Take a Chance on Me(100)

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.