Page 23 of Secret Baby for My Protector

"No, please, anything but that. I don't want Chase to know anything is wrong." She sighs and then shrugs. “Well, fine. I guess you can come with me to see Chase. He’ll be happy, anyway. He loves you.”

“Oh?” I wiggle my eyebrows and she shakes her head, before checking her watch.

"But we gotta go now. Mrs. Warner has work in the morning, and she made it clear that all of the kids had to be picked up by then.”

“Ok. Let me get dressed and then we'll take one of my cars.”

“One of? How many cars do you have?"

"Not enough," I answer simply and smirk at her disgusted look. She looks even more disgusted when I take her to the garage later, showing her my impressive collection.

"Wait these are all yours?” She gapes.

“Of course.” I spread my hands wide. “Take your pick. Which one do you want to take today?”

"This is excessive." She shakes her head and then points at the smallest car, an Audi GT. “That one doesn’t look like a death trap, so I guess we can go in that.”

"None of my cars are death traps. I drive carefully," I assure her. "Trust me, I'm not in any hurry to die. I have a son to take care of."

"Good to know," she says and heads to the passenger side. I beat her there and open the door for her. She shoots me a surprised look followed by a hesitant smile.

"Thanks."

Mrs. Warner lives in a suburb about fifteen minutes away. By the time we park in front of the house, Chase is already waiting outside.

He doesn’t look up when we drive up, because he’s probably not expecting his mom to arrive driving in a car like this. But when I get out, his eyes widen.

“Hey Chase,” Mia says getting out of her side. "Did Mrs. Warner leave already?"

“Uh, no she’s putting on her shoes...” There's confusion is in his face as he rises and approaches us. “Why…what's going on?”

“Uh..." I can see Mia trying to think of an excuse.

“Your mom’s getting some stuff fixed at your house,” I tell him. “So, you’ll be staying with us for a few weeks.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Excitement takes over his expression. “Neat! So, we get to drive in your car?"

"Yeah, unless you plan on flying."

He smiles even wider, at my joke, and heads to the backseat.

“I’m a huge fan of yours by the way,” he says as he climbs in.

"You're not so bad yourself," I smile at the boy, getting in too. On the way home, Chase continues chattering in a way that reminds me of his mom when she’s excited, except for the fact that he keeps talking about hockey. He seems to know a lot for a kid his age – about different plays and a lot of historical moves. I promise him a training session when we get home and he's over the moon.

He's even more gob smacked when he enters my home.

"Woah." His eyes practically bug out of his head. "You live here?"

"I guess." I laugh as his eyes practically roll around in their orbit, trying to absorb it all. "Feel free to look around."

"I will!" he says, and immediately runs upstairs.

Mia watches her son with a mixture of worry and amusement.

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