He waited for a flash of recognition to hit her when she saw Hannah, but they’d only met a couple of times, and Hannah had been a teenager. He didn’t sense Madelyn remembered Hannah at all.
“Hello.” Madelyn’s back straightened and she tucked her trembling hands behind her. While his team extended a lackluster welcome, Chance gave in to the urge to study her. She had a few more lines around her eyes and more pronounced cheekbones, but for the most part she looked like the exact same girl from college. Down to the sadness in her eyes.
“So what exactly are we doing here?” Madelyn asked, turning toward him. He glanced away quickly so she wouldn’t catch him staring. He needed to stay focused on his latest episode, which was taking place somewhere he’d wanted to explore for years.
“We’re hiking Havasupai,” Hannah said.
Madelyn shook her head. “What’s that?”
“It,” Rog said, “is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.”
“Here?”
Rog pointed outward to the Grand Canyon, not far from their lodge, and then shifted his finger to point downward. “There.”
Madelyn whipped her head to look at Chance. “Does he mean in the Grand Canyon?”
“He does.”
She lowered her voice. “You know how I feel about heights.”
“Do I?” he asked, playing dumb. It was wrong to like seeing her squirm a little. “Alright, everyone. Our guide recommended the restaurant right here in the lodge, so I had Kim reserve us a table.”
“You are good for something,” Rog said, then jumped out of the way when Kim’s fist swung toward his abdomen.
“Let’s go through our route and then we can eat.” Chance spread the map out across the table. Hannah leaned close to him, her hair spilling over his arm as she glanced at the map. He glanced up to find Madelyn watching them, with an expression he couldn’t quite pin down. She gave him a half-smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, and then looked back to the map. Everyone knew Hannah was his cousin. Except for Madelyn. For reasons he didn’t want to dwell on, that made him want to grin.
“Chance!” Hannah said, and by her annoyed tone, he could tell it wasn’t the first time.
Madelyn mostly remained quiet while Chance, Hannah, and Rog determined their main filming points of interest. Kim wouldn’t be coming down with them. She rarely did the actual adventure, but was indispensable at taking care of all the little details that arose.
“I like it,” he said, feeling like they at least had an outline for the first part of the episode. Oftentimes things varied from what they’d planned and they’d learned to be flexible, but if they tried to wing an episode from the beginning, it was always a disaster to edit and never got as many views. People always seemed to know when they tried to cut corners.
Chance checked the time. “We’d better head to the restaurant.”
They stood, and his phone rang before he could get too far. Christian. He frowned. “I’ve got to take this. I’ll meet you there.”
They waved, and he stepped away to answer his phone. “Hello, Christian.”
His brother’s clipped voice responded, “Hey, Graham. Mom wanted me to call and see if you knew when you were coming home next.”
Chance winced. He’d been filming out of the country before Christmas, and in all honestly hadn’t made much of an effort to get home for the holidays. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll try to make it for Easter, though. Why didn’t Mom just call me?”
“She’s getting her treatment.”
In the background, Chance heard the sounds of beeping and conversation. “Her treatment for what?”
“The cancer.”
Chance stumbled backward into a chair. “Cancer? What kind?”
“No one told you?” Christian asked, dropping his brusque tone for one of surprise. “She has breast cancer. They were able to remove the lump, but she still needs to undergo chemo. The prognosis is really good.”
“How long has she known?”
“About six weeks.”
Six weeks. And not one person in his family had thought to call and let him know. “What can I do? I’m finishing up filming in a couple days, and then I can fly home and help.” He pulled his phone down to glance at his schedule. After this, he was free for almost a week.
“I’m handling it,” Christian said.
Of course they were. Chance put the phone back to his ear. “Someone should have told me.”
“There’s nothing you could have done, anyway.” Christian’s words stung. One more reminder, among the countless ones he’d had growing up. His family didn’t need him, didn’t rely on him the same way they did with Christian. No matter how hard he’d tried as a kid, he was never anything but a nuisance.
Chance closed his eyes and took a deep, bracing breath. He’d let these old hurts go a long time ago. He wasn’t going to drag them out again. “How are you doing with … everything?”
“Fine,” his brother said. “I just got cast into a new superhero role, so Dad and I have been working out a lot for that in between taking care of Mom.” You’d never know that Christian’s wife had just left him because she couldn’t take the constant media attention and printed lies. His brother had only thrown himself more into the role of being the perfect son while also increasing the number of movies he took on. Chance wished once again they had the kind of relationship where they could talk about things.
“I’ll tell Mom you’ll be home for Easter. See you then.”
“I’ll come sooner,” he said, but Christian had already hung up.
Chance pocketed his phone and headed toward the restaurant, unable to shake the melancholy mood the call had put him in.
He arrived at the restaurant and found his team quickly. He slid into the open seat next to Kim.
“Everything okay?” Hannah asked quietly while Rog and Kim spoke to the waitress about their order.
“Did you know my mom has cancer?”
“Are you serious? Is she going to be okay?”
“Christian says so.” He knew he sounded too bitter and tried to dial it back. “I wonder if they’ve told anyone.”
