Take a Chance on Me(53)

She waved her hand in the air in an encompassing gesture. “After you left Chicago. It makes more sense now. Revival’s your home. Your real home.”

“No, it’s not,” he said, the idea so startling, so different from what he believed, he forgot to filter his words. “I came here because this is the only place I could think to escape.”

Her expression turned quizzical. “Didn’t you say your grandfather was old money?”

“Yeah,” he said, failing to see the point.

“And you grew up privileged?”

The muscles in his stomach tightened. “Yeah, so?”

The breeze kicked up, blowing a lock of hair over her cheek, and she brushed it away. “Didn’t you make four hundred dollars an hour?”

He turned back to the sky and studied the stars. “Yes.”

“Well, using my powers of deductive reasoning, I’m assuming you’re not exactly hurting for money.”

She was right. Not only had he made a lot of money he’d never had time to spend, his trust fund was embarrassingly substantial. Still, he didn’t see the relevance. “I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

“You could have gone anywhere you wanted, Mitch.” Her voice was as warm and gentle as the wind, but it chilled him just the same. “You chose here because it was home.”

He shook his head. “I came here because my mom had the house and it was the logical choice.”

“You never mention your life back in Chicago. Your home, your family, or your memories.”

“That’s not true,” he said, irritated at the stubborn defensiveness pumping through his veins and ruining the tranquility he’d only just grasped. “We talked about it last night.”

“Confession’s not the same thing.”

He repressed the sudden urge to lash out and instead said flatly, “You’re wrong.” He didn’t look at her, but he could feel her eyes on his, studying him. Analyzing.

“Okay, I’m wrong.”

What did it matter if she thought Revival was his home? “You are.”

“I’m agreeing.”

Was there amusement in her tone?

He harrumphed and searched out Orion. The defensive irritation poking him in the gut irked him and he wrestled through the desire to start lecturing her on her faulty argument. He clenched his jaw, putting his hands behind his head, shifting his attention to first the Big, then the Little Dipper before blurting, “And even if that’s true, so what?”

She rolled over and propped her head on her open palm. “So nothing.”

“You’re clearly going somewhere.”

“It was an observation.” She spoke in the same tone people used to coax suspicious animals.

He should drop the subject. Logically, he knew his reaction was telling, but he was damned if he had control over that right now. He wasn’t attached to Revival, and he called nowhere home. It was that simple. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Okay,” she said.

He glowered. Surely there’d been no ulterior motive for picking Revival. He had no connection to his family.

He frowned. That hadn’t been the case with his grandparents. The best times of his childhood had been spent in this house.

But why did that matter?

He blew out a deep breath and turned to look at this woman who’d invaded his life and turned everything upside down. With her pale skin almost luminous in the moonlight, she looked so beautiful that she could pass for one of those Greek goddesses his grandpa used to talk about. “You know, before you came along, things were calm.”

She flashed him a brilliant smile. “Yeah, well, before you came along, I almost never barged into strange men’s rooms.” She held up two fingers. “I’ve done it twice now. You’re becoming a bad habit.”

The knot of tension in his sternum loosened. He wrapped a hand around her wrist and tugged until she scooted close enough for him to see the clear, bright color of her eyes. He released his hold and stroked over her jaw. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes as green as yours.”

“They’re a Donovan family trait. All us kids have different hair colors, but we all have our father’s eyes. I’m the only one with my mom’s red hair. My oldest brother is the spitting image of my dad. My mom says it hurts to look at him.” Maddie shook her head, running her fingers through the tangle of her hair.

She looked over his shoulder, staring into the trees. “I hated my mom for that, especially when Shane sacrificed so much for us. She’s always looking past him when she says it, so she never sees the expression on his face, but I do. And it breaks my heart.”

The little bits and pieces of information he knew about Shane Donovan had indicated he’d come from hard beginnings, but they’d been understated. “I’m sorry.”

She shrugged, her expression remote. “I should have said something but I never did. I kept quiet, not wanting to make waves.”

From what Mitch could tell, Maddie had been keeping quiet since she’d woken up from that coma. He rolled over to his side and mimicked her posture, propping himself on one elbow. He slid a finger over her jaw and down the tendons of her throat. “I don’t want you to keep quiet with me, Maddie.”