Coaches Daughter // Joe Burrow

6

Joe Burrow

"Man why didn't you inform me before it escalated?" Ja'Marr just stared at me.

"Shits embarrassing bro, she literally told me it was a mistake." I rolled my eyes annoyed.

"Do you think she said that though because her brother caught you guys trying to sneak off?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Either way, I am not putting myself out there again." I shook my head.

"Damn Burrows got turned down for the first time." Ja'Marr laughed shaking his head.

I shook my head at my friend and stood up, we were in the locker rooms taking a break while defense was practicing. Everyone else on offense was still out watching but I needed to be away to clear my head.

"I'm sorry man just leave each other be that's all I can say." Ja'Marr commented on our way out of the locker room.

"Yeah man, gonna be hard with her working here now." I scoffed. This was a ridiculous situation.

Ja'Marr and I rounded the corner and made our way back to the team.

"You okay Burrow?" Zac looked me in the eyes.

"I'm fine." I nodded, and turned my attention back to my teammates.

"I'm letting Emma go over some stuff with you after practice, that way she can get the hang of it around here alright?" Zac patted me on the shoulder. I held my breath, was this really happening right now?

"Alright." I quietly said. I am swearing off women for the next year after Emma.

Practice went on for about another hour, everyone looked really healthy this week. If we keep it up like we are now we will be at the Super Bowl in no time.

"Joe are you okay? You seem kind of out of it." Sam raised his eyebrows.

"I'm just tired, didn't really sleep well last night." I shrugged. Which wasn't a big lie.

Emma

"Hey Joe, can I meet with you?" I popped my head out of a doorway of where my office was going to be. He didn't answer me and just stood up and looked like his shoes were filled with cement.

"What's up?" He sat in the chair and leaned back with his arms crossed.

"Since you guys are back to training, we are going to have to start posting some things to the Bengals social media." I started. "Plus in two weeks a couple kids are coming to the stadium to practice with you guys. So we need to do some marketing for that. Basically I need you to pick a time slot to get some photos done."

"Okay, am I good to go now?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Can we be adults? We're going to be working together, let's get past this." I shook my head. Boy was he stubborn.

"Do hotshot quarterbacks want to set up a whole day where we practice with local kids?" He questioned.

"That was very nice of you to suggest to my dad." I nodded.

"I'll come do them tomorrow at noon. Can I leave?" He started to stand.

"Look I'm sorry for what I said Joe, let's just move on. We're going to have to see each other a lot now so we have to be civil." I huffed, this was really ridiculous.

"That's fine, I'm just not going out of my way to speak to you." He threw back at me as he walked out the door.

I leaned back in this office I was put into, part of me already regretted taking this job from Kia. How was I supposed to work so closely with someone who hated me? Especially because he was basically the face of the football team and therefore a lot of marketing would be around him.

"You okay?" Ja'Marr asked as he walked passed the door.

"I'm okay." I pulled a fake smile and stood up slowly grabbing my backpack from the floor.

"'Emma, if you need to talk you can talk to me. I'm excited for you to start here." He shrugged smiling.

"Thanks Ja'Marr, I appreciate that." I nodded at him. He turned to leave the room and something inside of me let my intrusive thoughts win. I followed behind Ja'Marr, "would you want to go get coffee?"

"Girl it's 2 in the afternoon." He laughed.

"You're right I'm sorry." I felt my cheeks get hot with embarrassment.

"Nah I'm not saying I won't go, just you gonna sleep tonight?" He laughed again.

"I can drink a redbull and fall asleep right after, and that's what's wrong with me." I laughed back.

"Oh damn, let's go." He smiled and led the way down the halls.

I was so glad our day was over, part of me wants to talk to my dad about this whole job thing. Maybe he should find someone else, I don't know if me and Joe can work that closely together.

"Race ya." Ja'Marr looked over at me snapping me out of my thoughts.

"You run on a football field for a living that's not even fair." I laughed.

"I'll give you a head start, first one to their car wins." He offered.

"Fine, you're on Chase." I said. We stopped where we were and counted to three together. I started running as fast as I could. I'd say Ja'Marr gave me a good 10 second head start. Of course knowing who I was up against it was no surprise when I quickly heard feet running behind me. Then not even 5 seconds later he was running past me. We both made it outside the facility and ran to our vehicles in the parking lot.

"Not fair you parked closer!" Ja'Marr yelled across the parking lot.

"You said first person to their car wins." I yelled back laughing.

"I'll follow you!" He yelled again. I nodded my head where he could see me and I felt like eyes were on me. I glanced around to see the one and only Joe Burrow staring between Ja'Marr and I with a confused look on his face. As soon as he noticed I saw him he quickly opened his car door and got in.

Weird. I got in my car and drove to the nearest Starbucks.

"You and Burrow gonna make up?" Ja'Marr asked as we walked up to the doors of the Starbucks.

"I don't know." I shrugged, because honestly I didn't.

"He's hard headed, but I think you guys will figure out his to work together." Ja'Marr offered.

We ordered our drinks and sat down at a table near the door. Ja'Marr was a good friend and I see why everyone likes having him around. You can tell he actually cares about what you're saying and does everything he can to give you good advice.

"Part of me wonders if I should have taken this job offer from my dad." I sighed.

"I get that, especially what's going on right now. Do what's best for you, I hope you stay but if you think going a different direction is what's best then I'll cheer you on." He smiled at me.

"Thanks Ja'Marr, I'll think about what's best." I shook my head sighing.

"So, sorry to bring it up again but what's going on with you and Joe."

"Well we were fine until I told him the kiss we shared should have never happened. Which I feel bad for but he is my dads quarterback, and I don't really know Joe. It was the alcohol." I half laughed.

"Joe thought you were pretty cool, but I see why you feel like it was a mistake. But I also think you guys are more alike than you think."

"I feel bad I know i hurt his feelings, but even if I sat him down to talk to him I don't think he would listen. Plus I think we're past the friends thing." I shrugged.

"Want to make him jealous?" Ja'Marr raised an eyebrow.