He Loves Lucy

Chapter 4

March

“Go away. Leave me alone. You make me mad.”

Theo sat down on the edge of the bed, his coffee balanced in one hand while the other stroked his brother’s wispy blond hair. “You gotta get up, Buddy. I need to take you to Aunt Viv’s so she can drive you to school later.”

“Go away.” Buddy grabbed the edge of the comforter and yanked it up over his head, hitting Theo’s arm, spilling his coffee, and sending Norton the devil cat leaping for safety. Theo checked his watch. This was insanity. Trying to get Buddy out of the house by 4:15 every weekday was getting harder as time went on, not easier.

Not for the first time, Theo wondered if a hundred grand was worth this hassle.

“We gotta rock-‘n’-roll, Buddy. I have a client waiting for me.”

From under the comforter came a muffled, “Another girl who loves you?”

“Get up, Buddy.”

“Do you still miss Jenna? I do. Why did she stop liking you? Because you’re not a doctor anymore?”

Theo was quite used to Buddy’s filterless questions but was still half-asleep and more vulnerable than he would have been at a later hour. He took a sip of coffee, gulping down the sadness that could still pierce him when he thought of Jenna. “Yeah, I still miss her sometimes. Now get up.”

“Buzz off.”

“I don’t appreciate your attitude.”

“Go away.”

Theo checked his watch. He was growing desperate. “Look, Brian. If I get back in med school I’ll really need your cooperation, so let’s practice now. I have to meet my client. Get up.”

“The funny fat lady from TV?”

“Yeah. Her. Now get up.”

“No!”

“We can have cheesesteaks for supper.”

“I’m up.” And with that, Buddy burst forth from under his covers and nearly knocked Theo to the floor as he made his way across the bedroom, fully dressed, all the way down to his Reeboks.

Theo shook his head and laughed. He’d been got again, by a teenager alleged to have an IQ half his own.

He used the corner of the comforter to mop coffee off his work shorts, taking a moment to look around Buddy’s room, listening to the usual morning humming coming from the bathroom down the hall.

The bedroom looked like your average teenager’s room. Computer on the desk. An MP3 player and headphones tossed casually on the floor by the dresser.

Clothes spilling out of the hamper. Sports posters all over the wall-with Lance Armstrong, Marian Jones, and Michael Phelps predominating.

But the trophy and medal collection surrounding Theo wasn’t average at all. Pinned to a strip of cork-board encircling the room were hundreds of ribbons and medals. Dozens of trophies sat on a low shelf above the desk, engraved with the name “Brian Redmond.” Though Theo couldn’t read the small print on each from where he sat, he knew well enough what they were for. In swimming, the hundred-meter butterfly and the hundred-meter freestyle. In track, the long jump, hundred-and-ten-meter hurdles, high jump, marathon, half marathon, and pentathlon.

They were from school meets, local and state competitions, invitationals, and last year’s international games. They reflected eight years of athletic achievement by a boy who surprised his parents by arriving sixteen years after Theo, with Down syndrome.

Theo’s eyes traveled to the neat little cross-stitch slogan that hung on the wall over Buddy’s bed, matted under glass and nicely framed. Their mother gave it to Buddy a few months before she died. It was the Special Olympics athlete’s oath, in a graceful cursive script:

Let me win.

But if I cannot win,

Letme be brave in the attempt.

Theo knew those words by heart. And he knew they applied to him and the rest of the world as much as they did to Buddy and his fellow Special Olympians.

A horrible noise jarred Theo from his quiet thoughts.

“I like the way you moo-oove!”

As usual, Buddy’s singing was very loud, very off-key, and had no identifiable time signature. And like he did nearly every morning, Buddy sang while brushing his teeth and flossing.

“I like the way-ay…”

Theo slipped into the bathroom doorway to watch Buddy groove his way through his oral hygiene. “Anything cool going on at school today?”

“Never is.” Buddy spit and rinsed. “So probably not today, either.”

“Track after school?”

“Yep.”

