“I needed that,” he breathed.
I rose to my feet and stroked a fingernail along his cheek. “I figured as much. I need to make my rounds along the perimeter of the building.”
I tried to turn away, but he grabbed my hair and pulled me back into a rougher kiss. The kind that took my breath away. When he finally released his grasp, I was panting.
“Nowyou can go,” he said with a satisfied grin. “Especially if you wear that around the building.”
“This is the opposite of blending in.” I turned around and gave my ass a little shake on the way back to my room.
My methods of distracting Luke also made time pass more quickly for me, and in the blink of an eye it was Thanksgiving week. Luke couldn’t travel since we had a game on that Thursday, but he made a Facetime call to his family back in Philadelphia before the game. Then he went out and performed flawlessly, seeming to glide across the field while dodging his opponents. While I waited for him to change in the locker room after, I glanced at the standings on my phone.
Stallions: 12 - 0
Chargers: 6 - 6
Broncos: 5 - 7
Raiders: 5 - 7
Chiefs: 4 - 8
Today’s win meant the Stallions had clinched their division. But there were still five games remaining in the season, and they needed more wins in order to clinch home-field advantage in the playoffs. Among other things…
“Do you think you can go undefeated?” I asked when we got home. The Stallions had served a huge spread of Thanksgiving food at the stadium, and we had brought home three big boxes of leftovers. The turkey was juicy, and the mashed potatoes were creamier than any I had ever had.
“You sound like one of the reporters,” Luke teased while biting into a drumstick.
“I’ve heard you give them conservative answers. You deflect and talk about how winning a Super Bowl is all that matters. But deep down, how do youreallyfeel about it?”
He focused on his plate of food and shrugged. “I grew up hearing about the 1972 Dolphins. People talked about that team the way priests talk about the apostles. Rightfully so, since nobody else has gone undefeated since. But it was easier to do it back then. They only played 14 games in a season, and today we play 17. There’s a lot more parity in the league these days—teams are better.” He scooped up some green beans on his fork, but didn’t raise it to his mouth. “I honestly don’t think we can do it.”
“Really?”
“You saw what happened to the 2007 Patriots,” he replied. “They won all their regular-season games. But that just increased the pressure on them when the playoffs started. Every game, the pressure grew. They beat the Jaguars in the first round by 11 points, then squeaked past the Chargers the week after that by just nine. By the time they played the Giants in the Super Bowl, the pressure was too much for them to handle.”
He realized he had a fork full of green beans, and carefully returned them to his plate. Finally he looked at me with that crystal blue gaze of his. “Honestly, I kind of hope we lose one of the next five games. That will take the pressure off us. It will allow us to focus on the only thing that matters: the Super Bowl.”
“Honestly, now that you put it like that, I feel the same way,” I admitted. “I wonder if anyone has ever won the college national championship one year, then the Super Bowl the next.”
“Good question. Maybe I’ll be the first!”
*
December was a blur of football, protective duties, and sex. The Stallions won the next two games in massive blowouts. The game after that, on the road against the Buccaneers, was much closer—the Stallions squeaked by with a 21-18 win, thanks to a last minute field goal that put them ahead for good.
The Stallions were now 15 - 0 with two games remaining in the season.
Christmas was on a Thursday, and Luke’s whole family flew into town to surprise him. Sharon (Mom) and Katy (Momma) called me ahead of time to warn me, and to make sure Luke stayed home on Christmas Eve. When a knock came at the door, I jumped up from the couch and pretended to be alarmed.
“Who’s here at this hour?” he asked.
I peered through the peephole and saw the five women in his life clustered together in the hallway. “It’s some man I don’t recognize. He’s wearing an N95 mask.” I shot him a look. “Go into your bedroom and lock the door. I’ll let you know when it’s safe.”
He hesitated a moment, then allowed me to do my job. As soon as he was in his room, I opened the front door and waved them all inside. With their arms full of presents and baskets of baked goods, they silently gathered in the living room, which was next to Luke’s bedroom.
I closed the door loudly. “You can come out. It was just a solicitor.”
Luke’s bedroom opened and he walked into the hall, not aware of his moms and sisters standing in the room behind him. “That gets my heart racing every time.” He smiled hungrily. “You know what I like to do when my adrenaline is pumping? Throw you over my shoulder and—”