Page 47 of The Way Home

Angie went first. “Hey, Jamie. I’m Angie. I’m really happy to hear you are recovering.”

“Hey, J!” Dillion jogged over and kissed him on the cheek. His eyes went wide. “You look good.”

“Hey Jamie!”

“So glad to have you here, Jamie.”

“Let us know if you need anything!”

God, Caleb loved these women.

Jamie smiled politely, but when his eyes locked on Sally, his face fell. She froze as he said, “You… I think I… did we play Scrabble?”

Sally’s face lit up. “Yes! We did! I come to all your Game Nights.”

With a shy smile, Jamie held out his hand to shake hers. “Brilliant. It’s nice to see you again.” He looked proud of himself.

“It’s Sally,” she said confidently, shaking his hand. “If you forgot. Which would be understandable.”

Caleb tried to ignore the small pang of jealousy he felt that Jamie remembered a small detail about Sally. Before he could dwell on it too long, he heard Freya barreling toward him, now with about six other kids behind her. “Comeon!”she yelled, leading them valiantly. He recognized most of them. Willow, Liv’s daughter. Peter, he forgot who he belonged to. Poppy and Ruby, Sweeney’s twins.

Caleb’s heart sank when he spotted Coach Halcombe’s son, Nate. He liked the kid but couldn’t stand his father. If Nate was here, Halcombe was lurking around somewhere.

Facing the horde of children, Caleb clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Alright, kiddos, who wants to play keep away while your moms do drills?”

Ellie’s attention waslocked on the Chelsea women’s practice, but Jamie couldn’t pry his eyes away from Caleb. The man had been playing with a group of rowdy kids, skillfully maneuvering the ball away from them, sometimes pretending to lose the ball with an exaggerated, “Darn it!”

It was sweet to watch. He was really good with them, and he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself. It made Jamie’s heart feel all gooey.

Had they ever discussed having children? Probably. Surely, if they were engaged, Jamie would’ve insisted they were on the same page about it.

Jamie’s heart sank. Just one more important conversation he didn’t remember having…

After a very impressive ‘save’ during keepaway, Caleb was currently at the bottom of a jumble of children trying to pry the ball from his hands. “I saved it fair and square!” Caleb exclaimed as he held the ball over his head.

The oldest, Nate, was yelling, “But you’re taller than us, it’s not fair!”

“Not my fault you’re super short.”

Caleb pretended to fumble the ball between his hands, punctuating it with a few “whoa, whoa, whoa!”s, before dropping it in front of Freya, who ran away yelling, “Breakaway!” The rest of the children followed.

Caleb stood and stretched his back, cheeks flushed and eyes twinkling with amusement. His Nike jacket was very wrinkled.

The moment he caught Jamie’s eye, he jogged over.

“Are you cold? I brought an extra jacket.”

“I’m alright.”

“Hope you’re not too bored.”

Jamie shook his head. “Not at all. This is surreal.” He glanced around Stamford Bridge Arena. “Just to be here is crazy.”

“Yeah, you’ve always been starry-eyed about coming to these things with me.” A dimple in Caleb’s cheek formed, and something in Jamie’s chest loosened. It was nice to see him so relaxed. “I love this stadium. Plus, it’s nice not having to go out to Kingsmeadow as much anymore. It was so far.” He plunked himself down on the grass, facing Jamie. “I originally got my car because going from the different stadiums was becoming annoying. But since the team has performed so well the last few seasons, the league has us playing here.” He reached his arms out wide and fell onto his back.

“It’s amazing. I can’t believe you get to come here for work,” Jamie said, looking down at him.

“I know, right?” Caleb’s smile was pure sunshine as he looked around. “It’s fucking unreal sometimes. I’d love to tell everyone back in Ohio, like, look at me now. You know?” He propped himself up on his elbows. “But, hey, look whereyouget to work every day.I mean, people come from all over the world to go to The British Library.”