Hide and Seek (8 page)

Maddie pulled her shirt down as Sophie bounded into the room. "What's for dinner?" the child asked.

"Whoa there." Rob sat on the edge of his bed. "You ever think about knocking before you come running in here?"

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Well la dee da." She put her hands on her hips. "I enjoy pizza, and I don't believe it's hurt me too much."

He eyed her up and down. "No, it definitely has not. But you're not three years old. We're just being careful with her."

Maddie didn't like the 'we' business, and tried to steer Rob away from it. "I hope you realize that the macaroni and cheese you fix her has processed cheese in it."

He stood up and deposited Sophie on the floor. "I know that. But when I cook for her, I can control things somewhat. Like adding real cheese to the powdered stuff."

Maddie smiled. "You think you're pretty smart, don't ya?"

He pulled her close to him. "Look who I have in my arms? Yeah, I guess I do." He looked from Maddie to Sophie. "Why don't we order pizza?"

"The sprinkler was fun," Sophie announced later as they ate. "But I wish we had a pool."

Maddie's eyes lit up. "A pool would be great. I love to swim." She gave Rob a seductive look, suggesting some other things she liked to do in a pool.

He shook his head at both of them. "You guys think I'm made of money? A pool is expensive, and a pain in the butt to install. Behave yourselves, and maybe we'll go for a swim in the lake one of these days."

They agreed to that plan, and cleaned up the dinner dishes together. Sophie wanted to play a game, so they lay on the floor and played Candyland. Rob won every time, the girls suggested he cheated, and the tickling began again.

It was just past eight-thirty when Sophie yawned for the last time, and let her father and Maddie tuck her into bed, Bo on the floor by her feet. Rob pulled the door shut part-way, and turned on the night light in the hall. He made sure the house was locked up, as Maddie turned out the lights. He extended his hand to her and asked, "Ready to go to our room?"

"Our room," she repeated, liking the sound of it. "Oh boy, am I ever ready."

Maddie went to her house alone the next day to pick up some things for the week. She packed two suitcases, wanting to take enough clothes, but not so many to turn Rob's face green again. She could always come back for more. She'd stop by a couple of times during the week for her mail and to water her flowers, anyway.

Maddie sighed. "Two fantabulous weeks, yes. But we're not calling it 'moving in together' just yet. He gets a little nauseous when we say that. I'm just staying there so he can go to work earlier, and get off earlier, to beat the heat, you know?"

"Yeah, the construction worker summer schedule. Good excuse. You talk him into that?"

"You're a pain in the ass, you know?" Maddie teased her friend.

"Always have been," Rosa agreed. "But now I'm a jealous pain in the ass. Give me a little somethin' to tide me over. A little morsel, any little sexual tidbit will do."

"No way!" Maddie squealed. "He'd kill me."

"It's not like I'm going to walk up to him and say, 'I hear you have a tongue that would melt frozen butter'."

Maddie laughed. "Ooh, good one! And you didn't hear it from me, but,
oh my God
, he does! Bye Rosa."

Rosa groaned. "Bye Mad." And they hung up.

Chapter Four

Sophie wasn't sure about Maddie being the one to take her to Sunny Days every morning. Rob convinced his daughter it would allow him to leave work earlier, thereby picking her up sooner. She finally decided it might be okay.

She was very cooperative with Maddie on Monday morning, and they got to the center right on schedule. Frances noticed the child arriving with Maddie, and had questions. Maddie explained about the construction worker schedule, and how Sophie's father needed to drop the child off a couple hours early. She left out other pertinent details.

"Well you know," Frances said with a look of concern, "the center insurance will not be in effect until you arrive here each day."

Rob was cornered by Frances when he arrived to pick up Sophie that afternoon. Maddie eavesdropped as he got the speech about 'no center insurance until they arrived there each day' and the admonition about 'remunerating Madison for her time'. He assured Mrs. Bergman that he had his own insurance, and that Maddie would be well taken care of.

"Yeah." Rob shook his head. "I felt like I was lining the pockets of the Corporate Capitalist Machine when I bought it, but I wanted to give the munchkin something to do so we could talk tonight."

