Hide and Seek (9 page)

He gave her a quick kiss and wrangled the bottle from her hand. "Both of you." He took a long draw from the bottle, and handed it back. "We're winding down here. Think you could find six more of those in the fridge and bring them out?"

She held up her bottle and looked inside. It was more than half gone. She handed it back to Rob and said, "I'll make it seven. Be right back."

He grinned and downed the last of her beer. The whistles and catcalls Maddie received walking into the house changed into applause when she returned with beer for everyone.

Rob introduced his friends to her while he passed out the beer.

Maddie tried furiously to remember their names. Shorty was about six foot two. Smoky was short and stocky with a black handlebar mustache. Dugout had long hair pulled back into a ponytail. Doc had bright red hair like hers, and Fred was the oldest, by far, of them all.

She grinned. "I can't wait to hear the stories explaining these names."

They all sat around the edge of the pool, and Rob said, "Easy. Shorty, well, he needs no explanation. Smoky considers himself the best barbecue grill man in Oklahoma. Doc is an E.M.T. and firefighter on the rural fire department out here. Dugout, well, when we played softball, that's where he spent most of his time. And Fred is just Fred."

Maddie smiled at the older man. "Poor Fred. No cutesy nickname for you, huh?"

He chuckled. "They used to call me Gramps. Then they realized I was doing the work of three of them. That ended pretty quickly."

There were rumblings of disagreement and things tossed around. Maddie sat back and enjoyed watching their easy camaraderie. They were obviously good friends. She finally asked Rob, "Would you like me to fix something to eat? You guys must be hungry."

"Nah, Coop." Fred stood up and the others followed. "We're taking off." He raised his cap to Maddie. "Pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. We'll probably see you tomorrow."

Rob took off his ball cap and waved it after them. "See you guys. Thanks." He wiped his brow and finished his beer.

"Bye," Maddie said as the men walked around to their cars at the front of the house.

Rob reached for her wrist and pulled her between his legs. "Come here, you." He pressed her into him. "You sure look pretty today."

She slid her arms around his neck and made a face. "And you are a sweaty mess!"

Grinning, he nuzzled his face in her neck, while she tried to squirm away. "I'm a mess, am I?" He grasped the back of her head and pulled her face to his firmly. He kissed her forcefully, his tongue playing against hers.

When she could catch her breath she whispered, "Wouldn't you like to clean up a little bit first? I've already had a shower, you know."

"Must be why you taste so sweet," he murmured.

"Rob!" she squirmed in protest. "What if someone comes back?"

"Then they'll get quite an eyeful. Because I have plans for you, right here and now." He leaned her back against the stack of boards they'd use to build the pool deck.

Maddie groaned. She could only protest so much, then lust took over and she gave in.
As usual.

* * * *

Maddie ate a salad and went to check on him after his shower. He was in bed, sound asleep. She smiled, pulled the door shut, and went to the living room to watch TV.

When she woke in the morning, Rob was already out by the pool. His friends were there, all hard at work. She figured she'd best steer clear. Rob wanted to get the whole thing finished today, and might not appreciate interruptions.

She'd noticed a fine layer of dust around the house and decided to do some cleaning. Starting in Sophie's room, she tore everything apart and cleaned really well before she put it back together. She washed sheets and curtains, not sure how often Rob did stuff like that. She finished both their bedrooms, and was working in the living room when he came in.

"It's the easiest thing for a group like this. We need to eat and keep working. I'm sure we'll get her finished if we do."

She leaned in to him for a kiss. "Oh, yes you are. Quite capable indeed. But you're busy, I'm bored, and this way it'll be done before Sophie gets back."

"What a woman." He pinched her butt. "Well, if you don't mind cooking, I'll let you. Use whatever you find in there."

"Great!" She hugged him, and watched him go back outside.

Maddie got out hamburgers and buns, and all the condiments to go with them. She'd make some fried potatoes and serve the chips and cookies she found in the pantry. She carried the hamburgers out to the patio where Rob had a gas grill.

She hollered, "Get back to work! No time for this nonsense." She studied the grill for a minute, and realized she had no idea how to operate it. She lifted the lid and walked around it a few times.

"All right!" Rob shook his head. "Go help her. But the rest of you lugnuts get back to work. We
are
going to finish this today."

Smoky smiled politely as he approached Maddie and the grill. "Allow me, Ma'am."

"Thank God!" Maddie kissed his cheek and went inside to fry the potatoes as Smoky grilled the burgers.

