashed there, before heading to the kitchen. She poured the mixture of hot chocolate she’d prepared into a thermos and screwed on the lid, sealing it tight and capping it off with a cup.
    There was nothing like a delicious cup of hot chocolate to keep a cold and sleep-deprived person warm. Kevin would probably collapse in the middle of roll call if he had to endure one more sleepless night. But at least he wouldn’t be as cold tonight with some hot liquid warming his insides. It was the least she could do, since she knew that with Kevin sitting in front of the house the likelihood of someone coming back tonight was nil.
    Besides, Daria couldn’t stomach looking at her finances again. Her head ached from running numbers and coming up short every