Take A Chance On Me (28 page)

She planted her hands on her hips, encased in tight jeans that hugged every one of her curves. “No. I came for you. You big jerk.”

“Why?”

She blew out a breath. “Because, dummy, somebody needs to be on your side.”

A swell of emotion swelled and his throat tightened, but he pushed it back down. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Gracie smiled. “If I’ve got to take down a couple of rogue city girls for you to get your happily ever after, I’ll do it.”

Shane scrubbed a hand over his jaw and gave her a slow once-over. “She might actually be able to take them on.”

“She’s very persistent,” James added dryly.

Gracie scowled. “You’re not still mad about
that
, are you?”

“I don’t get mad,” James said, but a muscle in his cheek jumped, belying his words.

Gracie snorted, waving a hand. “Whatever, Professor. I still think you’re being a baby.”

James cocked his head to the side and studied her. “You just don’t know when to shut up, do you?”

Mitch glanced at Shane, who shook his head. “It’s been a fun drive.”

“Hey—”

Gracie started to speak, but Mitch cut her off. “Can you save it for another time?”

The front door flew open and Sophie came storming out. “What is all the racket out here?”

“Hey, Soph,” Shane said. “It’s three in the fucking morning and I’m not in the mood.”

Penelope wandered out, much more slowly. “This is giving me a headache.”

Shane shifted his gaze on her. “We’re coming in.”

Penelope smirked. “I don’t take orders after work hours.”

Maddie’s mom crowded onto the porch. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—get in here or the neighbors are going to have a fit.”

Mitch felt a surge of triumph. He was one step closer.

The whole lot of them filed into the house, overflowed the living room, and started talking at once.

He let the chaos rein as he waited for his chance to escape.

 

 

Maddie woke to the sound of loud, angry voices. Her head pounded, her nose was stuffy, and her swollen eyes hurt. She’d finally gotten to sleep, and now this. What was going on down there? She climbed out of bed and ran down the stairs to find her living room filled with people.

They were all yelling.

“Hey!” she called out, but nobody heard. She squinted. Was that Gracie? She must be dreaming.

Suddenly, she was grabbed at the waist and a hand was clamped over her mouth. “Don’t distract them.”

Mitch. She sagged with relief. He’d come for her. She hadn’t thought he would, but couldn’t deny that she’d hoped.

With one big hand still pressed against her lips, he dragged her to the first closed door he saw and pulled it open, letting out a snarl when it was a packed closet. He shut it and moved down the dark hallway. She pointed to the left and he yanked them into the powder room, slamming the door closed behind them.

He spun her around, hauled her to him by the shoulders and kissed her. It was a hot, wet, desperate kiss that left her dizzy. She grabbed for his shirt, tugging him close, sinking into his embrace. She savored each moment, not knowing if it would be their last.

He tore away and shook her. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. Do you understand?”

She blinked at him, then shoved him away. “You told me to leave.”

“You weren’t supposed to listen!” he yelled, wrenching her back for another punishing kiss.

When he released her, she said breathlessly, “How was I supposed to know?”

There was a loud banging on the bathroom door.

“Maddie, open up!” It was Sophie.

Mitch growled. “For God’s sake.”

“Go away, Soph!” Maddie yelled, pressing her finger to her temple.

“Are you okay?” came Penelope’s soft but firm voice.

“Something tells me I’m not their favorite person.” Mitch plastered a hand against the bathroom door as if he expected them to break it down.

Maddie shrugged. “I might have cried a little.”

“I’m sorry, Princess.” He brushed a finger over her cheek. “Forgive me.”

“Leave them alone,” Shane said, his words muffled through the wood.

“No. She’s been up half the night,” Sophie said.

“We want to make sure she’s okay,” Penelope said.

“What is your problem?” Gracie demanded.

“Would everyone calm down?” Even through the door, James sounded exasperated.

Mitch opened the door to a sea of faces hovering in the hallway and bellowed, “Would you all just shut the fuck up?”

There was a moment of absolute quiet before they all started pointing fingers and talking over each other.

This was getting ridiculous. Maddie put her thumb and forefinger in her mouth and let out a loud whistle. The sharp, piercing sound filled the air and all of the chatter dropped off. She turned to her family and friends. “I love you all, but enough is enough. I appreciate that you want to protect me and I feel grateful to be so cared for, but I assure you I’m quite capable of making my own decisions. I can speak for myself. My life is not a democracy. You all don’t get a vote. From now on, if I want your help, I’ll ask for it. Understood?”

Collective nodding.

“Good. This is between Mitch and me. Leave us alone.”

She glanced at Mitch to find him looking at her mom. He cleared his throat. “Sorry for swearing, Mrs. Donovan.”

“I expect clean language in this house.” Her mom did her very best to look disapproving, but Maddie didn’t buy it—not with the twinkle in her blue eyes.

“It won’t happen again,” Mitch said, sounding so polite that Maddie would almost believe he was a choirboy.

