“I know. And I’m not trying to distract him—”
“But you are, Madelyn. Did you know he cut our trip early to go on his date with you? That meant we had to cancel one event and are now going to be scrambling for something to air for our show in two weeks. And he still hasn’t looked through the New Orleans footage that’s supposed to air tomorrow.”
“I didn’t know—”
Hannah cut her off again. “I can’t get him to focus on edits. He’s either rushing off to see you or making arrangements to help you or your mom, and it’s affecting the show. It’s affecting all of us. He just cancelled another meeting because he wants to see you tonight. He’ll never walk away from you, but if you don’t walk away from him, we’ll lose everything we’ve worked so hard for.”
All the reasons Madelyn knew they shouldn’t be together, all the fears she’d been holding back, flooded in, nearly drowning her. It’d always been there in the back of her mind, the knowledge that they weren’t good for each other, but listed out like this by Hannah made it seem real again. Burst the magic bubble she’d been living in.
Her heart hammered. The article. She confessed her love to Chance in it.
“I have to go,” Madelyn said to Hannah in a panic.
“Please don’t tell him we spoke,” Hannah said. “He’d be angry, but I’m just trying to do what’s best for him. What’s best for all of us.”
She hung up, and Madelyn gently set her phone down on the counter, her heart slowly breaking. She might be keeping him from everything he’d ever wanted. If she loved him, really loved him, then she’d give up the very things she wanted for him. She owed him at least that, for helping her feel alive, loved. For forgiving her for leaving him the way she did eight years ago.
She knew, deep down in her soul, he wouldn’t forgive her for leaving a second time. But leaving was best for him.
Madelyn glanced in the mirror, her wild hair and the dark circles under eyes a reflection of everything she was feeling. She gripped the edge of the sink and hung her head down, wishing she could crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her head.
Instead, she took her phone and pulled up Trent’s number.
He answered. “Hi, Madelyn. Just sent your article in for edits, so as soon as you forward me the picture, it’ll go live.”
She swallowed, found her courage. “We have to pull the article.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain right now.” Her voice cracked. “But we have to pull it.”
“Is Chance upset about it? Is he revoking permission?”
“No, not at all.” Madelyn closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see the reflection of her distress. “Please, Trent. We can’t run the article.”
Trent paused, his voice lowered when he spoke. “You know what this means, right? About your job? Madelyn, you’re giving up one of the best opportunities of your life, and I don’t understand why.”
“I know. And I can’t explain. Just do this for me, okay?”
He let out a long breath. “You’re making a huge mistake, Madelyn. I’ll tell Ms. Phillips to hold it, but you need to think about this. This is your one chance. Don’t blow it.”
She hung up the phone and set it face down on the counter.
Don’t blow it? Too late, Trent.
Before she could lose her nerve, she picked her phone back up. It needed to be done. Now, rather than waiting.
I can’t see you again. If you have any feelings at all for me, you’ll leave me alone.
She sent it off to Chance, her heart aching, already regretting. But this was best. She had known it all along.
She pushed the disappointment down as deep as she could, and when she looked at her reflection again, she saw the familiar cool detachment she’d worked to perfect. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, grabbed her keys, and headed out the door for her shift at the diner. This could be how every day would begin from now on for the rest of her life.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chance paced through his office, filled with the kind of nervous energy he hadn’t felt in years.
“You’re making me dizzy,” Hannah said, throwing a pen at him.
He paused and looked at his team all sprawled across the couches and chairs in the sitting area. Hannah sat on the couch, her arms folded, clearly bugged. Rog was bent over his laptop, going through their New Orleans footage. Kim was on the tablet, getting through the backlog of his personal emails he hadn’t had time to address. Usually he tried to handle them himself and left the business ones to Kim, but he’d never been so busy. Or so distracted.
“Sorry,” he said. “What were you saying?” He sat in a chair, but immediately his heel was tapping. What he needed was a good run. Or a dive in a cold shark tank. That might get his mind off Madelyn. Maybe. Probably not.
He’d thought he’d won her over on their date, but her text this morning had felt like a kick in his stomach. He’d gotten nowhere with her at all. Even after their final kiss, after all the excitement and her promise to try, she really was too afraid to have a relationship with him.
He’d called her a dozen times since the text, but each call had gone directly to voice mail. He’d been in phone meetings with sponsors all day, and on his way out to track her down, his team had showed up to go over the New Orleans footage. It seemed everything was stacked against him getting out to her. And if he did, what would he even say? He’d tried everything, laid his whole history and heart bare to her, and she rejected him still.
“What’s your deal?” Hannah reached over to stop his leg from moving. She lifted an eyebrow, and he forcibly stilled his body.
“Just have a lot on my mind.”
“Like what?” she pressed. “We’re trying to talk about how to save the show, and your mind is a million miles away.”
“Madelyn’s article,” Kim murmured distractedly.
“What?” He sat up, his heart pounding.
Kim looked up from the tablet. “Madelyn’s editor sent you an email. Looks like it’s her latest article. Do you want to read it?”
