“First and last day only. Unless the client requests it,” he said with a wink. “Are you asking me out for drinks, Maggie?”

“Aren’t you ever off duty, Sly Sy?”

“Not where you’re concerned. You’ve got my number. I keep hoping you’ll use it.”

“I’m not anticipating any landscaping emergencies,” she told him as she wiped her palms on the seat of her pants. “It was a good day.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” he agreed as they walked companionably back toward the house.

“I like what I saw from the crews,” she told him. “You all take care of your own. Lou didn’t have to hire Billy. You didn’t have to hire Marta.”

“Just being neighborly,” he insisted.

“Fingers crossed the shower upstairs is up to this task,” she said, looking down at her dirt-streaked arms.

“You’re staying here?” That was news to him.

She hooked her thumbs into her front pockets. “Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

She had a point. If he’d bought an eighteen-room mansion, he’d damn well be sleeping in it even when it was more haunted house than home.

But it did create a bit of a problem for him. “Now, Maggie. I need to say something, and I don’t want you to take it in a misogynistic kinda way.”

“Oh boy,” she murmured.

“I sure would feel more comfortable about you staying here all by your lonesome if you had a damn front door.” He pointed toward the front door leaning up against the wall.

“Silas, I hope you don’t take this as me being a hard-ass bitch. But at this stage of the relationship, I’m not really concerned about making you feel more comfortable.”

He slapped a hand to his heart. “While I’m thrilled to hear you acknowledge our relationship, you also wound me.”

She gave him an amused once-over from boots to cap. “Something tells me you’re a fast healer.”

He grinned. “Let me put it another way. It’s only neighborly if I offer to help you rehang the door.”

Elton’s pickup pulled out on a jaunty toot of the horn, followed by Marta and Billy in Marta’s SUV. They were officially alone together.

“Since you offered to help me fix the door instead of insisting on doing it for me, I’ll take you up on the offer.”

“I am not a stupid man,” he promised. “I was raised by two very intelligent, competent women and two men smart enough to listen to them.”

“Uh-huh. You hold. I’ll screw,” she said, grabbing the drill.

“Look at me not going for the easy punch line,” he said, lifting the wooden door, which was heavier than it looked.

“Just promise me you’re not gonna barf on my porch or take your pants off.”

“I hate to make promises I can’t keep,” he teased.