“Got your gear packed?”

“Yeah.”

Theo watched Buddy swivel his hips in front of the bathroom mirror, and couldn’t help but smile at how happy he seemed. After the accident three years ago, Buddy had simply shut down. He stopped competing. He wouldn’t hang out with friends. He became so angry at the world and so lost that it broke Theo’s heart.

He did everything he could to make it easier for Buddy. Theo dropped out of med school halfway through his M-3 year, right in the middle of a general surgery rotation, which didn’t go over well with the attending physician, not to mention Jenna. Then Theo moved back home to Miami Springs and took over his dad’s coaching post with the Special Olympics of Miami-Dade.

Theo had no choice. His aunt and uncle were too old to keep up with Buddy, and Theo couldn’t pull him out of his school and away from his friends and definitely couldn’t move him out of the house. Buddy didn’t do well with even the smallest changes in his routine, like grape instead of the usual strawberry jam on his peanut butter sandwich. Moving would have killed him.

Looking at him now, combing his hair and humming, Theo was proud that Buddy was doing so well. Theo was proud that with Aunt Viv and Uncle Martin’s help he’d managed to keep his brother’s world intact for these last three years.

Even at the cost of Theo’s own.

“I have to work the door at Flawless Friday and Saturday nights, so you’ll be staying with Aunt Viv and Uncle Martin. But we can train Saturday afternoon.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Get your backpack and let’s roll, stud.”

Buddy laughed, and Theo enjoyed watching him tilt his head back and squint his already-squinty eyes behind his thick glasses, smiling so big that his gums showed all along the ridges of his small top teeth.

When Buddy stopped laughing, he playfully shook his finger at Theo. “You’re the stud in this house,” he said, strolling into the hallway and toward the foyer.

“Nope.” Theo grabbed his car keys off the hall table and opened the door for his brother. “You’re the only stud around here, dude, and we both know it.”

“How much have you lost now, Lucy?”

Veronica hadn’t asked that question in about six days, which might have been a record for Lucy’s assistant. “Not sure. The month’s not over yet.”

Maria Banderas munched on her taco salad and waved her fork around. “I don’t know how you do it! I’d be weighing myself every ten minutes if I were losing weight as fast as you are. You’re a better person than I am!”

Lucy gave Maria a polite smile. “If you were losing weight this fast they’d have you in the ICU, hooked up to an IV. Everything’s relative.”

“It’s good to see you’re eating actual food.”

Veronica made that preposterous comment just as Lucy popped a cherry tomato into her mouth. She chewed desperately so she could respond. “Of course I’m eating food! What else would I be eating?”

Her assistant looked sheepish. “Well, Stephan said you had to be cheating to be doing so well-like a liquid fast or vitamin shots or something.”

Lucy shook her head in disgust. “At least if he’s paying attention to my weight that means he’s paying attention to one detail of one account, which is a miracle.”

“No kidding.” Maria’s eyes got wide. “Thank God you’re still here, because we’d be dead in the water if we counted on Stephan. It’s like he’s sleepwalking! Remember the asphalt company proposal I asked him to approve last week? He hasn’t even picked it up.”

Lucy frowned. “That’s a potential big-money account. I’ll talk to him.”

“You might want to talk to him about the phone bill while you’re at it,” Veronica said. “He didn’t pay it last month-flipped out that it was too expensive and we could get a better deal and told me to do the research.”

Lucy put her fork down and stared at Veronica.

“So I gave him a couple options, right? But he still hasn’t decided and he won’t pay the overdue bill and we just got a cutoff notice. How’s an advertising company supposed to do business without phones?”

Lucy closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and repeated the words to herself: Eight more months.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again, Cunningham.”

Theo greeted her at the Palm Club door as usual, but he wasn’t wearing his standard Happy Trainer face. His lips were pursed tight. His marine blue eyes were stern and had none of the unnatural sparkle she’d grown accustomed to. And Lucy knew it was her fault.

