The Best Next Thing

She returned the woman’s smile uncertainly and went back to dabbing the perspiration off her brow and neck. Greyson excused himself and jogged lithely over to the stage to have a chat with his wife. Charity watched as the woman handed their daughter to him and gracefully dismounted the stage to give her husband a laughing hug and kiss. Greyson put the toddler down and kept an indulgent eye on her while she tottered from person to person for high fives.

Feeling an unexpected pang of envy at their intimate family moment, Charity swept her gaze around the busy community center. Their training hour was nearly up, and Sam was wrapping up some basics with the beginners, a motley mix of teens and elderly ladies. The senior knitting group was gathered in a gossipy semi-circle, busily knitting squares for a quilt that would be raffled off at the upcoming winter cheese festival. It would be the very first time Riversend hosted the popular event and everybody was excited and determined to keep the lucrative annual festival in their town.

Sam often joined the knitters for a gossip. He really loved those old girls, shamelessly flirting with them and teasing them. It was one of the first things that had made her relax around him, how kind he was to those sweet ladies.

Her eyes continued her scan of the room. Because the schools had just closed for their mid-winter break, the community center was more crowded than usual. A group of teens was gathered in the furthest corner of the large space. They didn’t appear to have any kind of adult supervision…and all they were currently doing was being rowdy and talking over one another.

Charity watched as one of the girls, smaller than the rest, tried to get them organized. She knew the girl was related to the McGregors in some way, but because Charity kept herself separate from everyone else, she hadn’t gotten the specifics of that relationship. The girl was pretty and looked around seventeen, curly hair, golden brown skin, and very petite. She was waving her arms frantically but no one was paying any attention to her.

Charity slung her towel around her neck and made her way to the group. Uncharacteristically curious to find out what was happening.

“Hi, Mz. Cole,” one of the kids called as she got closer, and Charity nearly stumbled. Okay, so even the teens knew her name in this town. She couldn’t recall ever speaking to a single kid during her entire time here, so having an adolescent casually greet her as if he saw her every day was disconcerting to say the least.

That greeting was followed by several others, and Charity nodded awkwardly in return. “Hey guys, what are you up to?”

“We’re trying to choreograph a dance for the cheese festival,” the girl, who had so futilely been attempting to get them organized, stated. Small for her age, freckled, with that curly mop of hair and wearing oversized dungarees, she was pretty darned cute. She had green eyes that were a striking contrast against her dewy brown skin.

“Only we don’t know what we’re doing,” one of the boys piped up.

“I know what we’re doing, Jason,” the girl retorted. “You guys just won’t listen.”

“I say we do hip hop,” one of the other young men said with a wicked grin, before grabbing his trousers at the crotch and wriggling his hips. Charity wasn’t sure if his intention was to be sexy or lewd, but she thought he looked like a little boy who desperately needed the restroom. The rest of the boys laughed and the girls looked completely grossed out. “Whaddya think, Charlie?”

“No,” the girl in the dungarees, Charlie, said flatly. “We’re doing a gwara gwara dance to a techno beat. But you haven’t got the skills for that, Sinclair, so you can stand in the back where no one can see you and feel up your own dick like a total loser.”

The other kids sniggered at that, and Sinclair, a tall, floppy-haired, handsome bruiser of a boy, glowered mutely at Charlie.

“So, what’s this dance you’re talking about?” Charity asked, hoping to defuse the tension between the two.

“Oh, you move your arm like this and then your leg picks up the rhythm and you just…” The girl proceeded to demonstrate, and Charity stood gaping while she took off in a rolling, energetic dance that seemed to require a lot of leg strength and stamina. It was amazing how one of her legs would move with seeming complete independence from the rest of her body, before the rest of her limbs joined in. Charity was awestruck by her flexibility and talent. The other kids whooped and clapped and soon most of the them were joining in.

Charity laughed, genuinely impressed and clapped when they stopped and grinned at her.