Fit for You

by Cynthia Tennent

  No melting. No melting.

  I looked away, hoping I wasn’t wearing my feelings on my sleeve. Mrs. Krebbs was pushing her walker out of the arts and crafts room toward us. The bottom of the walker caught on the carpet in the front hallway and she went flying. She landed on the floor with a sickening thud. Everyone scrambled toward her. Louise and the aides were there first. They checked her for injuries and tried to calm her.

  “I’m all right,” she insisted.

  Louise shook her head. “We aren’t taking any chances, Mrs. Krebbs.”

  Louise turned to Edge, who had joined us. “Can you help me get her into the other room, honey? I want to call the doctor.”

  Campers shifted restlessly as they watched the excitement in the hallway. Justin and Jason craned their necks, hoping for blood and gore, to be sure.

  “I’ll be right back, everyone!” Edge carefully lifted Mrs. Krebbs as if she were nothing more than a rag doll and followed Louise into the other room. Ivy rolled her wheelchair out of the living room, ready to follow Louise.

  Before I thought about what I was doing, I was clapping my hands. “Hey there, everyone. While Edge takes a short break, let’s have some fun.”

  I moved around the couches and chairs and took Edge’s place at the front of the room.

  “What exactly are we going to do?” asked a skeptical Mr. Galardi.

  “Well . . .”

  They stared. I knew how to rally people to work out. It didn’t matter that most of the people in front of me could barely walk across the room. I could do the same thing here. Maybe.

  “Umm, I’m not any good at singing, so we can put this away.” I moved the guitar against the wall.

  From the couch Justin whispered, “Phew . . . I hear she sings really bad.”

  A stereo system with a patch cord coming out of it sat on a table in the front of the room. “Maybe we can have a little music. How’s that?”

  Mr. Galardi grunted and said, “I thought Edge was going to play his music. I don’t know any other songs but his.”

  I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and opened up my music app. “Sure you do. I’ll bet you know lots of songs.”

  Frantically I scrolled through my music library, looking for something other than rock and roll that might sound familiar to the campers. Most of my songs were little-known alternative songs.

  Then I spotted Michael. My all-time favorite.

  “Ha. Here we go.” I plugged in my phone and turned up the volume. The low techno guitar note started to play the first few notes. The low murmur of Michael’s talking filled the room, then the high-pitched “Whoop” and the music started. Michael Jackson’s voice urged everyone not to stop until they got enough.

  “Come on, everyone. Let’s see if you remember your moves.”

  At first they stared at me like I had lost my head. Disco was a far reach from “On Top of Old Smoky” and “Hello Muddah, Hello Fad-duh.” But Michael was special. It was impossible not to move when you heard the beat. One by one, feet started shuffling and hips began rocking. Even hips that hadn’t been out of their wheelchairs in years.

  A bunch of sad-looking balloons that had lost their “lift” after a birthday party were gathered in the corner like dust bunnies. I untied their strings and tossed them in the air.

  Jason and Justin had paused their video games, mildly interested in my attempt to entertain. I called over to them. “Boys, see if you can keep these balloons from falling to the ground.”

  Someone had stored long foam tubes in a bin against the wall. They had been used to make the gigantic flowers in the arts and crafts room. I grabbed them and gave them to people who were confined to chairs. “Use these to reach the balloons if you need to. But don’t injure Jason and Justin here. Ivy might get mad if you hurt her great-grandsons.”

  Of course, one bright-eyed man purposely smacked Jason on the head, and Jason promptly pretended to die. But then he jumped back up to catch a balloon.

  Some of the campers had amazing rhythm. More than that, the smiles around the room were contagious. I moved among the chairs and helped keep the balloons aloft, laughing when I lost and they dropped to the floor.

  “Sorry. I’ve got a bad knee.”

  One man patted me on the back and told me, “Watch yourself and don’t worry about saving the balloons, honey. Safety always comes first.”

  When the next song came on and Michael told everyone to just beat it, I let the balloons drop and moved to the front of the room where everyone could see me. Getting the seniors to move wasn’t that different than coaching a fitness class. They needed direction and encouragement to make moving fun. Instinct told me to keep up the energy.

