“Coke, please.” He sat, shifting his chair so he faced the diner instead of outside, like she hoped he would. She swore she could feel his eyes on her as she went toward Linda to get his drink, but when she swiveled toward him, he was studying the menu.
“What was that about?” Linda asked.
“Just an old friend,” Madelyn said. She grabbed a glass, filled it with ice, and stuck it under the soda dispenser.
Linda waggled her eyebrows. “A handsome old friend.”
Madelyn didn’t deign to give her a response other than an unamused look. She took the drink to Chance’s table and placed it in front of him. “Ready to order?”
He set his menu down. “What’s your favorite thing to get?”
“The French dip sandwich. And the chocolate silk pie.”
“Then I’ll take that.” He handed her the menu and relaxed into the seat like he didn’t have a care in the world, while her nerves were buzzing like bees in a hive. She put in his order and then bustled around the diner, refilling the coffee mugs for a couple of truckers at the counter and wiping down the rest of the tables. Fifties music played from the ancient jukebox that sat in the corner of the room. It clicked over from an energetic swing song to Elvis’s deep, sultry voice singing about falling in love.
She felt the warmth behind her before she heard his voice. “May I have this dance?”
She turned to see Chance there, a mischievous smile on his face. Her heart skipped. “I have to work.” She batted at his outstretched hand with her towel and went back to wiping the table.
“Just one song,” he cajoled.
“Chance,” she started, already shaking her head, but he cut in.
“And I promise I won’t try to distract you the rest of the night.”
She bit her lip. Impossible. Him just being there was a distraction. She glanced at Linda, who wasn’t even pretending not to watch them. “Go for it,” Linda mouthed with a thumbs-up.
Madelyn rolled her eyes and threw the towel down on the table before turning toward Chance with folded arms.
“Is that a yes?” he asked, an annoying twinkle in his eye.
“One given out of duress,” she said. “I just don’t want you to bug me anymore tonight.”
“I’m okay with that.” He took her hand in his, and all the tender feelings from their night in New Orleans rushed through Madelyn. When they’d danced then, she’d lost her heart.
Did she have anything left to lose?
He pulled her close to him, his mouth near her ear as they swayed. “I missed you,” he said, his voice low.
She swallowed, fighting against the urge to relax in his arms.
“I realized something in New Orleans,” he said.
She waited a few beats before asking, “What?”
He twirled her out, and a laugh escaped from her lips at the unexpected movement. Then he pulled her in, closer than before. “My life is better with you in it.”
He sang along softly with the music, his smooth tenor voice sending tremors of pleasure down her spine, and finally she let herself relax. She’d always loved hearing him sing, especially when he didn’t know she was watching him. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, her face buried in his neck. Distantly, she heard the sound of their few diners eating and chatting, Linda bustling around the room refilling drinks, Garth setting the new order on the counter.
But as Madelyn’s real life swirled around them, she held tight to the edges of enchantment that wrapped around her and Chance every time they were together. Chance’s swaying slowed, and his voice drifted off as the song came to an end. Madelyn stood where she was for a beat, their heartbeats in sync.
A loud swing song came on, breaking the moment, and with a brilliant, MyChannel smile, Chance swung her out again and then pulled her in before starting the quick steps to the lindy hop. “Do you remember how to do this?” he asked her, his feet still moving to the beat, his eyes alight with happiness.
She laughed and shook her head, the melancholy feeling left from their dance fading. “I haven’t done this in years.”
“Just follow my lead. It’s like riding a bike. You never really forget.”
Before she could inform him that she’d never learned to ride a bike, he took her hands and swung her out before pulling her in close, always rocking energetically to the beat. From somewhere deep in her memory, the steps came back to her again. She’d never been good at swing, and she definitely hadn’t improved over the eight years of not doing it at all, but it was still a ton of fun. Her favorite part had always been seeing the joy on his face when they danced, like he’d let go of some invisible burden he was always carrying, a burden she hadn’t even realized he had until it was suddenly gone.
He swung her out and then in with a twist, and as the music wound to a close, he pulled her close for a deep dip that sent Linda and the two patrons whistling and cheering for them.
Madelyn straightened, her hands on her flushed cheeks, unable to keep from smiling. “I can’t believe you got me to do that.”
Chance pulled her into a hug and Madelyn hugged him back, still euphoric from the dance. He rocked side to side. “I haven’t done that in years and years. Thank you.” Their gazes caught, and once again Madelyn felt herself fighting to fall deeper into an embrace that felt like home.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” she said abruptly, pulling herself from his grasp. Another love song played on the jukebox, and she wished she could unplug it.
“Madelyn,” Chance said, her name a fervent plea. He followed her to the table where she grabbed her discarded towel and desperately swiped at the table. “Don’t you feel it too?”
“You said one dance, and you wouldn’t bug me. I gave you two dances.” She couldn’t look at him.
Linda rushed over and placed a hand on Madelyn’s arm. “That was amazing,” she gushed before turning to Chance. “And might I ask, who are you?”