She laid out a spread for them on the picnic table, and they were all polite and jovial with her while they ate. She laughed hard at some of their jokes, and smiled politely at the rest. It was obvious they were trying to impress her.

"Actually," he continued, "we should be able to start filling the pool this afternoon. We need the water to warm up by Monday night."

Fred shook his head. "Probably not going to be too warm by then, Coop. It usually takes a week of sunshine to warm it up just right."

Rob shrugged. "We'll get what we get, I guess. We're going to have a couple of ninety-degree days, so that'll help. But if it's still cold, I suppose we'll just need more beer Monday night to take the edge off." He stood up to throw his plate away.

"I'll take care of that, Rob," Maddie told him.

"Rob?" The guys teased him, as if it was an incredibly funny name. "Oh Rob? Rob!" they all clamored around him.

"Shut the fuck up," he muttered good-naturedly, and dipped Maddie backwards for a long, passionate kiss. He stood her back up and dusted off his jeans. "Make fun of me now, will you."

They stood in a row next to Maddie and Shorty asked, "Does the line form here?"

She smiled as Rob shooed them away. "Leave my woman alone. Get back to work."

Maddie hummed to herself as she cleaned up. The 'my woman' remark floated around in her head, bounced off her stomach and settled as a happy feeling deep inside her. She finished cleaning the house and curled up on the bed for a nap late in the afternoon. Rob woke her with a kiss to her neck.

He leaned over and placed another quick kiss on her forehead. "I would love to, but I'm so tired I'm not sure I can move. I'm going to hop in the shower and hit the hay."

"No dinner again?"

He shook his head as he peeled off his dirty clothes. "In weather like this, I don't always eat dinner. Especially if I've had a big lunch." He went to the shower, and Maddie sat up.
I always eat dinner. I'm always hungry.

She ate some leftovers from lunch, and when she checked on him, found him sound asleep, as expected. She flipped through the three available TV channels, but found nothing interesting. Rob had a total of one movie, namely The Little Mermaid. She was lucky he even had a VCR. She chuckled when she thought about how many movies she owned on DVD. He would probably be shocked. She settled in to watch The Little Mermaid, knowing it was a love story with a happy ending, and she was totally in the mood for that.

She woke him the next morning by planting kisses all over his body, paying more attention to certain spots than others. When he was spent and smiling like the Cheshire cat, she crawled up next to him and wrapped herself in his arms.

"Oh my God." He kissed the top of her head. "I knew it was a good idea having you stay here. What a way to wake up."

"Right. All we have to do is clean up around the pool area, get that bulldozer out of there, buy birthday presents and a cake for Sophie, find some birthday and fourth of July decorations, get a keg, scrounge up food for everybody, pick out fireworks…"

"Well good God," she muttered. "That's at least a day's work, right there. Which leaves you about a half a day to spend with me."

"Starting now." Rob grinned and dived under the covers.

They managed to get all their party arrangements made with enough time left over to relax, too. Rob was very pleased with the way Maddie decorated the patio area, using a mix of July fourth and birthday decorations. They bought a sheet cake for the masses with a red, white and blue frosting and a small pink princess cake for the birthday girl.

Maddie helped him choose gifts for Sophie, and she bought a book as her gift. They wrapped the presents, bought an enormous amount of food and fireworks, and were ready to go by Monday afternoon. "I told Rosa any time after four," she mentioned to Rob, who nodded.

"That's what I told everyone else. Sophie should be back at four. They were going to celebrate her birthday there, so I'm assuming her mother won't plan to stay for the party."

He caught her around the waist. "I was going after another spot. What do you say we go christen that pool the right way?"

She laughed. "Are you freaking crazy? I felt the water a little while ago. It's not warm yet, by any stretch of the imagination."

"Shoot." He kissed her neck, and ran his hand inside her shirt. "Well, then, we'll just have to go christen the bed again."

She leaned back against him and sighed as he caressed her. He reached for her braid and began unwinding it. "I want to feel your hair," he whispered into her ear. He ran his hands down to her scalp and back out through the long mass of hair. "God, you're beautiful," he murmured, and led her to the bedroom.

An hour later they were sprawled out on the bed, trying to get their heart rates back to normal, when the doorbell rang. Rob looked at the clock. "It's barely two-thirty! What the fuck?" He slipped his jeans on but didn't button them. He padded out to the front door yelling, "Is your fucking watch broken? Because you're going to be really sorry when you find out what you've interrupted!"