“I’m really sorry, Theo. I left you a voice mail to apologize yesterday. I thought I hit the snooze but somehow fell back asleep.”

“Don’t do it again.”

“OK. OK. I’m sorry.”

Theo punched in a fifteen-minute warm-up on the recumbent cycle and extended his hand for her to have a seat. He started scribbling on his clipboard.

“I hate getting out of bed at four in the morning as much as much as you do, Lucy, if not more.”

“I understand. But for the record, I hate it a lot.” She started pedaling.

“You’re the one who picked this ridiculous time.”

“It’s the only time I had. I have to be at work at eight!”

“Where’s your food journal?”

“In my bag.”

“I don’t see it.”

Lucy watched in horror as Theo tossed aside her new zebra-striped panties. In the last couple weeks, her underwear had begun to fall around her knees, so in a moment of recklessness in the Filene’s lingerie department, she’d decided to oomph up the style while she bought three sizes down.

Now Theo knew she wore zebra-striped panties.

Lucy comforted herself by stealing a peak at Theo while he bent over her bag, noting the perfect man butt in those navy blue shorts, those golden legs etched into bands of long, strong muscle. She decided to use small talk to smooth things over with him.

“I suppose getting up at four puts a real damper on your busy social schedule.” She pedaled along at a comfortable pace, knowing Gia had to be wrong when she claimed Theo didn’t date much. Look at him! He was -Prom King material! “In my case, it doesn’t matter if I go to bed before your average fifth grader.”

Theo stood up with her food journal in his hand and an annoyed expression in his eyes. “Uh-huh.” Then he leaned toward her and with lightning speed adjusted the programming on the cycle. Lucy immediately felt her leg muscles burn with the effort.

“Hey!”

“Those things you’re feeling now are called hills, Cunningham. They go up, and then they go down. The hard parts won’t last long, so just do it and look happy.”

Lucy tried not to laugh. Theo’s foul temper made her want to giggle. “You’re in an ugly mood.”

“You didn’t write down a goal for today. Where’s your damn goal?”

She continued to huff and pedal. “Right now, Master and Commander, my goal is to get through this appointment without running you over with this bike.”

“Stationary bike, empty threat.” Theo snapped the journal shut and put his hands on his hips. “Look, I’m sorry if I’m grumpy, but you just have no idea how hard it is to get Buddy out the door in the morning.”

Lucy had never heard him mention his dog before. “What kind is he?”

“Who?”

“Buddy.”

Theo seemed even more annoyed, if that were possible. Her attempt at chitchat was obviously a flop. She tried again. “Your dog, Theo. What kind of dog is Buddy? That’s all I’m asking.”

She watched Theo go from annoyance to full-out laughter in a flash. “Buddy is my brother. It’s a nickname for Brian. And there is no dog. We have a goddamn feckless, evil cat.”

“You have a cat?” That just wasn’t right. Men like Theo didn’t have cats. Unless they were gay. Could it be? The no dating? The earring? The perfect hair?

“He’s my brother’s cat. He’s possessed by Satan and his name is Norton.”

“You really have a brother?” Mercifully, Lucy had reached the top of a hill and was headed down. Her legs tingled with relief and her lungs stopped seizing.

“Sure do.”

“I’m sorry, but I just have to ask. Are you gay? You’re single and attractive and you wear an earring and have a cat. This is Miami Beach, right?”

Theo closed his eyes and slowly shook his head, a look of near pain on his face. Eventually, he opened his eyes. “I like women, Cunningham. Always have. Always will.”

“I knew that. The cat thing threw me, I guess.”

“By any chance, are you done interrogating me? If so, I’m going to check my mail. I’ll be back in a few and we’ll stretch out.”

“Fine.”

He turned to go, then looked over his shoulder, offering her a mischievous grin. “So is there a zebra-striped bra to match?”

Lucy’s mouth fell open. She watched Theo jog across the nearly empty cardio studio toward the offices, where he opened what Lucy knew was the door to the trainer lounge and disappeared.

