She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 49

Chapter 49 The Audience

(Natasha)

There will be no arguing,” I say firmly.

Both men turn to look at me.

I take Lily from Mason’s arms, settle her gently against my shoulder, and look at each of them in turn with the expression I’ve been quietly perfecting since becoming a mother.

“You’re both adults,” I tell them.

“This is Christmas Eve. My family is in the next room and my brother has spent a week writing a puppet show.”

I keep my voice level.

“So you have two options. You come inside and you behave, or you stand on my front step in the cold and behave. Either way, the behaving is not optional.”

Silence follows and I wait to see which way this towering disaster is going to tumble.

Mason steps back from the door without a word and walks calmly back to the living room.

Chase looks at me for a moment.

Then at Lily, who has stopped crying and is now studying his face with great joy.

He smiles at her before stepping inside.

Liam takes the reappearance, and doubling, of his audience with tremendous professional grace.

He adds a second chair beside the armchair without comment.

Positions both in front of the makeshift stage, and announces a brief intermission for technical adjustments, which appears to involve repositioning a table lamp and refreshing everyone’s drinks.

Chase and Mason sit side by side.

It’s not an easy sight.

The silence between them has a texture to it.

Dense and carefully maintained, like two buildings sharing a wall and hoping it holds.

I hand Lily back to Mason because the show must go on.

I take my position behind the curtain next to Dad.

He leans down and whispers far too loudly, “Which one stays?” with the unsubtle curiosity of a father who has absolutely earned the question.

“Neither,” I whisper back.

He doesn’t look like he believes me.

Liam raises the wooden spoon and the show resumes.

Dad throws himself into his chef puppet with the full commitment of a man who has never done anything halfway

in his life.

gives the character a booming accent that belongs to no particular country and an opinion about every other character’s cooking that is entirely unprompted by the script.

Liam’s pained expression from behind the curtain is absolutely priceless

To my utter shock, I hear Chase laugh.

It happens during Dad’s third improvised detour from the actual plot

A lengthy speech about the correct way to deglaze a pan that has nothing to do with anything

It’s a real laugh, sudden and unguarded, the kind that escapes before the owner has time to approve it

I glance through the gap in the curtain.

His whole face has changed

The tension around his jaw is gone

He looks younger

He looks, for just a moment, like someone who’s forgotten to be Chase Warren and is simply a man in a warm room laughing at a puppet show

I look away before he can catch me looking

Lily, who’s been observing the show from Mason’s lap with her characteristic gravity, chooses this moment to twist around and reach both arms toward Chase with absolute certainty

Mason transfers her without being asked, but I can see the suppressed sadness in the set of his shoulders

Chase takes her the way he always does, with a sureness that still surprises me

He also makes no attempt to hide his smugness

She grabs his lapel and pulls herself up against his chest and sighs, a small, contented sound, and the stiffness goes out of his shoulders all at once

The two of them sit there in the glow of Liam’s spotlight, while I watch my daughter choose her father without

hesitation.

The hot buttered rum runs low somewhere around the finale

Mason checks his watch, and I see the decision cross his face before he says anything

He slips out of his chair quietly and touches my arm

I’m going to head home,” he says quietly

I walk turi to the door

The old all outside is sharp and clean after the warmth of the house

M stands on the step in his coat and looks at me with the particular expression he wears when he’s feeling a great deal and homing to say very little

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