Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

12. Sophie

Chapter 12

Sophie

W alking up to Camille’s house, I know I shouldn’t be awed at the decorations for this party, but I already am as I stare at a large balloon arch that isn’t an arch, but more like a piece of art. The balloons are in all different sizes and it’s made up of silver, shades of green, and yellow. It’s beautiful.

“Good afternoon,” a gentleman in a tux says, as he opens the door for me.

“Hello there,” I answer as I duck past him and into the foyer, which has exploded with green and white orchids. It’s here where one staff member takes my gift from me and a server greets me holding a platter of white fizzy-looking drinks with mint.

I shouldn’t be surprised she has a signature cocktail for the event, that’s a very Camille thing to do.

Camille squeals when she sees me and she waddles over to give me a hug. She looks radiant in a pale green dress that is skintight and hugging her belly perfectly.

“You have to come meet some people,” she says, as she drags me into the living room. There are her friends from New York, Charlie, Ali and Leila who are both married to two brothers, her mother, and Reid’s mother. Then there’s Lexi, Meg, Missy, her friend Katie, and maybe ten more wives and girlfriends from the team. It’s a nice-size group and I’m so happy for her.

It’s then next to Lexi I see Vivi. She’s watching me and I wave at her. She waves back and then slowly makes her way on over to stand next to me.

“Look how pretty you are today,” I tell her as I take in her outfit. It’s almost identical to Camille’s and I love that she’s gone out of her way to make this day special for her too.

“Thank you. I like your dress, too,” she tells me.

The invitation said spring cocktail attire and I’ve known Camille long enough to know that means something different in the South.

“This old thing?” I pop my hip out. I’m wearing a coral-colored Lily Pulitzer dress that is tight on the top with spaghetti straps, but has a full flaring skirt that stops just before my knees. I have on gold jewelry and gold heels.

She giggles.

“Wanna play the games with me?” she asks, eyes big and hopeful.

“Sure, lead the way.”

She takes my hand and my heart thuds in my chest. She’s so sweet and she’s so Jonah.

We spend the next thirty minutes or so guessing how many diapers are in the diaper cake, how many jellybeans are in the jar, filling in the blanks to classic nursery rhymes, filling out a card titled “Who Knows Mommy Best,” and eating. Eating canapés that I’ve dreamed about since the tasting, lunch, cake, you name it, I’m stuffed. It was all so delicious.

We’ve just settled on the couch to watch Camille open presents when she leans over and curiously asks, “Uncle Jonah just said you were a doctor, but what kind of doctor are you?”

“An orthopedic doctor,” I tell her.

“Orthopedic,” she says more to herself and sounding out the letters.

While orthopedics covers all areas of the musculoskeletal system, such as, muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons, I make it easy on her when I say, “I’m a bone doctor.”

“You like bones?” Her face is a little scrunched up like she doesn’t understand.

“I do. I love them. They’re so interesting. Take Ms. Camille’s baby, when it’s born, they’ll have over three hundred bones, but by the time they’re big like me and your uncle Jonah, there’ll only be two hundred and six.”

“What happens to them?” she asks.

“As you grow, they fuse to make you taller and stronger.”

We then proceed to spend the next fifteen minutes talking about bones. Fortunately for me, it’s a subject I could talk about endlessly, unfortunately for her, she’s currently the recipient. But in the end she thinks about the things we’ve talked about and says, “I think I might like bones too.”

“What else do you like?” I ask her.

She gives me a small smile as she says, “Ballet, Molly, dolphins, strawberries, baking, reading,” shyly she pauses, “wildflowers.”

Wildflowers.

Jonah called her Wildflower, there must be a story there.

“I love all of those things, too. Even the wildflowers. There’s this one that grows here in Florida called a phlox. They are a mixture of pinks, purple, and white.”

“I like pink.”

“I can tell, look at your pretty fingernails.”

She looks down at her hands. “Uncle Jonah painted them for me.”

Be still my heart.