  I punched the air, one hand at a time, and then crossed my arms in front of me. “See if you can follow me.”

  It was as easy as that. Without asking questions they imitated my moves. Some were a little slower than the beat. And several people were unable to do the actual motion. But what they did do was good enough. Catching on to the music, Justin did a pretty good moonwalk.

  “Is Jason as good?” I asked Justin, peering back at Jason.

  The campers turned around to see Jason responding to the challenge in the back of the room. I did the same so it would be easier to follow.

  Mrs. Jackowski, one of the more nimble seniors, changed moves. “Try this.”

  We followed her until Mr. Galardi tried his moves. I looked toward the back of the room and spotted Ivy. Her head was bobbing to the disco beat. Her toe was tapping. And her right wrist was waving back and forth. Better than any of her moves, however, was the smile on her face. It was as if she remembered a moment in the past when she had strutted to the catchy sound of “Beat It” or “Thriller,” and it was all coming back to her. I didn’t bring attention to her like I did some of the other campers when they showed off their moves. I left her where she was in time. At the party.

  Two songs later, Jason and Justin were turning red from exertion. I changed the song to Gladys Knight & the Pips, letting the midnight train slow us down on our way to Georgia. “If you aren’t already sitting down, find a seat and tap your feet to the beat.”

  Mrs. Fleetwood had such a look of happiness on her face that I asked, “Do you remember this song?”

  “It was the first song I danced to after my husband asked me to marry him,” she said over the music.

  “Now that’s a song that would make anyone say yes,” I said.

  Mr. Frasier called out, “Marry me!”

  “I just might.” Everyone laughed. I was just about to change up the moves when I looked up.

  Edge stood in the back of the room, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. He stared at me in a way that made me wiggle my toes to keep from doing a victory dance. The gleam in his eyes had nothing to do with Mr. Frasier’s outburst or the way the rest of the room was swaying to the beat.

  Crap. My melting heart had started to boil. I was in big trouble.

  It took me a moment to realize the music had stopped. Jason mocked my dreamy eyes and Justin rolled on the floor in glee. Edge moved off the wall, pretending he was going to step on Justin, and said, “Who needs ‘The Hokey Pokey’ when we can have ‘The Hustle’?”

  “Yeah!” the boys cheered, trying to trip him up. He snatched them both and held them fast.

  “Lily, will you come back every week and dance with us?” Louise asked before we left.

  Jason and Justin asked if they could come, too. How could I say no?

  Later, Edge told me how things had gone with Mrs. Krebbs while they were waiting for the doctor.

  “She heard your music from the living room and we had a hell of a time keeping her from getting up and boogying.”

  LESSON EIGHTEEN

  Create Balance

  “Couldn’t we just celebrate Mother’s Day like everyone else and go to brunch at the Gas ’N’ Go Café?” Olivia asked Louise as we drove out of the church parking lot.

  “The Tr
iple C’s have been working hard on this,” Louise reminded her.

  A special brunch for mothers was being held at the Amble Inn, down Winding Road. The brunch had been organized by the Triple C’s, with help from Edge and the Adler family, who owned the inn.

  We made our way to the table reserved for “Callahan.” The centerpieces were made up of beautiful bowls of strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and melon. Salads decorated with sliced grapefruit and poppyseed dressing were already placed at each setting.

  “I can’t believe how healthy this looks,” Tracy said as she plucked a grape from the plate in the middle of the table. I pulled off a card that displayed the menu for the buffet and the calorie count for each item. No chili fries. No donuts. Just healthy banana-nut waffles, crustless quiche, and even made-to-order smoothies. Was this the same town I had arrived in just a couple of months ago?

  We had just taken our seats when a handsome man came over and sat down between Louise and Ivy. I was about to explain that the seat was taken when Louise turned and gasped.

  Ivy laughed and said, “Mine!”

  He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Happy Mother’s Day, Grandma.”

