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“Okay, okay,” he said, raising his hands in the air. “I won’t press you. But if you wanted to tell me . . .”

I glared at him.

“Message received. Anything else you want to get off your chest?”

I swung the conversation back in the direction of cheer, a safer topic, but my mind was still thinking about Echo.

She was coming back into my life in a big way.

Two

“Where is your bow?”I asked Mack, my most-important flyer, who had apparently forgotten she was a cheerleader today. She’d forgotten her uniform somehow, but we had extras on hand that fit her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, threatening to cry mascara tears all over her already made-up face. “I don’t know what happened. I thought I had everything in my bag.”

I could tell she felt completely awful, so I gave her a hug and told her I had emergency bows for situations like this.

“You might not be prepared, but I am.” I spent many hours of my life going over every single contingency that could happen, so that we would never be surprised.

My squad knew that even if someone broke their leg in the middle of a routine, we would be able to stop, regroup, and go on again, and nail it. I regularly would pull people from stunts and throw the alternates in, just to keep them on their toes. No surprises, ever.

I pulled out the bow and slid it onto her ponytail and gave her a little extra hairspray. Big bows were back in now, and I was pleased. If your bow wasn’t half the size of your head and covered in rhinestones, what was the point?

“Hey, it’s okay. Leave that at the door. Breathe.” I made her do some breathing exercises a few times with me until she seemed to be focused on the performance again.

So much of what I did as a coach was be a surrogate mother, so it was no wonder I didn’t have any energy left for dating. I also didn’t have time.

Dom led everyone in warmups and putting up a few stunts, and then I gave the rousing pep talk. I told them to look at the crowd. Their friends and families were here to support them, as well as local press, and other members of the community. Megan and the photographer lurked in the periphery, and I smoothed my hair. I’d taken extra care with it today. We all needed to look good today.

Everything was set to go, but I was momentarily thrown off my game when I saw a flash of red hair climbing the bleachers. No, it couldn’t be her. I was just seeing things.

I turned my attention back to my squad and we all put our hands in and did our little call and response cheer that we did before every performance. I didn’t like to say I was superstitious, but I was wearing my lucky earrings and rings, and had a quarter in my pocket, as I always did before they performed. Sticking my hand in my pocket, I rubbed the quarter five times.

Showtime.

The kids did amazing, everything hit and they were ecstatic when they got off the mat. I gave them a few little tips and pointers and then let them run and hug their friends and families and bask in the performance. I was proud of them.