Page 276 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

Paige reaches me first. She throws both arms around me so hard I stumble backward into Jamie. “I knew it,” she says against my shoulder. “I knew you weren’t gone forever.”

“You absolutely did not,” Liam calls from behind her.

“I hoped.”

“That is not the same thing.”

Paige releases me only so Becca can pull me into another hug. Then Toby wraps one arm around my shoulders, Liam squeezes me from the other side, and suddenly I am trapped in the middle of what appears to be a full team pileup.

“Careful,” Jamie says. His voice is calm, but his expression is worried.

Liam immediately lifts both hands. “We’re not breaking her, Captain.”

“You’d better not.”

Toby looks past me toward Jamie. “So, this was the emergency?”

Jamie steps closer and slides his arm around my waist. “This was the emergency.”

The room erupts. There are cheers. Actual cheers. Someone whistles. Paige starts crying exactly as Jamie predicted.

Liam points at Jamie. “You could have warned us.”

“And ruin this?” Jamie asks.

“You made me clean.”

Toby looks offended. “This is my house.”

“Exactly. That’s how serious I thought it was.”

I laugh before I can stop myself. Every head turns toward me. For half a second, I feel self-conscious. Then Jamie looks down at me with so much love in his eyes that everything else disappears.

Toby notices, of course he notices. His expression softens.

“So,” he says, “I take it Idaho didn’t work out?”

“It was beautiful,” I say.

“But?”

I look at Jamie. “But it wasn’t home.”

The room goes quiet again. This time, it is not shock. It is something warmer.

Paige presses both hands over her heart. Becca wipes at the corner of one eye.

Liam looks suspiciously emotional, though he quickly shoves a handful of chips into his mouth to hide it.

Jamie’s arm tightens around me.

Toby nods slowly, as if I have confirmed something he already knew. “Okay, then,” he says. “Welcome home.”

Those two words nearly break me.

Welcome home. Not welcome back. Home.

Jamie bends and presses a kiss to my temple. Someone whistles again.