Page 84 of Wildflowers and Wide Receivers

“How’s Vivi?” I ask, really hoping to try to avoid the elephant in the room for as long as possible when it comes to us.

“She’s had better days. Can . . .” He pauses, and my stomach tightens anticipating what he’s going to say next. “Can you come over? She’s asking for you.”

I sit up straight and push my hair over my forehead and out of my face.

“She’s asking for me?”

“Yes,” he says on an audible exhale, and my heart starts racing.

“Of course I’ll come. Is there anything I should bring?” I ask as I slide off the bed and head for my bathroom to make myself somewhat presentable.

“Nope, just yourself.”

Pulling up to Jonah’s house, I’m equally nervous as I am concerned for Vivi.

What happened to her today?

I knock on the door, hear Molly bark, then step inside without waiting for it to be answered. I find them curled up on the couch, under a blanket, and they’re quietly watching some animal show on the television. Both of them track me with their eyes as I make my way across the room to them.

Gently, I sit down next to them on the couch, giving Vivi my full attention. Her sweet little face is puffy, and her eyes are red from what I’m assuming are tears. Slowly, I stretch my hand out in front of us for her to take, but instead, she scoots over and climbs into my lap, dragging her stuffed dolphin with her. I pull the blanket over us, wrap my arms around her, and lock eyes with Jonah.

His are a mixture of failure, sadness, and worry. The hazel in them is dull, and I hate whatever this is for both of them. I also can’t help but wonder how often this happens.

Sitting in silence, Jonah moves over next to us and he runs his arm along the backside of the couch to tuck us up against him. The three of us are cuddled together, and while I have no idea what’s happening, I’m guessing this is what she needs.

Turns out the animal show is an old show about a pet dolphin named Flipper. My heart squeezes with fondness for Jonah. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s gone out of his way to find every dolphin show for her there is. That’s the kind of man he is. Always putting others' needs before his.

Once the show ends, Jonah pauses the streaming. I take this as my cue. He wants me to try to get her to talk, so I shift us in my arms and look down at her.

“You want to tell me what happened today?”

She shrugs her shoulders and looks down at her stuffed animal.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to. But I find I always feel better after I’ve talked to my friends. Our friends and our family are our safe space. I also feel better when I’m baking cookies. Do you want to help me bake some cookies?”

She looks up at me with her big hazel eyes, leans in a little to hug me, then nods. She slides off my lap and takes my hand as we walk toward the kitchen.

From behind us, Jonah lets out a deep sigh. He doesn’t say anything, he just posts up at the large kitchen island and Molly circles, curious as to see what we’re up to.

“Do you want to help us? Might be fun to watch you crack some eggs with those big hands of yours?”

Both he and Vivi look at Jonah’s hands, he holds them out in front of him in a dramatic way, and then Vivi lets out a single giggle.

It’s not much, but we’re getting somewhere.

Together, we find all the ingredients needed to make peanut butter cookies since Jonah doesn’t have chocolate chips in his pantry. Using a recipe we found on my phone, we find flour, butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, regular sugar, eggs, vanilla, and baking powder. Vivi pulls a stool over that Jonah has specifically for this, and one by one, we follow the instructions to make the dough. It’s when we’re rolling the dough into balls for the baking sheet, she finally says, “I couldn’t remember them today.”

She glances Jonah’s way, almost like she’s afraid to tell him, and he gives her the softest, most understanding smile. It’s not full of condemnation, pity, or “there, there.” It’s one that says, I understand, and it’s going to be okay.

“I have that problem sometimes, too,” he tells her.

“Really?” Her eyes fill with new tears.

“Yes.”

“But I don’t want to forget them.”

“Wildflower, you will never truly forget them. Sometimes individual memories fade. There’s nothing we can do about that, but the big ones, the big things, like how much they loved you, we always remember that.”