Today, instead of coming downstairs to see him lifting, he was working out with his punching bag.

She stood behind him for a few moments, watching as his back muscles rippled every time he punched the bag. He was sweating profusely, something she was accustomed to seeing every morning. Only wearing shorts, she could see the beads of sweat running down his back and chest.

He punched the bag one last time with a grunt before leaning against it for a second to catch his breath.

"Alright McGregor."

Harrison spun around to see Carrie standing behind him. She tossed him a bottle of water that he missed because of the boxing gloves.

"Nice hands."

"Hey, you can't catch with these."

"Excuses, excuses."

He picked up the water. "McGregor would kill me in a fight."

Carrie shrugged. "I don't know about that."

Harrison could probably beat Connor McGregor from a strength perspective, but his skill would most likely let him down.

As he took another sip of water, Carrie found a football lying around and began flipping it around. "Why the punching bag today?"

He shrugged. "Something different before I go and push the sleds a little bit."

Carrie stole his water as he picked up the boxing gloves and put them back on. "Carrie?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking since the game on Sunday, what if we moved the wedding up to March and start a family of ours a little sooner."

She thought about it for a second. Neither of them placed any orders for the wedding yet, making it quite easy to move it to March. The question was, did she want to start a family this early?

"I don't know. Why the sudden change of plans?"

He leaned against the bench press. "We did that Panthers Pals thing through Play 60 on Sunday, and I met this little girl that looked like a mini version of you."

"The one that drew the picture of you?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, that girl can draw so much better than me."

"Anyway, ever since that game, I can't stop picturing a little girl that looks just like you running through the house."

"When would you want to start this family?"

He shrugged. "Sometime soon."

Carrie jumped off the bench she had been sitting on. "We'll see."

❺❾

Later that morning, Harrison was in full pads, pushing the sled for a few yards before sprinting around it and hitting the tackle bag.

A few times, he had Carrie stand in a circle, and push him as he tried to run around her to the tackle bag. She succeeded in knocking him down multiple times.

After helping him, and watching him work for about 45 minutes, Carrie decided she wanted to try. And he walked past her, she stopped him.

"I want to try it."

"You sure?"

She nodded. "Give me your helmet and pads."

Harrison did as told. Pretty soon she was standing in front of him wearing his helmet, practice jersey, shoulder pads, and a pair of his sweatpants.

"These shoulder pads are heavy."

"They're huge on you."

Carrie smiled and stood in front of him while he held the pad. "Let's go."

The first time, Harrison barely pushed her and that was enough to knock her over. "Don't slow down when I push you. Keep going," he said as he helped her to her feet.

Carrie actually juked him out the next time. Instead of going to his right like he expected, she cut to the left and easily tackled the bag. "Look at that sack."

"Nice."

❺❾

A few minutes later, Harrison put on his second pair of pads and helmet. He wore his old white practice jersey, while she wore his old blue one.

He had her helping him with another drill. Harrison had the ball, and was working on his footwork. He had to stay in between cones only 5 feet apart and get past her.

She was allowed to try and tackle him. At first she wasn't able to. He pretty much ran her over and left her holding on to his foot.

"I'm going to get you this time."

Carrie caught him as he tried to juke her out. She wrapped her arms around him and hit the side of his waist. Then she grabbed his left leg and took him down. "Look at that! You're gonna lose your job!"