  Louise clapped her hands and laughed. “What have you done with my son?”

  Edge smoothed a hand over his face. “Don’t you like it?”

  “I forgot how good-looking you are under that beard.” She put both hands on either side of his face. “You silly man!! Why have you been hiding all these years?”

  “I can’t promise it won’t be back. But I figured all that hair was taking a few seconds off my obstacle-course time. The less wind resistance the better!”

  I struggled to pick my jaw up from the table.

  Ever since I had met him, I wondered why Edge had been hiding his face behind a beard. I had speculated about all sorts of things, including the possibility of a weak jaw and a bad lower lip. None of those things were true. His jaw was square and chiseled. His lips were the perfect fullness.

  And those dimples. Good Lord.

  Even more surprising, a tiny indentation in the center of his chin.

  He caught me staring at him. “Like it?”

  I nodded and looked toward the centerpiece. No way was he going to catch me drooling. “It’s nice.”

  “Just nice, Lily?” Tracy was amused.

  Louise patted her hand. The kids knew nothing about Edge and me. We were still careful to keep quiet when we tiptoed back and forth. I hadn’t woken a soul, except for one time when I tripped on a plastic superhero figure one of the twins had left out. When she came to investigate, Sarah believed me when I said I was checking my coat pocket for notes. Later, I had heard Edge warning both boys to clean up before they went to bed the next night.

  I twisted my napkin into shreds, trying not to leap across the table to stroke Edge’s smooth chin.

  We waited for the tables to be called, one by one, for the buffet. Even without all the fatty foods, the buffet managed to look decadent. If I hadn’t seen the calorie count I never would have believed how healthy the food was. When we sat back down, Addie’s gracious niece who ran the Inn, Virginia Adler, stopped by our table and greeted everyone.

  “Edge has been a big help, Louise. He’s been quite the taskmaster about the menu, and we are very grateful,” she said.

  Justin asked if a taskmaster was one of the rulers of the universe.

  “Yes!” Edge said, pointing at both boys. “You are under my control!”

  Virginia laughed and pointed to an older man with a long nose standing behind the buffet. “Nestor is back from the Keys and he whipped up his usual magic in the kitchen.” Then she inclined her head to a table in the corner of the room where a dark-haired family sat. “The Kreapps helped us with all the produce.”

  “I remember them. They owned the grocery store before it became the community center.” Tracy said.

  “That’s right.”

  When Virginia left, Jason stared at his plate. “Where’s the bacon?”

  “No bacon for us,” Edge said. “We’re warriors now!”

  “I’m not,” spoke up Justin. “I’m just a hungry kid and I like French fries.”

  Tracy hushed them both.

  With the exception of the boys, everyone was happy with the food. The fact that the Kreapps were able to share their organic food with us and we were enjoying a healthy alternative to fried food and loaded pancakes was more than I could ever have expected. The feeling of frustration I had felt when I first tried to make changes was gone.

  Almost.

  A little part of me was disappointed that I hadn’t been able to motivate people on my own. It had taken the warrior challenge to get the town motivated. Before Andrew and Edge faced off in the arm-wrestling match at Lori’s, Edge was practically taunting me with his ice cream and Uncle Pete’s candy. Now he was taunting anybody who wasn’t interested in eating healthy and helping Truhart win the challenge.

  “The Kreapps have given me all sorts of inspiration. I’m thinking of starting an organic ice cream line,” Edge said.

  He was officially becoming a health nut.

  Why did the thought bother me? I should be happy. Here I was, eating healthy food, enjoying Mother’s Day with the Callahans, enjoying the view of Edge’s unobstructed smile. Suddenly it changed to a frown when he spied something over my shoulder.

  “I can’t believe she’s here!”

  I turned around. “Who?”

  “Reeba Sweeney.”

  Sitting at a table by the buffet was Regina Bloodworth; her husband, the mayor; and Reeba Sweeney.

  Edge stood up so fast his chair almost fell over. “The spy!”

  “Edgar, calm down,” Louise whispered.

