Free Maid to Fit by Rebecca Avery Page A

to head
     back out to the garage.
    “Ronnie! Wait!” Addie said. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”
    The kid was like a lawyer asking him questions he really didn’t want to answer, especially
     with a jury of her peers standing around looking at him.
    “Did you watch a video of Tina Turner performing the song?” he asked.
    “No, we looked for videos of other cheer routines that have been done to the song,”
     she replied.
    “If you are going to copy someone, at least copy the master,” he said.
    After seeing the look on her face, he moved to the laptop, did a search and played
     a video for her. He stepped back as the girls crowded around to watch. He tried to
     slowly back away from the group, hoping they wouldn’t notice. Just as he’d almost
     made it clear of the girls, Addie grabbed his arm, effectively killing his attempts
     at escape.
    “Don’t go. We need your help,” she said to him.
    “Oh, no,” he said adamantly.
    “What do you mean, no?” Addie asked him with a laugh.
    “I mean
hell
no,” he replied.
    “You don’t have to dance
with
us—just tell us what we are doing wrong,” she coaxed.
    “Watch the video three times, then try to copy the dancers three times and
then
come and get me and I’ll tell you what you are doing wrong. Oh, and learn how to
     get into formation. Standing in a straight line with an equal distance between you
     is a great place to start,” he said, attempting to pry her fingers off his arm.
    “Come on, Ronnie. Our coach sucks. You saw her,” Addie whined.
    “What makes you think I’d be any better than her? I’m a
dude,
the last I checked,” he said.
    Smiling up at him, she said matter-of-factly, “One for offense, two for defense.”
    Looking into her freckled face, he couldn’t say no. At least no one was around to
     see him being goaded into participating in this charade. Sighing, he said, “Put the
     furniture back where it belongs, download the song and meet me outside in twenty minutes
after
you’ve watched the video at least three times.”
    He headed back out to the garage to dig out the other two chairs. Being ready in twenty
     minutes was a way to see if they were serious or not. What the hell did he know about
cheerleading,
let alone
coaching
cheerleading? Next to nothing, that was what. He would humor them, though, until
     they figured that out for themselves. Then maybe they would find something else to
     do.
    Damn, it wasn’t even lunchtime.
Come on, Kayla, get home.
    After pulling the other two chairs out from under a stack of boxes, he checked over
     the table and found it wasn’t missing a board after all—the two ends were just stuck
     open. Glancing at his watch to check the girls’ time, he went to work fixing the sliding
     bar in the middle of the table that allowed the two ends to slide together. He was
     able to push it tight. It was a sweet table and would fit their little kitchen at
     the apartment perfectly.
    Looking at his watch again, he realized twenty minutes had passed, so he opened up
     the overhead garage door and was shocked to see the girls lined up in two rows of
     four girls each. Buck sat facing the group.
    Damn it
. He had hoped they wouldn’t be ready so he could bow out of this stupidity.
    Eyeing Addie, who had a self-satisfied grin on her face, he said, “Two laps around
     the block.”
    They looked at him for a minute before one of the girls said, “Come on, let’s go.”
    When they started to run, he yelled, “No, no, no. In formation.”
    He watched them try to line back up and after he let them struggle for a minute he
     went over and showed them how to line up correctly. Once they were back in line he
     said, “Okay, go, but together.”
    They took off down the sidewalk at a slow jog, with Buck bringing up the rear. Ronnie
     walked to the end of the driveway and watched them attempt to stay in the perfect
     lines he’d helped them form. By the time they hit the end of the block they had figured