NASHVILLE, Tenn. — By all accounts it was a whirlwind romance.

It started about six months ago when former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair exchanged phone numbers with Sahel Kazemi, a then-19-year-old waitress working at Dave & Buster's Restaurant. Saturday, the relationship ended in tragedy, as the couple was found shot to death in a downtown Nashville condominium.

Police continue to investigate the circumstances of the events leading up to the deaths, but according to friends of Kazemi, she was smitten and so was McNair.

For her 20th birthday in late May, McNair got her a black Cadillac Escalade. Her family met him over sushi dinner that same weekend. Before that, Kazemi zipped around in his Bentley, telling family and friends about the generosity of her new beau.

"We met him because I don't watch football and didn't know who he was," said Farzin Abdi, Kazemi's nephew, who was in town from Jacksonville, Fla., to retrieve the body. "We went out to dinner and she was so happy and was having fun. Were we happy about the relationship? No."

Kazemi's family and friends pieced together a portrait of their relationship — one they were leery of because of her age — as police confirmed yesterday that McNair was shot four times, declaring his death a homicide. Police have stopped just shy of calling it a murder-suicide.

"It's hard right now to imagine what people are saying," Abdi said. "I can't believe it because she was a sweet girl. This is hard on us."

There were trips, dinners, a promise of living together and ultimately marriage, Abdi said of the couple's relationship.

"I don't know if he had filed for divorce but I thought it wouldn't happen," Abdi said, adding that Kazemi was a child when adopted into the family after her mother died in Iran. Abdi's mother is Kazemi's sister.

McNair took Kazemi, known as Jenny to friends, on trips to Key West, Las Vegas, California, Hawai'i and McNair's farm in Mississippi with the couple seeing each other often, Abdi said.

Kazemi told her sister, Sepideh Salmani, that McNair was in the process of divorcing.

Salmani talked to her sister every day, and said she was very happy in her relationship with McNair.

"That's why she was like, 'OK, now you're divorcing. We can date,' " Salmani said. "He told her, it was going to be finished, the whole divorce was going to be done, two weeks from yesterday."

Although a check of Davidson County's court records shows there is no divorce pending — at least in Nashville — McNair's house is for sale. His wife, Mechelle McNair, hasn't spoken to the media. Police said she is distraught.

Kazemi and her family moved to the U.S. in 2002, fleeing Iran to Turkey before settling in Florida. As members of the Bahai Faith, they were in danger in Iran. They quickly got acclimated. Kazemi worked hard and liked earning her own money, the family said.

Her greatest dream, Salmani said, was to be famous.

"I think she is now," Salmani said. "She is everywhere."