Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

30. Jonah

Chapter 30

Jonah

E very year, in late June or early July, individuals of professional football teams start hosting minicamps. It’s a time for key members who work closely together to train and bond as the new season approaches, and this is our week.

This is the third year in a row that Bryan has hosted a minicamp at his house out in the country, at least that’s where we tell him it is. When actually, it’s just about two hours north of Tampa. He and his wife, Lexi, have their home in Tampa on the river and this old large Southern home that they inherited. Apparently, they grew up together here, and it’s such a one-eighty from how I was raised that I’m continually shocked at how different we are when I come here. The property is huge, a little hilly, and it’s surrounded by fields and orchards. It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful, and I can see why they keep this place as their offseason home.

I’m sure you’re wondering where we all sleep. Bryan rents a couple of high-end RVs, has them set on his property, and this gives each of us our own space at night. We start early each day, help him around the property with whatever needs to be done, run routes and drills critiquing each other as we go, and we eat all of Lexi’s food. She’s famous for her pies, and Vivi loves helping her bake them. To her, this is a weeklong vacation where Lexi takes her to ride horses and teaches her how to garden, but for me, it’s work, work, work.

And I love it.

The smell of clean air and fresh-cut grass, the humidity and the whole body sweat that comes with it, and the guys, I’ll remember these specific days for the rest of my life.

But needless to say, I haven’t seen Sophie in a bit. She got back late Sunday night, but Vivi and I had already headed out to settle in at Bryan’s. Typically, we do this week closer to the start of the season in July, but Camille is thirty-eight and a half weeks, and Reid refused to come if it was planned for later. As it turns out, he was right, and late this morning we got the call. Whereas he left immediately, the rest of us helped clean up and then decided to head back early to meet our newest team member.

Just thinking about Sophie has me laughing at her text messages all week. Her trip home turned out to be an interesting one, and I love that she reached out to tell me about it. I know her relationship with her dad is tight and special, and I can only hope that this is how I’ll be with Vivi one day too.

Camden quietly laughs at something Reid says, and it pulls me from my thoughts. I’m certain this hospital has never seen so many random guys standing in their hallway at one time, but they don’t understand that we’re tight. If I’ve learned anything from these guys over the past couple of years, we celebrate together on and off the field, and these moments matter more than football. While everyone is being polite and keeping their voices down, we are a sight to behold, and it’s funny.

Hearing the whoosh of the elevator doors opening, I glance over and see Sophie step off. My heart stutters in my chest at just the sight of her. She’s come straight from work and still has her green scrubs on, and a scrub cap wrapped around her head. I’ve only seen her dressed this way one other time, and it adds a whole new layer to my level of attraction for her. Damn, she looks good. So good that a stutter causes my chest to seize up, and I stop breathing.

That is until she turns. Her eyes immediately connect with mine, and she smiles.

I fall for her all over again.

This feeling, I know without a shadow of a doubt it will happen over and over again.

As she makes her way to us, I feel someone clap me on the shoulder, but I have no idea who it is. Don’t care either. I leave the group and meet her halfway.

“Hi,” she says, smiling up at me. Her cheeks are pink, her eyes are bright and happy, and I don’t even care who’s watching. I wrap my hands around her face, bend down, and kiss her. It’s not an indecent kiss, but with her lips pressed firmly to mine, I feel like the part of me that’s been missing has returned, and I’m whole. A few low whistles echo down the hallway, but again, I don’t care. Her hands land on my rib cage as she rises on her toes. It turns out I think she needed this just as much as I did.

Pulling back, she lets out a contented sigh.

“Hi,” I say back, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear and under the cap.

“I’m so excited,” she says, her hands slipping as she lowers back down and tightening on my waist. The heat from them fuses through my shirt onto my skin, and at this moment, I wish more than anything we were at home so I could feel more than just her hands.

“I waited for you,” I tell her, soaking in all of the details of her face. Not that I know much about makeup, but it looks like she’s only wearing mascara and lip gloss, and I love it. Clear skin, lots of freckles, and her sky-blue eyes.

