Chase felt like he had walked into the lion’s den as the door swung open and he stepped into the Ralston suite. Bridgette, Toni’s younger half-sister swung open the door and ushered him in with a squeal. He smiled and looked her over. At last count, she would have been about twenty one, but having her own way and being around some of the airheads in the world of fashion had kept her young and excitable -- but not completely annoying.

“Hello Brig, how are you this afternoon?” She jumped up and hugged him like a little kid. “I’m here to see your Dad, is he here?” Chase decided that he wasn’t lying. He just wasn’t telling her the whole truth. He had come to see Thomas, but he was hoping to glean more information out of Toni at the same time.

“Daddy! Chase is here to talk to you!” Bridgette grinned sheepishly as her wail echoed off the walls and furniture. “Chase you simply must look at the designs for my new line before you leave. I think Madeline would adore some of them. I think she bought a dress from me today, but I’m not sure it was her. My assistant said she thought it was and that she signed her name Madeline, but. . .” Bridgette noticed that her step-mother and father were looking at her strangely. She blinked a couple of times before crinkling her forehead in thought. Chase realized that she didn’t know he was the father of her sister’s baby and quickly assessed that only Mr. and Mrs. Ralston did.

“Actually, Bridgette, Madeline did buy a dress from you, and I need to pick it up before I leave, but right now, I have some business to discuss with your dad. I can look at your images before I take off later though. Remind me. Don’t let me leave without looking over them.” Chase smiled down in a brotherly way and patted her on the shoulder. She had distractedly lead him straight to the loveseat next to Antoinette. She smiled briefly and graciously patted the open space beside her.
He lowered himself slowly and greeted her mother with several platitudes. She smiled and held out her hand for a brief kiss. Chase was accustomed to her usual greeting and now did so without even thinking about it.

“Chase,” Mrs. Ralston began, her facial expressions light, but her tone highly meaningful. “How is your darling fiancée?” Chase knew that Mrs. Ralston had always had a soft spot for Madeline – especially since Madeline was almost everything she wanted in a daughter, but the aging beauty knew that Antoinette now carried Chase’s first child, and so in a matter of minutes, she had become a protective lioness. With the grace of the deadly feline, she set down her tea cup, waiting for Antoinette to pour her another glass. With a light jump, Toni leaned forward to pick up the tea kettle, and Chase could tell it was not only an appeasement to her mother, but also a way to keep her hands busy and remain calm under the close scrutiny of the formidable matron. She even, remembered to add just a teaspoon of milk and a single cube of sugar before handing the delicate china back to her mother. Chase admired the strength she was showing, when, by the slight tremor of her fingers, he could tell that Toni wanted to fall apart, or at the very least, run. She offered him a cup, but with a shake of his head, he declined. Tepid, lukewarm tea was the last thing he wanted to be drinking. She smiled anyway, and asked him if there was anything she could get him from the kitchen while waiting for her step-father.

“Just water, please.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but couldn’t tell if she was please to have an excuse to move, or aggravated that he had actually asked for something.

“Chase, dear,” Analise Ralston’s voice came out sticky sweet, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He turned his head from following Toni’s figure across the room back to his not so gracious, and now more than ever, scary looking hostess. She set her cup and saucer down with a definite click. Even though she had aged rather gracefully, Chase could still see the age lines beginning to show at the corners of her eyes. She stared at him unabashedly for a few moments. “what are your plans for my daughter? Surely you can not expect her to raise this child on her own, especially in a city like Miami.” Gone was the elegant hostess and in her place was the ferocious she-wolf protecting her cub. The only thing Toni’s mother was missing, was the snarling teeth, but her glare more than made up for any elongated canines she might have sported.

