She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 197

(Julian)

Sunday afternoon. Three o'clock.

I have decided, with the kind of unilateral confidence I usually reserve for menu selections, that I’m going to check on Natasha.

I don’t warn her.

If I'd warned her she would have produced reasons for me not to come over.

She’s a woman of many reasons.

I’m a man who doesn’t produce unnecessary roadblocks for myself when I’ve decided a thing.

I bring nothing.

No flowers, no wine.

After the previous arrangement I sent her, I suspect she may beat me savagely with any flowers I hand her.

Wine is always nice for lubricating the situation, but it would have suggested I expected to be invited in long enough to drink it.

I do expect that.

I have, however, decided to not make that obvious and leave the decision to her.

I wear charm like a coat I can take on and off.

This afternoon it stays on the hook.

I’m not here to flirt. I genuinely need to see that she’s okay.

The townhouse looks mostly the same, bar for the new security cameras.

I hate that she felt the need to put them up, but I’m glad they’re there all the same.

It takes her a moment.

When she opens the door she has Lily on her hip and is wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt that is several sizes too big for her, which means it’s Chase's.

I note this and move on.

I am, today, a man of restraint.

"Julian."

"Darling."

Mostly restraint. I’m still me.

"Why are you here?"

"To see how you are."

She doesn't move out of the doorway and the skepticism is plastered all over her face.

"That's the entire purpose of my visit. No agenda. No ulterior motives. I haven't brought anything because I refused, on principle, to try and charm you. I’m only here to see how you are."

She stares a moment longer.

Then she steps back and lets me in.

Lily is alternating between being fascinated and outraged at the existence of my face.

“She seems more judgmental than usual,” I observe.

“With age comes wisdom. I’ve warned her about charming rascals.”

"You still think I’m charming?"

I absolutely deserve the look Natasha gives me.

We end up in the living room.

I sit on the couch.

Natasha sits in the chair across from me with Lily on her lap, which is the chair-equivalent of putting a moat between us.

I take it as a sign of progress that there’s only one moat.

"Coffee?"

"Please."

She gets up.

Comes back with two mugs and Lily still on her hip, which is an act of household engineering I find impressive.

She hands me a mug and sits back down.

It’s nice that she remembers how I take my coffee.

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