“I’m never letting you go,” she teased.

  “I have no problem with that.”

  They stayed there a little longer, exchanging soft kisses, letting the reverb from the orgasm cycle through them and between them. When James finally rolled off her, Daisy felt the loss of him like a gust of cold wind. Yes, it was getting serious, and fast. If she could, she’d spend all her days wrapped up in him. But for now, she would have to be satisfied with what few hours they could snag each week.

  Daisy sighed, finally finding the motivation to get out of this warm cocoon they’d created and start her day. She needed to go home, shower, and get ready for work. The team had a big practice day ahead of them, and she needed to be on her A game…which meant not fantasizing all day about returning to this very spot.

  James turned on one of the bedroom lamps in the corner, which cast a golden hue over the room. They blinked at the light, smiling at each other, and Daisy quickly got dressed between yawns. Once she had all her things ready to go, she pressed one last kiss to James’s lips before letting herself out of the house quietly.

  Another sleepover. Another day in the books of this secret-yet-not relationship they were cultivating more and more. Daisy smiled to herself as she drove home, feeling lighter than air and supremely calm. No yoga class or marathon session on the rowing machine could come close to this feeling…which was all the more reason that Daisy knew she was entering dangerous territory.

  Back at her condo, Daisy got to work starting her day with a shower, a quick smoothie, and making sure she looked as professional as possible. Sure, some of the players probably suspected—or even knew—that she and James were an item now, but she didn’t want to offer confirmation by showing up to work with bedhead and looking sex-crazed.

  Even though, at this point, she technically was far past sex-crazed and just pure James-crazed.

  She got her game face ready, heading to work as though she hadn’t spent all night in James’s bed, wrapped up in his scent and enjoying every last contour of his sexy, muscled, athletic body. When she breezed into the now-familiar training facility, she headed for her office to drop her purse off, then went straight for the weight room, where the players would be congregating.

  This was the standard beginning to her day—personal check-ins with the players, overseeing progress or setbacks, getting feedback on the ins and outs of her strength and conditioning program so that she could continue to make tweaks and refine, refine, refine.

  But as she breezed into the weight room with a bright grin, expecting the players to greet her back as they usually did…hardly a single person noticed her.

  In fact, most everyone was gathered at the far end, buried in phones, talking amongst themselves.

  Daisy approached with curiosity, her brow arched high. “Hello?”

  Nobody heard or acknowledged her, so she brought her fingers to her mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle.

  Mark finally glanced up, and then his eyes widened. “Oh, hey, Daisy.”

  Some of the other players dispersed quickly, returning to workout stations, avoiding her gaze. Maxwell cleared his throat at Mark’s side, giving Mark a nudge.

  “What is going on here?” she asked, gesturing toward the slow trickle of players returning to their workouts. “You all look like you’ve been caught stealing.”

  Maxwell grimaced, rubbing at the back of his head. “No, it’s not that. We, uh…” He glanced at Mark, as though searching for support, and Mark just shrugged. “Well, Coach Daisy, you’re kind of trending on Twitter.”

  Daisy laughed initially, not believing he could be serious. “Oh, come on.”

  “No, I’m serious. One of the guys noticed this morning when he came in, so we were all checking it out.”

  Her smile slowly fell as she wrapped her head around his words. “Okay. So what? Everyone trends on Twitter at least once, right?” She tried to laugh it off and continue her forward progress with the day. Because now was not the time to deal with this. She clapped her hands, calling everyone to attention as she handed out some directions. James joined the crew a few moments later, sending her a private smile as he took his place at the bench press. After a brief meeting and then some one-on-one check-ins with the players, Daisy high-tailed it back to her office.

  Because now, curiosity consumed her. She had to know what was circulating about her this time. And the way it gripped the players, she suspected it might be significantly larger than the commentary from Chuck Zoom.

  Back in the privacy of her own office, Daisy allowed herself to dive into the treacherous terrains of social media. She braced herself, drawing a cleansing breath, and then searched for her name. The results were instantaneous, filling her screen with mentions and usernames and all manner of commentary:

  What STRENGTH COACH has NIGHTLY MEETINGS with the quarterback?

  OMG. This is hilarious. Yeah, I bet she’s got some exclusive condition training for him.

  Do the Sharks know they hired a fraud? She’s just looking for a wedding ring.

  Daisy took in as much as she could stand. Most of the threads stemmed from links to a gossip site that had posted a photo of her leaving James’s house in the early morning. The photo was clearly taken from a distance, but there she was, heading for her own car in his driveway, with bedhead and a silly grin on her face.

  FUCK.

  She took a few moments to freak out—to envision the worst-case scenario, to feel the heat of all the speculation and jeering and criticism. And then once she’d done that for long enough, she switched to the opposite mode: to counseling herself to calm down, to rationalize, to internally do the damage control she so sorely needed.

  Realistically, the gossip mill didn’t change anything. Coach Scooter already knew about their relationship. His opinion was the one that truly mattered when it came to her employment, and she needed to remember that.

  And now, at least, all of the Sharks players would know about her and James, if only some of them had known before.

  Beyond that, what did it matter?

