Taylor’s hands went to her hips. “Do you really think a bunch of college kids will see us together and automatically assume I’m your fitness instructor? They’ll more likely think we’re hooking up, which would hurt my reputation more than it would hurt yours.”

Jamar’s head reared back. “How’s that?” He didn’t mean to sound so offended, but shit, he was. He didn’t consider himself the bottom of the barrel when it came to hookup choices.

“Because when you get back into the NFL in a few months, you will then have to make good on the other part of our deal,” Taylor said. “I don’t want people to think you only chose me as your trainer because we were messing around on the side. So yeah, I’m the one with the most to lose here.”

She was probably right about what people would think, which was fucked up.

Still, this whole thing made him uneasy. He didn’t want to take the slightest chance of someone drawing the correct conclusion about his relationship to Taylor. But, then again, she had a point about tailoring his workouts.

After a minute, he nodded. “Okay, fine. We’ll say that you’re a friend who’s interested in football or something.”

“Not sure I can pull off that lie, but we’ll see. Where should I meet you?”

“Why don’t I just pick you up? We can drive over together,” he offered.

“I’ll text you my address.” She winked, smiling the smile of someone who’d just gotten her way. She picked up her duffel and hauled the strap over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER NINE

Jamar stood on the sideline with his arms crossed over his chest as he observed the running backs conducting their drills. The crunch of shoulder pads crashing into each other played like Mozart in his ears, the rank smell of sweat like perfume to his nose. He’d missed this so much more than he’d been willing to admit.

The Longhorns’ running back coach, Mark Green, had been instrumental in preparing Jamar for the NFL, so when he’d asked if Jamar could attend today’s practice and give his running backs a pep talk after their hard loss on Saturday against a huge conference rival, it wasn’t a question as to whether he would be here.

He knew what these guys were going through. He also knew that if they didn’t put the mistakes from Saturday out of their heads, it could mess up their entire season.