Page 73 of Everything's Better With You
“Coach? Can I ask you a question?”
Terrell sat near the front of the pile of kids hydrating and doing cool-down stretches.
“Sure. Hit me.”
Terrell looked around at the kids as if his question was an uncomfortable one. “What’s it like, dancing on tour? Do you get to meet cool people?”
Once he spoke, the rest of the kids went for it.
“How do you go from place to place? On a bus?”
“I bet the after-parties are wild!”
“Where’s the coolest place you’ve been?”
The questions and comments flew fast and furious.
“So that’s a lot to address, um,” he said and the kids all laughed. “It’s been an adventure, to say the least. It’s exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. You want it to stop and you never want it to end. Its surreal dancing for tens of thousands of people three or four nights a week but all you hear is the singer’s voice in your head, or the stage manager. You experience pain like you’ve never felt before, and yet you can’t wait to do it again. You see the world but also a lot of hotels and venue bathrooms. You look your best, you’re in your best shape ever, and you’ve never been more of a mess in your life.” He looked to Marti and she shrugged with a sad smile.
“Would you do it again? Like are you doing anymore shows or are you staying here?”
Joe’s mouth went so dry his throat cracked like a drained riverbed when he tried to speak.
“I’ve signed a contract for this year at Greenvale, but I will do some traveling because of commitments I had before I took the job.”And now I’ve made a really big commitment!Had he been hasty the night before? He couldn’t help it. He was all-in with Leslie whenever they were together. It was only when he was away from his sun’s gravitational pull that he started to doubt.
“But you’ll be back next year, right?” Terrell frowned a bit with his question.
“That’s the plan,” Joe said. “But that’s a long way off. For now, we need to get busy with our next fundraising project.”
“I can’t believe football went to the Kansas City game and worked in concessions. That made them a ton of money. How are we ever going to catch up?”
“They’re going to win because there are so many of them.”
Joe looked around at these kids who were willing to follow him to the ends of the earth and he wanted to do right by them.
“We can catch them, but it may mean stepping out of your comfort zone.”
They all leaned in, and that was exactly what he’d been hoping for.
Twenty
Leslie
“Run it again. I don’t care how many times we have to run it, you’ll run this play until you figure out how to get out of your own way. I’ve got all day.”
They were finally on their own turf. The new field had been completed and the team was having practice for the first time. They’d opted to go with artificial turf and the bleachers would be in before the game next week.
Sandy stood on one side of him, Randy on the other, and they started doing the snake and snapping their fingers while singing, “Run this play. Get out of your way. I’ve got all day.”
“Idon’thave all day for you two,” Leslie growled.
“We’re just singing your latest hit,” Randy said, throwing in a very goofy attempt at the running man.
“What you should be singing about is how to fix this damn hole in our offensive line because if we lose again next week,there goes my year-one plan, Brother Randy.”
Leslie had taken their one and only loss last week hard. He absolutely knew there would be growing pains taking over the new team, but they’d won their first four games with a comfortable lead. Last week, however, his offensive line had fallen apart and his quarterback had been sacked twice. He wasn’t having that.
The twins quit dancing, looked at each other, and then started doing this weird shimmy thing on either side of him. “Yes, Coach.”
