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“You and I will talk about that. Later.” Maggie shot her daughter a pleading look and then turned her attention back to him. “Thanks for watching over our neighborhood. You never know. It could have been a real burglar.”
Exactly.“I live two doors down.”
He hooked his thumb in the direction of his house.
He didn’t know why he thought it was important that she realize that. He usually liked to keep a low profile and had managed to avoid his neighbors so far. Let someone know a cop lived next door and suddenly every minor neighborhood issue was a matter for law enforcement. But he also didn’twant Maggie to think he randomly drove by neighborhoods mistakenly arresting people who were locked out of their homes.
“So you’re the new neighbor. I’ve been meaning to come by and welcome you to the neighborhood. I’ve been busy.” Maggie smiled for the first time, the sweetness in her eyes mimicking the upward curve of her lips.
He decided she should do that more often. Or, maybe less, at least around him. The last thing he needed right now was to be distracted by a beautiful married woman. He’d surely rack up extra points in heaven for that one. Right.
Keep your eyes where they belong, Butler.
Of course, she would be busy with a kid like Lexi. Now he wondered about Mr. Bradshaw, not that it was any of his business. “I’m not home much. Work crazy shifts. But thanks.”
“Is it OK if I go inside my own house now?” Lexi’s arms were crossed over her chest, eyes bulging out of their sockets.
For a second he thought smoke might come out of her nose.
Maggie nodded and the kid stomped inside but not before shooting another hateful glare in his direction.Good job, Butler. Making friends again.
“I apologize for my daughter. She’s thirteen going on thirty, and we’ve been butting heads lately.” She bit her lower lip.
He wasn’t equipped to dispense advice on raising kids. “What does her dad say about it?”
Maggie blinked. “Oh, he—he’s not around. But in answer to your question, he would probably not like this much at all.”
Jack would bet his life on it. “Again, I’m sorry if I upset you.”
“Please don’t apologize. It’s nice to know we have a deputy in the neighborhood.”
“I promise not to arrest either of you for locking yourselves out of the house.” It was an effort at lightheartedness that fell flat, though Maggie was too kind not to laugh.
“Believe me. It won’t happen again.” Maggie nodded and put her hand on the door knob.
“Well if it does, you don’t have to worry about me.”
He would mind his own business from now on if it killed him, as long as no crimes were being committed. Trying to help a kid hadn’t worked once before, and this sure wasn’t working out too well now.
Although for once he wouldn’t mind being a bit neighborly if Maggie were doing the asking.
As long as the requests had nothing to do with her daughter.
Maggie leanedagainst the front door and shut her eyes for a second, trying to get the image of her handsome neighbor out of her mind and pull it back to her wayward teen.
It used to be so much easier in the days when I could bandage a cut and make it all better with a kiss. Lord, I need Your help.
Until today life had been calm on the home front for the past week, without any calls from Lexi’s frustrated teachers. It gave her a sense of hope that maybe the bad times were finally in the past. And now this.
Thank God it had been a big misunderstanding.
She couldn’t cope with one more thing going wrong.
At the same time as she railed against her lack of freedom, Lexi constantly demonstrated why she didn’t deserve it. But, somehow, Maggie couldn’t get that across to her thirteen-year-old, no matter how hard she tried. Now she lay deep in the middle of another parenting conundrum. If she gave Lexi a key now, she’d be rewarding bad behavior.
Maggie glanced down and realized she still wore her café apron, a splatter of chocolate stains all over it.Great first impression.He must think you’re mother of the year. Maggie sighed.
Cops should only be that good looking on television. Jack Butler had a build that showed he spent time at the gym and light brown closed-cropped hair that set off his steel blue eyes. A good thing that she’d resolved not to date until Lexi was grown, because the deputy was precisely the kind of man that made her heart skip.
