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The words on the page weren’t making an impact in my brain. I was still thinking about the interview earlier and the fact that Echo had been mentioned. Why couldn’t I get away from her? When I went away to college I thought I would never hear from her again, except maybe on social media every now and then, but never to actually interact with. I didn’t know that she was going to end up back in Maine and coaching the team that would beat mine at a competition.
I swear, when I’d found out she was coaching the Bulldogs, I almost choked and fell off a chair at the same time. I’d been out having a drink with Dom and a few other friends, and it had come through the cheer whisper network.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I’d screamed in the bar, but I’d been drowned out by the sound of the Patriots scoring a touchdown on the TV, so I hadn’t completely embarrassed myself.
The former Heartwood High School cheer coach had retired after twelve years. She’d built the program from the ground up, much like my squad. I’d stepped in three years ago to an already-winning program, which had been to Nationals before. We hadn’t qualified for the past two years, and I would do anything to get them back to that level. I knew what I was up against in our division, and I knew that cheer teams from Maine were at a disadvantage, but I wanted it for my squad. I wanted to show the cheer world that teams from places other than the south could win big. Echo’s team had also been racking up the championships and going to Nationals forever as well, so we were the underdogs.
Ugh, why was I still thinking about Echo? I hated it. I hated the memories that bubbled up and consumed my attention. I hated that we had a history.
No, I couldn’t let anyone know that when I was baby lesbian at cheer camp I’d hooked up with the hot tumbler with the long red hair and the freckles all over her back.
Why had I let my lust take over my brain? Just because I’d been sixteen and horny and she’d hung out at my room too late because my roommate had ended up going home early with an injury and I had the place to myself.
It really was my own fault: I’d kissed her first.
I slammed the book shut and startled all three kitties and was rewarded by several sets of claws digging into my flesh.
Yup, time for bed.
––––––––
“YOU’RE NEVER ALLOWEDto leave me again,” I said, walking into Dom’s office and putting my arms around him. He was so broad that my arms only reached the middle of his chest.
“Okay, okay. I get it,” he said, laughing. I was an only child, but if I could have a brother, I would have chosen Dom. He was a few years younger than me and we’d graduated from the same high school, about a half hour away from Corsica. We hadn’t known each other, but had gone through the same cheer program, and he’d been an assistant coach and gym teacher at Corsica for five years.
Sometimes I wondered if he was angry that he didn’t get the head coaching job, but he told me that he didn’t want it. Too much pressure, and he had a cute husband that he adored and wanted to spend time with. I just had the cats, so I was happy to be the one sitting up at night and working out choreo in my head, or dealing with the teen drama, or meeting with the athletic director to beg for new mats, or volunteer for the booster club. I’d do it all.
“That’ll do, K.” Dom patted my head. He always called me K, or Coach K. The squad had picked up on it and I was trying to get used to it. “What is that look on your face? I know that look.” He stared down from his height into my eyes.
“I want to tweak the pyramid?” I said, but it sounded like a question.
Dom ran his hands through his dark curls, making them spring and stand up all over the place. Dom was painfully handsome, and he knew it. He sat down behind his desk and I took one of the spare chairs that creaked whenever I so much as breathed. He needed new furniture in here. Most of the stuff in here was older than both of us combined.
“Are you serious? Do you think they can handle that?” I didn’t really know, which was why I wanted to ask him. I handed him a coffee from the good coffee place down the street.
“Tell me what you think.”
I went through the changes, and he shook his head at me.
“Look, if they can pull it off, it’s going to be spectacular. If not? It’s going to be a disaster.”
I gave him a look. “That’s our entire sport, Dom.”
He pointed at me. “That’s true. Okay, I say let them try it. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, hopefully without any breakdowns.”
I wanted to avoid those at all costs. I sincerely loved every one of those kids and I wouldn’t push them further than I thought they could go.
“Sounds like a plan.” I sat back and sipped my coffee, trying not to be envious at the adorable pictures Dom had on his desk of him and Heath on their wedding day. Ninety percent of the time, I was absolutely fine with being single, but every now and then, a cold knife of loneliness would stab itself in my chest and it was hard to breathe.
I looked back up at Dom’s face.
“You okay?” he asked.
I plastered a fake cheer smile on my face. “Yeah, just thinking too much.”
“Thinking about anything or anyone fun?” He wiggled his dark eyebrows up and down and his brown eyes twinkled. I knew that if I let him press hard enough, I’d spill everything. Dom was one of the only people in the world that I was almost completely nakedly honest with. It was one of the reasons we worked so well together. No bullshit, no games.
“Not really,” I said, and pressed my lips together to keep my tongue from telling him that I had been thinking about Echo. Dom knew that Echo and I had a history, but he didn't know any of the dirty details, although he was smart and probably had figured it out and just chose not to bring it up because he was a good friend.