“Mrs. Ralston, if it’s marriage you’re seeking, please disabuse yourself of that notion. We both know that Toni wouldn’t have me even if I was available. Her and I have gone down that path before and while it was not unpleasant on my part, your daughter seems to feel very much otherwise.” Chase calmly leaned back against the cushions, but did not relax. He could see her gearing up to try a different tact, the ire rising at his audacity. “Furthermore, ma’am, while I intend to support your daughter in anything she may need or want for this child, it is entirely up to her where she wishes to raise it and with whom. I do not mean to step on your motherly toes, but we were consenting adults from the start, and will continue to be afterwards. I will not force myself in her way.” Chase felt that he had made his point and smiled up at Toni as she returned to the love seat, a simple glass of water with ice and a sliver of lemon gripped ferociously in her fingers. Chase could see her knuckles turning white, and knew she had deliberately stayed out of sight. He grasped the glass over her fingers, sure to keep his hand underneath the crystal, lest he startle her into dropping it. She was brimming with anger, but Chase knew she wouldn’t face her mother, as it was unladylike for her to have been eavesdropping in the first place. Feeling he had handled the interrogation quite calmly and without doing anything that might have harmed his fragile relationship with the mother of his unborn child, Chase was quite happy to see Mr. Ralston enter the room from the adjourning bed room.

He stood to grasp the older man’s hand and watched the look of adoration that passed over the two women in the room’s faces. Thomas was a well liked man of business and it was clear that his second wife adored him. Toni spoke highly of him as well, and Chase had always felt like family around the warm gentleman. That wasn’t to say that this meeting was going to go very smoothly, since a new baby complicated things to an extreme degree, but Toni had not mentioned any words of displeasure from her father. In fact, the man in question seemed to glow with the idea of grandchildren – whether his step-daughter was married or not seemed to play little part in his excitement – as long as said step-daughter remained happy. The unspoken sentiment rang loud and clear in Chase’s head as he was briefly looked over and conditionally deemed acceptable. With Antoinette still sitting on the couch, half seething in anger, half smiling absentmindedly, it was easy to tell that there was a war going on inside her head. As her step-father lead him to a dining room table for their business, Chase only hoped it was one war with her that he didn’t immediately lose to stronger forces. All Chase had to do now was keep her happy and she wouldn’t cut off ties and he wouldn’t lose the bid he was hoping to receive for the Senate in the coming fall.

“Come sit over here with me, Chase and let the ladies discuss their own stuff.” Thomas Rowling was aging nearly as gracefully as his wife. His hair had grayed evenly, leaving him a light salt sprinkling through his dark brown hair, his blue eyes standing out against the sun-tanned tone of his skin. He had started on a farm of his uncle’s and had since bought out his uncle’s farm, and most of the land in the county, turning them from massive acres with no purpose to high yielding crop rotations. Chase knew that Antoinette had helped her stepfather found his company and production and then, when some of the practices had become over used and damaging to the local environment, she had staged a protest until he allowed her to help straighten the whole thing out. It hadn’t been the first protest Toni had been involved in, and if Chase knew anything about Antoinette, it wouldn’t be the last.

“How is business, Mr. Ralston?” Chase sat down in one of the hard backed chairs, his glass of water still in his hand as he searched for a coaster as to not offend Mrs. Ralston. He set the glass down and waited for Thomas to continue.
“Business, Chase, is about to get better. I’m not going to mince words here, you know me better than that. I’ve talked it over with Toni, and she has agreed, so I would like to sponsor your upcoming run for the Senate seat opening next fall. In light of recent events, I considered retracting, but I think personal feelings aside, you would be the right man for the position.” Chase breathed a mental sigh of relief. Without Thomas Ralston’s support, there was no point in announcing his candidacy at all.

“Thank you, sir. I would hate to lose your faith, and I plan to take full responsibility in this matter and support your daughter in any way she will allow.” Thomas Ralston let out a laugh.

“I never doubted you, Chase. It’s her I worry about. You will have one hell of a job on your hands the further along she gets. We both know that my Toni is a wild child. I have a feeling that that support won’t be much if she has her say, so you’ll have to force it on her whenever possible.” Chase laughed as well, knowing that Thomas knew Antoinette even better than her own mother. She was stubborn and strong willed, and she definitely would not make being a father easy.