Billie's POV
I used to think toddlers were all the same. Loud, messy, impossible.
But after a few days with Skylar and Mackenzie, I realized something they're not just "kids." They're two completely different people.
Skylar's quiet moments catch me off guard. Like when she sat by the window yesterday, watching the rain without a sound.
She had this faraway look, like she was somewhere else, somewhere safe that I couldn't reach.
Mackenzie? She's fire. She runs through the house like she owns the place, laughing loud enough to shatter glass.
She challenges me, pushes every limit, but she's got this sparkle in her eyes that's impossible to ignore.
And me? I'm caught somewhere between wanting to run and wanting to hold them both close forever. It's confusing. Scary. Weird.
Last night, Mackenzie fell asleep in my lap while I was playing her favorite song.
The way her tiny fingers gripped my shirt made my heart twist in a way I didn't expect.
Maybe this isn't just a stunt after all.
Maybe it's the start of something real.
Because as I sat there, feeling the steady rise and fall of Mackenzie's breathing, something inside me softened a little crack in the wall I'd spent years building around myself.
It wasn't a floodgate or anything dramatic. Just a tiny, quiet shift. But it was there.
And I realized maybe I'd been wrong all along.
Maybe kids weren't the terrifying, exhausting little storms I thought they were.
Maybe they were just people, people who'd been hurt, people who needed someone to show up, day after day, even when it was hard.
I looked down at Mackenzie's peaceful face and then over at Skylar, curled up on the floor with her dinosaur toy.
Both of them so small, so fragile, but somehow so fierce. Like they'd been through too much already and still had so much fight left.
And even though I wasn't ready to admit it out loud even though I still wanted to hide away from it all a quiet part of me hoped this wasn't just temporary.
Maybe they were exactly what I needed.
YOU ARE READING
Unexpected Family
AdventureBillie Eilish doesn't do kids. She doesn't like them, doesn't understand them, and definitely never wanted any of her own. But when her management team sets up a temporary foster care publicity stunt two toddlers, a camera crew, and a whole lot of c...
