Page 48 of The Way Home

Jamie felt his cheeks warm. “I know. I’m so lucky.”

An elbow nudged the side of Jamie’s shin. “Luck has nothing to do with it, and you know it.” The little bit of contact between them made Jamie’s heart do a little, embarrassing wiggle.

“I’m being summoned,” Caleb sighed. Jamie looked up, and two little boys were rushing over and yelling. Caleb got to his feet and asked, “You guys good here, though? Need anything?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about us. We are fine. Right, El?” Ellie didn’t even look at Jamie as she waved her hand and said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” A blue Chelsea beanie covered her jet-black hair, and her eyes were locked on the women doing drills. “Jones should really work on her first touch today instead of fiddling around. Don’t you lot play the Wolves next week?”

Caleb gave Jamie an amused smile and shook his head. “Yes, Ellie, we do.”

“Then she should befocusing.Her game’s been all over the place lately, and she’s hesitating on the ball.”

“Cool. Why don’t you go over and tell her that?”

“Maybe I will.”

“Better yet, Coach Halcombe just got here. Why don’t you go tell him?”

Ellie didn’t look away from practice but managed to give Caleb the middle finger. Their dynamic fascinated Jamie.

Without warning, Caleb leaned down toward Jamie and whispered in his ear. “She’ll be the coach around here one day. I’d put money on it.”

Jamie cleared his throat, because the low rumble of Caleb’s voice in his ear was doing funny things to his brain. When Caleb pulled back, his lips softly brushed the corner of Jamie’s ear, and warmth flooded his body down to his toes.

“Er, yep. Yeah, totally,” Jamie managed, then internally cringed.

Caleb bit his lip. “By the way, you got Valentine’s Day plans?”

Jamie’s eyes went wide. “What—no.No, of course not.”

Caleb reached out and brushed Jamie’s cheek with his knuckles. “Will you let me take you out?”

Jamie blinked and said, “Yeah.” It came out sounding more like an exhale,earning him a smile and another brush of Caleb’s soft fingers.

“So cute,” Caleb breathed. It was clear that he liked to fluster Jamie by being so… hot. And sweet. And that just flustered Jamiemore.It felt like the world had zeroed in on a single point: Caleb. With his smoldering eyes, and his devilish smirk, and now Jamie’s brain felt all fuzzy—

“Mister Caleb?” The little voice jolted Jamie so hard he almost fell from his chair. The two boys—around six or seven in age—were panting as they finally made it over to Caleb. With identical blond hair and striking blue eyes, Jamie was fairly certain they were twins.

Caleb turned. “Sup, boys?”

The one bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet while the other wrung his hands nervously. His eyes flicked nervously to Jamie and then back to Caleb.

“Oops, my bad.” Caleb turned. “Brody and Steven, this is Jamie. Jamie, this is Brody.” He nodded to the bouncing one. “And this is Steven.” The hand wringer. “And that’s Ellie, remember her?”

That was never confirmed because the two boys just stared at Ellie with their mouths hanging open. Their little cheeks turned pink.

“Hey, guys,” Ellie said.

Brody went back to bouncing on his feet. It made Jamie a little anxious.

Steven asked shyly, “Are you Mister Caleb’s friend?”

“Um, yeah,” Jamie said in a small voice.

Caleb flashed a small smile and said, “He’s my partner, Steven. We live together.”

Brody started bouncing harder, and Jamie had to resist the urge to squeeze his eyes shut. “Are you two, like, gay?”

Ellie snorted. Jamie wanted to melt into the earth.