Page 83 of New River Gorge(ous)
Matt frowns, but Beck fixes him with a stern glare.
“If they try anything more, you can cut them off, but it’s a community dance, and everyone’s dancing with everyone. You already stick out as a tourist. Melanie, you can say no if someone asks you to dance, but it would be better to say yes if someone asks you to line dance. And if it’s square dancing, it doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Oh, does this mean I have to dance with anyone who asks me?” I ask as Matt and Melanie wind their way to an empty spot on the dance floor. Truthfully, anxiety is flaring, and I’m trying to shove it down. I can control it. I am in control.
“Absolutely not.” Beck frowns. “You will only be dancing with me.”
“Seems hypocritical,” I retort.
“Ah, but you and I are both locals.” Beck tips his chin. “Local people have privileges at these things.”
“Fair enough.” I smile and let Beck lead me through the crush of people and take our places in the line.
The dances aren’t hard, but line dancing doesn’t come naturally to me. Beck seems to know these like the back of hishand, and we’re laughing and having a great time. After an hour of line dancing, the band switches to square dancing.
Suddenly the people who were line dancing file off the floor, and a whole new group of people file on.
“Want to try it?” Beck asks.
“Could I watch a few rounds first?” I ask, because truthfully I am tired from an hour of activity, and also, I have never seen square dancing in person.
“Of course,” Beck says. “Oh look, there’s Ben and Logan.”
Logan scowls at Ben’s back as Ben heads onto the dance floor with Lynette.
“Well, that’s interesting,” I whisper to Beck, but he doesn’t hear me.
Matt and Melanie stand to the side of the dance floor, under one of the Edison bulbs, and I can see Melanie’s foot tapping while Matt looks on at the swirling, whirling dancers with trepidation. If line dancing isn’t my thing, it’s clear that square dancing isn’t Matt’s.
Beck and I arrive next to Logan.
“Why do you look like that?” Beck asks, slapping Logan on the shoulder.
He juts his head over to where Lynette and Ben are part of a square. “Lynette asked Ben to dance.”
“That’s better than her asking the other guys to dance here, right?”
“Yeah.” Logan runs his hands through his spiky hair before smirking at Beck. “Hey, Brooke, want to dance?”
Beck scowls, but doesn’t answer and looks at me.
“Ha, sorry, no, Logan,” I say.
Logan laughs. “Had to try.”
The square dance music ends, and the caller announces, “We’re going to take a break, and when we come back, it will betime for some canoodling music. That’s right, ladies and gents, we’ll move on to the love songs after this break.”
Ben and Lynette return from the dance floor, holding bottles of beer from the ice bucket. They offer them all around, but I politely decline. “I’m going to head to the bathroom.”
Beck nods in understanding. Lynette passes her beer to Ben and says, “I’ll come too.”
We duck back into the building, and it would appear that every woman had the same idea we did. While we’re waiting in line, the band starts playing soft, romantic songs that make me want to somehow both run into Beck’s arms and also run away because there is too much anticipation coursing through my body for my brain to have any logical response.
Lynette talks my ear off the entire time we wait, but I don’t mind. This is the first year she’s been able to come to the dance, and although she doesn’t say anything directly, I get the sense she’s hoping that Ben will ask her to dance. I don’t know how Logan will feel about it, but it’s not my business.
When we’re finally done and return to the outside, we find the men just as we left them, except Logan’s gesticulating wildly, and I catch Ben’s words of “too soon.” He cuts off abruptly when he sees me.
The band is playing a soft melody that I can’t totally place. Beck frowns at Ben and Logan, and before the anxiety runs away, I unleash my take-charge attitude.
