Disarm

Chapter 17: Three's a Crowd

**Jade**

"I don't think Billie will be joining us for dinner." Claudia says taking a sip of her wine as she gives me a sympathetic look. "Dakota is here... but she wanted me to give you these." She slides two all-access passes in front of me.

"You know I can't accept these." I say picking up the passes to Billie's show tomorrow night before sliding them back in front of Claudia.

"Just accept them, Jade. The show is sold-out and I'll need someone other than Dakota to talk to."

I sigh and look at the passes, "Okay, but I'm taking Chase, he's been asking about Billie for weeks."

"I would expect nothing less." Claudia says with a big smile.

I pull Chase's shirt down after getting him out of the car seat and grab my backpack, "Mommy my sharks!" He says patting my hip.

"Here, baby." I say grabbing both sharks before shutting the car door and taking his hand as we make our way to the venue.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, baby?"

"Are we seeing Billie?"

"Yeah, we are." I say adjusting my backpack as I open the door to the venue and text Claudia that we're here as I kneel down in front of Chase to fix his shirt collar again. "How does your collar keep getting messed up, baby?"

"I dunno." He says shrugging as his curls bounce while he looks at his sharks.

"Jade!" I hear Claudia's voice echo followed by her walking quickly towards us as she holds a bottle of water.

"Hey." I say standing up taking Chase's hand as he hides behind me.

"He's gotten so tall since March!" Claudia says looking at Chase as he peers around my hip looking at Claudia.

"He has." I say pushing my hair off my face and taking a deep breath and try to ignore the wave of nausea that comes over me.

"Let's go to the green room. I think Billie's back there getting ready."

"Dakota's not there, is she?"

"Apparently she wants to 'look cute for Billie' so she's still at the hotel." Claudia says rolling her eyes as we make our way back to the green room. All I can do is roll my eyes as Claudia knocks on the green room door before letting herself in.

It's cute watching Billie interact with Chase again, he's been sitting on her lap talking about his sharks since we walked into the green room and she's been tentatively listening to every word he's said; occasionally she'll brush his curls off his face as he looks up at her to see if she's still listening.

"Sorry, I'm late..." Dakota says sauntering in as her smile drops quickly when she sees Chase perched on Billie's lap. "Oh, I didn't know you'd be baby-sitting him"

"His name is Chase." Billie says not looking up at Dakota as Chase continues on with his story about how we had to pull-over on the side of the road yesterday because "Mommy got sick to her tummy again."

Though Billie knows about my pregnancy she acts surprised to hear about me getting sick to my stomach when Chase tells her about me throwing up. "What made mommy sick?" She asks looking me then at Chase as she shifts him in her lap.

"I dunno." He says shrugging as he places his sharks in his lap again.

"Billie!" Dakota says sitting next to Billie causing Chase's sharks to fall onto the ground and Dakota to give him a dirty look. Seriously, he's a toddler.