Page 30 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

Walking 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.”