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“You don’t have to hang back. We’ll catch up to you.”

Raj nodded before taking off at a sprint, surprising me. He was outpacing us pretty well, but I knew Weston could ride quick and dirty, trained by the aggressive New York traffic—especially the cabbies—not to tarry on the streets of Manhattan. I was barely able to keep up with him, though Raj was far ahead of us. I’d be glad when we stopped to take a break.

West pedaled ahead of me, unable to hold himself back for too long. After a few miles, I noticed Raj slowing down. West looked back under his left arm, but I motioned for him to keep going.

I caught up to Raj and slowed my pace as Weston blew by him. “You okay?” His face was sweaty, and he seemed a little out of it as he stared at me. “It’s me—Bridges.”

He stopped, pushing his bike off the trail. “Yeah, uh, sure. I don’t think I’m as ready for this as I thought. How far have we gone?”

I glanced at the odometer app on my phone to see that we’d logged a good piece of the first leg of our ride. “About thirty-five miles. We have another fifteen before we meet our folks at the restaurant for lunch.”

I scanned his bike to see Raj didn’t have any water, so I gave him my bottle. Alexis had a case in a cooler in the camper.

“You don’t have any water, Raj. You’re probably getting dehydrated. How far do you usually ride?” I didn’t want to be shitty about things, but I’d just met the couple the previous night, and I didn’t want him to be injured. He seemed like a nice guy.

“I ride about fifty miles a week, but that’s just five a day and ten on weekends. I’ve been increasing my mileage, but apparently, not enough. I forgot my water bottle in the SUV. Shit. Go ahead and catch up to West. Damn, that guy rides fast.”

“He’s training for a cross-country ride from Brooklyn to San Francisco next June. He works for a bike delivery service in Manhattan, and he rides about a hundred miles a day so you shouldn’t feel bad about keeping up. West is better equipped for a ride like this than either of us.

“Let me call our support team and tell them to wait for us at the Washington rest stop. They’ll relay to West what’s going on, and I’ll catch up to him at the next stop by riding with the girls. You want to walk for a bit? We can slow our pace and get to the stop when we do.”

Raj nodded, and we moved closer to the right side of the trail and walked our bikes. “Is there a particular reason West is undertaking such a long ride?” Raj asked as he continued drinking my water.

I hesitated to share anything with him about West’s reasons for the ride, but I decided the guy seemed nice enough to give him a little insight. “He’s doing a Pride ride next June with the proceeds from sponsorships going to the Rainbow Equality Alliance. The headquarters is in San Francisco, and he’s planning to deliver the check in person.” I left off anything pertaining to Aames Investments and Weston’s role in the company going forward.

Raj glanced at me and grinned. “Ah, you guys are a couple. That’s great. You look really good together.”

I decided not to correct him because it wasn’t his business when it came to our status. I certainly wasn’t about to pontificate about how West and I knew each other or if we were a couple because, honestly, I wasn’t sure myself.

Maybe Raj speaking it into the Universe would make it so? One could hope.

“My older brother and his husband attend several Pride events around the country during the summer. I’ll have to tell him about this. He owns LGBTQ+ friendly bars around California. Well, he and Eric do. I bet they’d be down to sponsor West’s ride.”

We continued discussing West’s upcoming trip, and by the time we arrived at The Show-Me Café in Washington, Raj had called his brother Kian, and I’d spoken with him. We were planning a conference call with Kian and his husband, Eric Batterman, the next week.

When Raj and I rolled up at the restaurant, I wasn’t surprised to see Weston sitting under a shade tree near the restaurant with his bike leaning against a tree. We said goodbye to Raj and Kayley, waiting outside for a minute before heading into the café to join Steph and Alexis.

“I was about to turn around and come find you. I was worried,” West said as I pulled him from the ground and wrapped my arms around him.

“Thank you. I think Raj bit off a little more than he could chew with this ride, so I hung back to be sure he was okay. He didn’t bring water, and I think he was dehydrated. I gave him mine.” I pointed to the empty water bottle clip on the downtube of the frame.

“Trust you to think of someone other than yourself. I think you need a hydration backpack too. It’s much easier than maneuvering a water bottle out of the clip while you’re peddling.” He offered me his own bottle, which I gladly drained.

I reached for my phone in the side pocket of my bike shorts to make a note about hydration backpacks for both of us for the June ride. After seeing Raj’s pale skin and confusion, I remembered how important hydration was on a ride the likes of West’s. No way would I let something as simple as drinking water derail his success.

I returned the phone into my pocket and took off my helmet, and the two of us wheeled our bikes over to the large bike rack in front of the restaurant. “The ladies already inside?”

West grinned. “They said they were starving, so I told them to go ahead. You and Raj get to know each other while you were walking here?”

I gave him a little shove, the smartass. “I was perfectly fine, you little shit.” We both laughed as we went into the cozy restaurant.

We found Steph and Alexis at a booth for four, so we sat across from them. “Did you order?”

I perused the menu. Most of the selections sounded great, but they were far heavier than I wanted to put on my stomach since we still had a distance to ride.

“No, Mr. Cranky Pants. We waited for you.” Alexis then proceeded to stick out her tongue at me.

One thing I’d noticed about Alexis was that when she was around Stephanie, she was much less serious than she was at the office. I was glad she had a person to be playful and light with. I believed that was a sign of a good match.