Her editor sent it. Not Madelyn. I can’t see you again. If you have any feelings at all for me, you’ll leave me alone.
He must have waited too long to answer, because Kim looked up from the screen. “She needs your approval.”
He imagined the same generic sort of article as last time and knew his moment to make her see how good they were together was slipping away. “Tell her no. Madelyn still owes me one more adventure.”
Hannah folded her arms, furious. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Chance.”
“What?”
“You may have conveniently forgotten what she did to you in college, but I haven’t.”
Rog looked up from the computer now. “What happened in college?”
Kim didn’t say anything, but it was clear by her wide eyes that she was definitely curious as well.
Chance turned on Hannah. “It’s none of your business.”
“Maybe not. But this—” She swung her arm around to encompass Kim and Rog, their computers and equipment. “This is my business.”
“Madelyn has nothing to do with this.”
“Doesn’t she?” Hannah asked, her eyes alight with fury. “Usually by now you have our next episode mostly edited. Have you even started going through our New Orleans footage?”
“No.” He folded his arms, annoyed. He didn’t need to give an account of his every minute to Hannah. “But that has nothing to do with Madelyn.”
“Everything comes down to Madelyn with you. It always has.”
“That’s overstating things.” He felt Rog and Kim watching them argue back and forth. He reached deep for his patience. “We need to get back to work.”
“We’re a part of something important here, Chance. Something meaningful. And Madelyn has a way of messing you up.”
His jaw tightened. “You’re out of line.”
“Maybe. But I was there when she left in college. I
t took you years to recover. We don’t have years.” She reached down and grabbed her purse. “I need a break,” she muttered before leaving the room with a hefty slam of the door.
Chance sat on the couch and used his thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes. Maybe Hannah was right. He had let himself get distracted when so much was on the line. And Madelyn wanted nothing to do with him. She’d made that clear.
“Sorry, guys,” he said, turning to Rog, who stared steadily at the computer screen, and Kim, who was back to typing on the tablet.
“No worries,” Rog said. “Are you ready to look at these images with me?”
“Yeah. Pull up what we have from the pontoon,” he said, feeling the weariness down to his bones.
“Have you watched any of the files I sent you yet?” There was no judgment in Rog’s voice, but Chance still felt the sting of guilt. He really had let his team down the last few weeks.
“I watched the first couple,” he said. They were both of Oliver with snippets of Madelyn. Brilliantly done, but not helpful to this meeting.
“Good, because I have an idea I want to run by you.”
“Great.” He turned back to Kim first, coming to a decision. “Have you emailed Madelyn’s editor yet?”
“No,” she said.
“I changed my mind. Go ahead and give her permission.”
“Don’t you want to read it first?”
“Nope.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay.”
He had to clear Madelyn from his head once and for all, and he’d start by getting back to work. “Okay, Rog. Give it to me. What’s your idea?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Madelyn rubbed her neck with exhaustion.
“Miss! I’ve asked for a coffee refill three times.” A man held his mug in the air, his annoyance evident from clear across the room.
“I’ve got it,” Linda said to her, under her breath. “You okay?”
“No,” Madelyn said, surprising them both with her honesty. “I’m really distracted today. Sorry about that guy.”
She waved her hand. “He’ll get his coffee soon and be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.” She continued to look at her with concern as she went to pour the man his cup of coffee.
Madelyn rolled her shoulders and tried to get her head into the day, but her mind was elsewhere. Everywhere she turned, she thought she saw Chance. And her heart would leap and then drop. Since she’d sent the text yesterday, she’d alternated between regretting it and realizing she’d done the right thing. Not every couple was meant to be.
She sighed and continued to wipe down the table of the non-tippers who’d just left. She just needed to get through her shift and Oliver would distract her that afternoon. They needed to go grocery shopping and she had a craft idea to do with him that would keep them both occupied.
The doorknob jingled and her traitorous heart leapt again. When she looked up, it was Jason and Oliver.
Oliver ran to her and gave her a big hug around the waist. She bent down to return it, savoring the closeness with her sweet son.
“I know it’s a few minutes before three, but I’ve got to run downtown to check out a new set of drums before they close.”
She glanced at the clock. A “few minutes before three” meant more like thirty minutes before, but Oliver would be fine.
She waved Jason out the door, and then led Oliver to a seat at the counter. He swiveled around to face her, his expression serious.
“Are you sad, Mom?” Her sweet, perceptive boy.
She ran her thumb along his baby-smooth cheek, and found a smile for him. “Not now that you’re here. Hungry?”
He nodded.
“Hamburger and fries?” she asked.
“Yes!” He spun around in his chair with excitement, and watching him, she realized that she did feel quite a bit less sad than she had before. So what if she was working in a diner and things with Verity weren’t going to work out? She had the best little boy in the whole world, and that would be enough for now.
“I’ve got to go check on my tables, okay?”
He tugged her arm. “Can I play on your phone?”
“I don’t know,” she teased. “Did you do your reading yet?”
“With Daddy!” he said, bouncing around with his hand held out.
