Page 25 of The Waiting Game

Although Felix didn’t give a single, solitary shit about botanical gardens, after he’d been traded to Toronto, he’d started tagging along with Jonah.

Now it was just routine for both of them.

It was kind of sweet though, the way Felix only came because he knew Jonah needed that mental calm before a game.

“Climatron, I think,” Jonah said as they stepped outside. It had been sunny this morning but the clouds looked heavy and they were predicting rain.

The center of the botanical garden included a giant glass geodesic dome that contained the greenhouse.

A short path from the lobby led them into the dome. It was warm and humid inside, filled with tropical plants. Dark green foliage, small waterfalls, rocky cliffs, and a river dotted the interior and they strolled in silence for a while.

Jonah breathed in the damp, fragrant air, something inside him settling at the familiarity. If hockey had been his anchor point after his parents’ deaths, plants had become his comfort.

His grandmother’s love of landscaping and gardening had encouraged a deep love of them for Jonah too.

He remembered her telling him about the plants, describing how much sunlight or water they needed. She’d made them seem like friends with their own little personalities and quirks, and he’d loved to spend time with her, tending to their care.

Here, within the Climatron dome, there were over three thousand species and Jonah lovingly ran his fingertips across a wild coffee plant as they passed it.

Psychotria asiatica wasn’t actually a true coffee plant but the berries looked a lot like coffee beans, and Jonah had a potted one in his condo in Toronto.

A little farther down the path, Felix paused, pointing at a plant that trailed over a rock. “Hey, that’s the one you told me was a cactus, right?”

“Yep,” Jonah said, smiling that Felix remembered. “Epiphyllum.”

It wasn’t what most people thought of when they pictured a cactus, nothing like the desert plants. But it was in the cactus family and commonly called orchid cacti.

They liked to grow on rocks and when they bloomed, they had the most beautiful translucent white star-shaped flowers.

This one wasn’t in bloom yet so they didn’t linger long.

As they walked along the winding path, sweat broke out on Jonah’s forehead and he shrugged off his jacket, breathing deep.

The air smelled so rich and alive, clear and fresh, but heavy with the scent of green things and dirt.

He loved it so much and, for a brief period of time, had flirted with the idea of becoming a botanist. But he’d been drafted by the Toronto Fisher Cats and the pull of pro hockey had been too strong to resist.

There was always life after retirement when he could putter in greenhouses to his heart’s content.

“Hey, those are new,” Felix said. He pointed to the flowers that dangled above the path, bright with their orange frilly blossoms and long dangling stamens loaded with yellow pollen.

“They call them lantern hibiscus,” Jonah explained.

Felix stopped, peering up at them. “Pretty.”

“You don’t give a shit about plants,” Jonah teased.

“I don’t have to be in love with them the way you are to know they’re pretty,” Felix argued.

And fair enough. They were pretty.

Besides, this was what Felix did. He learned new things and got excited about them and then moved on to something else.

He’d been into Formula One racing this time last year. It was chess before that.

But Jonah was more than happy to indulge Felix’s current curiosity. He’d happily talk plants with anyone.

Most people simply didn’t care the way Jonah did.

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