Maddie nodded, too shaken to argue back.
“But first, I want you to apologize to Dr. V. for sneaking onto his property and playing with Mick when he didn’t give you permission to do so.”
Maddie turned to me, sadness in her eyes.
“I’m…I’m sorry, Dr. V.”
I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest. “It’s alright, Maddie. Mick and I both love having you over, but it’s important that you ask your mom and me before you visit, OK?”
She nodded. Tears formed in her eyes, which killed me to see. I knew it was for the best, however—she needed to understand that it wasn’t OK to make her mom worry like that.
“Now, I want you to get back home,” Piper told her. She stepped over to the gate, undid the lock, and opened it. “You’re not to use this unless I, or Dr. V., give you permission. Trust me, you don’t want to know what’s going to happen if you sneak under again without me knowing. Now, go inside the house, go up to your room, and wait for me. Understand?”
Maddie, her eyes on the ground, nodded.
“Mads, look up at me and tell me you understand.”
Maddie raised her eyes to her mother and nodded again. “I understand.”
“Now, march.”
She obeyed, taking little steps until she was back in her own yard. Piper watched her from around the stone fence until she got back into the house. When Maddie was on her way, Piper sighed and shook her head as she shut the door.
“I’m so sorry about that,” she said again. “I’m guessing the peace and quiet of your morning’s pretty much ruined.”
“Not at all. I was just hanging out and reading the paper while enjoying my coffee. Nothing important.”
“Thatisimportant,” she said. “You were relaxing, and now you’re in the middle of domestic drama and wondering how the hell you managed to get a four-year-old breaking-and-entering expert for a neighbor.”
I laughed. “Seriously, it’s fine. I like my quiet time, but I’m not going to go nuts because your kid’s desperate to hang out with my dog.”
I could sense she was finally starting to believe me. She sighed again, the expanding of her lungs making the front of the robe open just a bit, enough to spot a tantalizing glimpse of her cleavage. It took all the restraint I had not to ogle her like crazy.
“Well, thanks again for being so cool about it. Now that we know about the secret gate, I should be able to keep her from getting into your yard again.”
“If not, we’ll figure something out together. Good fences make good neighbors, you know? Or in this case, fences that a four-year-old can sneak through.”
She laughed, the smile lingering on her face. Piper bit her lip in the sexy way I remembered, as she looked me up and down.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Just…thinking I should make this up to you somehow.”
“Not necessary at all.”
“I insist. You wanted to do dinner, right? How about I make you something tonight? I’m not the best cook in the world, but I can do a few things pretty well.”
My first instinct was to tell her no, that she didn’t need to go to all of that trouble. However, Ihadasked her to dinner, and that’s what this was. Why should I say no?
“You sure? I don’t want to give you any more work to worry about.”
She waved her hand through the air. “Not a problem. Mads is going to be spending the majority of the day in her room as punishment, which might be kind of boring for me, actually. How about you come over and keep me company?” She winked, and I wondered if there might’ve been some innuendo in her words. I pushed that out of my head as quickly as possible, however. It was hard enough to ignore the way she looked in that robe with her hair wet.
“Yeah, that sounds great. On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You let me bring some wine.”