“What?” She jerks back a little. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I wanted us to meet her together.”

Her smile turns soft, tender, and I swipe my thumb back and forth across her cheek.

“Well, let’s go, then,” she says, bouncing a little.

“All right. Let’s go.” I can’t help but smile at her. Sometimes it still feels surreal that she’s in front of me. How did I get so lucky?

Dropping my hands, she takes one and wraps hers around it. Together, we walk through the guys, who are all staring silently at us, and to Camille’s door.

“So that’s how it is?” Sully grins at us. “Jonah, my boy, you’ve been holding back some details,” he teases, and I shake my head. He can be insufferable sometimes, but he has a heart of gold and means well.

Meanwhile, she acknowledges him with a smile but more or less ignores every other person in the hallway. She’s on a mission, and it’s not to be social at the moment.

Knocking on the door to let them know we’re coming in, Sophie opens it and pokes her head into the crack.

“Sophie,” Camille says, and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “Come in. Come in.”

Sophie slips through the door, and I follow.

The room is a standard single room. Camille lies on her bed. It has a padded rocking chair, a couch that I’m assuming doubles as a bed, and then the clear baby bassinet that’s been pushed up next to Camille. In the room is Mrs. Jackson, Reid’s mother; Nate, his brother; and a former Tarpons player named Jack with his wife, Meg. Jack is retired now, and they live in Charleston, but like I’ve learned with this team, once you’re family, you’re always family.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I saw Jonah’s texts once I was out of surgery, and I came right over,” Sophie says as she makes her way to Camille’s bed to hug her.

“No worries at all. I’m just so glad you’re here.”

“Are you feeling okay?” she asks.

“I feel great,” Camille says, and she looks great too for just having pushed out a baby. “I’m on some cocktail of drugs that is working perfectly.”

“Well, make sure you take it easy and don’t overdo it,” Sophie says as she runs her hand over Camille’s arm.

“Do you see this crew?” She laughs. “I seem to remember Reid’s exact words were, ‘You can just sit there and look pretty. We’ll take it from here.’”

Everyone in the room chuckles. I glance at Reid, and he’s staring at Camille like she hung the moon.

“Hey, Meg, it’s nice to see you,” Sophie says as she walks across the room to give her a hug.

“You too,” she says. “I was hoping we’d run into each other while here.”

I had no idea that these two knew each other. Did they meet years ago, or was it sometime recently? This just further makes me question how did Sophie not know about John’s accident? It’s bizarre that no one ever said anything.

Nate rises from the couch and walks over to hand the baby off to Sophie. He moves slowly, nervous about waking and dropping her, but Sophie dashes to the sink to wash and dry her hands first.

“Sophie, I’d like for you to meet my daughter, Claire,” Camille says.

Claire, after Camille’s sister. I don’t know much about that story, but I do know Claire is Camille’s twin.

“Claire,” she whispers with reverence, her eyes welling with tears as she takes her from Nate. “She must be so proud.”

“I haven’t told her yet, but I will,” Camille says, the two of them sharing a quiet moment.

Everyone watches as Sophie looks down at the baby and wonder lights up her face. I step closer so I can see her, and I’m not surprised at all that Reid and Camille had the most gorgeous baby. Both of them are good looking, but this baby has his dark hair, the sweetest little nose and lips, and when she opens her eyes, they are very blue. They’ve wrapped her in a thin light pink blanket, and she has on a matching pink hat.

“She’s so beautiful.” Sophie slowly begins to sway her hips from side to side.

“Why do all women do that?” Camden asks from behind me. Apparently, a few more of the guys have made their way into the room as well.

Sully backhands him in the chest, but it’s at this moment Sophie looks up and locks eyes with me. Her smile is so large, and in a way, so intimate. I can feel everyone in the room looking at the two of us.

Of course I smile back. How could I not? The most beautiful girl in the world is looking at me, and I would be lying if I said her holding that baby wasn’t giving me caveman vibes.

“For the record, I feel like I got skipped in the line here,” Camden says, and Sully groans next to him.

“What? I’ve been patient,” he says.