She pulled it from her pocket and handed it to him. “Just until my shift is over.”
“Yes!” he said, and her heart warmed. Sometimes she felt like she was failing at this parenting thing, but looking at Oliver right then, she acknowledged she might be getting more right than she was giving herself credit for. She kissed the top of his head.
The music of the jukebox mostly drowned out the tinny sounds coming from her phone as she bustled around the diner, but still she heard the familiar voice, and her heart ached. He was watching Take a Chance. Of course he would watch his favorite show.
“Mommy! It’s me!” Oliver, his cheeks flushed, shook the phone wildly over his head.
“What?” Madelyn set down the carafe of water she’d been using to refill and rushed over to him, Linda close behind her as they stared at the screen.
It was Oliver, holding the alligator, talking to the camera about it like a natural. Her heart swelled at the perfect innocence of it all.
“You didn’t know?” Linda asked.
Madelyn shook her head, stunned. “He mentioned that Oliver or I might be in this episode, but I had no idea he’d feature him like this.”
“Look at him,” Linda said. “He was born to be on camera.”
Oliver bounced around in his chair. “I’m on the show!”
“What’s all the fuss about over here?” Garth asked in his faux-grumpy way. He put Oliver’s hamburger and fries down and peered over Linda’s shoulder. “Why, that’s our Oliver!”
“It’s me,” Oliver confirmed proudly.
Madelyn paused the video. It had been uploaded only an hour before. She scrolled down to the comments, increasing in number by the second.
This is what the show has been missing!
More of this, Chance!
Take a Chance on kids who are smarter than the host, lol.
He’s adorable. Well played, Chance Risk. Well played.
“I want to keep watching!”
Madelyn handed him her phone, feeling like she was in a daze. When the door jingled open a few minutes later, she didn’t have to look up to know. It was more than hope. It was the absolute certainty of his presence and the hush that came over the diner, as if they knew, too.
Madelyn turned, and found Chance watching her, the heat of his stare sending shivers across her whole body.
She drank him in like the clear water she’d been given in Havasupai after a torturous day of hiking.
The energy between them seemed to buzz in a tangible way.
Neither of them moved, both caught in the intensity of the moment. One step could break the spell. One step, and reality would set in.
And Madelyn had had enough reality to last a lifetime.
“Chance!” Oliver said, breaking the moment for them. How long would they have remained suspended in time, otherwise? Madelyn’s heart restarted, and Chance tore his gaze from her only long enough to catch the launching Oliver in his arms. “I’m on your show!”
“You saw it already? I just uploaded it an hour ago.”
“Of course we saw it!” Oliver laughed like it was silly to think otherwise.
Chance looked at the boy in his arms, his smile turning soft. “I wish every fan was as good as you, Oliver.”
“Excuse me!” the ornery man in the corner said, holding his cup of coffee high in the air. “What does it take to get a refill in this diner?”
Flustered, Madelyn picked up the coffee carafe, willing her hands to stop shaking. She took a deep breath, almost grateful for the man’s interruption.
She skirted around Chance and Oliver and filled the up the glowering man’s cup. “Worst service I’ve ever had,” he grumbled.
She pretended not to hear and headed back for the counter, feeling Chance’s eyes on her the whole way. Oliver continued with his happy chatter, thrilled as ever to be with his hero.
Linda took her arm as she set the coffee on the counter. She looked over Madelyn’s shoulder and spoke softly. “Why don’t you take off early?”
“No. I’ll work until three,” Madelyn said firmly.
“I’m pulling the boss card.” She folded her arms.
“I need the money.”
“I’ll still pay you the same amount and I’ll hold your tips.” Linda smiled in satisfaction.
Madelyn racked her brain for another argument when the upbeat strains of the song she and Chance had loved in college started to play. And his warm, over-the-top voice sang over the low sonorous voice of the Righteous Brothers. Chance sang along loudly, holding his arms out in a cheesy pose.
Despite herself, she shook her head and laughed. “You know this isn’t a love song,” she said to him, her frequent old complaint when he sang this song about a woman who didn’t show her love anymore.
He responded by singing louder and doing a little shimmy as he moved closer to her.
She felt her face heat up, and glanced around at all the patrons watching Chance. With the exception of the annoyance on Grumpy Man’s face, everyone else seemed to be amused.
He sang another line and held out his hand, shaking it a little when she didn’t take it right away.
“Come on, Madelyn. One spin, for old times’ sake.” He winked. “I’ll just keep singing otherwise.”
As far as threats went, it wasn’t all that sinister seeing as how he had a stage-worthy voice, but when he took in a deep intake of breath to start the next verse, she grabbed his hand.
“Do you ever get embarrassed?” she hissed at him.
“Not that I can remember,” he said spinning her around once and then twice before dipping her over his leg.
“That was two spins,” she grumbled, trying to hide her smile. What was it about Chance that filled her with complete happiness? No matter what else she’d been feeling or what was going on.
Take a Chance on Me_A My Heart Channel Romance Page 17
