Page 109 of Tight Spot

“He’s incredible!” Misty yelled back at me.

In front of us, Harrison Butler turned around and slapped both of his hands against mine. “One more TD for the books!”

Next to him, Sloane was just as happy.

We weren’t sitting in Dawson’s seats for this game. I hadn’t missed a home game yet and didn’t plan to miss any. Dawson had two seats for every home game so I could always go with someone, but today was the first time his dad could be in the stadium with us. Tuevo was on an away stretch to start their season and Meredith didn’t want to sit home alone, so we’d purchased tickets for the five of us to all hang out together.

Harrison was a quiet man, and I often caught him looking at Dawson with lingering regret and sadness in his eyes. He came to visit as much as he possibly could and when I moved in with Dawson in July, he was instrumental in helping work with contractors to build me a workshop. He’d taken a two-week vacation to come help frame it himself. I loved my new space right off Dawson’s four-car garage. One of the doors opened garage-door style for ventilation, but it was also a clear glass that allowed me to see the pool and acres beyond. It was also easier to load items into my new pickup truck or on a trailer than it was to work in the small room at my store that was now mostly used for storage.

My shop that went wild with customers after word got out Dawson and I were dating. That hadn’t pleased me, and for a few weeks, my dad had insisted on either being in my store with me or having some of his retired police officer friends stay close. Considering my new customer base was women in their midtwenties, I wasn’t all that threatened, but Dawson had agreed with my dad.

“Never know when a fan can go crazy, and I don’t want you there unprotected if necessary,” he’d said.

To say he was protective was mild, but I tolerated it because I loved my dad, and his friends always bought my lunch.

Life was wild, with a whole new family including Eden and Maggie and other team wives. I had no idea a football team would be so social, but Dawson was truly surrounded by brothers. Once Dawson started showing up more to parties or events, he realized life with a brotherhood at his back was pretty damn special.

Today, those were the most special because I was surrounded by all my favorite people, watching my man score a touchdown on a pass from Cole to secure their lead with only two minutes left in the game.

Plus, it was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had a secret of my own to share with Dawson once we got to him later.

I’d decided to throw away my birth control pills.

Ever since Davis and Maggie’s wedding, Dawson kept asking if I wanted babies. He’d somehow gotten the idea in his head that we had to move at warp speed to start our forever together. A week after their wedding, he thought we should go elope.

I’d held him off on that, instead asking for a date in public since we’d mostly stuck to spots near my shop in Friendswood.

He’d agreed.

A week later, he took me to a steakhouse on the top floor of a building where Maggie used to work, and in the middle of the room where everyone could see us, slid a house key across the table and asked me to move in.

That one had been tricky. I loved my little bungalow home, and I was proud I could own my own home at a young age and have a successful business. I’d held him off until the Fourth of July weekend when I’d shown up with my car packed with all my boxes of books and told him I wanted to start moving in.

The wedding or eloping had gotten pushed to the side shortly after that and it was then Dawson started pointing out babies and kids.

“We should get that stroller when we have kids,” he said when we were walking through a park.

“That’d be a safe car to drive.” He pointed to an enormous SUV when we were out to dinner.

“Cole said Eden is really enjoying her second trimester,” he’d said one night when he got home from practice and thrown me over his shoulder. “I wonder how much more you’ll want it when you got our kid in you.”

The man had gone insane, from terrified of dating to wanting it all right away. I wasn’t sure if a baby before marriage was the right move to make, but he wanted it. I’d give it to him. The wedding would happen at some point when it was right.

Life with Dawson was as simple as that. I wanted something. He bent his back to give it to me.

He wanted something—I gave it to him.

Right then, with the clock ticking down and it looking like our defense wasn’t going to let Indianapolis get anywhere close to scoring, Misty and Meredith’s hands holding on to mine, I wanted to get Dawson.

Throw my arms around him and congratulate him.

Take him home and do some things to him I’d read about in a recent book, where it’d start with me on my knees in front of him as soon as we walked in the door to our home and end with me bent over the kitchen table or couch.

Yeah, life with Dawson was pretty damn perfect.

* * *

We were in the team’s hangout room outside their locker room. The room was set up with multiple leather couches, massive television screens and video game consoles. There were trays of food on tables and bottles of water and sports drinks. Arcade games and a few exercise bikes along one wall. This was where the team relaxed before games, hung out after. It was also where family members could wait for the players after the game if they didn’t want to stay in the halls or if they didn’t have small children in the connected family daycare area.

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