It had taken more than two months, but she’d just discovered Theo had a temper. Theo had a cat! He used words like goddamn. He had a brother. And he liked zebra-striped underwear.

Then she wondered if his brother was as good-looking as Theo was and why in the world he had to worry about getting him ready in the morning. Was he ten years old or something? If so, where were the kid’s parents?

Suddenly the bike switched gears on her again, and she was pedaling for all she was worth. Lucy made a mental note to not to miss any more workouts, because clearly, payback was a bitch.

They’d been inside Nordstrom’s all of five minutes when she heard the shocked whisper behind them: “My

God! It’s Gia Altamonte and the fat woman from WakeUpMiami!

Gia whipped her head around so fast her Versace sunglasses went flying off her head and clattered to the parquet flooring of the designer shoe department.

“Is that you talkin‘ to my friend like that?’ Gia placed her fists on her hot pants-clad hips. ”Yes, I’m speaking to you, Grandma.“

Lucy cringed at Gia’s fingernail-on-chalkboard verbal assault on a woman in her sixties wearing a pale peach linen skirt set and a horrified expression. Gia looked the woman up and down and added, “Who you think you are, lady? If you worked twice as hard as she does, she’d still look twice as good!”

The woman slinked away into the atrium, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

“I’ll tell you, people can be so frickin‘ rude.” Gia bent in half and scooped her sunglasses from the floor, and set them back on her pert little nose. “You OK or what?” She placed a hand on Lucy’s elbow and nudged her out into the aisle and toward the designer sportswear collections.

“I’m fine. You’re probably accustomed to people recognizing you. I’m not.”

“You get used to it, but you can’t let them say nasty stuff to you like that.” Gia ran her fingertips over a filmy blouse with a plunging neckline and a price tag with way too many numerals on it. “One day, I swear to God, a total stranger came up to me at the corner of Seventh and Fifty-fourth in New York and tells me I had visible panty lines in my Vogue layout. Can you flippin‘ believe that garbage?”

Gia shook out her dark tresses and flashed her mahogany eyes over the gold rims of her sunglasses. Lucy smiled at her friend. She simply loved the way Gia had just said “gar-bahjz” in that high-pitched squeak of hers. Lucy had been hanging out with this woman for the last few weeks and couldn’t remember a time when she’d had so much fun.

“So what did you say to him?”

Gia smiled, pushing up those world-famous lips into a sweet curl of naughtiness. “I told him, ‘Baby, I don’t wear no panties,’ and then I cross the street and he’s still back there, and I think maybe he was having a coronary or something.”

Lucy laughed, then leaned up to whisper in Gia’s ear, “You really don’t wear underwear?”

“Of course I do. Mama would kill me if I went out into the world without my privates covered. You?”

Lucy gasped. “Me? Of course I wear them! I just bought a bunch of new stuff the other day.”

Gia grabbed her elbow. “Good. Let’s get more. No such thing as too much lingerie.”

If she were brutally honest with herself, Lucy would have to admit she was going to all this trouble for Theo. She wanted to impress him. Make him proud of her. She wanted to show the world what they’d done.

She smoothed down the jersey fabric and ran her hands over her hips again. Not so bad. She’d lost enough girth that control-top panty hose actually did some controlling. And the size 16 was snug but not obscenely so. She supposed it fit perfectly.

Gia had been right about the dress. The open shawl-collar coatdress exposed the smooth skin of Lucy’s throat and upper chest and accentuated her curves. It made her look sleek and feminine. The dark gray-blue matched her eyes and provided a contrast to her pale skin that would look good on camera. The dress was worth every dime she paid for it, even if she only wore it once. Soon it would be too big. And soon it would be too hot in Miami for a dress like this, anyway.

But today was important. She deserved to look pretty today, right now, didn’t she? She didn’t have to wait until she was wearing a size 8 to dress like the beautiful professional babe she was, right?

Lucy smiled at her newfound boldness, brushing aside her shoulder-length hair to put in the small gold twist earrings. She slipped on her watch, seeing she’d have to have the band tightened soon.

