Page 121 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

More followed.

Aurora walked in like a one-woman army, baby on her hip, scanning the room. “She alright?”

“Getting there,” I said.

Her guys, Ethan, Owen, Mason, filed in right behind her.

Ethan gave me a nod. Mason cracked a joke because he always does.

“Someone starts drama on our turf? Cute. Where’s her Yelp so we can torch it?”

Then Kai walked in, flour still on his forearms. Didn’t even change. “What the hell happened?”

Garrett spoke before I could. His voice was stone. “Someone ambushed her outside the bakery. Went live. Tried to humiliate her.”

“No one does that on our home turf. Just so you know, no one’s getting into The Foundry right now. Doors are closed.”

Riley opened her mouth, probably to protest, but she didn’t get the chance. More people started filtering in.

Nate Harper, muttering about “influencer drama,” but showing up anyway.

Samantha came with a pastry box. “Sugar helps,” she whispered to Sadie. “Always does.”

I heard the low voices of more beyond the storage room, but there wasn’t space for them all.

It hit me then.

This town didn’t just show up when it was convenient. Medford showed up when it mattered.

And even if Riley didn’t see herself as part of it yet, she was.

I sat beside her, finally, and rested my hand on her knee.

She turned her head, red-rimmed eyes searching mine. “Why are they all here?”

“Because you matter,” I said. “Because they saw what that girl tried to do out there and decided that doesn’t fly here.”

Her lip trembled. But she didn’t cry again.

She nodded once, then looked over at Sadie. At Lila. At Aurora.

At women who’d been torn up and rebuilt more than once, and were still standing.

She gave the smallest smile. Like maybe it would be okay.

Eventually.

I leaned in a little closer. “You’re not broken, Riley. And even if you were we’d still choose you.”

Her eyes welled again. But this time, she laughed. Shaky, but real. “That sounds dangerously like a romcom line.”

“Yeah, well.” I shrugged. “I’m the brooding one, remember? I’ve gotlayers.”

Another laugh, a little steadier.

Then the door opened again.

Riley had just started to look like she might be okay, as if she had air in her lungs again, when Lucy walked in.

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