Chapter 63: Are you ready for some football?

EMMA

I'd been a football fan since I was a little girl, watching the Philadelphia games with my dad in our living room or sometimes even going to the stadium, if Dad had time. When I was in junior high, one of my father's patients was the wife of the team's assistant coach. She recovered fully from her battle with breast cancer, and thereafter, we had a standing invitation to request tickets for any home game. It was pretty sweet.

But attending a game in Philadelphia, even as a guest of the assistant coach, was nothing like being at the Tampa stadium in the box that hosted the players' families. I stood near the bar, holding my second glass of wine, a vague smile pasted on my face in case anyone happened to look my way. I didn't know a soul here, and I felt awkward, self-conscious and utterly out of place.