Page 134 of The Way Home

“One hundred sixtykilometers?!” Sally yelled for the tenth time. “He’s bikingone hundred sixty kilometers?”

“Yes,” Caleb said, eyes scanning the bikers zooming by them on the path. “I know it’s far.” Their group was gathered on the side of Madeira Drive, near where Jamie would finish the race.

“But…” Sally chewed her bottom lip. “He’ll be okay, right?”

Her girlfriend, Julia, rubbed her back. “He’ll be okay, love.”

“Sal.” Caleb turned and squeezed her shoulder. “I have his location. He’s fine, he’ll be here any second.”

“I see him!” Mike screamed from Caleb’s right. His gaze shot to the bike path.

“That’s not him, you dolt.” Caleb heard Bri smack Mike playfully on the arm.

“Oh. Well, that guy had curly hair, too!”

Caleb kept his eyes on the path as a big smile spread across his face. It was sweet that Bri and Mike made the trip all the way out here. And even nicer that Jamie had helped them coordinate it as a surprise. Maggie and Pippa were somewhere in the crowd as well, holding ridiculous signs to get Jamie’s attention.

The Chelsea summer camp ended last week, and Caleb missedthe kids already. They had been some of the best, most exciting months of his career, but also some of the most stressful.

Applying to medical school wasnoteasy.

But Jamie had sat through it with him, took on most of the cooking and cleaning, and even recruited JB to read over his applications. The Frenchman was annoying, but hedidhave an English degree from Cambridge. Now Caleb just had to wait to see if anywhere accepted him.

Jamie already agreed to move wherever Caleb got in. He focused mostly on applying to schools in the Midwest and California. With his father’s passing, Caleb felt like it might be kind of nice getting to live near his sisters again.

“Okay, I think that’sactuallyJamie!” Bri yelled over the noise. “He’s wearing the green helmet, right?”

“Yep.” Caleb squinted his eyes and searched the sea of cyclists. It didn’t take much, though—he could pick his man out of any crowd.

There he was, rounding the corner, face scrunched up in concentration. Even from this distance, Caleb saw the slight tilt to his lips, the flush of his cheeks.

Jamie lookedhappy. And that was all Caleb cared about in this world.

As he got closer, their group exploded with excitement. Cheers ofGo Jamie!andyou got this!drowned out the noise around them. Jamie’s eyes darted to their group, a big smile spreading over his face, before he fixed his eyes back on the road and zoomed by.

“Okay, let’s go!” Bri led the way through the crowd, using her phone to navigate to the street where they’d meet Jamie at the finish line.

Caleb trotted up next to Sally. “How’s the new coach?”

Julia snorted as she slipped her arm around her girlfriend. “Way fucking better.”

Sally nodded. “Yeah, she’s awesome. A million times better than Halcombe,andshe’s badass.” She smiled. “We love her already.”

Caleb’s heart expanded in his chest. He hadn’t met Coach Davis yet, but he itched for the season to start. Summer camp was awesome and super fun, but he was ready to get started with hisplayers. After all, if he got into med school, this might be his last season here for a while.

That thought didn’t bother him as much as he would’ve expected. If the past few months had taught him anything, it was that it didn’t really matterwherehe was, as long as he had Jamie with him.

Jamie should’ve knownthat Mike and Pippa would be trouble together.

They were currently taking the piss out of each other while they were supposed to be helping Jamie set up chairs.

“Wanna go to theJosieshore?”

“I donotsay Jersey like that!”

“Yeah, you do, Josie boy!”

“Fine. To theJerseyshore. After some tea and crumpets, yeah?” Mike’s British accent was atrocious.