From the corner of her eye, she saw him hold out his hand. “Chance Risk.”
She lifted her brows. “From MyChannel.”
He gave Linda a tilted smile that sent butterflies flapping through Madelyn’s stomach. “She’s writing a story on me for Verity. And I’m trying to convince her to go on a date with me.”
Madelyn’s cheeks were flaming at this point. “Chance, you know we can’t.”
“Why not?” Linda asked.
“Because …” She faltered. What were the reasons that had seemed so big and looming before? “We’re too different. And this still isn’t real life, Chance.”
“How is it not?” he asked, holding his arms out to encompass the diner. “This is where you’ve worked for years.”
“Yes.” But it had never been so lively or so fun, or made her feel so much like she was floating. “But having you here makes it different.”
He bit his lip in such a cute, confused way, she almost lost her resolve. “Isn’t that the point?”
“The whole point is for it to stay the same!” Ugh. She didn’t want that, either. Why couldn’t she think straight around Chance?
“Seems boring to me,” Linda interjected. Madelyn shot her a look and Linda backed away, an unabashed smile on her face. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”
She reluctantly met Chance’s steady gaze.
“I’ve missed you, Madelyn.”
“It’s only been a few days,” she said, trying to hide how flustered his words made her feel.
“It’s been eight years.” His voice lowered. “Tell me you don’t feel this, too.”
Heaven help her, she couldn’t.
“All I’m asking for is one date.”
But would it be one date? Could it ever be that with Chance? Her senses were still reeling from their dance, his mouth close to her ear, whispering words about love she didn’t know she’d longed to hear until she heard them.
“You never got back to me on the article,” she said, still stalling.
He wav
ed his hand. “It was fine. Send it in. Please, Madelyn. Let’s see if this can go somewhere. I’ve never been as happy as I am with you.”
The bell rang, indicating that Chance’s food was ready. Thank heavens for Garth and his complete oblivion. “Your food,” she said, rushing away from the declaration that had set her heart to racing.
Like the coward she was, she convinced a disapproving Linda to take Chance his food while Madelyn did the dishes. Not usually her job, but she’d needed an escape.
Linda approached Madelyn a few minutes later, her hands on her hips. “You like him.”
“We’re just friends,” Madelyn said, elbow-deep in warm water.
“Are you trying to convince me? Or yourself?”
Madelyn didn’t answer, but instead focused on making each dish cleaner than it ever had been before. And finally Linda walked away, shaking her head.
Thirty minutes later, Madelyn stacked the last plate in the drying rack. Chance had to be gone by now. She turned off the sink, and soaked in the peace of a quiet kitchen as she wiped her hands off on a towel.
“Madelyn, your phone is ringing nonstop,” Garth called out from the back.
“Sorry!” Madelyn rushed into the break room, catching a glimpse of Chance still at his table, and grabbed her phone from her purse. Mom. She sent it to voice mail, only for it to start ringing again.
Linda poked her head into the room. “Why don’t you take off early tonight? You’ve been working hard enough for two people.”
Madelyn had her suspicions that this was a ploy to get her to spend time with Chance. He glanced up from his tablet when she walked into the dining area. His table had been cleared except for the steaming mug in front of him. She rushed past him, and he dropped a wad of cash on the table and raced out of the diner after her.
“Madelyn,” Chance said from behind her, his voice carrying across the empty parking lot. “One date.”
“Begging isn’t attractive.” She turned to face him, folding her arms against the unusually chilly night.
“I can’t stand to watch you walk away again.” The pain in his expression sliced right through her, cracking her resolve.
Her phone rang again, her mom’s timing perfect for once. Madelyn needed a reminder that things between her and Chance would never work, and her mom was the perfect person for that.
“Hi, Mom,” she said, unable to take her eyes from Chance as he continued to walk toward her.
“Madelyn, why do you even have a phone if you won’t answer it?”
Madelyn stifled the sigh at hearing her mom’s most lodged complaint against Madelyn.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the washer again, only worse this time! It flooded my entire house. Everything is ruined.”
“You turned the water off, right?”
“I don’t know how!”
Madelyn pinched the bridge of her nose. “I showed you how to do it last time this happened.”
Chance placed his hand on her arm and gave it a comforting squeeze.
“There was too much going on for me to remember. I tried calling Jason, but he’s not answering his phone either.”
“You have to stop calling him,” she said firmly. “He doesn’t like it.”
Her mom sniffed. “Terrible son-in-law. I never liked him.”
Her mom had loved him, but that didn’t matter right then. “He’s not your son-in-law anymore. I’ll going to walk you through how to turn off the water.”
“I can’t do it. Come down here.”
“You can do it!” Some of her frustration leaked out in her voice.
“Everything is getting ruined.” Her mom’s breathing turned short and punchy, panic on the very verge of tipping into a full attack. And once that was triggered, this wouldn’t be an hour-long visit; Madelyn would have to spend all night calming her mom down.
“Go sit outside or something, and I’ll be there soon,” she said, resigned.
