Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Besides, today was about fun. The day was already getting warm, and we had a cookout later. It was family weekend at the ranch. My mom had managed to get the weekend off work to attend. I couldn’t be more thankful.
I walked them through the hallway and to my suite. I passed June’s room, but she was at the stables, grooming Ginger with Emma. It was one of their BFF activities. And I knew how much June adored spending time with Emma.
I must have been staring at June’s room a few seconds too long as Mom raised her eyebrow, and I shook my head, laughing. We entered my suite, and my mom moved straight to the growing amount of drawings on my wall. There were many showing the rural view from the back porch, the horses in the field, Emma and Chris sitting together on the movie room’s recliners—somehow, I’d managed to catch their incessant mockery of one another in the art. There were several angles of the nurses’ hands as they changed the IVs and handed me my meds, Dr. Duncan as he studied his notes at the side of my bed, Susan as she brought me in water…then one of June, looking off into the distance, her notebook in her hands, the tail of her headscarf blowing in the mild Texas wind.
Mom stopped to look at that picture the longest while my sisters broke out of the back doors and ran out to see the horses in the paddock.
“She’s beautiful,” Mom said, knowing exactly who the picture showed.
“More than,” I replied, and ran my hand over June’s pencil-drawn cheek. I could still feel her warm skin under my fingertips. Something exploded in my chest, a feeling I had never felt before. “She’s got me good, Mom.”
Mom leaned her head on my arm. “I’m glad you have her, Sunshine. You need some good in your life.” My gut twisted at that. Some nights I worried that, even if I did reach remission in this trial, there just wasn’t enough time to get healthy enough to play football at UT. Those fears sent me spiraling, so I focused on the road ahead and just kept hold of the blind faith that I could do it.
“I’m glad I have her too,” I said, pulling back from my panic. “C’mon, I’ll take you to meet Chris. June and Emma are at the stables, but they’ll be by later to meet y’all.”
I went outside to the porch and shouted in the miniature tornadoes and led them to the rec room to meet Chris. He jumped up as soon as we entered.
“Mrs. Taylor, nice to meet you, ma’am,” he said and shook Mom’s hand. I smirked at how proper my clown-like friend acted. Emily and Lucy pushed by Mom to shake Chris’s hand too.
We hung out with Chris and his parents until Neenee called us all out for the cookout. My sisters immediately got dressed for swimming and jumped into the pool. Silas came up with a person who was clearly his little brother in tow. The kid must have been about ten.
“What’s up, man?” I said, as Mom chatted to Paster Noel and Michelle around the firepit.
Silas put his arm on his brother’s shoulder. Silas was slim, wore glasses, and was a gamer. His brother, although he looked like Silas, was the complete opposite. “Richie here is a football player and has dreams of being a QB. I told him about you, and he wanted to meet you.”
“Hey, Richie,” I said. “You wanna be a QB, huh?”
“Silas said you’re going to UT to play for the Longhorns?” he said in response.
“That’s the plan,” I said, refusing to entertain any other outcome. This was a happy day. A good day. A family day. I would focus solely on that.
“I’m gonna play for the Longhorns too,” Richie said as I tossed my football between my hands.
I grinned at his confidence. I’d been like that as a kid too. Hell, most of the time I still was. “Then let’s see what you’ve got, little man.” I moved a few steps away and signaled for him to get some space away from everyone. Richie waited for me to throw the ball. I had to grit my teeth when the ache that light throw brought made sweat break out on my forehead. But Richie caught it, and I whooped.
“Good catch, little dude!” I clapped my hands. “Now, back to me.” Richie threw it, and even with the pain slicing up and down my arm, I was back throwing a ball. This was me in my element.
An hour passed with me coaching the kid, only for his mom to call him away to get something to eat. I’d missed throwing the ball, but with the sting I was feeling in my shoulder, a break was smart. I would probably pay for it tomorrow, but in that moment, I didn’t care in the slightest.