This game was more nerve-wracking than the last one. My dad was on one side of me, Cameron on the other, and Pops paced behind us. He had the hardest time watching. Every time there was a play he looked up and then started grumbling.

The Sharks were down by a touchdown with only six minutes left in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t looking good.

I had successfully downed two beers, which was two beers more than I ever drank. It still didn’t take the edge off. I was a complete wreck.

Cameron was worried too. There was a look of fear on his face. I tried to reassure him.

“Crawford’s got this. Don’t worry.”

But I didn’t know what I was talking about.

“He has great receivers. Nothing to worry about,” my dad piped in.

I tried to smile, but my stomach was in knots. I wasn’t sure I wasn’t going to throw up. What did I do if they lost? How did I help him through it? Was I built to handle this kind of pressure? I was supposed to be the support system, and yet I was barely keeping it together. Cameron needed me to stay calm and Hawk was going to need me to be his rock when this was over.

“I can’t look,” I whispered.

My dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Hawk had the ball. I took a peak through my fingers just as he threw a sharp spiral into the end zone.

We jumped up and down in the box. “Yes!”

The game was tied, but now the ball went back to the other team. If they scored on this drive, we might not have a chance to get the ball back in time.

Cameron was wringing his hands and his feet shuffled back and forth under his recliner. Poor thing. I wished there was something more I could do. We were all on edge. This must be what football families went through every Sunday. Winning was fun. Losing was painful.

I don’t know how it happened but the Badgers couldn’t make it past the third down. They had to punt on fourth down and the Sharks ended up with just over a minute on the clock and the ball on the forty-yard line.

“Come on, Crawford. Come on,” Cameron coaxed. His little face was scrunched up in concentration.

I echoed the same words. “Come on. Come on.”

The ball was snapped. I gripped the edge of my seat. Hawk took three steps backward and then he was pummeled to the ground in a vicious tackle.

“Oh my God.”

He bounced up, cursing at the guy who had rushed him.

It was now second down.

The time was ticking off the clock and I felt a ravenous desperation in my veins. He had to do this. He had to find a way to get the ball in the end zone.

Suddenly he had the ball in his hands. Instead of stepping back into his usual drop count, he ran forward and slid to get the first down.

Air gushed from my lungs. I looked at the jumbotron. There were forty-five seconds left and I wasn’t sure I would survive it.

Hawk looked calm. I saw the intensity in his eyes when the camera zoomed in on his face. He was determined and certain.

The whistle blew for the play and Hawk handed the ball off to one of the running backs. There were only thirty seconds left when he ran seven yards.

The Sharks called time out.

I didn’t know how Hawk handled this. How he was made to shield himself from the pressure. But he did. He was cool and calculated out there. I bit my lip. Honestly, it was hot as hell how he commanded that team. How he led them. How he took control.

And then somehow I let go of my worries. I knew this man more intimately than the thousands of people in the stadium. I trusted him with my body. My life. This child. I knew the game was in the hands of the man who could deliver.

I let the calm wash over me as he moved toward the line of scrimmage.

The ball was snapped. Hawk dropped back and the ball soared over the field. There was laser precision to his aim. It was amazing how he found a receiver in that sea of bodies. But he did. When no one else saw it. He did.

I clapped wildly when the ball landed in his receiver’s arms in the end zone.

“Did we win?” Cameron asked, excitedly.

“Yes!” I jumped up and down. “We did, honey. We sure did.”

My dad hugged me and Pops dished out high fives to all of us.

“I knew he could do it.” Cameron grinned. “I knew it.”

I smiled down at him. “Me too.”

* * *

“What about this one?” Hawk held out a wobbly spruce.

Cameron and I shook it off. “No, not that one.”

I pulled the plaid scarf closer to me. It almost made me tingle now every time I wore it. It had a completely different memory in my fashion memory bank. Maybe we could use it again in tonight’s game celebration.

It had started to snow lightly around DC.

Cameron ran ahead of us. “I like this one.” He pointed to a thick Fraser fir.

“That’s the one?” Hawk asked.

“I think so.” I touched the needles on the tree. “It’s perfect.”

Hawk hauled it onto his shoulder as if it weighed the same as a bag of pinecones. Was there anything this man couldn’t do? He had just taken his team to the next round of playoffs and now he was making a little boy’s dreams come true.

“Let’s get it home.”

We followed behind him as he carried the tree to the makeshift counter at the tree farm.

By the time we got the tree into the loft all of us were freezing. The snow had made a blanket on the streets.

I rushed ahead, clearing a path for the enormous tree in front of the arched window.

Hawk rested it on the floor, adjusting the tree stand until we all agreed it was straight. He tested it a few times to make sure it wouldn’t fall.

Cameron stood in awe. “Wow. That’s the biggest tree I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s yours. You know that, bud?”

The child circled the tree from one side to the other. “When we put the lights on, I bet they’ll be able to see it from the White House.”

Hawk and I laughed. “Not quite, honey.”

“We need a fire in here,” Hawk offered.

“And some dinner. No one has eaten.” I started for the kitchen, while Hawk worked on the fireplace.

Cameron grabbed a box of lights from the plastic tub of decorations I had hauled over from my house.

I looked out on the living room. At the boys, buried in their own projects. My heart swelled. The tears came easily.

Hawk looked up. “You ok, baby?”

I nodded. “Better than I’ve ever been.”

He left the small flame that had started in the fireplace. He cupped my cheeks with his cold hands. “Good.”

“I don’t know how all this happened.” I let him wipe one of the tears away with his thumb.

“I think it started when you wore a pair of shorts that were too damn short.” He grabbed my ass.

I giggled. “Ok, maybe.”

How had a backroom bar hookup turn into this? There was more love and family in this loft than I’d ever experienced in my life. It was a Christmas card. A movie set. It was my life with Hawk and Cameron.

Cameron stuck out his tongue, trying to untangle one of the strands of lights. I laughed harder.

“Do you see him?”

Hawk shook his head. “Not right now. All I see is a sexy woman that I can’t wait to spend my night with.”

My chest seized with lust and love and something I couldn’t explain. I wanted this man in ways I couldn’t explain.

“After we decorate the tree.” I eyed him.

“It is a school night isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yeah. I have to get up early.”

We were on the other side of the kitchen island. His calloused palm found a sliver of space and slid between my skin and my panties, gripping my bottom roughly. I inhaled sharply.

“Then I’m taking you to bed early, Mia.”

I nodded in agreement. As long as he said the word bed, I was never going to say no. Lying skin to skin. His body moving inside mine. His lips taking mine. His hands canvassing me in heat. It was all I could think about.

“D-dinner,” I stammered. “I have to make dinner.”

“Right.” He removed his hand, dragging it over my skin torturously. “Hey, bud. Need some help with those lights?”

He strolled out of the kitchen and I grabbed the island for support.

Maybe I needed to open a window and let some of the snow inside to cool me off, because from my lips to my core that man had lit me on fire.