  Overlooking the crippling embarrassment of having my love life put on blast for the entire world to absorb and comment on…this means nothing.

  Right. So she just needed to fixate on that. Internalize it. Learn to somehow let it not bother her.

  But continuing with her day was a struggle, as the morbid curiosity lurking inside of her was desperate to scratch the itch of seeing what everyone on the internet had to say. Somehow, she managed to keep herself busy. And when James showed up at her office right before lunch, she was more than ready to collapse into his arms and never leave again.

  “Hey, Daisy.” He poked his head inside her door. “You got a minute?”

  She offered him a smile. “For you? Always.”

  James entered her office and shut the door quietly behind him. He studied her for a moment, looking as if he wasn’t sure where to begin.

  “Is this about—” she started.

  “Yes,” he blurted. “I saw what the guys were looking at this morning and…” He shook his head, gaze drifting to the ground. “It looks like the cat’s out of the bag.”

  She shrugged, trying to look casual, but instead felt bone-weary. “We knew it would come. I just didn’t imagine it would involve…paparazzi staking out your house at five a.m.”

  James heaved a sigh, easing into the chair in front of her desk. “I’ve been thinking. And I think this is my fault.”

  “Your fault? How could this be your fault?”

  James’s dark brows knit together as he examined his knuckles. “I never had a clear conversation with Emma about what was and wasn’t appropriate to talk to her friends about. She had mentioned to me a few days ago that she told her friends you and I were dating. I didn’t think too much of it…until this happened.” His jaw flexed as he lifted his intense gaze to meet hers. “One of the dads called me this morning to warn me that he’d found out word had traveled farther than his daughter had planned, but even he didn’t realize how big it had blown up already.”

  Daisy cocked her head. “Wait. So…all of this social media mess happened because of some schoolkids?”

  He laughed, but it was humorless. “More than that. I think some parents were involved, based on what I heard from Maddie’s dad. There’s kind of a close network of parents at Emma’s school, but that doesn’t involve all the parents, unfortunately. And actually, I think the lady who leaked the info to the press is the mom of one of Emma’s bullies.”

  “Shit.” Daisy covered her face with her hands. “So it goes from excited daughter to curious schoolmates to conniving, gossiping parents.”

  “And now…to the world.”

  They shared a heavy look. Finally, Daisy said, “Well, I guess this was what we were waiting for. We knew it had to slip out sometime, somehow.”

  “Yep. And we’re easy targets. I’m a long-time quarterback. You’re a new, female coach.” He smirked. “We’re sitting ducks for the press.”

  It was exactly that part that had Daisy’s insides in a knot. They were sitting ducks. But the main difference between her and James was that he was a familiar, decorated target. She, however, was fresh bait. An unknown. An underdog fighting for the right to even exist in this world.

  Men would laud James for shacking up with a coach, while they would excoriate her for daring to mix those worlds. Her stomach churned.

  “I don’t want you to think this coming out has affected the team at all,” James went on. “It’s unfortunate, but the guys are behind us one hundred percent. I had a chat with them today. They couldn’t care less what we do in our free time. As long as you don’t go easy on me, which they can all see is not the case, nobody is going to have a problem.”

  She expelled a sigh. “Are you sure about that?”

  “I know these guys. They’re my family. And I believe them.”

  She nodded. He was right. The opinions of Coach Scooter and the team were the most important in this equation. Even though everything she did from now on would be even more under the microscope…she tried to remind herself that this was what she’d signed up for.

  So why did you have to go and make it harder on yourself?

  “Let it die down,” James said, coming to his feet. “And don’t think about it again. I promise, it’ll go away. People will move on. And I’m going to have a serious chat with Emma about what she can share with her friends from now on.”

  Daisy sent him a grateful smile. “You’re pretty great, you know that?”

  “Great seeks great,” he said, before bending down to press a kiss to her lips. The warmth of him flooded her with security, with calmness. “I’ll see you later, babe.”

  Once he was gone and she was left alone with her thoughts, she struggled to stay on the optimistic note James had sounded for her.

  Because as far as she could see, the truth was simple: things were only going to get stickier from here. If the pressure had been on before, now things were really cooking.

  And Daisy wondered if she had the strength to get through it.

  12

  After work that day, James headed to pick up Emma from her dance class. His gut was still in knots over the way their relationship had been blasted across the internet, but he knew there was nothing else he could do except wait.

  He was more worried about the fallout for Daisy. She’d worked hard—probably harder than most people—to get to her position. Because she wasn’t just climbing a difficult work ladder, she was scaling a rock face originally designed for men alone.

  James knew how much of a boys’ club the sports world could be, especially when it came to the high ranks of the NFL. He just prayed this storm would pass quickly, that it might remain a simple waterspout as opposed to developing into a category five hurricane.

  James pulled into the cul-de-sac in front of the main doors of the dance school. Emma was already there, her duffel bag slung over her shoulder, a frown pulling at her mouth. She hurried toward the car when she saw him, her white dance tights contrasting with the shiny black of her tap shoes, and she slipped into the back seat.

