The Mighty Quinns: Kieran by Kate Hoffmann Page A

mother and let her know you were safe.”
    “I don’t want to talk to her,” Maddie said, leaning back against the door. “I know what she’s going to say to me. She’s going to tell me I have to get back in the studio and work on the next album. And then, she’s going to tell me about the tour she’s been planning for Japan and Australia. She thinks I don’t know about it, but that I won’t be able to say no if it’s all planned. That’s what she does. She makes it so I have no choice. But now, I have a choice and I want to get off this train.”
    “All right,” Kieran said. “We’ll get off at the next stop.”
    Maddie nodded, relieved that he finally agreed. Everything had been so perfect, she didn’t want to risk spoiling it all. If he saw—if he knew—what her celebrity life was like, he’d run in the opposite direction as fast as he could.
    “How long do we have?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I could ask the attendant.”
    “No. We’ll just get off.” She sat down next to him. “I’m sorry. I know you should have a say in this, but you don’t know what it’s like. It’s overwhelming. Everyone wants something—an autograph, a photo, a chance to say hello. And I can do that, I love to do it, when I’m in the right mood. But I don’t want to do that now. I don’t want to smile and be nice. I just want us to have this time alone.”
    “All right,” Kieran said.
    He held out his hand and Maddie snuggled against his body. “I’m a bad person,” she murmured.
    “Yes, you are,” he said.
    Maddie pushed back, shocked by his glib agreement. Kieran chuckled, then dropped a kiss on her lips. “You pay me to agree with you, Maddie. I’m just doing my job.” He paused, then kissed her again, this time lingering over her mouth, his tongue tracing the crease between her lips. “You’re not a bad person, Maddie. You’re the best person I’ve ever met. The best.”
    He always knew exactly what to say to her to make her feel better. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful,” she said hesitantly. “Because I’m not. These people who buy my CDs and come to my concerts, they’re just wonderful. They’ve made my life what it is. But sometimes, it doesn’t feel like it’s my life. It feels like theirs. And I get...resentful. And then guilty. And then depressed. It’s just one big pile of negative emotions.”
    “That’s understandable,” he said. “You deserve to have a life outside your profession. Everyone does.”
    “You always say the right thing,” Maddie said.
    “I’m just telling you the truth. Now, don’t you think you should call your mother and tell her you’re all right?”
    Maddie shook her head. “She’ll just yell at me and tell me I have to come back. I’ll feel guilty and then I’ll give in. You don’t know my mother. She knows exactly what buttons to push.”
    “But she is still your mother. She’s probably sick with worry.”
    Maddie knew that contacting her mother would be risky. She’d have to turn on her phone and no doubt there’d be hundreds of texts and messages waiting for her. They saw each other every single day and she still managed to send Maddie ten or twenty texts each day.
    “She’s like this dark cloud that hangs over me all the time. And I kind of like being out in the sunshine.”
    “Then get rid of the dark cloud,” he said.
    She held her BlackBerry out to him. “You do it. That way, I don’t have to look at the messages. Just tell her that I’m fine. I’m taking a break and I’ll call her next week.”
    “All right.”
    Maddie waited as Kieran typed in the text. “Send,” he murmured. He glanced up. “Do you want to wait for a reply?”
    She shook her head. “No. Just shut it off. I’ll deal with it later. Hopefully, she won’t send the FBI after us.”
    Kieran gave her a dubious look. “She’d do that?”
    “You don’t know my mother. I’m sure she’d try her best to avoid a big scandal. But if it’s the