Page 103 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

Ryder: Geez. Rough crowd today

Sully: Earth to Tyler

Jonah: Leave him alone

Sully: He speaks. Tell them I’m the matchmaker

Jonah: Tell them you’re a pain in my ass

Rico: Truth

Sully: Ouch. You wound me

Jonah: Doubtful

Sully: You defending him just tells us there’s something up

Jonah: You’re fishing

Sully: You took the bait. Can’t keep secrets from this group

Tyler: Watch me.

Epilogue

Three and a half months later

Jonah

Life is good.

But then again, I knew it would be with her.

One week after she agreed to move in with me, my teammates—my friends—helped pack Sophie’s stuff. They loaded it up, and then delivered it to either a storage unit or our house. We wanted it done quickly since the team was getting ready to report in for the new season. We didn’t want it hanging over us. Of course, Vivi was over the moon when we told her, and each day, just like the therapist said, I’ve watched the heaviness that she’s carried for the past two and a half years lighten. She still has her moments, but having that second person around every day to love and support her has made a huge difference.

“I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect it to be so hot today,” Sophie says, as she rounds the back of the Tahoe to join me and peeks up at the sky. Last week, the humidity was low, and this week, it is not. And at three in the afternoon, there’s no way to make it from the car to the door without sweating.

“Really? Because even though it’s the end of October, it feels just like it did yesterday, and I’m sure it will be the same tomorrow.”

She glances my way with narrowed eyes, and I smirk as she mouths, “Smart-ass.”

One month after Sophie moved in, she and Vivi flew to Minneapolis to watch me play in a preseason game. It was the first time Vivi and I met Dan, and they instantly bonded. I don’t know if it’s because it’s Sophie’s dad and that makes him special to her, or if it’s something they created on their own, but even I can’t come between them. They are as thick as thieves.

“Papa, you’re going to love this,” Vivi tells Sophie’s dad, looking up at him with hearts in her eyes. She’s walking with Sophie’s dad and Chrissy, and Vivi’s damn near skipping she’s so excited to bring them here today.

To our family favorite pizza place.

“Is that so?” he asks, looking down at her adoringly. “What would happen if I didn’t like pizza?”

She scrunches up her face. “Who doesn’t like pizza?”

“I don’t know. There’s got to be someone out there.”

“That’s dumb,” Vivi says, and all of us laugh.

As for calling him Papa, she just started one day, and that was that. She knows that Sophie is an aunt to her, and technically, that makes her dad a great-uncle, but if you step back and look at our family as it is now, his role is most definitely one of a grandfather. They are two peas in a pod, and as for Chrissy, it’s hard not to love her too. She’s gentle, nurturing, and completely open to being whatever we need her to be, which Vivi recently decided is Nana.

Also, while we were in Minneapolis, I found a photographer who agreed to meet with us on a Monday afternoon. She knew of a meadow not far from the city, filled with late summer Minnesota wildflowers. There were shades of purple, white, and yellow, and it was so idyllic that while Sophie was in awe over the scenery, she never saw it coming, me dropping to one knee. She gasped, and her dad teared up because how could I leave him out of this special moment for her? Vivi jumped up and down, the photographer captured the whole proposal, and in front of all of them, I professed to love her forever.