Page 102 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

Maybe this makeover wasn’t just about looking good—maybe it was about stepping into the next chapter, whatever that might look like.

“You okay?” Lila’s voice was softer now as she brushed something lightly onto my face. “You look…”

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Mmhmm.” Aurora didn’t buy it for a second, but didn’t push. “Maybe you need to tell us all about your life in Medford before you left.”

“Huh?” I asked, reaching for a curl of my hair that Aurora had just twisted around a hot iron.

“Yeah, I’d like to know all about it,” Lila agreed. “I mean, we might have even been in school at a similar time—in different grades, of course—and crossed paths.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I was very quiet…”

“Quiet?” Lila repeated with a teasing smile. “You, quiet? I find that hard to believe.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t suppress a small laugh. “Trust me. I was the type who kept to herself. Always had my head buried in a book or drawing in my sketchpad. I wasn’t exactly the life of the party. When I came here, I had a lot going on…”

“So, did you ever get into trouble?” Aurora asked. “There must have been something…”

I laughed. “Oh, that’s easy. I once sneaked into the old water tower with Kai. Thought it would be fun to see the view from the top at night. Got caught by the sheriff.”

The room went suddenly still. Lila froze mid-application of whatever she was doing to my face, and Aurora’s eyes widened so dramatically I thought they might pop out of her head.

“Wait,” Lila said slowly, her voice rising in disbelief. “You… and Kai?”

I nodded, my mind racing back to that night. It felt like a lifetime ago, and yet the memory was still so vivid. “Yeah, it was a dumb idea, but we thought it’d be fun. You know, just two rebellious kids trying to break the rules.”

Aurora blinked a few times as if she hadn’t fully processed what I’d said. “You… and Kai Bryne? You were together before?”

I bit my lip, caught off guard. I’d grown so used to being part of small-town gossip that I just assumedeveryonehad heard about me and him. Apparently not.

“Yeah, Kai and I were definitely childhood sweethearts.”

Lila leaned in closer, clearly intrigued. “And what about now? Do you… uh, does the past with Kai still affect things with you two? And with the other guys?”

It was a question I wasn’t sure how to answer. My past with Kai was tangled up in so many memories. Some good, some painful, all of them impossible to ignore. And now, with everything else in the mix—Samuel, Adam, the pregnancy—I felt like I was standing at a crossroads without a map.

“I don’t know,” I confessed, my voice quieter now. “Kai and I… we had something real once. And when I see him now, when I see all of them, it’s like—” I shook my head. “It’s like I’m caught between the past and whatever this is now.”

Aurora nodded in agreement. “The thing is, Sadie, love doesn’t always come in the package we expect. Sometimes it’s messy and complicated, but that doesn’t make it any less real.”

My gaze drifted toward Jace and Evie, both dozing peacefully. The thought of my own baby, of bringing a child into this world with so much uncertainty, was daunting. But then I thought of those three men, and the way each of them had shown up for me in different ways.

Samuel, steady and sure, always looking out for me.

Adam, with his easy charm and the way he could make me laugh even on my hardest days.

And Kai… Kai, who had always been my past but was suddenly part of my future again.

“I guess I just need time,” I finally said. “To figure out what this all means.”

As Lila and Aurora continued to work their magic, the conversation flowed easily, and I tried to relax into it, despite the flurry of activity happening around me.

Lila was finishing up with my face, carefully applying a soft blush to my cheeks, while Aurora worked on my hair, twisting each curl with precision. It felt like every stroke of the brush and each dab of makeup was a step toward something I couldn’t quite put into words yet.

“Okay,” Lila said, brushing off stray powder from my cheek. “We’re almost done. Just need to add a little more mascara to make those eyes pop, and then I’m handing you off to Aurora for the final touches.”

I watched her dip the mascara wand into the tube, her focus so steady it almost made me forget to breathe. I felt a strange flutter in my stomach, and it wasn’t just because of the makeup.

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