Page 79 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

There was a beat of silence, and then I saw the unmistakable softness in Hayley’s smile.

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Not at all. You’ve got a big heart, Sadie. You always have. And I think that’s exactly where you belong.”

I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. “I just don’t know how to do it yet. Money, resources… it’s not like I can just snap my fingers and make it happen.”

“Then you figure it out, just like you always do. You don’t have to have all the answers right now, sweetheart. You just have to start.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe I didn’t need to know every single step before taking the first one.

This was the town I had run from, the place I never thought I’d come back to for more than a visit. But now…

I bit my lip. “What if I stayed?”

The words slipped out before I had fully thought them through, and once they were in the air, they felt bigger.

Heavier.

Hayley didn’t react right away. She just watched me, as if she’d been waiting for me to say it. “Do youwantto stay?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “I think I might.”

And wasn’t that terrifying?

I had spent so much time convincing myself that Medford was just a pit stop, a place to regroup before I figured out where I was really supposed to go. But what if this wasit?

What if this was where I was supposed to be all along?

Hayley smiled, a knowing look in her eyes. “That doesn’t surprise me either.”

I huffed. “You seem to know me better than I know myself.”

“Of course I do,” she said simply. “And I know that no matter where you go, you’ll find a way to make it yours. But maybe you don’t have to go anywhere at all. As you know, you always have a place here.”

As she hugged me, I knew I still wasn’t sure.

But Ihadjust put another option on the table for myself, and that was something.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Adam

The rhythmic clangof weights and low hum of conversation filled the gym as I pushed through another set of reps.

The place was packed with familiar faces.

Medford wasn’t a big town, and the gym was one of the few places where everyone, from ex-high-school jocks to middle-aged business owners, came to blow off steam.

I spotted Garrett Wolfe near the squat rack, arms crossed as he observed one of the younger guys struggling with his form.

Garrett had always been the kind of guy people listened to—steady, dependable, and built like he could chop down a tree with his bare hands.

Which I’d heard he could.

He caught my eye and nodded.

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