He snorted. He’d been shocked when Emma came down in a cotton dress today. Lately, she’d only been in shorts and half the time they were of the athletic variety.
It’s not as if this dress was sexy. The soft red material reminded him of a long T-shirt. It wasn’t clinging to her body, but hugged enough to give off her slim shape.
Her white Converse chucks that she’d slipped on her feet were so her and brought her back to the woman he was losing his heart to.
“Nope,” he said. “She’s the one I want.”
“Damn,” his coach said. “Tell me about her.”
“What?” he asked.
“You know how it goes. Do we have to worry about anything? At some point, people are going to see you out and start trying to find out anything they can about her. I only heard her name was Emma.”
Warren knew about this and hadn’t even told his agent yet. The team would want to be on top of it and he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t more prepared for this conversation.
Maybe because he’d never had it before.
“Fuck.” This was why he didn’t officially date anyone.
“That doesn’t sound good,” his coach said, leaning back in his chair. “The fact you’re in prime condition, if not stronger and more focused than last year, I’d worry she was taking up a lot of your time.”
“No,” he said. “You should know better than that. She lives on Amore Island.”
“Which is about two hours or more to get there between ferry schedules.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Is Mike around?”
“You want the team publicist here for this?” his coach asked.
“I don’t want to say this twice.”
He’d told Emma this might come up and she was fine with it. He just didn’t think it’d be today.
He knew what he could and couldn’t say, but he wasn’t giving permission just yet to release their relationship.
It was best to take things in stages.
His coach picked up the phone, then started talking. “Mike, I’ve got Warren in here if you can come down now.” He hung up the phone. “He’s on his way.”
“It’s not bad,” he said. “I don’t want you to think that.”
“But it’s something,” his coach said.
He turned his head when Mike popped in. “What’s going on?”
“Warren has a girlfriend that he just got clearance for,” Coach said.
“That’s good,” Mike said. “What’s the bad part that I need to know about?”
“Nothing bad,” he said. “Information you should have for when we decide to officially comment on our status. We’ve been keeping our relationship low key and it’s of no one’s concern.”
“How long have you been dating?” Mike asked, typing into his computer. He hated this intrusive shit, but understood the image of the club meant more than individual players.
He was the face of the organization right now, so that carried a lot of weight and he knew his responsibility.
“About two months,” he said. “We met at the end of April on Amore Island. I went back to get her number in early May.”
“You made the first step?” Coach asked, laughing.
