Page 75 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

“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.”