She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 62

Chapter 62 The Pink Situation

(Mason)

Natasha warned me Chase could be difficult about my presence at the Bauer meetings.

She did not warn me about the elephant and all the pink.

I stop in the doorway of Chase Warren’s corner office.

A room I’ve previously associated with expensive furniture, aggressive deal-making, and the particular atmosphere of a man who controls a significant portion of the city’s economy and knows it.

I find myself staring at a stuffed animal the size of a golden retriever occupying the visitor’s chair.

The rest of the office matches the theme.

There’s a changing mat on the mahogany side table.

A bottle warmer plugged into the wall behind the desk.

A pink muslin cloth draped over the arm of what I happen to know is a sixteen-thousand-dollar Eames chair.

A travel cot wedged between the bookcase and the window, currently empty.

The occupant of the travel cot is in Chase Warren’s arms.

Chase is standing behind his desk in a suit that probably cost as much as my office building, swaying slightly from side to side, holding a small pink bundle against his shoulder.

He’s patting her back with the distracted efficiency of a man who’s been doing it for a while and has accepted that he’ll be doing it for considerably longer.

He looks up when we walk in.

“She wouldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t leave her at home,” he says, by way of greeting.

“You should have called me!”

Natasha is already crossing the room.

“Has she eaten?” she asks.

“An hour ago. It’s not hunger.”

“Temperature?”

“Normal this morning. She felt a little warm in the car.”

Natasha puts the back of her hand to Lily’s forehead with the automatic ease of someone who does this twenty times a day, and Chase tilts her slightly to make it easier without either of them appearing to notice they’ve done

I stand in the doorway holding my laptop and the Bauer files and watch this with a feeling I’m not going to examine in detail right now.

“Sit down, Mason,” Chase says, not looking at me.

I sit and put the files on the desk, which requires moving a rattle shaped like a crescent moon.

Chaptur Thy Pink Situation

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Is that real silver?

Jesus.

“She’s not normally fussy,” Natasha says, half to Chase and half to herself, still watching Lily’s face.

“But she’s been waking up more the last three nights. Maybe I should call Dr. Patel?”

“I already have. He wants to see her Thursday if she’s not better. Tentative appointment for ten.”

“We should move that. See if he has an opening sooner.”

Chase looks at her. “You think it’s something?”

“I think three days of unexplained fussing in a baby who’s normally good as gold is reason enough to err on the side of caution.”

“I’ll call him after this,” Chase says.

Natasha nods and steps back, and I remind myself to breathe.

We get through the Bauer meeting in forty minutes, which is probably some kind of record.

Chase runs it one-handed, literally, because Lily refuses to be put down and he refuses to make her unhappy

about it.

Natasha wanted to take her, but he stubbornly refused, saying Lily was comfortable.

The easy way Natasha accepted that was extremely telling.

Chase reads the figures with Lily against his shoulder.

Signs off on the server migration amendment with her fist wrapped around his finger.

Asks three questions about the transition timeline that are sharp enough to confirm that whatever is happening in this office, his brain is still fully operational.

It’s extremely annoying, and a little bit impressive. Mostly annoying.

I had a version of Chase Warren in my head.

The one who took Natasha from me, only to turn his back on her.

The one who ignored his pregnant wife at galas and stole a newborn from a hospital while her mother was

unconscious.

The one I’ve spent the better part of the last five years in direct opposition to.

This version keeps getting in the way of that one.

“The integration lead wants a call next week,” I say, mostly to give myself something to look at other than Lily reaching up to grab Chase’s jaw with both hands.

“Tuesday,” Chase says, gently detaching a small fist from his ear. “Natasha, can you-‘

“I have the Bauer tech team at ten but I’m free after noon.”

“Two o’clock,” Chase says, to me.

Chapter The Pina Stuptio

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