Page 35 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

Kai had been standing near the bar, drink in hand, relaxed. But the second Sadie walked in, his expression shifted.

His fingers tightened around the glass, his jaw ticking as his gaze flicked over her, like he knew her in a way that no one else did.

I knew Kai. I knew his tells, the little cracks in his composure that most people never noticed.

And right now? Right now, he was fighting… well, I wasn’t sure what.

I’d suspected for a while that he and Sadie had history. There was an easiness between them, a shorthand that spoke of years rather than weeks.

And he called her ‘S’ like they’d a great bond. But they never talked about it. Not openly. Not in a way that gave me any real answers.

I didn’t want to push.

Not when I had my own little secret… our night in The Medford Inn.

The way she’d looked at me in the dark, her guard slipping just enough for me to see her rawness underneath.

I rolled my shoulders, forcing my grip to relax around the ball in my hand.

Now wasn’t the time for this shit. I had a game to finish, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to embarrass myself in front of half the damn town.

But even as I lined up for my next shot, even as I took a slow breath and set my focus, my eyes found her again.

She was standing near the score table now but she must have felt my gaze because she looked up, meeting my eyes across the lanes.

My pulse kicked.

Hard.

Her lips parted slightly, like she was about to speak, but she didn’t. She just held my stare, an intense flickering in those green eyes of hers, before she finally turned away.

I swallowed hard, pulled my focus back to the pins, and let the ball fly.

I didn’t miss.

But it didn’t matter.

Because Sadie Collins was in my head.

And I had no idea what the hell to do about it.

The night carried on in a blur of rolling balls, playful taunts, and competitive tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

But through all of it—every strike, every near-miss, every single goddamn moment—my attention kept drifting back to Sadie.

She wasn’t doing anything special.

Just standing there, laughing, playfully shoving Adam when he got too smug, biting her lip when she was concentrating on the game.

But fuck, was it distracting.

I told myself I wouldn’t make a fool of myself again. Wouldn’t let her get in my head like that first shot.

But when I caught her looking at me—when our eyes met across the lanes—I felt that same damn pull.

Like gravity.

Like I could fall into her, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to get back up.

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