“Bro.” I shoot him a look that says knock it off, but Sophie just ignores him.

“Aren’t you just the sweetest?” she says to Claire as she walks over to Camille’s bed, lays her down at the foot of it, and unwraps her. Claire lets out some little catlike noise as Sophie runs her fingers over her arms, hands, legs, feet, and then her spine. She gives Camille a smile and then wraps her back up. “Perfect.”

What’s perfect is how calm I feel watching her pick up Claire and love on her some more.

Calm watching her and knowing without a doubt I’m staring at my future. I’m almost twenty-seven, and although my and Vivi’s lives both got thrown off course for a bit, I feel like we’re finally finding our way. Most people at my age have some idea about what they want their life to look like, yet I really never got that far. It was work hard, get drafted, be traded, work hard again, the accident, learn to heal. But seeing Sophie here, among my friends, among our friends, and holding a baby, is shifting pieces inside me.

Shifting because I want this with her.

Only her.

It feels so good, and it just feels so right.

“Where’s Vivi?” she asks as if she’s suddenly realized Vivi’s not here.

“Downstairs with Lexi getting a drink. I told her you were coming, so she won’t be gone long.”

“Okay, good. I miss her,” she says, and those three words land at a place deep inside me. She then shifts to hand me Claire, and I take her.

The last baby that I held was Vivi, and that feels like a lifetime ago and yesterday. I once heard the expression, “The days are long, but the years are short,” and it couldn’t be any more accurate. It’s hard to believe that Vivi was ever this small.

Around us are quiet conversations, but at this moment, it’s just me and Sophie.

“Do you want kids one day?” I ask her.

“I always saw myself having a family. As for the specifics, I didn’t get that far.”

“Same. It was always something I thought I’d have one day, but definitely wasn’t something I was thinking about. Still haven’t really. With Vivi, we’ve just been surviving.”

“You two seem to be doing all right to me,” she says, watching me in return. Her words slide into my chest. I really am trying to do my best.

“Jonah, time’s up,” Camden says, making his way in front of us.

“Maybe you should sit down for this,” I tell him.

“Why? It’s like you don’t even know me. When have you ever seen me drop anything? That’s the difference between a running back and a wide receiver.” He smirks, and everyone in the room groans.

But without saying more, Camden moves over to the rocking chair and sits down. I follow, gently handing Claire off to him, and then move back to Sophie’s side.

“What are you doing tonight?” I ask her. Her last text this morning didn’t imply she had plans, but you never know.

“Nothing. Why?” she asks, looking up at me curiously but also with an excited anticipation that I might want to see her. I love when she gets like this, but she should know by now that I always want to see her.

“Do you want to have dinner with us?” I run my hand down her back and let it settle at the bottom.

She looks down and then frowns. “I didn’t bring a change of clothes.”

“That’s okay. Clothes are optional,” I whisper so only she can hear me, and her cheeks turn pink. “We can order in. I don’t really have anything fresh to eat since we’ve been gone.”

“Ordering in sounds good to me.”

“Did I hear you say you’re going to order food?” Tyler asks. The door is now open to the hallway so everyone can see inside, and unbeknownst to me, he’s moved next to us.

I shoot him a look, and he grins. Sophie turns around to look at him too, but he just smiles even bigger at her.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” he tells me, and I let out a sigh.

“Yeah, me too,” Sully says.

I look at each of the guys, and they’re all staring at me. While I would love that alone time with her, we’ll get it after they leave and Vivi goes to bed. Vivi loves it when they all come over.

“Fine. Jack, do you and Meg want to come over too?”

“Yes,” Meg says, smiling at Sophie.

“Mrs. Jackson? Nate?” I ask both of them as they are in the room and that makes them a part of the conversation.

“Oh, that’s okay, dear. Thank you for including us too, but I want to stay here for a little while longer and then just head back to the house.”

“Well, if you change your mind, just let us know.” I turn to Sophie. “Do you want pizza, Mexican, or Thai?” Her opinion on what we eat is the only one that matters to me.

“Do you even need to ask?” She laughs.

No, I guess I don’t.