“I told you there was no room in football for queer relationships. And you came here and proved me wrong. One couple at a time.”

Asa stared at him, eyes wide. The hair on Scott’s arm rose, the silence becoming thick with all the things they weren’t saying.

I still want you. I want you, more than anything else. Nothing is more important to me than you.

Coach Asa Dawson has fallen wildly in love only twice in his life.

First with football.

Then with Scott Callaway.

But Scott isn’t just the one who got away.

He’s the one person—the one man—Asa hoped might finally show him how all-consuming passion could be.

Instead, fate (and football) intervened and they never got the chance to explore their attraction. Their friendship ended in ruins, Scott left, and Asa’s been torn between hating him and loving him for the last seven years.

Asa doesn’t think he’ll ever see him again, but when his bad habits catch up to him and he doesn’t have a choice but to accept help, he’s horrified—and exhilarated—to learn Scott’s been hired to assist him.

With the final stretch of the Piranhas season falling during the holidays, maybe what Asa and Scott have needed this whole time was a little Christmas magic to remind them the most important job isn’t to win the season—but to finally win each other’s hearts.