Page 8 of Not So Very Sensible

She smirked. “I bet Lucinda will be thrilled.”

He withheld a sigh. There was no love lost between Charlene and Lucinda. Lucinda—she was never Lucy—had got a lot of people offside over the years with her demands that Ethan leave youth early or not show up at all. And while he’d been adamant that he’d made a commitment, and a commitment was something he kept, she didn’t seem to appreciate that. But still. He’d grown up with a father who always promised one thing, then did another, so Ethan had determined to live his life just the opposite. A man’s word was his bond, after all. And broken promises built a reputation that was the opposite of how a Christian should live. And as Ethan was trying to do his best to reflect Jesus in every aspect of his life, he wasn’t about to let a woman like Lucinda dictate how he spent his Friday nights. Even if he had an unnerving feeling that he was enmeshed a little too much with her, in yet another promise—or half promise, he no longer remembered—that would likely see his future permanently entwined with hers.

“Why are you looking like that?” Charlene asked.

“Like what?”

“Like you’d rather face a hippopotamus in the Zambezi River than explain what happened to Lucinda.”

He swallowed. Because he figured death would be easier than facing the woman many people thought of as his girlfriend. Even if she didn’t hold that status in his heart anymore.

Had she ever? Maybe. Once upon a time. Until he’d gotten serious about God and realised that Lucinda’s faith was close to nonexistent. Which made life tricky, considering what he’d once promised his mum.

“Oh well. Looks like you won’t have to explain. Look who’s just rocked up.”

He turned and met Lucinda’s ever-widening gaze.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to you?”

“Just a close encounter of the basketball kind.”

Her brows slashed together. “Who did this to you? I happen to know a good lawyer so you can sue.”

“Relax. It was an accident.”

Her face eased, though her frown remained as she glanced at Charlene and nodded.

Charlene nodded back, with that fake smile she used with people she didn’t like.

The nonverbal standoff would likely go on forever if he let it. Charlene had mentioned before how rude she thought Lucinda was, waltzing in with barely an acknowledgement of other people, like she thought herself better than most.

Lucinda turned to him. “So, are you ready to go?”

“I’ve got to pack up these chairs.”

“Oh, can’t someone else do that? You’re expected to do so much already. And for free.” She shot Charlene a glance, then looked back at Ethan. “It’s not like you’re the paid youth worker here.”

Because the paid youth worker earned a fraction of his salary. He’d made it clear when he took on this role that he would do it only on a voluntary basis. “Don’t start again.”

“Start again? I’m simply pointing out facts.” Lucinda huffed. “Honestly, sometimes I get the feeling that you don’t want me around.”

That feeling could be because it was true. But he was loath to hurt a woman’s feelings. Not when he’d seen how his father’s lies had hurt his mother over the years. Until the lies couldn’t hurt her anymore.

“I’ll be five minutes.” He nodded to where a couple of teens waited near the door. “You could always go talk to Cressida and Drew.”

“No thanks.” She glanced at her phone instead, ignoring everyone else, and he gritted out a smile at Charlene, who only rolled her eyes.

She’d asked him, many times, why he persisted in keeping Lucinda around, and he’d never found a completely satisfactory answer. He wasn’t in love with Lucinda, but as a friend of the Steele family who was going through some hard times, he didn’t feel like it was right to sever all connection. Especially when their families were so close and his sister, Francine, was good friends with Lucinda. And it wasn’t like he had anyone else to supplant her as far as girlfriends went. He had to work hard to meet new people, and while he saw many single ladies at church, he was never too sure of their motives, which meant he preferred to talk with the youth or their parents after church, rather than with these overconfident creatures with their blond bombshell looks that intimidated him and made him want to crawl inside his shell. He got enough of that from Lucinda. He didn’t need more.

Finally, the last chair was put away, and the remaining teens were collected by their parents.

Charlene glanced at Lucinda, who was still studiously looking at her phone, as if determined to ignore her, then nodded to Ethan. “I think tonight went well. Don’t you?”

They managed a quick debrief while Lucinda scowled at her social media, muttering something about followers.

“But I think it’d be good to work on getting our social media a little bit more consistent,” Charlene added.

“Yeah, sorry about that.”