Page 32 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

Adam nodded slowly. “She sounds like a good woman.”

“She is,” I said firmly. “She didn’t have to take me in, but she did. And she never made me feel like I was some burden she had to deal with. She wanted me there.” I smiled faintly. “She used to say family wasn’t just about blood, it was about who showed up, who stayed.”

“That’s true,” Adam murmured. He looked down, like he was turning everything over in his mind before he met my gaze again. “You were lucky, yeah. But so was she.”

The words caught me off guard. “What?”

Adam shrugged. “You think she didn’t feel the same way? That maybe you were exactly what she needed, too?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, surprised. I’d never thought about it like that. Hayley had been my safe place, my anchor. But had I been something for her too?

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

Adam studied me for a long second, then nodded toward the door. “Come on.”

I frowned. “What?”

“You need a minute. Let’s take a walk.”

I hesitated. “What about the restaurant?”

“Kai and Samuel can handle it.”

I let out a small laugh. “You sure about that?”

Adam smirked. “Not even a little. But it’ll be fine.”

I stared at him, searching his face, but all I found was certainty. A steadiness I hadn’t expected. And maybe that was what made me say, “Okay.”

Because for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I had to hold it all on my own.

CHAPTER NINE

Samuel

Bowling wasn’t my thing.

Not because I was bad at it. I wasn’t. I had a decent arm, enough control to avoid completely humiliating myself.

But the whole spectacle of it? The town coming together every Thursday night like this was some kind of national event?

That was what always got me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like community—I owned a damn restaurant in the heart of Medford, after all—but something about these nights brought out the competitive side of everyone in town.

And tonight?

Tonight was going to be a war.

“The firehouse boys are already talking shit,” Adam said, dropping onto the bench beside me as I laced up my bowling shoes. “Jaxon said he’s gonna wipe the floor with us.”

I smirked. “He says that every week.”

“And every week, he backs it up,” Kai pointed out, crossing his arms as he surveyed the lanes.

The firehouse team—Jaxon, Ryan, Colt, and Nate—were already warming up, laughing and clapping each other on the back like they had this in the bag.

Then there was the police team, Frank Davis and Bryan Hall standing with their arms crossed, watching the competition unfold with knowing grins.

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