Coaches Daughter // Joe Burrow

13

Emma

"And now he keeps texting you?" My friend Blake raised an eyebrow, Blake has been one of my closest friends since we were kids. She always gave the best advice so I had to fill her in on all the Joe and Sam drama.

"Yeah he is trying to convince me to go out with him..." I trailed off.

"And you have no feelings for Joe?" She raised her eyebrow at me.

"I think my life with him would just be more complicated, we have been back and forth on getting along." I sighed. This was getting to be so dramatic for no reason, I needed to lay everything to rest.

"Well you guys hit it off at the bar when you guys made out, but if it has been a lot of ups and downs maybe you're right. Maybe it is too complicated with him." Blake offered. I had to confide in someone because these emotions were eating me alive.

"Yeah I think I need to talk to him, thanks for letting me rant." I side hugged my friend.

I think I need to distance myself from the players and strictly focus on my job and not have any relations with anyone. Plus I am sure my dad wouldn't be thrilled with the news of me seeing someone either.

Blake headed on her way and I was left alone in my apartment again. Tomorrow was a new day and it has been over a week since the movie party. I have kept my distance from any of the players I just didn't know if I wanted to go down that path.

"Hey kiddo, busy day today okay? I need you to assist the photographer in getting some photos. I thought you'd be good at helping since you did photography in high school. We just need lots of photos for social media. Then you can go through the ones to actually post." My dad smiled at me as I entered the facility Monday morning.

"Okay yeah I can help out." I nodded my head smiling. The team photographer, Ryan, was really good at his job.

"Thank you! Go find Ryan and he has the extra camera." He smiled nodding his head for me to go.

I walked down the halls of the facility looking around for Ryan. The familiar face was sitting in the office looking through photos.

"Hey Ryan." I smiled as I entered the room.

"Hey Emma, hear to help me today huh?" He smiled. Ryan was a sweetheart and I was glad he was the person I would be working with today.

"Yeah I guess so." I smiled back.

"Awesome, well here is the extra camera. If you need a run down on settings just holler. I'll be around, I'm gonna give you a list of people to get some pictures of and I'll have my list for me. I gave you some guys that are camera friendly so that way you feel comfortable." He spoke quickly while glancing at me once in a while to make sure I was picking up what he was saying.

After the run down of what we would be doing today I checked out my list, out of all the people on this team one name sticks out the most, Joe Burrow.

I mentally groaned but smiled at Ryan as I thanked him and exited the office with the camera in my hands. Debating between taking the photos of him now and getting it out of the way or dealing with a better person to hype myself up to go to Joe. Of course Joe had to be an easy one to get photos of, it was like he was made to be placed in front of the lens.

Shaking my head I decided to get this out of the way now so that I wasn't dragging all day with the weight of having to see him.

"Hey Burrow, I am gonna be taking some pictures of you while you do some stuff today so that I can put them on the social media." I talked almost as quickly as Ryan had talked to me just ten minutes ago.

"Ah lucky girl." Joe winked as he was lacing up his cleats.

"Shut up." I mumbled under my breath at the quarterback.

"As much as you hate to deny it Em, I think the universe keeps putting us into each others paths." He shrugged his shoulders while standing from the bench he was on.

"I think the universe hates me, this has got to be karma for something I did in life." I huffed.

"Man who knew Zac's daughter would be such a firecracker." Ja'Marr laughed as he walked past us. If we weren't in a work setting right now I would totally flip him off.

"Can we just get to you doing some stuff so I don't have to stand near you all day." I rolled my eyes at Joe who was smiling at Ja'Marrs comment.

"Whatever you say, you're the boss princess." Joe shot me a wink. Him thinking we would ever be a thing was getting out of hand and I almost feel like I need to pull him aside after practice and talk to him to get it through his thick skull.

Joe finally started doing what he was supposed to and I was thankful he didn't speak to me for the rest of the time I was shooting photos.

"Will you meet me in my office before you leave?" I raised my eyebrows at the blue eyed man.

"Sounds kinky, I like it." Joe wiggled his eyebrows before running off to his wide receivers.

I took a deep breath and finished out my players I was getting photos of, I ran through to make sure I got decent one of everyone doing various actives.

"These look great, I will go through mine and yours and then I will send you the ones that aren't blurry or whatever the case is." Ryan smiled at me and thanked me for helping.

I went to my office and sat on the chair before scrolling through the Bengals social media to see what we need more content of. If I left it up to all the thirsty girls of instagram the Bengals account would just be photos of Joe.

"knock knock" I heard a voice at the door. I shut my computer and looked at Joe standing there.

"You can come in, just shut the door." I leaned back in my chair.

"What's up?" He stayed standing in front of me with his arms crossed against his body. His hair was wet from showering and he had water droplets on his forehead. The smell of cologne and deodorant reached my nose as I took a deep breath.

"We need to talk about us." I began looking at Joe who now cocked one eyebrow.

"Us huh? Continue..." He trailed off staring at me.

"You need to knock off this charade of flirting with me and making comments Joe." I snapped slightly letting him know this was no joke to me anymore.

"Hm well to be fair I was getting that signal from you Taylor." he shrugged like this wasn't a big deal to him at all.

"Okay maybe when we first met there was some flirting at the bar. We were both drunk, it didn't mean anything to either of us. I know you are used to girls fawning over you everywhere you go, I won't ever be like that to you. We are essentially coworkers who need to leave each other alone." I breathed out, it felt good to talk about it. As much as I was nervous to.

"What about you and Sam?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"You know you're really nosey Burrow. Whatever me and Sam have isn't going to be ruined by you because you think I like you, get it through your head. You and I will never be a thing." I now stood to look Joe better in the eye.

"Well you got one thing wrong Emma..." He began looking back and forth between my eyes.

"What?" I was now looking up at the tall quarterback, I wasn't going to bow down to him.

"That night did mean something to me, I wasn't to drunk." He stepped forward staring at me.

"Well now you're-" I was cut off as Joe's lips landed on mine.