I already thought he was attractive, that’s a given, but the more I hear of the little details like nicknames, painting her fingernails, going to the puppy boutique, he’s starting to take on superhero qualities, which moves him to a whole new level.

“He did a good job.”

“Thank you,” comes a deep voice from behind us and my heart jolts.

She smiles at me and then turns to face him.

“Hi, Uncle Jonah,” Vivi says, her face lighting up.

His gaze skips between the two of us, before it lands on her. Meanwhile, I can’t tear mine off him. I don’t know if he’s coming from somewhere or if he dressed nicely to come inside, but he's wearing khaki pants that are molded to his thighs and a sage-green polo that is molded to his chest and arms.

“Hi, Wildflower. Having fun?”

She gets up to go to him, she jumps and he catches her. It’s then I watch the two of them hug like they haven’t seen each other in months. It’s a tight, long loving hug, and my eyes prick at the sweetness and the devastation of her needing a hug like this. Obviously, I understand there’s lingering trauma, but I never considered separation anxiety. Of course she worries that when he leaves her, she’ll never see him again. My heart aches for them both. There’s so much about what the two of them have had to deal with and overcome over the past two years, I feel nothing but admiration for him.

For her too.

She pulls back. “Yes, Ms. Sophie is teaching me about bones.”

“Is she now?” His hazel eyes land back on me and I almost stutter, as he’s half rendered me stupid by just one look, and I take a deep breath to pull myself together.

“Yes, she asked me what kind of doctor I was, which in turn led to a conversation about babies, her broken ankle, and how the foot has twenty-six bones.”

“Babies?” He looks a little panicked.

I follow where his mind has gone and have to roll my lips between my teeth for a second to keep from laughing. “Yes, babies are born with over three hundred bones.”

He looks back at her, she’s watching him and he says, “That’s a lot of bones. Try not to break any more of them, okay?”

She giggles.

“Why don’t you go tell Ms. Camille thank you for inviting you, and that I’m here for you. Molly is in the car and we don’t want her to get too hot.”

“Okay.”

He gently lets her down, she takes off, and Jonah and I end up staring at each other.

“So bones,” he says, breaking the silence.

I shrug. “It’s what I know.”

He chuckles. “I’m certain you know a lot more than that. How was the party?” he asks, as he looks around. Now that the presents are opened, people have scattered into their own conversations and are all about the house.

“It was good, you know Camille. She’s so happy today. I still can’t get over them not finding out the gender of the baby. My type A personality can’t handle that at all.”

“Right. My brother and his wife found out that Vivi was a girl during one of their appointments. She instantly had an identity, became known to all of us as Vivianne and was a full-time member of the family before she was even born. Before that, I don’t know, it was just different. She was just pregnant with a baby.”

“Did they want a girl?”

He tucks his hands into his pants pockets. “They didn’t care. Both of them were school teachers and loved all kids. John coached his high school’s football team, so I think maybe he might have wanted a boy, but he was the best girl dad.”

My heart aches at the past tense use when he speaks about them.

“Well, from what I’ve seen, you happen to be a pretty good girl uncle, too.”

Jonah doesn’t say anything, he just looks at me openly, a little pink hitting his cheeks.

“So I guess this is how it’s going to be now,” I say to him.

“What do you mean?”

“We went from not seeing each other at all, to running into each other all the time.”

He hesitates, and then he says, “I hope so.”

Butterflies dance their way around my stomach.

“You look beautiful, by the way,” he says, his gaze traveling over me.

I glance down at the dress and smooth the skirt out. “Thank you.”

“I’m ready,” Vivi says as she moves to stand next to Jonah. She takes his hand, and his large one wraps around hers, covering it entirely.

“Okay, then,” he says, looking at her and then at me.

Together the three of us walk toward the door. I’m not leaving, I’m just walking them out apparently.

The staff member that took my bag, hands Vivi a goodie bag that has her name on it. Her face lights up as she glances at the contents. While I’m certain she got the goodies everyone else is getting, her bag has a few more things stuffed inside.

“So I’ll see you around?” he says.

And using his words from that day in Hyde Park Village, I tell him, “I hope so.”