“My dad doesn’t know, or he would have told me. This is taking privacy to a whole new level.”
Yeah, a level he wasn’t allowed to enter. Rog and Kim finished ordering, and Chance ordered the same thing as Kim, unable to focus on the menu.
“Where’s Madelyn?” he asked, realizing she was gone.
“Said she was too tired to eat and went back to her room.”
Chance nodded, almost relieved he didn’t have to deal with the tumultuous emotions that arose whenever he saw her.
“It’s for the better,” Hannah said. “I still can’t figure out what you were thinking when you hired her.”
“I don’t want to get into this again.” Especially since he didn’t know quite why he’d hired her either. Sure he wanted answers, but he had no idea how torturous it was going to be to see her again like this.
Hannah snorted. “She seems pretty soft. Is she going to be able to handle this hike?”
“It’s long, but it’s not supposed to be too difficult,” Kim said.
“If you say so.” Hannah’s fire faded, and he saw the worry in her eyes. “I just hope you don’t regret bringing her along.”
Chance scrubbed his hand over his mouth, an image of Madelyn never far from his thoughts. Even after so many years, seeing her again brought back vivid memories: her soft touch, the perfect way she fit in his arms, and the sweet taste of her lips.
He bit back a groan, glad the others had turned to their own conversations. He’d had no idea what being near her would do to him, but already it was impossible to focus.
Hanna hoped he didn’t regret bringing Madelyn. He’d laugh if it wasn’t so absurd.
Too late.
Chapter Ten
Madelyn stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, her stomach a bundle of nerves. The trail looked mostly benign if she kept
her eyes focused down. But if she looked up and out, to where the canyon stretched into darkness, she remembered. They were climbing ten miles, 2,000 feet, into a crevice.
She’d never thought of herself as a claustrophobic person before—heights were usually the thing that got to her the most—but all the fears were starting to come out. Even the night before, she’d experienced an unexpected blend of social anxiety and shyness around Chance’s team. They knew each other so well, and she was clearly the interloper. The one they didn’t want. Or at least the one Hannah didn’t want. The others hadn’t been quite so obvious about it, so Madelyn didn’t know where she stood with them, which felt equally unsettling.
“Toss me your pack,” Chance said, the early morning sun casting his skin into warm tones of gold and tan. He held out his hands like she could literally toss her backpack the ten feet to him.
“Yeah, right.” She hefted her pack over her shoulder and slowly walked it toward him. “Not so much with the upper body strength.”
She slid her pack off her shoulder. He took it from her and feigned dropping it to the ground because of its weight.
“You’re such a dork,” she said, the old, affectionate phrase slipping out before she could stop it.
“You love it,” he said, his usual rejoinder. They both smiled. Then he coughed and looked away. “Um, right,” he said into the suddenly awkward air. He focused his attention on attaching her backpack to the back of the donkey carrying their belongings down.
“This is weird, isn’t it,” Madelyn said, still watching him.
“Only if we make it weird.” Chance kept his attention on ropes that looked pretty well-tied to Madelyn.
“We’re making it weird right now.”
He turned toward her with a chagrined laugh. “I know. You’re right. We’re both adults. We’ve both grown a lot since college. Let’s just have fun.”
She made the mistake of looking out again over the dark expanse of the canyon. Even without her glasses, it yawned inconceivably wide. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Madelyn, close your eyes.”
She arched an eyebrow.
“I’m not going to push you off the edge.”
“That’s comforting,” she said wryly. Even though she was at least a hundred feet from the edge, she braced her legs before she closed her eyes.
“Okay, first, I want you to inhale deeply.”
She felt silly but filled her lungs deeply before exhaling.
“Do it again, only this time think about the scents in the air. There’s the scent of dirt and the sweet smell of desert flowers.” His voice was low and close. “And very faintly, you can smell the morning dew on the creosote bushes.”
“And sunshine,” Madelyn said, the anxiety in her chest unraveling. She’d forgotten how Graham had always been able to help her unwind like no one else could.
“Exactly. Sunshine is my favorite scent, because it smells like …”
“Happiness,” they said together. Madelyn popped her eyes open to find Chance studying her closely. It had been another favorite phrase of his when they were dating. He took every opportunity he could to be outside, even if it meant sitting in the grass to study, his head often in Madelyn’s lap while he read a new book and she ran her fingers through his hair.
“Good morning,” Hannah said to their right, breaking the moment.
Chance looked away and blinked as though he’d been caught in a trance. He took a step back and ran a hand over his chin, before going back to into organizational mode. “Hey, Hannah. Get your stuff tied to the donkey. We’re hoping to leave in about fifteen minutes.”
“Where’s Rog and Kim?” she asked as she threw her backpack up and expertly tied it down. Madelyn tried not to compare herself to this poised and successful woman. It was bad enough she was gorgeous, but Madelyn had looked her up on the internet the night before and learned she was also an amazing, highly sought-out photographer. Even Verity News had used a few of her photographs, and they’d been some of Madelyn’s favorites.
