Maybe This Time(72)

“I thought you were on my team,” Andrew said to her.

“I am, but Sophie needed help with her smack talk.”

“Since when?” Andrew asked, glancing at me. “You’ve been flinging the best insults at me all year.”

I kicked at his leg as we walked to the grass. “I know! I’ve gone soft.”

“I have a feeling that’s not true at all.”



We’d been playing for a while when the adults came outside, wanting to join us. They’d never done that before and I wondered what had happened inside to make sports with us seem appealing.

Mr. Williams answered my question when he said, “Jett has never played a game of touch football.”

“Plus,” Mom said, “he thinks it looks easy.”

Gunnar had probably been making it look easy. He’d caught almost every throw I’d passed to him and was just as fast as I’d hoped. We were totally killing Micah and Andrew, much to Andrew’s dismay.

“We’ll take my parents!” Micah called out, waving to her mom and dad to join her and Andrew.

I gave Jett a once-over as he came to join my team. “Are you going to make me lose?” I asked him.

Andrew laughed.

My mom seemed to be assessing Jett as well. “We got this,” she said to me, holding her hand up. I complied by giving her a high five.

“Sorry you felt like you needed to wear that dress,” I said to her quietly.

“It’s really comfortable.”

“You never have to wear it again.”

She laughed and pulled me into a side hug. “Love you, kid.”

“Love you too.”



I remained in my position as quarterback. It seemed to be Andrew’s new goal, now that he had extra people on his team and didn’t have to play receiver, to try to get to me before I could throw the ball. For the fourth time since the adults had joined us, I found myself trying to outrun him. Gunnar was being double-teamed by Micah’s parents, my mom was illegally holding Micah to keep her in place, but Jett was open downfield.

I hadn’t thrown to him once and he held out his hands and called, “Give it up, flower girl!”

I pressed my lips together and threw just as Andrew reached me. He picked me up and spun me around.

“Too late!” I called out to him.

He laughed and then paused, me in his arms, as we watched his dad catch the ball and run into the end zone.

“Ha!” I called out.

“It figures that my dad’s a natural,” Andrew said. “And that he’s on your team.”

Gunnar came running our way and slammed into me and Andrew, knocking us both down. Andrew landed on his back with a grunt and I landed back first on top of him, with Gunnar lying flat on me.

“We win!” Gunnar said, rolling off me, jumping up, and doing a lap around the yard to rub his victory in everyone’s faces. I rolled off Andrew and onto my side to face him.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No air,” he said, still on his back, holding his chest like he couldn’t breathe.

I smacked his arm. “Good thing we didn’t play tackle, wimp.”

He stared up at the sky, a small smile on his face. “This is why people don’t cater on Thanksgiving,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because being with family is so much better.”

I smiled, sitting up, and looked around. My mom was showing Jett how to hold a football. Micah was tickling Gunnar while telling him that she let him win. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were studying some weeds at the edge of the grass, his arm around her shoulder. We weren’t all technically family, but I knew what he meant. Family was everything.





FORGET-ME-NOT

With a bloom of one centimeter or less, one might see how this tiny flower earned its name. But with its pretty blue color and self-spreading nature, which help it easily take over flower beds, it makes sure that it’s pretty unforgettable.





I sat in the flower van, close to hyperventilating. I didn’t want to feel this way. I took a deep breath in through my nose and out my mouth, trying to calm myself down. I hadn’t seen Andrew since Thanksgiving and I was getting myself worked up about seeing him tonight.

He had helped cater a few out-of-town events with Micah in early December, the business picking up speed, just like Jett had promised, and then Andrew and his dad had gone back to New York for Christmas. We’d been texting back and forth a little. I forced Micah to send him the camera I’d bought him for Christmas, saying it was from both of us, so he wouldn’t read too much into it.

I pulled out my phone and read through our most recent text exchange.

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the camera, friend. I didn’t know we were exchanging gifts or I would’ve gotten you something.

Like I said, I found it at Everything. You know I’m in there all the time. No big deal.

I thought Micah found it.

Right. We found it. She found it. When we were in there.

Well, it’s amazing. I love it! Did I ever tell you that I wanted one almost exactly like this?

Yes, you did.

You make dreams come true.

How has your Christmas been so far?

My mom is here. It’s weird.