Take A Chance On Me (27 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Her mom opened the front door of Maddie’s childhood home, looking like she’d aged ten years. Her faded strawberry-blond hair curled messily around her ears, ending at her chin. Fine lines etched her mouth and worry creased her forehead. Her blue eyes, rimmed with dark circles, widened. “Maddie.”

Maddie had cried the whole way from Revival to Chicago and thought she’d had no more tears left. She was wrong.

She burst into sobs that shook her body and caused the hiccups to start all over again.

Shannon Donavan took her daughter in her sturdy arms and pulled her close. “Baby girl, I’ve been worried sick about you.”

This caused a fresh batch of hysterics that left Maddie a weeping mess as her mom shuffled her into the seldom-used formal living room and nestled Maddie into the couch. She sat down next to her, and once again wrapped her into a warm embrace.

With a wrenching cry, Maddie said, “I’m s-so s-s-sorry.”

Shannon hushed her and rocked back and forth as she had when Maddie had been a child.

Maddie cried.

Her mom held her.

She sobbed uncontrollably for her father, her past mistakes, her abandoned wedding, and most of all, for Mitch.

Clutching her mom, she opened her mouth to apologize for running away, only instead, she said, “I’m sorry about Daddy. I don’t blame you for hating me.”

She’d never admitted what she’d feared all these years, and hadn’t meant to admit it now, but the words had tumbled out in her uncontrollable fit of hysterics.

Her mom pushed Maddie’s hair off her face. “Where did you get such a crazy idea?”

“You have to hate me. I’d do anything to take it back. Anything.”

“Madeline. Now, you listen to me.” Her mother took Maddie’s chin in her hand and forced her head up. “I do not hate you. Not now. Not ever. You are my daughter and I will always love you.”

“But it was my fault. If I never—”

“Life is filled with if ‘I nevers,’” Shannon said, cutting her off. “He could have said no. He was supposed to pick me up, but I got a ride from Judy Kline down the street. It rained and the sewers flooded the field so Evan’s practice, which he’d been planning on watching, was canceled. The list goes on and on. There were a thousand moments leading up to the minute that you two were in that car.”

Maddie’s heart felt like it was being squeezed too tightly as thirteen years of repressed emotion came pouring out of her. “But—”

“But nothing.” Her mom kissed her temple. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told a living soul. When you were lying in that hospital bed, so silent and still, the doctors told me they didn’t know if you were going to make it. If your father wasn’t already dead, I would have killed him.”

Maddie blinked, stunned by the admission. She jerked back to look into her mother’s face.

Shannon nodded. “Yes, that’s right. I wanted to kill him. I have never been so angry with anyone in my whole life. I was furious with him. Not for dying. For dying, my heart was broken with grief. But I blamed him for putting you in that bed.”

“I was the one driving.”

“He should have known better. I told him you weren’t ready to drive on busy streets. We’d argued about it, and he said I was being too overprotective. I was right. He should have said no.”

“But I ran the stop sign. It doesn’t make sense to blame him.”

A tear slipped down Shannon’s cheek. “No, it doesn’t. When your child is lying in a hospital bed and you don’t know if she’ll make it through the night, you don’t have to make sense.”

“I’m sorry.” Maddie’s voice trembled.

“I never blamed you. And I assure you, your father doesn’t either.”

“I think I might be starting to believe that.”

“It’s about time.” Shannon stroked her hair, just like she’d done when Maddie was a child and hadn’t been able to sleep.

Maddie hung her head, clasping her hands in her lap. “About the wedding . . .”

Her mom tucked a stray lock behind her ear. “You shouldn’t have run away, but I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t talk to anyone.”

“I was lost and I didn’t know what to do,” Maddie said, clenching her hands in her lap. “I didn’t want to disappoint you all.”

Shannon sighed and shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I don’t think I ever really loved Steve,” Maddie spoke what she’d ignored for so long. “I’m sorry I couldn’t marry him. I know how much you wanted him for a son-in-law.”

Shannon sighed, nodding. “I did. You scared me. You were always a little wild like your daddy. Steve was a nice, safe boy. He wanted to protect you. And after the accident, I couldn’t keep you safe enough.”

Maddie sniffed and hiccupped, and confessed, “I met someone. A man.”

“I figured that out as soon as I opened the door.”

“How?”

“I might be old, but I’m no fool.” Shannon patted her hand. “There’s only one thing that makes a woman cry like that. What happened?”

“I love him and I wanted to help. I broke his trust and he told me to leave.”

Shannon clucked her tongue and pulled her close. “This seems like a girlfriend problem. Do you want me to call them?”

“Yes, please.”

She moved to stand, but Maddie clasped her hand. When her mom looked down, she spoke the words she’d hidden for so long. “I wish, when I was growing up, I could have been the daughter you wanted.”

Shannon squeezed her fingers, then pulled away to gently cup her chin. “Madeline, you are the daughter I needed.”

Eyes once again filling with the never-ending supply of tears, Maddie curled into a ball and waited for Penelope and Sophie. They’d bring the standard breakup-care kit of chocolate and ice cream and a tragic movie collection. Maddie hadn’t used it since she was fourteen and Nick Cablese had dumped her for Katie Meyer.

Somehow, Maddie didn’t think it would be as effective as last time.

Mitch had combed all of Revival before giving up and admitting that she’d left. Nobody had seen her. Nobody had talked to her. She’d disappeared, without even stopping to pick up her things. Ironically, he’d experienced a twinge of sympathy for her ex-fiancé.

Then the waiting had started. Endless hours had been filled with worry and irrational fear that he’d never find her again. When Shane had finally gotten the call that she was home, Mitch had picked up his car keys and driven like a bat out of hell to get her.