To keep herself from feeling like a stalker—or maybe it made her more of a stalker, she wasn’t sure—she’d also looked up Rog and Kim. Rog had worked on several successful indie films before Take a Chance, and Kim was the daughter of superstar Evan Corrigan—which surprised Madelyn most of all because of how down-to-earth she’d been. She’d also looked up Chance, but information was pretty sparse. His Wikipedia page was mostly about his rise to fame and his shows, but almost nothing about his personal life.
Chance told Hannah that Rog and Kim were grabbing them all something for breakfast, just as the two in question showed up.
“Smoothies.” Rog handed them out, giving Madelyn hers last.
She took a polite sip from it. She wasn’t one to drink a smoothie—something about having her fruit all blended together turned her stomach—so she was pleasantly surprised when she tasted peanut butter and chocolate. “How did you know?”
Rog winked at her. “A little birdie told me.”
Chance remembered. He’d always thought it was funny she had an aversion to smoothies—unnatural for someone from Southern California, he’d teased—but he’d learned if he brought her anything chocolate-flavored, she’d eat it.
Chance and his team finished up a few last-minute details, talking to their guide and checking their equipment. Madelyn stood to the side and observed their careful attention to detail. From the careless persona he had in his MyChannel videos (yes, she’d watched every single one that weekend), she’d assumed Chance jumped into each adventure with little forethought. She was humbled to realize how much planning must go into each episode.
Rog and his guide had already begun to head down the trail so he could check out video angles and to get a shot of Chance starting the hike. It was a complicated routine that appeared effortless once it was on the screen. Hannah was already taking pictures of the vistas and the preparations. She went back and forth between a camera that looked like a smaller version of Rog’s, and a massive camera that hung from a strap around her neck. She laughed at something Chance said and snapped a picture of him pretending to climb on the donkey’s back.
“How are you feeling about this?” Kim asked from behind.
“Scared.” The nerves zinged around in her stomach, making it hard to take another sip of her breakfast. “We’re not going to have to jump off of anything high, are we?”
Kim laughed. “That’s a smart question. But no. Chance is taking it easy on you with this one—if you call a ten-mile hike easy.”
Madelyn gave her a faint smile. “Would anyone call that easy?”
“Hannah and Rog. Or at least they like to pretend it’s a piece of cake. They both have too much pride to admit if something is difficult, and they’re in constant competition with each other. Pushes them to be their best.”
“How long have you known them for?”
Kim glanced at her sideways and said firmly, “I don’t do interviews.”
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“I trust reporters about as much as I’d trust zip-lining on a fraying rope over the Grand Canyon.”
Her biting words pricked at Madelyn. She clearly didn’t have their trust, but she didn’t realize she’d had their ire as well. “I wouldn’t quote you without permission.”
Kim pursed her lips together. “Look, you seem nice. And there’s clearly some history between you and Chance, but we’ve all been burned by the media before.”
“I’m not looking to expose anything or write a salacious article,” Madelyn promised. “People are curious about Chance and his show, and even in the few minutes I’ve been watching how things work, I’ve learned there’s so much more to this than I realized.”
Madelyn’s phone rang, cutting off whatever Kim had been about to say.
Mom flashed across her screen. Jason could watch Oliver every day Madelyn would be gone except this morning. This morning, Madelyn’s mom had him. Madelyn knew Oliver would be
fine. Her mom wasn’t neglectful, usually. Just needy. She’d told her mom to call Jason if anything happened because she’d be out of cell range. But with the kind of luck her mom always seemed to possess, she’d caught Madelyn just before they got to where their phones would be useless.
“Oliver just threw up.” The panicked words raced out without preamble. Her mom had never done well with sickness.
Madelyn channeled her calmest voice. “Does he have a fever?”
“I don’t know!”
“Can you feel his forehead and tell me if it’s hot?”
“I know how to check for a fever,” her mom snapped.
That was news to Madelyn, who couldn’t recall a single time her mom had checked her for a fever. From the time she was eight-years-old, she handled her own medications.
Her mom’s voice lowered to a whisper. “There’s vomit everywhere.”
Madelyn sighed. She pictured her poor boy needing comfort and definitely not getting it from her mom. “What’s Oliver doing?”
“Taking a bath. But he threw up on the carpet! The entire bag of spicy chips he ate this morning.”
“Mom! He ate a whole bag of chips?”
“He really wanted them,” her mom defended.
“Okay, listen.” Madelyn nearly growled in frustration. “I’m about to go. You need to get a wet towel and wipe it up.”
“I need you to do it.”
“I’m in Arizona.” Her voice had risen and she forced herself to take a deep breath. Inhale sunshine, like Chance suggested. “It’s not a big deal, Mom.”
A hand gently squeezed her shoulder. “Is everything okay?” Chance stood just behind her.
She covered the phone. “My son just threw up. Trying to talk my mom down.”
“Is he okay? Do you need to go home?”
His concern only irritated her more. “He’s fine. It’s my mom who’s freaking out.”
He gave her a knowing look. He’d overheard many of Madelyn’s conversations with her mom back when they were dating. She wished she could say things were better, but if anything, they were worse. Especially since her mom was between relationships again.
“Madelyn!” her mom said.
Take a Chance on Me_A My Heart Channel Romance Page 6