She jammed her phone into her purse, exhaustion nearly overwhelming her. All she wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and climb into bed so she could get some sleep before her shift tomorrow. Not spend the next several hours cleaning up her mom’s house and calming her down.
“What’s wrong?” Chance asked.
“My mom and another one of her crises.”
“I can help.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s her washer. It floods all the time. I just need to turn off the water and mop up the mess.”
“Madelyn. Let me prove to you that letting me help you doesn’t make you helpless.” She didn’t know if it was the gentle way he said it, the way his hand still gripped her arm and made her feel centered, or if it was just the absolute, sheer exhaustion weighing down every part of her, but tears pricked her eyes. “You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
“I do have to do everything myself!” she lashed back at him. She had to do all of her things, all of Oliver’s things, all of her Mom’s things, and soon something was going to give.
“Not if you’d let me in.” He ran a hand through his hair, messing up how smooth it had been. “I’ve always wanted to support you. Not because I think you’re incapable, but because that’s what people who trust each other do. They lean on each other. They take turns helping. They’re stronger together.”
It sounded almost like a fairy tale. What would it be like to have someone to rely on? Who didn’t take, but gave?
“I don’t know how to do that,” she said honestly. “Where we’d even start.”
“Let me follow you to your mom’s,” Chance said. “That would be a good first step.”
“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” she warned him.
“I’m not afraid,” he said confidently. “Will you let me come?”
Her heart raced for a different reason. For all that she was attracted to him, even for how long they’d dated, she’d only ever let him into this part of her life once before, when they’d helped her mom get gas. It had been the beginning of the end.
But she nodded slowly, sick of letting her fears rule her every decision.
Chapter Nineteen
Chance followed Madelyn to her mom’s house, wishing the whole way there was more he could do for her. More she would let him do for her. When her eyes had filled with tears, he realized he’d never seen her cry before.
They exited the highway and wound through neighborhood streets, the houses getting older and more dilapidated the longer they drove. She finally stopped in front of a house that had every light turned on, illuminating its desperate need for a new paint job.
Madelyn got out of the car, exhaustion lining the creases around her eyes. “Home sweet home,” she said, meeting him at the overgrown yard.
“Is this where you grew up?” he asked.
“Yep. Quite a bit different from your childhood.” She rocked back on her heels and wouldn’t look at him. “Let’s go see what we’re dealing with.”
He followed her up the cracking sidewalk, taking in the nearly collapsed porch and the cardboard and duct tape covering the front window. Had the house always been in such a poor state, or had recent neglect led to this?
A woman with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks stood up from a folding chair on the porch and eyed Madelyn and Chance with palpable relief. “You brought someone to do it. Thank you.”
Madelyn’s jaw clenched and Chance gave in to the urge to reach out and take her hand. To his surprise, she didn’t shake him off. Her fingers trembled against his, and he looked really closely at her. She looked only seconds from falling apart.
“Chance, this is my mom,” she said, and the words were so reminiscent of the first time he met her, helping her get gas, that a sense of déjà vu washed over him. Then, her mom had been dressed up and poised. Now, her mom moved back and forth on the porch like she didn’t know quite what to do. Her hair had half-fallen out of her sagging bun, and tears continued to fall. “Mom, rest for now. We’ll take c
are of it.”
Madelyn let go of his hand to lead her mom back to the folding chair, and he followed her into the house.
“Is she going to be okay?” Chance asked, glancing back at where her mom rocked in the chair.
“She’s having a panic attack.”
“Should we help her?”
“Fixing the washer will help. Sometimes it’s better for her to sit outside in the quiet, rather than having someone try to talk to her while she’s in this frame of mind. She’ll be all right soon.”
Chance tried to imagine his own mom shutting down, letting him take care of things, but he couldn’t. Even now, with her cancer, Christian made it sound like she had everything under control. Christian had texted him a picture of their mom wearing her pearls to the hospital for treatments. Perception meant everything in her world, and she never wanted to be perceived as weak.
The water got deeper the farther they went into the tiny house, and by the time they arrived to the hallway outside of the laundry room, their shoes were leaving footprints in the soaked carpet. Madelyn waded through the inches of water in the laundry room and deftly reached behind the washer to turn off the still-running water.
“This carpet is going to be ruined if we don’t dry it out,” Chance said grimly.
“More ruined,” Madelyn said. It was threadbare and stained, and a strong mildew scent was rising to fill the house. She grabbed some towels from a cabinet in the laundry room and started to unfold them. Chance reached above her for another set of towels, and together they mopped up the laundry room floor and attempted to sop up the water from the carpet in the hallway.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Madelyn said to him. She leaned back on her heels and let out a tired breath.
“I want to.”
“You want to slosh through my mom’s carpet and spend your night cleaning?”
“I want to be with you. And if this is the activity, then I’m in.”
Her cheeks pinked in the way he loved, and she focused on wringing out her towel.
Take a Chance on Me_A My Heart Channel Romance Page 14