Now, parked in front of the house she lived in with her mother, Mitch realized that it was two-thirty in the morning. If Maddie had lived by herself, he’d have no qualms about banging on her door, but he wasn’t sure this was a wise start with the woman he hoped would be his mother-in-law one day.

He stared at the brick bungalow, which was nearly identical to the rest of the houses on the narrow street, and contemplated his options.

Maddie was in there, thinking he hated her and wanted her gone.

He couldn’t stand the thought that he’d made her cry. He couldn’t stand her believing that he didn’t love her. Even if she hated him for being a coward and not fighting for them, she needed to know the truth.

And he couldn’t wait another second to give it to her.

Fuck it. He wasn’t sitting back anymore. He pushed the ignition button and the engine died. He’d find another way to get on her mom’s good side.

He was going in.

Five seconds later, he was up the steps and ringing the doorbell. When no one answered, he rang it again, and then a third time.

Finally, he heard the click of the latch and the door opened. Instead of Maddie or an older version of her, two women stood in the doorway.

They were around Maddie’s age, both dressed in comfortable sweats with their hair pulled back into ponytails. They wore identical scowls on their faces.

Mitch glanced at the address on the side of the house. It was the right number.

“Yes?” the brown-haired girl with the black-framed glasses asked.

The blonde glared. “Do you know what time it is?”

Mitch couldn’t help checking out the address again. This was definitely the right place. “Is Maddie here?”

“No,” the blonde shot at him. “Go away.”

Mitch’s brows rose. “Is this her house?”

The blonde opened her lips, but the brunette put a long, tapered hand on her arm and shook her head.

The blonde’s mouth snapped closed.

“This isn’t a good time,” the brunette said, coolly.

“But is it her house?” Mitch asked again, wanting to be absolutely sure before he made a scene. “Shane told me she came home.”

The brunette’s eyes flickered before she nodded. “Yes, it is, but this isn’t a good time. Maybe it’s best if you left.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Mitch said in a hard, do-not-fuck-with-me voice.

“Do you know how many hours she’s been crying?” the blonde demanded, jabbing a finger at his chest.

Mitch’s already frayed emotions shredded at the knowledge that she’d been crying all this time. “Yeah, I know, which is why I need to talk to her.”

“No,” the blonde snapped.

Mitch took a deep breath and tried to hold on to his temper. He turned to the brunette, clearly the more pragmatic, less temperamental of the two, and held out his hand. She scrutinized it for a moment, then slowly shook it. As reasonably as he could muster, he said, “I’m Mitch Riley. Maddie’s been staying with me since she ran out on her wedding. And you are?”

“Penelope,” the brunette said.

Mitch turned and forced a smile on the blonde. “You must be Sophie. Maddie has told me a lot about you both.”

“You’re not going to charm us,” Sophie said.

Okay, she wasn’t his biggest fan. Mitch nodded. “Understood. But I’m not leaving until I talk to Maddie.”

“Maybe it’s best if you come back in the morning,” Penelope said.

Mitch shook his head. “No. I can’t. I need to see her now.”

Sophie began to speak, but Penelope cut her off and asked, “Why?”

Because he loved her and he couldn’t live without her. But the first time he said those words wouldn’t be to her friends. He tried to look past them, but the two women blocked the door like professional linemen. “I care about her and I need to tell her I’m sorry.”

“Not good enough,” Sophie said, bracing her legs as though he was about to rush her.

“She’s had a long night,” Penelope said, rationally. “She’s finally gone to sleep and needs her rest. I’m not going to wake her.”

Mitch wanted to scream in frustration.

But before he could say anything else, another female voice came from behind the women. “What is all the commotion out here?”

For a second, Mitch’s heart surged with the hope that it was Maddie, only to realize a second later that the tone and cadence was all wrong.

Penelope and Sophie parted like the Red Sea to reveal an older woman wrapped in a white robe.

“Sorry, Mrs. Donovan,” Penelope said. “We’re taking care of it. You can go back to bed.”

“So you’re the one,” Maddie’s mom said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, hoping politeness would override banging down her door in the middle of the night. “I need to talk to Maddie.”

“You made her cry.”

“I’m sorry.” He cursed himself for the thousandth time for kicking Maddie out. He’d been upset and he hadn’t thought. “I want to make it up to her. Please.”

The older woman stepped forward and studied him for a long, long time. He resisted the urge to shift under her gaze.

“Come back tomorrow,” she said, and her words held not even a hint of sympathy.

Mitch’s chest tightened. “I’m sorry, but I can’t leave.”

Something flickered in the woman’s blue eyes. She pointed to the steps. “Feel free to have a seat on the stoop and wait out the night.”

Mitch knew a test when he saw one. If he had to spend all night on a concrete step to prove his worth, so be it.

“All right.” He turned and sat.

Five seconds later, the door slammed behind him.

Thirty minutes later, his ass had gone numb from the concrete steps and his eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. He was contemplating the slope of roof and whether he could scale the house to find Maddie when a black SUV pulled into the driveway.

Shane, James, and, to his surprise, Gracie got out of the Range Rover.

Shane took one look at Mitch and grinned. “What happened?”

Mitch dragged a hand through his hair. “They won’t let me in.”

“I see you’ve met the Wonder Twins.”

“And your mom.” Mitch waved his hand over the steps. “They were nice enough to give me a place to stay.”

Shane rolled his eyes. “Sounds like them. They can be mean as snakes, but you’ll get used to them.”

Mitch frowned at Gracie, unable to take one more female coming to Maddie’s rescue. “Did you come all this way to yell at me?”