Cold As Ice || Joe Burrow

Chapter 4 - Beautiful Inside and Out

Joe's POV
"She's definitely into you, Joey." Ja'Marr says. I roll my eyes.

"No she's not. We're just friends," I mutter. Ja'Marr shrugs as he ties his cleats.

It's the next day and we're in the locker room, getting ready for practice.

"Whatever you say man," Ja'Marr says. He looks over at me and places his hand on my shoulder. "I'm glad you're back to practicing with us, Joe. The team missed you,"

"Thanks, Ja'Marr. I'm glad too. I still have to do PT, but Mia's allowing me to start with practice and then do some PT after lunch." I explain. Ja'Marr nods.

"I know. For now, let's go warm up and practice a little football. You can worry about physical therapy later," he says as we start walking out of the locker room.

*

During practice, I notice Mia sitting on a bench on the sidelines. She's watching us practice. The wind whips her wavy blonde hair and she tries to push it out of her face. I jog over to her.

"Hey," Mia says with a smile as she tucks a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Hey. Are you watching us practice?" I ask. Mia nods.

"Yep. I have some time to kill before I do physical therapy with you so I figured I'd watch you guys play,"

"Do you wanna join us?" I ask. Mia frowns.

"What? I don't know how to do any of that," she says, nodding towards one of the linemen as they slam into a practice dummy. I shake my head.

"You don't have to do that. You can do quarterback stuff with me," I say.

"But I'm not any good at throwing a football. I'll look stupid," Mia argues.

"No you won't. Your dad was a football coach, right?" I ask. Mia nods.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"No excuses. I'm sure your dad taught you a lot about football when you were little. My dad certainly taught me a lot about football when I was little," I explain with a smirk. Mia laughs and shakes her head.

"You're something else, Joe Burrow." She mutters. I smirk.

"I know. Now come on. At least throw a couple of footballs with me," I say, holding my hand out for Mia to take.

"Ok. Fine," Mia says as she takes my hand and I pull her out to the football field.

I hand the football to Mia and show her how her fingering should be on the football. I also show her how her footing should be.

"Ready?" I ask. Mia nods. I jog backwards to the thirty yard line. "Ok. Go ahead. I'm ready!"

Mia throws the ball I can tell that it's going to go beyond the thirty yard line. I run farther back to catch it and trip over my own two feet as I cross the twenty yard line. The football flew down into my hands and I held it up, cheering.

I wince slightly as I sit up, pain shooting through my knee after falling to the ground. Mia runs over to me and kneels down next to me on the turf grass.

"Are you alright?" She asks. I hold onto my knee and nod.

"I think so. I just fell and my knee hurts a bit,"

"You're not fine. Come on. Let's go into the training room so I can take a look at your knee," Mia explains, holding out her hand to help me up. I take her hand and stand up.

My knee hurts a bit, but I know that it's nothing to worry much about. Taking some pain meds or icing it will probably make it feel better.

"You need to be more careful, Joe. Maybe we should wait a little longer before you start practicing again," Mia says. I frown.

"Why? I tripped and fell. It was an accident. It happens, Mia." I argue. We enter the training room and Mia sighs.

"I know, but your ACL isn't one hundred percent yet. Falling on it can agitate it and might even slow the healing process," she explains as she inspects my knee.

"I'm fine, Mia. Really, I am." I say. Mia rolls her eyes.

"Joe, I know you want to play football again, but we can't rush it. You need to have patience," Mia says, placing her hands on mine. I look at Mia and become lost in her bluish green eyes.

"I know. I'm sorry, Mia. You're right. I shouldn't rush it," I mutter with a nod. Mia smiles.

"Good. I think you should just sit and rest and ice your knee for now. After lunch, we'll do some PT."

"Okay. That's fine with me," I say with a shrug.

"Well, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go grab my laptop and I'll be right back. I have to write a report on your injury," Mia says as she walks out of the room.

I have a feeling that Mia isn't the happiest right now.

Mia's POV
I grab my laptop off my desk and walk back downstairs to the training room. Before I walk in the door, I hear Joe talking to someone. I peek around the corner and see that he's talking to Ja'Marr.

"I think she's mad, Ja'Marr. I don't know why, but I have this feeling that she does." Joe mutters. Ja'Marr laughs.

"Come on, man, she's not mad. It was an accident. Why are you so worried about it?" He asks. Joe shrugs.

"I don't know. She's my friend. I don't want to make her mad," he says. Ja'Marr eyes Joe and Joe shakes his head. "Fine. When she was talking to me, she placed her hands on mine and looked into my eyes. Her eyes were so beautiful, Ja'Marr."

"Only her eyes?" Ja'Marr asks. Joe laughs.

"Not just her eyes. Everything about her makes her beautiful. Her hair, her smile, her heart. She's beautiful inside and out," Joe explains. Ja'Marr frowns.

"Are you gonna tell her that?"

"No. I can't. She's my athletic trainer. There's like a rule against players dating her or something," Joe says. Ja'Marr rolls his eyes.

"Right. I'll see you later, man." Ja'Marr mutters. I stand back from the door and pretend like I hadn't been standing there listening to them talk.

I go into the room after Ja'Marr leaves and put on my best smile.

"Hey. Your knee feeling a little bit better?" I ask. Joe nods.

"Yep. It's starting to feel better already,"

"That's good," I mutter as I sit down on a stool and start working on Joe's injury report.

I feel a bit awkward after hearing the conversation between Joe and Ja'Marr, but I act like nothing's wrong.

We sit in uncomfortable silence. All you can hear is the clicking of my computer keys and Joe's fingers tapping on the metal counter. Joe finally breaks the silence.

"Do you want to go to dinner with me sometime?" He asks. I look at him and shake my head.

"I don't date football players," I mutter. Joe frowns.

"It wouldn't necessarily be a date. It's more of a thank you dinner for helping me with my ACL recovery. Plus, you could bring Kara along if you want." Joe explains. I sigh.

If I bring Kara along, it might not be as awkward at dinner and it also wouldn't really be a date.

"I guess I can. I'm sure Kara will want to go too," I reply. Joe smiles.

"Great. Is tomorrow night okay for dinner?"

"Yeah. That's fine," I say.

"Perfect. I'll pick you two up at six tomorrow night then," Joe says. I nod.

Why am I doing this? I don't date football players and with good reason. The last time I dated a football player, he broke my heart. I can't go through that again.