The Bachelor, the Baby and the Beauty. Victoria Pade

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СКАЧАТЬ at Neily. “Then, yeah, I guess you can bring it on.”

      Hadley thought Neily seemed uneasy with this. Then she confirmed it by saying, “If you change your mind either before the baby gets here—”

      “Which will be when? Do you have him out in your car or something?” Chase asked.

      Neily flinched slightly at that notion.

      “The baby is in Billings. It will be Monday before I’ll be able to make the transfer. But if you change your mind before then or at any time after that, you just have to call me and I’ll come for him.”

      “And stick him back in a foster home,” Chase muttered under his breath. But to Neily he said, “I’ll keep that in mind.” Then, obviously thinking ahead, he said, “These other people—are they all Angie Cragen’s half brothers and half sister, but my full siblings?”

      “They are your full brothers and sister, yes.”

      “And do you know if the half sister was at least close to finding any of them?”

      “I don’t know that, no. I only know that you are the only one the lawyer could actually give us enough information about to make contact.” Neily held up the file. “There’s the DVD—it might have more information on the others. And there’s a picture of the baby here among the paperwork if you’d like to see him. I’ll leave it all for you.”

      Hadley saw Neily’s hesitation when she stood to hand the file to Chase.

      “Does he have a name?” Chase asked then, not opening the file to even glance at the baby’s picture the way Hadley would have.

      “Cody. The baby’s name is Cody,” Neily informed him.

      “Cody,” Chase repeated.

      “Well, if you’re sure …” Neily said, pausing to offer Chase a second chance to say no.

      When he didn’t, she said, “If you’re sure, I’ll go and make the arrangements now, and then I’ll see you all tomorrow at the wedding and again on Monday with the baby.”

      Chase merely nodded as Hadley stood up to walk Neily out.

      It wasn’t until the front door was closed behind the social worker and Hadley had turned back to the two men that she heard Chase mutter to Logan, “What the hell just happened? I have family?”

      “Including an eleven-month-old nephew who you just agreed to take on …” Logan said with some disbelief of his own.

      “Oh, man, I did, didn’t I?” Chase said as if it were just sinking in.

      “Come on, let’s get your stuff out to the loft,” Logan suggested. “Then maybe you can watch that DVD.”

      Chase nodded, still looking stunned. He headed for the kitchen, catching sight of Hadley as he did and coming up short all over again.

      “Wow, and you, Hadley … You’ve blown me away, too.”

      Hadley laughed. “It’s still just me. With a little less packaging.”

      “Yeah, I can see that it’s still you,” he assured. “But that’s good, too—it’s good to see … you,” he added.

      Hadley merely smiled at him, at his confusion over her transformation. But she was pleased that he recognized that not everything about her had changed.

      “Later, I guess,” he added with a sigh as he again aimed for the kitchen.

      “Sure. I’ll see you later,” she confirmed, watching him go and trying not to register that his backside was almost as impressive as his front.

      Then her brother distracted her by whispering as he went by, “I’m gonna need your help big-time!”

      Hadley wasn’t quite sure what her brother was going to need her help with, but that wasn’t uppermost in her mind.

      Chase was.

      Chase and the news that had just been sprung on him and his instant agreement to accept the responsibility of his half nephew.

      But then Hadley heard the back door open and close and it struck her just like that—her first encounter with Chase Mackey in seventeen years was over …

      She’d successfully jumped that hurdle.

      And she breathed a sigh of relief.

      Granted, their reunion had taken a backseat to Neily’s news, but still, Hadley thought she’d done okay before that. No, she hadn’t been smooth or glib or clever—the way she’d imagined herself in one of the many scenarios she’d played out in anticipation of this—but she hadn’t embarrassed herself, either. She was relatively sure she’d hidden her tension, that she’d appeared reasonably normal.

      And the first hurdle was the highest, she told herself. From here on every time she saw Chase it would get easier. She would feel less awkward, she would be able to relax more. Eventually she would forget all about that crush she’d had on him so many years ago and forge a plain and simple working relationship with him.

      And that was all she was looking forward to, she told herself.

      Even if the image of those blue eyes of his was mysteriously lingering in her mind and making it seem as if she might be looking forward to something more than that …

      Chapter Two

      “You want me to stick around?”

      Chase couldn’t help smiling at his friend’s offer. He knew Logan was swamped with last-minute wedding details.

      “Do you think I need a babysitter?”

      “That is one of the things you’ll need after Monday,” Logan goaded wryly.

      “Or maybe a pretty little nanny …” Chase volleyed good-naturedly, referring to the fact that Logan was about to marry his daughter’s caregiver.

      “Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll run through plenty of those,” Logan countered with a laugh.

      All kidding aside, Chase let his friend off the hook. “It’s weird to find out I might have brothers and a sister, and that in a day and a half I’ll be taking on a kid who’s supposed to be my nephew. But the earth hasn’t stopped turning because of any of it. Get going on that honey-do list you told me you have in your pocket. I’m fine.”

      “You’re sure?”

      “Yeah, go on.”

      It didn’t take more than that for Logan to head for the door. “Meg stocked a few groceries in your fridge, but for anything other than snacking you can hit ours. Come over whenever you’re ready,”

      “Thanks,” Chase said to his partner’s back as Logan left him alone in the loft Chase had designed and Logan had built.

      With all Chase had had to do back in New York, he hadn’t made СКАЧАТЬ