Then he slammed the door on all of their faces.

A bubble of laughter welled in Maddie’s chest and she pressed her lips together.

Mitch eyed her. “Are you laughing?”

She shook her head.

The chorus of voices began again and the first chuckle spilled out. What did she expect? It would take months of constant reminders before they stopped meddling.

Another snicker escaped.

“Jesus, Maddie,” Mitch said, shaking his head. “I love you, but they’re crazy.”

She exploded with laughter and couldn’t stop. She howled until her sides hurt, until tears streamed down her cheeks. Every time she thought she was under control, another attack of giggles shook her until she gasped for air.

Somewhere within the chaos of her outburst she realized what he’d said.

Her laughter died away, and she wiped the wetness from her cheeks. “You love me?”

“Yes, Maddie.” His reached for her, his hand curling around her neck. “I love you. I adore you. I can’t live without you. Please don’t make me.”

Her heart filled with joy, erasing the last hours from her mind in an instant. “I thought you hated me. I didn’t think you’d forgive me.”

He gave a sharp nod. “I was angry. I was hurt. And it didn’t matter. I loved you anyway.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her body close to his. “I’m sorry. I didn’t feel like I had any other choice. I was wrong. I will never go behind your back again.”

He shook his head and trailed a path down her spine. “You’re right, I didn’t give you a choice. I shut you out. I didn’t fight for you. I don’t have a good excuse. Only I fell for you so quickly and I was afraid to let you go, for fear I’d ruin you.”

Confused, she searched his gaze. “Ruin me?”

“Every day that passed, I became more of a mess. Every time I turned around, something else was falling apart and I had no answers. Everything in my life was going to hell: my family sucks, I own a bar I hate, I couldn’t go back to the career I loved, and my father is being blackmailed. And worst of all, I couldn’t figure out a way to keep you. I have never felt so helpless.”

Tears flooded the corners of her eyes. “Mitch, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because.” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat as his fingers tightened on the back of her neck. “You were becoming the woman you needed to be. Every day, you got stronger. More confident. More sure of who you were and what you wanted. I couldn’t ruin it for you.”

She went to her tiptoes and kissed him, a soft brush of promise. “Don’t you understand?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never been so clueless in my life.”

She rubbed her thumb over his jaw. “You saved me. And I will love you forever.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Three months later, Maddie stood in the doorway of the bathroom, resting her shoulder against the wood molding, now gleaming, beautiful, and polished. Mitch fixed the knot of his tie, adjusting it in the mirror.

Their eyes met in the reflection and Maddie smiled. “You look very handsome, Counselor.”

It was an understatement. He looked downright gorgeous in his custom-made charcoal-gray suit, crisp white dress shirt, and blue patterned tie. They’d gone shopping downtown a couple of weeks ago when they’d gone back to visit her family and his mom.

They’d talked about moving back to Chicago, but in the end the decision had been easy. Revival was home now.

For both of them.

They visited a lot, spending time with her family and friends, who’d adopted him as one of their own the night he’d come to claim her. Maddie had met the senator and Mitch’s sister just once. It had been a strained affair, full of polite conversation and undercurrents of tension.

At least things had slowly improved between Mitch and his mom. Last week, they’d even called each other without using Maddie as an excuse to talk. It wasn’t perfect, but this was real life, and sometimes perfect was too much to ask for.

“Thanks, Princess.” Mitch flashed the crooked grin that had stolen her heart the first night she’d walked into the bar.

It was Sam’s bar now.

“How do you feel?” Maddie asked, taking a sip from the coffee mug she was holding.

“Strange,” he said, shrugging.

Maddie figured that was as much an admission of nerves as she was going to get. “You’ll be great.”

He gave another shrug as he once again started working at the knot of his tie. “It’s not a complicated hearing.”

Maddie said nothing and took another sip of coffee. The hearing might not require a lot of technical challenge, but she knew exactly how big a deal it was to Mitch. He’d attacked Luke’s case with a vengeance. The man had taken to sitting on the couch and reading law books, for God’s sake. How boring was that?

The great thing was, once word had made its way around town, people had started coming to him for legal work and Maddie had been able to flaunt that she’d been right all along. The citizens of Revival didn’t care about some scandal in Chicago among a bunch of rich people.

Her cheeks flushed as she remembered all the deviant things he’d done to her last night in retribution for her gloating.

He chuckled, drawing Maddie’s attention back to his reflection in the mirror. He cocked a brow. “Is someone having impure thoughts?”

“Not me,” she said in a voice filled with feigned innocence. “I went to confession yesterday. I can’t ruin it already.”

“Princess, we’re living in sin. You ruin it the second you step out of the church.”

“Yeah, well.” She waved a hand in the air. “You can’t expect me to be perfect.”

She’d started going to church again, as well as to a therapist over in Shreveport, who was helping her through the rest of her guilt over her father’s death.

It was getting easier.