  He sat back down but kept his eye on Reeba. “She’s trying to see what we’re up to so she can go back to Aubrey and tell her all about it.”

  I leaned across the table and tried to catch his eye. I had worn a dress for the first time since coming to town. The gray jersey knit covered my scarred knees and clung to the rest of my body. Edge hadn’t even noticed. Even worse, now he was staring at Reeba.

  “It’s not like it’s a secret that we’re trying to eat healthy, Edge,” I said.

  The mayor motioned over the older man who had helped prepare the brunch. Nestor Nagel. Then Nestor waved over a man from the Kreapps’ table.

  “Damn, I can’t believe it. She’s talking to the Kreapps.”

  “So what?” Tracy said.

  “So what? It’s like stealing. The Kreapps are ours.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Edge, give it up. You sound like you’re still on the ski slopes,” Tracy said.

  That shut Edge up. He clamped his lips together and barely touched his food. For the rest of the meal we made a point of talking about other things besides the challenge. The weather. The garden that Ivy used to love. The funny personalities at the day care.

  When we finished, Edge caught Elizabeth’s elbow as she passed our table and nodded toward Reeba. “She’s spying.”

  Elizabeth hesitated. “She isn’t—”

  “I don’t trust anyone from Harrisburg. We’ve got to anticipate those scammers.”

  “Actually—”

  “We need an extra practice this week.” Then he turned to me. “Lily. It’s Sunday. Tell the Walkie Talkies they need to up their game. After this meal today, they need to push for an extra mile.

  “It’s Mother’s Day. I’m not going to tell them anything.”

  “What?!” His eyes were wide.

  “You’re being ridiculous.”

  Edge wasn’t listening. He focused on Reeba like a laser beam. “Look at that. The mayor is bringing her this way.” He crossed his arms and prepared to give Reeba Sweeney a piece of his mind. His newly visible jaw clenched. I suddenly wanted his beard back.

  * * *

  “How was I supposed to remember that Reeba Sweeney had a twin sister?” Edge followed me out of the Amble Inn. Everyone had gone home and we had s
tayed to help clean up.

  I was too angered by his rudeness to give him an inch. “She was a nice woman. And a judge!” Alice Sweeney pretended as if nothing was wrong after Edge confronted her with accusations of espionage. I wouldn’t have been so generous.

  “Well, it’s not completely my fault. Elizabeth could have told me.”

  “She tried, you numbskull. But you were too busy with your big conspiracy theory to listen.”

  “It was a natural reaction.”

  I rounded on him. “You’re lucky she was so nice to you.”

  “With a sister like Reeba, she’s probably used to being confused with the devil.”

  “You’re getting too caught up in this challenge thing, Edge. You need to calm down.”

  “I thought this was what you wanted. Just a few weeks ago you were telling us all how to eat healthier. It’s supposed to be a good thing.”

  It was a good thing. I had been ecstatic to see so many people embrace the idea of a healthy brunch. Louise had thoroughly enjoyed her meal. And Ivy had enjoyed her smoothie. But the end of the meal was enough to give a person indigestion.

  We reached Edge’s pickup truck. “Come on, Lily. Don’t let this ruin your day.” Edge opened the car door for me.

  I refused to meet his eye. When I was seated he leaned down. “Aren’t you curious what kissing me without my beard will be like?”

  I pulled on my seat belt and stared straight ahead.

  “Come on. You know you want to plant one right here.” He blocked my view and pointed to his chin.

  I hated how he melted away my anger with humor. I reached across and put my finger on his cheek. Soft. Smooth. “It isn’t fair. Why wasn’t I born with your sex appeal?”

  “You don’t think you’re sexy?”

  I dismissed him with a puff of air.

  He lowered his head and I inhaled the musky aftershave he had used this morning, letting it go to my head. “Besides the way you taste with chocolate drizzled on your skin, you’re cute even when you are mad at me. And your dancing makes me want to disco all night long. And I have a confession . . . I hate disco.” He kissed me every time he paused. “And your mouth fits me perfectly with or without a beard . . . And most of all, you look sexy in a dress.”