"Talk?" The word made her slightly nervously.

He grinned and patted her arm. "It's all good. Why don't you go change and I'll start her movie? I'm dying to tell you what I did today."

Maddie smiled at his excitement, and went to change into her shorts and tank top. Sophie was engaged in the movie as Maddie passed through the living room, so she kept going to the kitchen. "So, what's up?"

"Come on." Rob grabbed two beers from the fridge and led her out to the back porch. He positioned himself so he could see if Sophie approached, and settled back into his chair. "Cheers." He raised his bottle in toast to her.

"Sort of. Not exactly. I'm getting the pool for us. All of us. I knew I couldn't afford an in-ground model, but I talked to a sales guy today and he showed me this really big, really cool above-ground pool. Wait 'til you see it. I bought it."

"Wow." She wasn't sure what to say.

"Here's what I've figured out. This is Sophie's weekend with her mom."

"I wondered about that." Maddie nodded. "Something tells me we're not going to have another weekend like we did before."

He shook his head. "Sorry, no. But this will be fun in a different way. I'm going to take Sophie to her mom's Thursday night, and I'm taking Friday off. I talked to the guys on my crew, and they're going to come help me put the thing together."

She raised her eyebrows. "You can just take the day off like that?"

He nodded. "We're ahead of schedule. One day won't hurt anything. I figure we can get the ground ready and the pool halfway assembled on Friday. Saturday we should finish the pool and build the partial deck and gate. Then we can fill it, and it should be ready to go Monday night for Sophie's party."

Maddie smiled. "What kind of a party?"

He laughed. "A very eclectic kind. I promised the guys a keg, some hamburgers and fireworks. Of course we'll have presents and cake for Soph. Anybody who wants to swim will be able to."

"Wow," Maddie said again. "That is a major amount of thinking you did today. Your brain must still be sizzling."

His face glowed with excitement. "What do you think?"

She shrugged and nodded. "It sounds great, I guess. I'm sure you'll enjoy your pool."

He looked at her. "It's
our
pool."

"Right." Maddie nodded.

Rob set his beer down and leaned forward. "Sweetheart, I'm not sure what you expect from me, but right now I'm giving you all I have to give. I'm sorry if you want more."

"I never said I wanted more. I'm just trying to absorb everything you've thrown at me. You're talking about a party with all of your friends, and since it's a birthday party for Soph, there's the potential for her mother to be there. I'm wondering if I should even be around."

"That's different. What happens between you and me is one thing. Where Sophie's involved, I feel the need to tread lightly. I'm not sure you need to meet Dee at this point."

"Okay." She shrugged. "Just so we're both on the same page here."

He reached for her hand and swung it. "It's going to be great. It'll be a hell of a busy weekend, but if it goes the way I've planned, we should be able to carve out a little you-and-me time by Monday."

Maddie stood and moved to his lap, facing him. Sliding her legs through the arm holes of the chair one at a time, she straddled him.

"Ooh, I like this." He jiggled his legs up and down. "If I could be sure the Little Mermaid in there would keep swimming for a few more minutes, we might have to strip naked and get adventurous."

Maddie smiled and kissed him gently. "We'll have time. I'm not going anywhere, you're not going anywhere. There'll be plenty of time."

"I like the sounds of that," he murmured, and kissed her again.

Maddie went to work as usual on Friday, and returned to Rob's house in the evening to a bustle of activity. As Rob had predicted, the pool was mostly assembled. There was a bulldozer off to the side, and Maddie could see they had moved a lot of dirt to level the ground before putting up the pool.

She slipped inside and took a quick shower to cool off, then changed into jean shorts and a tank top, her summer staples. She opened a bottle of beer and wandered out to the construction zone.

"Look, it's like one of them beer commercials!" someone said. "Beautiful woman strolling toward you with a bottle of beer in hand."

"Don't come out here with only one beer!" someone else called.

"Uh oh." Maddie smiled and hid the bottle behind her back. "Am I going to get attacked for my beer?" She looked around and didn't see Rob.