Page 57 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

“Well then, looks like I’m not the only one ready for round two,” she says, her eyes falling below my waist.

She shimmies out of her bottoms and tosses them along with her top onto the deck. I will never tire of seeing this girl naked, and definitely not in the moonlight with her tan lines on full display.

Grabbing her around the waist, I haul her up against me and hug her. How is it that one person can make me feel so good?

“You know, I think they planned this,” she says to me as we climb out and dry off with the towels she brought out.

“Probably. I wouldn’t put it past Reid. He knew I was happy to run into you again.”

“How happy?” she asks, turning to walk backward into the house while giving me mischievous eyes.

“Very happy,” I tell her, fully on board with wherever she’s taking us.

“Maybe you should show me just how happy.” She sways her hips.

“You want my tongue or my cock?” Her eyes widen at my bluntness, then drop to below my waist again.

“Hmm,” she says like she’s actually thinking about this while still walking backward toward the stairs. “I think both.”

“Done.”

I drop the towel and she turns to sprint up the stairs. Turns out, she’s not going to be getting much sleep after all.

Sometime early in the morning, the alarm on her phone goes off. She slides out of my bed, and I follow. She turns toward her room, and I make my way down to the kitchen. Dropping a pod into the K-cup machine, I make her a coffee to go.

Walking her to her car, I watch as she tosses her bag into the back seat and turns to face me. Even at five in the morning, with no makeup on and her hair just barely brushed, I still think she’s the most beautiful woman.

“So I’m glad our friends were meddlesome, and we ended up here at the same time. Thank you for deciding to stay. It goes without saying that I had a great time, but I know that Vivi did too. It means a lot to me how kind you were to her.”

She drops her gaze for a second and smiles at the ground.

“I’m glad this weekend turned out this way, too,” she says, her eyes again finding mine.

Sucking up my nerves, I go with my gut and my heart, and ask this question again. “I know we’ve gone about this a little backward, but will you have dinner with me next weekend after we get back?”

After a short pause, her eyes start to crinkle in the corners, her lips turn up into a small smile, and she says, “Yes.”

Chapter 23

Sophie

The drive into the office goes quicker than I expected. One minute, I was leaving the island, and then the next, I was pulling up to our building in South Tampa. Some pediatric groups are attached to a hospital, and the scheduled surgeries are performed there, but ours take place on the first floor of our building in a state-of-the-art surgery center.

The sun is finally rising, and the eastern horizon glows orange, ending one of the best nights I’ve ever had in my whole life. And yes, that includes the night we met. Was I going to stay? No. But I broke out of my comfort zone, weighed the risks and the rewards, and boy, was I rewarded. Three times.

Jonah surprised me this weekend. I mean, I already knew he was doing a great job at being Vivi’s guardian, but it goes past that. He goes out of his way to give her not only all the care and love she needs but also memories and tributes to his brother and sister-in-law. He’s not just passing the days with her; he’s trying to enrich them in a way they are a part of the things she does and the traditions they’re trying to make.

I try to visualize Jonah at the Gasparilla children’s parade, and a smile slips onto my face. I can just see them now—Vivi on top of his shoulders, both dressed in some sort of pirate gear, and standing next to the parade route so Vivi can catch beads thrown her way. If he had to pick a parade, this one is definitely iconic.

And don’t get me started on the stars. He mentioned both of them were teachers, and John loved science. I wish I had asked him what his major was in college. What subject does he love? What would he do or be if he wasn’t playing football? Then again, I guess we have time.

“Good morning, Dr. Black,” Laurie, one of the group physician assistants, says when I climb out of my car. I pulled in just after her, and she’s waiting for me.

Laurie was already with the practice when I joined, and her skills are very comprehensive. I find I’m lucky that she’s fallen onto my rotation more times than not. She’s about my age and my go-to first assistant in the operating room when it comes to shoulder and knee arthroscopies, and open and closed fracture internal fixations. She’s my height, and when we’re standing next to each other and working, it’s like I’m a double with two sets of hands. Words don’t even need to be said. She anticipates what I need and want without me even having to ask.

“Good morning.” I smile at her as we head inside. Of all the people throughout the practice that gossiped about Isaac and me after the fact, to my knowledge, Laurie wasn’t one of them. She already had my respect on a professional level, but she gained it on the personal too.

While the waiting room for family members is nice enough, once we pass through the restricted area doors, I’m met with fluorescent lights and antiseptic, and my heart smiles. My father has never understood my love of the medical setting, but I imagine if you are a baker and walk into a bakery or a librarian and walk into a library, it’s the same thing.