“You know, I think you forget that I’m the client. I’m doing you the favor.” His eyes landed on my mouth, and I quickly brushed my fingers there to make sure there was no powdered sugar lingering after taking an oversized bite of the pastry.
“Are you not going to eat these? They are so good,” I said over a mouthful of cake.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” He smirked.
I finished chewing. “Don’t be so work-focused all the time. We could be friends who also work together.”
“You want to be friends, sweetheart?” he asked as he continued to stare at my mouth.
I pulled out my phone and turned my camera around to see what he was looking at, but it was just my lips. I dropped my phone in the empty seat beside me and raised a brow. “I don’t see why not. We work out together. We spend hours a day together. We even eat several meals together. Now we’re traveling together. So, friendship is the natural thing to happen, right?”
“That’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” I huffed. “I shouldn’t have to beg for it. Everyone wants to be my friend. I’m a good time.”
He chuckled. “Has anyone ever told you about the number one rule in sales?”
“What are we talking about now?” I asked before leaning forward and digging in his basket for the other sugared donut. “I take it you aren’t going to eat this because your body is a national treasure or something?”
He smirked. “Go ahead and eat it.”
“So, what is this big sales tip you’re giving me?”
“You said that you wanted to be friends, and I agreed to your request. Stop arguing. You got what you wanted.”
“And that’s the number one rule in sales?”
“Yes. Stop talking when you get what you want. People talk themselves out of deals all the time.” He shrugged, reaching into the basket and taking out a blueberry muffin.
“Well, don’t make me sound desperate. I could take or leave this friendship,” I said, my voice all tease.
“Is that right?”
“Yep. But since you’re so willing, I’ll go with it.”
He popped part of the muffin into his mouth and brushed his hands together. “So, let’s talk about what you’ll be doing while we’re in New York.”
“I’ll be shadowing you, right?”
“Most of the time. You’ll meet my agent, Drew. We’ll be meeting with Coach Balboa and Jeff Robles alone, but you won’t sit in on that meeting. That’s not something that can be shared in the article.” His eyes were hard, and his shoulders were squared as if he were preparing for an argument.
Was I that difficult?
“Ah… the money talk. I get it. It’ll be public knowledge when it goes through, but I understand you want to protect your privacy for now.” I shrugged and reached for my tea and took a sip.
“I’ll tell you what happens after. But it’ll be off the record.”
“Wow. Thank you for trusting me.” I raised a brow.
“Well, we’re friends, right? That’s what friends do.”
“Do you need a lesson on that? It seems kind of foreign to you.” I used my hand to cover my mouth to keep from laughing.
“I have friends, but I keep my circle small. Just the guys I trust. I don’t really have female friends, if I’m being honest.”
“That’s right. You just sleep with them and then kick ‘em to the curb.” I meant it as a joke, but it didn’t come out sounding like one, nor did he look like he found it even remotely humorous.
He leaned forward, not hiding his irritation.
“Have you seen me with a lot of women in the time that you’ve known me?” he hissed.
“No. But I don’t know what you do when we part ways at night.”
“Hmmm… let’s see, I’ve eaten dinner with you the last four nights. I’ve then met you before the sun comes up the following morning. Do you think I’m calling random women to meet me in Cottonwood Cove when the sun goes down?”
“Well, how would I know what you do? It’s not lost on me that your jersey number is sixty-nine.”
“You noticed that, huh?” He barked out a laugh. “My mom’s birthday is June ninth, so when that number was available when I transferred to Alabama in college, she begged me to take it. She thought it was good luck, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it means something different to anyone with a dirty fucking mind.”
“So, you took one for the team,” I said, trying not to laugh.
“Sure. And once I started playing more, I wasn’t going to jinx myself and change it. So, long story short, I’m fucking exhausted when we finish for the day. I go to bed, just like you do.”
“Don’t be so cocky about it.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “How do you know I’m not out dancing the night away with my endless male suitors?”
His laugh was loud, and it bellowed around the airplane. “Because you’re young, so the fact that you just called them male suitors tells me that it’s not happening.”
“Well, that’s only because my new client is running me into the ground. I’m too tired to date at the moment. But it’s not because of lack of interest,” I assured him.
“You don’t have to tell me that, sweetheart. I have no doubt you’ve got plenty of guys after you.” He sipped his coffee as his eyes scanned my face, like he was memorizing every line and every feature.
And then he leaned back and looked out the window like he was mad about something.
As I said…the man was giving me an endless case of whiplash.
twelve
Lincoln
When we arrived in New York, we made our way to the hotel. We dropped our bags off in our rooms and headed downstairs to the bar area to meet with Drew. I allowed Brinkley to sit in on this meeting.
I trusted her.
I’d always been a man who trusted my gut, and I didn’t have any concerns about her.
Aside from the fact that I couldn’t stop staring at her mouth. At her pillowy, pink lips. The way they were perfectly heart-shaped.
Nor the way her dark eyes always met mine head-on.
I tried to put some distance between us after our night at the cove. I’d allowed things to get too personal. The last thing I needed was to fall for the woman writing a story about me. Hell, if things went wrong, she could cause me a lot of grief.
I’d been down that road before.
Right now, I needed to focus on my career. Where I was going to play. Making sure I was in top shape and ready for the season to start.
A fling with Brinkley Reynolds would be a distraction I didn’t have time for. She wasn’t the type of woman that would go along with something casual, and I wasn’t the type of man who could afford to do anything more than that at the moment.
A football player’s career wasn’t the same as a traditional career. You didn’t play until you were sixty-five years old, after which you’d ride off into the sunset and retire. I’d play hard for the years that my body and mind allowed me to.
And I would not fuck that up.
Staying at the top was a lot of work. There were younger, stronger people coming up every single day. I needed to strike while the iron was hot.