Page 18 of Write Me For You
Jesse
Several days later…
I tapped my foot on the floor as I waited for the truck to come up the driveway. I checked my watch just as the familiar, red, beat-up Chevy came into view.
I pushed myself to my feet. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded—I was exhausted and every part of me ached—but nothing was gonna stop me from greeting my family.
I went and opened the ranch’s main doors and made it to the porch just in time for my mom and sisters to reach me.
Emily’s and Lucy’s eyes fixed right on me, and like a double tornado, they ran, slamming into my legs and almost knocking me off my feet with the force.
I gritted my teeth from the twinge of pain they caused in my hip but hugged them back.
They squeezed me tightly, only for Lucy to tip her head back to see my face and say, “Jesse, you don’t look too good.”
I laughed at her forever-honest reviews of my health. Emily slapped Lucy on the arm, then hugged me more gently. “I’ve missed you,” Emily whispered.
I kissed her on her head. “I missed you too, baby girl.”
I stepped back as my mom walked up. “Sunshine,” she greeted and wrapped her arms around me.
The past couple of weeks had been so hard.
I’d held it together the best I could, but a hug from my mom had me fighting back tears.
She rubbed my back, then pulled back to scan me with her eyes.
I could tell she thought I looked awful by her worried expression.
“I’m doing good, I promise, even though it might not look it,” I said. “We get assessed again at the end of the month. Dr. Duncan said there should be markers in our blood already indicating how we’re responding to the treatment.”
“It’s too intense,” Mom said, worrying her lip.
“It is intense, but I can handle it,” I said nonchalantly, and waved them into the ranch to change the discourse.
She didn’t need to know about the deep pangs of sadness that hit me more and more each day or about the nights I worried I couldn’t do the treatment anymore.
I needed to be strong for my family. They’d been through enough.
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.
A light round of applause made me look over my shoulder. June had returned from the stables and had been watching me. “Have you been standing over there checking out my ass, Junebug?” I said, and chuckled when her face blazed red.
She walked toward me, pointing at my grin. “You’re nothing but trouble, Jesse, I tell ya.”
When she finally reached me, I laid my tired arms on her shoulders, still gripping my football in my left hand. June rolled her eyes at me still holding the ball. “Gotta keep tight hold of my two favorite things, Junebug,” I said, and kissed her forehead.
June was getting better at letting me show her affection. She’d grown less shy and reserved, and more comfortable and bolder around me.
“Now, now, son. Enough of all that,” Mr. Scott said from behind me.
It was my turn to go red as Mr. Scott approached.
I immediately dropped my arms and took a step back from June.
He threw me a mocking wink. We’d grown closer from watching football together, and it was…
nice. My dad up and left when I was only twelve.
From then, I’d only had my coaches guide me in being a man.
Mr. Scott was a good father. But as nice as he was, at times, it reminded me what I’d missed out on—and I couldn’t deny that it crushed me.
“Sorry, sir,” I said, and he nodded in acceptance. I quickly searched the cookout and found my mom just breaking from having a discussion with Emma’s aunt, who had also come to visit. “Mom!” I shouted, and she turned toward me.
As soon as her eyes landed on June, her face lit up. Mom grabbed hold of Lucy and Emily, halting them from stuffing their faces, and brought them toward us.
June stepped back a touch. By the sudden flush to her skin, she was clearly nervous as all hell. I put my arm over her shoulders to keep her by my side. “Mom,” I said, “this is Junebug.”
June held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
“You too, June,” Mom said, and my chest squeezed tightly. Seeing June meeting my mama seemed to soothe something a little broken inside me.
“Wow. You’re so pretty,” Lucy said to June, staring up at my girl, blurting out whatever she was thinking as always.
June laughed and crouched down to Lucy’s height. “Thank you, sweetie.” She flicked her amused gaze up to me. “Your brother pretty much said that the first time he saw me too. I can tell y’all are related.”
“I like your headscarf,” Emily said next, touching the end of June’s green scarf.
June was dressed in black leggings, a white T-shirt, and a green sweater tied around her waist. She dressed casually, but it made her look just as beautiful as a ball gown would have. “Thank you,” she said.
I put my hand on Emily’s head, then Lucy’s. “These two monsters are my little sisters.” I addressed my sisters as I said, “Girls, this is June and her mama and daddy, Mr. and Mrs. Scott.”
“Are you Jesse’s girlfriend?” Lucy asked June, brazen once more.
June’s blush was back, and she opened her mouth, then shut it again, clearly not knowing what to say. We hadn’t exactly defined what we were. June’s wide, brown eyes landed on me.
Without breaking June’s gaze, I said, “She is.”
June stilled, as though she couldn’t believe I’d admitted it, then she smiled a soft smile just for me.