“How are you feeling?” I asked her.
In response, she held out her hand parallel to the ground, fingers splayed. Not even a tremor. If I’d done the same thing, my hand’s shaking could be charted on a Richter scale.
She didn’t seem nervous at all. Must have gotten the ice in her veins from her mother. I’d never met another person so in control and sure of themselves. Admirable. And infuriating.
In a rare moment of uncertainty, Sierra chewed on her bottom lip and scanned the spectators bordering the sidelines. I spotted Nicole. She wore a pair of high-waisted jeans that hugged her curves and a checkered top that followed the natural lines of her upper body. She reminded me of a vintage pin-up girl come to life. Still modest but take-your-breath-away sexy. She had her sewing group friends with her minus Amanda, which struck me as odd since, out of all of them, she appreciated sports the most. But maybe she had a previous engagement. I’d heard wind that something big was going down at her job.
“Your mom is over there.” I pointed Nicole out to Sierra.
I couldn’t tell under all the pads, but I would have sworn her shoulders fell. “He said he’d be here. He promised.”
“Who?”
There weren’t any tears in her eyes when she looked up at me, but for some reason that punched me in the gut harder than if salty tracks had streaked over her cheeks.
“My dad.”
So much packed in two small words. The hope in the heart of a daughter. The echo of defeat felt one too many times.
I wished I could say he’d be there. That he was just running late. But I couldn’t be another male in her life lying to her. I turned her shoulders until she faced me. Bent so our eyes were on level, then drilled my gaze into hers so she’d know how serious I was. “His loss. Because he’s about to miss the greatest game by the best youth QB I’ve ever seen.”
Her lips twitched as if they wanted to smile.
My hands moved her to face her mom. “Look over there. What do you see?”
She shrugged. “It’s my mom and Jocelyn, Molly, and Betsy.”
“You have so many people here who love you and are cheering for you. Don’t let them down, yeah?”
She looked at me, some of her spunk returning. “Yeah.”
“Okay, then. Let’s play some football.”
The refs called the team captains to the center of the field, and Eric tapped Maddox on the helmet to run out for the coin toss. The kid had speed, stamina, and the stickiest fingers out of the bunch. He hadn’t dropped a single ball in all our practices.
One ref tossed a coin in the air. A second later, he made a kicking motion by swinging his leg, then pointed to the other team. A smile broke past my thinly pressed lips. We received the ball first. Time to put some points on the board.
“Okay guys.” I swung my gaze around to the kids huddled around me. Sierra’s brown eyes watched me with intent. “And girl.” I winked at her, and a few of the players looked her way and chuckled. “This is our first game, and I want you to go out there and have fun. Play your hardest, play fair and as a team, and have a good time. That’s all I ask of you.”
“And maybe make a few touchdowns,” Sierra chimed in with a smirk.
I laughed. “Sure. Touchdowns are great, too.”
“Don’t worry, Coach.” Will adjusted his pads. “Dad already gave me the ‘Winning isn’t everything’speech, like, a hundred times this morning. But I still want to try and beat the other team.”
These kids had done for me what I was supposed to do for them. I went around tapping each of their helmets with an affectionate pat. “All right. Bring it in.” I held out my hand, and a circle of smaller palms stacked on top. “On three, Panthers strong. One, two, three.”
“Panthers strong!” we all yelled out.
I got Sierra’s attention. “Double wing TE ninety pop pass backdoor.” She nodded as the special team’s players ran onto the field to receive the ball. Will caught it and ran for ten yards before getting tackled.
“You got this!” I shouted to the kids as offense formed on the line of scrimmage. But I was back to convincing myself.
If I’d been a dad coach as all the other coaches seemed to be, then the unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach would seem normal. But I had no personal stake in the outcome of the game. No kid of my own that would be affected by the events of the season.
My gaze landed on Sierra, the only girl on the field. I wiped my sweaty palms on the outside of my pants, a strange swell of pride pushing against the confines of my ribcage.
Probably a good thing I didn’t know who her father was or where I could find him. I’d be tempted to leave Eric alone with coaching duties and drag the guy’s sorry carcass back. Didn’t he know the blessing he had in his daughter? What an amazing kid she was? Then again, his intellect could be called into question on multiple fronts. He had let Nicole slip through his fingers, after all.
