The Guy Named Harrison: Book Two

66

Harrison came home from his team meetings and a workout midway through Riley's nap. He found Carrie watching postseason baseball between the Dodgers and Nationals.

"The Dodgers are your team, aren't they?" He asked, coming around the couch and moving Gary to sit beside her.

"I worked for them, so yeah."

"What about the Cubs or White Sox?" Harrison teased with a smile.

"You're only saying that because you're from Chicago," Carrie fired back, getting him to laugh.

"You know what I should get you for your birthday? Tickets to a Dodgers game in Los Angeles."

She leaned against him. "You should. That would be fun."

He put an arm around her, cuddling her and now Gary beside him. Wilson had his head resting on Carrie's lap, and she carefully turned just enough to rest her head against his chest.

"How's Luke?"

Harrison sighed. "He's crushed. It hurts to see him like this."

Carrie put a hand on his chest. Luke was such a big part of the Panthers defense, and he was like a brother to Harrison. It sucked to see him having to go through this again. And this time, Luke's long term health was in more jeopardy than the past two times.

Harrison had to hurry and find the remote when Cody Bellinger hit a home run for the Dodgers. The fans and the tv announcers were going wild, forcing him to find the remote before all the noise woke up Riley.

"While she's still sleeping, do you want to go practice?"

"Sure."

➄➈

Carrie was the best wife ever. As Harrison finished setting up the backyard for today's practice, she stepped out of the garage wearing full pads.

She had on one of his blue practice jerseys, white pants, and white socks. In addition to the upper and lower body padding she was already wearing, Carrie had on a pair of his shin pads, and a flak jacket, both of which Harrison forced her to wear to limit the possibility of him injuring her. She was also suited up with a new pair of gloves, and her own helmet.

Harrison leaned against one of the sleds he set up for the few drills he wanted to run today with her. Carrie stopped a few feet in front of him.

"I got so lucky."

"Yes you did," she answered with a smile. "Are you ready?"

"Yep."

Harrison quickly strapped on his own helmet and explained to her what they would be doing today. "You think you can handle it?"

"I can handle anything."

He headed over to his side of their makeshift field. Today he was working on covering two receivers over the middle of the field, and reading Carrie's movements as the quarterback to predict who she was going to be passing it to. There were two targets to the left and right of him. These targets were often used at practices for quarterbacks to work on their accuracy with only a foot wide opening. Today they would serve as a running back going out for a pass, and a wide receiver on a short pass.

Carrie was protected by five sleds that Harrison would only break through if she started to run the ball. This was something Harrison really wanted to work on, when he was on two receivers. It had worked out so far this season where Luke and Thomas noticed the linebacker on two receivers and came in to help him. Harrison planned on learning to read the quarterbacks movements to predict who he or she was going to pass it to, like a soccer goalie had to predict which way the ball would be kicked.

"I'm ready."

Carrie clapped her hands together and caught the snap from the automatic snap machine. She dropped back in the pocket as Harrison bounced back and forth between the two targets.

He saw her plant her foot, with her toes pointed to the right. Harrison ran towards the right target. Carrie had a really good arm. And it showed. The perfect spiral passed right through the target, and just out of his reach.

"Damn."

Carrie caught another snap. This time, he read her foot position and head movements even earlier than the previous play and was able to get a hand on the ball.

After he started blocking her passes, Carrie decided to shake it up on him. She took the snap and ran off what would be her right tackle. Harrison was immediately on his way over.

She switched the ball to her right arm so that he couldn't tease her and knock it out. As he hit her and his arms wrapped around her waist, Carrie knew she was going down. She protected the ball with her left arm as well as he landed on her.

Harrison helped her to her feet and they started another play. This time, Carrie ran the ball up the middle and tried to juke him out. There weren't many people in the NFL that could juke him out, and Carrie quickly learned she was not one of them.

He laid a good hit on her, hitting her square from the front. ESPN measured that one of his tackles brought over two thousand pounds of force. Carrie felt every pound of that force as he completely stopped her forward progress and took her down.

"That was a good hit wasn't it?"

"Yep. I felt all of that one."

Harrison hardly hit her as hard as he actually could. He only did it when she asked him to, or when she egged him on. And he was so careful when it came to playing tackle football in the backyard. There were times he wouldn't even tackle her and just let her go because it could've been a risky tackle on her end.

He held his hand out for her, and she took it. "When can I start tackling you like that?"

"Right now if you want."