  “Hey there, honey,” he said brightly. She said nothing in response, so he reached into the back seat to pat her knee. “Have a good dance practice?”

  She shrugged, her eyes fastened to the black practice pants she wore. “I guess.”

  Silence stretched between them. “You don’t look so happy.”

  She shrugged again, looking out the window then.

  “You have a good day?”

  “Not really.”

  Now, at least, he was getting somewhere. Though he could only guess what the cause might be. The latest social media drama, or maybe they were back to the original bully issues. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  She sighed softly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  He nodded to himself as he drove, doing some mental calculations about how he might be able to get his daughter to open up the fastest. “Well, I wish you would. Listen…how about this? I get you some ice cream, you spill whatever’s on your mind, and then we all feel better and go home.”

  She cocked her head as though she was thinking about it. “That might work.”

  “Ice cream always works,” he told her. That earned him a small smile, so he let the radio fill the silence until they made it to the nearest ice cream shop. Emma ordered first, her usual double scoop chocolate cone with extra sprinkles, while James played it safe with a vanilla yogurt.

  “All right,” he said as they made their way to a bench at the far edge of the property where it butted up against a small downtown park. People milled closer to the building, which meant they had relative privacy and plenty of shade from nearby trees to protect their precious haul. “So let’s hear it, honey.”

  Emma’s brows knit together as she took a few licks of her ice cream cone. Then she asked, “Is Daisy okay?”

  The simple question illuminated everything for James. Emma hadn’t been spared from the social media blowout. “Of course she is. Why wouldn’t she be?”

  “Because everyone in the entire world knows about you two,” Emma said quietly. “A lot of them will have something to say.”

  “And that’s okay,” James said, trying his best to sound positive about it. Upbeat, even. “You know how social media is. People say all sorts of silly things. But the other side of that is that they have incredibly short attention spans. What’s trending today won’t be trending next week…or even tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, but some people trend for a long time,” Emma pointed out before slurping at her cone.

  “I don’t think this will. People just aren’t that interested in your old dad like they used to be,” he cracked.

  But Emma saw through his attempt to smooth things over. She cocked a brow, saying, “But they’re more interested in Daisy, Dad.”

  He tried not to grimace, because he knew it would give away the swirling doubts and anxieties that he was working overtime to suppress right now. “I know, honey. But I promise, they’ll get over it.”

  Emma studied the chocolate ice cream in her hand for a moment, looking suddenly sad. “I should never have said anything to my friends. I never thought they’d tell anyone. Or that it would spread through the school like that.”

  “Did you ask them to keep it a secret?”

  Emma faltered. “Well, no.”

  “So then they didn’t do anything wrong. And neither did you. Do you understand? You shared something you were excited about. It’s not your fault that people took it a lot further than you intended.”

  Her shoulders slumped a little.

  “Listen, this is what happens when your dad is famous,” he said, nudging her, which made her smile at least. “People care a lot about what you and I do, even if it feels like you just have a normal, regular life.”

  Emma nodded, then noticed her ice cream was melting a little. She hurried to lick some of the dribbles escaping her cake cone.

  “And honestly, it’s better that everyone knows now,” James said, ready to banish this worry from his daughter’s mind once and for all. Sure, the news had been a gut punch, but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t overcome. “It was going to come out eventually. And now that it’s done, the worst is over. So really, we should be thanking whoever it was who told their mom to come take pictures.”

  Emma smirked. “Jessalyn.”

  “Right. Let’s thank Jessalyn.”

  James was expecting a laugh, but what he got instead was a trembling chin. Emma burst into tears a moment later. He pulled his daughter into his arms. “Emma girl. What’s wrong?”

  “A boy in my class said that Daisy would get fired now,” she said between sniffles. James noticed her cone was melting fast, so he gently took it from her hand and worked quickly to clean it up. When she noticed and straightened, tears subsiding slightly, he handed it back to her.

  “Dad duties. I can’t let dripping ice cream go uneaten. Now what did this stupid boy say?”

  She took the cone back sadly. “He said it’s illegal to date people from work.”

  “Illegal?”

  Emma nodded, licking glumly at her ice cream cone.

  “Honey, that kid has no idea what he’s talking about. First of all, if he wants to talk about the legality of what we’re doing, you invite him to speak to our lawyer. Second of all, all workplaces have different rules. What Daisy and I are doing is perfectly fine, because we checked first. Coach Scooter has known for a while now. Does that make you feel better?”

  Emma wiped some tears away, nodding.

  “Besides, you know Coach Scooter. Do you really think he’d fire Daisy just because she and I like each other? This kid has no idea what he’s talking about. And you can tell him so tomorrow, if you want.”

  A small smile crept across her lips, and she finally looked up at him, the brightness back in her eyes. “I’ll tell him to talk to our lawyer.”

  “Exactly. I’ll even give you his card to take to school if you want.”

  Emma giggled, digging into her ice cream cone with enthusiasm now. James heaved a sigh of relief on the inside, but anxiety still had him wound up and needing…something. He hadn’t foreseen Emma being this affected by the drama, and the fact that she’d been internalizing the blame and worry about Daisy’s future was yet another unexpected gut punch for the day.