Page 17 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

Like I was the best part of her day. Like nothing else mattered but us.

I used to live for it.

I’d barely be off the bike before she was bounding down the front steps, her feet bare, a grin splitting her face as she ran to me.

Jumped into my arms like she had no doubt I’d catch her.

And I always did.

She’d press her face into my neck, laughing as I spun her around. And then she’d pull back, breathless, and look at me like I was her whole damn world.

She made me feelinvincible.

Like I could have given her anything.

Like I was everything.

And now… now I could barely stand in front of this house without feeling like I was about to be swallowed whole.

Because she wasn’t waiting behind that curtain.

There was no light in the window.

No girl on the front steps, breathless and eager to throw herself into my arms.

Just a hollowed-out version of what used to be.

I clenched my jaw, my hands balling into fists at my sides.

I thought I was over her. I’d spent years convincing myself I was.

But standing here, staring at this place, feeling the ghost of her pressed against my chest like she never left?

I wasn’t so sure anymore.

A muscle ticked in my jaw. My chest felt tight, too tight.

I still remembered standing here the night she packed up to leave me forever.

Waiting. Hoping. Praying she’d change her mind.

I had prayed she’d run back to me. Say she couldn’t do it. That we’d figure it out together.

But she never did.

I still heard the sound of her car pulling away in my worst fucking dreams.

A sharp crunch of gravel behind me.

I knew that sound.

I stiffened.

Then… her voice.

“Kai?”

Everything in me locked up.

---