Slowly, she was figuring out what she wanted out of life. She’d started restoring the farmhouse. It was hard work, but she’d found she liked working with her hands, liked the sense of completion when the job was done exactly to her specifications. Completing the vision she’d dreamed up in her mind.

And she’d started painting again.

After the first stroke of a brush across canvas, she’d had no idea how she’d stayed away from it all these years. It had been like coming home.

She’d even received a commission for her first work of art, entirely by accident. The other day at Earl’s Diner, Maddie had struck up a conversation with a five-year-old girl named Jessica, who was obsessed with fairies. Delighted by her enthusiasm, Maddie had drawn her a picture on a napkin. That evening, Jessica’s mom, a longtime friend of Gracie’s, had called to say that her daughter loved the picture so much, and asked Maddie if she was willing to paint a mural in the little girl’s bedroom. Maddie had jumped at the chance and had already sketched a couple of design ideas to go over with the family.

“I’ve been thinking,” Mitch said, pulling her away from her thoughts of brightly colored fairy walls.

Maddie met his gaze in the reflection.

“I appreciate people asking me for help, but wills and divorces aren’t exactly a challenge. Maybe this is a long shot, but what if I switched sides and tried my hand at being a prosecutor?” He turned to face her, his expression guarded.

She walked to him, putting her coffee mug on the counter before running a finger over his jaw. “Sounds like an excellent idea.”

“They might not have me.” His tone was gruff. Unsure.

She stood up on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to the curve of his neck. “If they don’t, you’ll think of something else.”

“You’re not worried?”

“Not even a little bit.” And she wasn’t. The signs were clear now, and all roads pointed to Mitch and Revival and the life they were building together.

He wrapped his arms around her. “Have I told you today how happy I am that you gave up the good fight and moved back in with me?”

“Not today,” she said, sucking in his sex-and-sin scent.

“But last night you mentioned it quite a few times.”

She’d tried for six weeks to live by herself in the apartment over Gracie’s garage, thinking she needed to experience life on her own before living with Mitch.

She’d hated every minute of it.

When she’d taken to sneaking into the farmhouse and crawling into bed with him in the middle of the night, he’d finally put his foot down.

She sighed. Contentment had her curling deeper into his embrace. She didn’t care if it was wrong: Mitch and this farmhouse made her happy.

“Maddie,” he said, his voice catching in a way that had her lifting her chin. “You know I love you.”

“I know. I love you too.”

His fingers brushed a lock of hair behind her chin. “Come with me.”

He clasped her hand and led her into the bedroom before motioning her to the bed. She sat, and he walked over to the antique dresser and took a box out of the dresser. He walked back to the bed and sat down next to her. “I wanted to give this to you tonight, but then I saw you standing in the doorway and I knew I couldn’t wait.”

Maddie looked at the box, it was wooden, etched with an intricate fleur-de-lis design on it and words in another language. “What is it?”

“It was my grandmother’s. They bought it on their honeymoon. It’s French. It says, ‘There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved.’”

“It’s beautiful.” That he would give her something so treasured brought the threat of tears to her eyes.

He handed it to her. “Open it.”

She took the box and suddenly her heart started to pound. She lifted the lid and gasped, blinking as her vision blurred.

Mitch grasped her left hand. “I know it’s only been three months, but in my family, meeting the night your car breaks down is a sign of a long, happy marriage.”

Maddie couldn’t take her eyes off the ring. It was a gorgeous, simple platinum band with two small emerald stones flanking what had to be a three-carat rectangular diamond.

She looked at Mitch.

“Maddie Donovan, will you please marry me?”

“Yes.” She kissed him, a soft, slow, drugging kiss filled with hope and promises. There was no hesitation. Not a seed of worry or shred of doubt. Her heart belonged to only one man, and he was right in front of her. “It would be my honor.”

He slipped the ring on her finger. “My grandma would be thrilled that you have her ring.”

“It’s hers?” It sparkled in the sunlight. It looked important on her hand.

“It’s been in the family vault since she died. My mom sent it a couple of weeks ago. She’s been a little pushy about the whole thing. I think she’s worried I’ll do something to screw it up and she’ll lose the best daughter-in-law ever.”

Maddie laughed. “I love her, too.”

He ran his finger over the platinum band. “I changed the side stones to emeralds because they match your eyes. Do you think I made the right choice?”

She put her hands on the sides of his face. “It is the most gorgeous ring I have ever laid eyes on. I love it. I love you. You know I’d take you with a plastic ring from Wal-Mart.”

“I know.”

She kissed him. “But I’m not going to lie: this is a kick-ass ring.”

He grinned. “You know, I think that’s what my grandma used to say.”

“She was obviously a smart woman.”

“For the record, don’t even think about running.” Mitch pushed her back on the bed and captured her beneath him. “I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and bring you back where you belong.”

She reached for him, this man who’d been her salvation. “I will run down the aisle to meet you.”