She caught her reflection in the mirror just as she turned to go, and winked at herself. Gia had been right about the lingerie-even if nobody saw it, it didn’t mean it wasn’t having its desired effect

Because Lucy knew that beneath this dress was the most extravagant bra and panty set she’d ever owned- something so delicate and soft that it gave her goose bumps when she put it on. And just knowing what lay against her flesh made her stand a little taller. It gave her a blush Lancome could never duplicate.

She needed to stop by the office on the way to the TV studio, and during the ten-minute drive she thought about Theo and how he would react to seeing her dressed up like this. Would he hug her? Would he kiss her cheek? What would his mouth feel like on hers? That clean, sweet smile turning serious as he backed her against the wall, crushed her breasts against his chest, took her mouth-

Whoa. There wasn’t a cookie to be seen in that fantasy.

Lucy looked in the rearview mirror and was greeted by a guilty reflection. Was that really what all the preening was about today? Was she determined to have Theo see her in a different light?

She returned her attention to the road and sighed. Surely that would only be setting herself up for rejection. And she was too smart for that.

Lucy ran smack into Stephan Sherrod in the hallway outside her office.

“Ah, Lucy! Just the gal I wanted to see.”

“Stephan. You’re here early.” She looked at her watch to see it was not quite six thirty. “Will you be at the team meeting this afternoon?”

“Well, no. I have a late lunch, but I’m sure Maria and Barry can handle anything that comes up.”

For a split second Lucy let the insult sting her. Then she nodded, smiling at the thought of the freedom all that money would bring, how in about eight months she’d walk out the door of this place without so much as a good-bye, many of Stephan’s clients begging her to take them with her. “Of course, Stephan,” she said to him.

Ooooh, she couldn’t wait! First, she’d snag a few of the agency’s smaller but more fun clients. The yoga center. The private marina down in the Gables. The artsy clothing boutique in Boca Raton. After working with these people for over a year, she knew they sorely missed Sarah Thorns but were happy to put their businesses in Lucy’s hands. They didn’t trust Stephan-they made that perfectly clear. She’d use that to her advantage.

And after those clients jumped, there was no telling who would follow. She hoped it would be the teachers’ credit union and the quick-lube chain.

“Lucy?” Stephan’s voice interrupted her plotting. “I know you’re on your way to the studio, but do you have a minute? There’s something I wanted to run by you. I need to give you a quick heads-up.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. Lucy knew that when Stephan said he wanted to run something by her, he was telling her to drop whatever she was doing and do something else. And when he said he wanted to give her a heads-up, that meant he’d done something stupid and he wanted her to clean up the mess.

She looked up slowly from her desk, prepared for the worst-because she couldn’t recall a time when Stephan had used both bad business metaphors in one sentence.

“I have just a minute. I can’t be late. We’re going on live at seven thirty.”

“Of course.” Stephan sat down in a chair and waited for her to do the same. He smiled at her.

“You’ve certainly spruced up the scenery around here lately, Lucy.”

She looked around her office. “I haven’t redecorated.”

Stephan let out one of his tight smug little laughs. “I’m talking about you. You’re fast becoming a real asset to this company.”

Lucy’s heart skipped a beat. This man’s loutishness knew no limits.

“I’m just saying that it’s a vast improvement-no pun intended. Get it? Vast?” He chortled again.

Lucy nodded, letting her eyes wander to the ostentatious Caran d’Ache fountain pen tucked into Stephen’s dress shirt pocket, thinking how satisfying it would feel to jam the eighteen-karat gold nub into his left eyeball, thereby causing his head to deflate.

The bastard. There she was, the person who’d landed the Palm Club account in the first place-the biggest in Sherrod amp; Thorns’s history. Lucy was the creative director of a team that had conceived a fun, fresh campaign that was going to forever change their agency’s reputation. She’d even sacrificed her body and pride for this account. And she was supposed to be walking out the door right that minute to make this man even richer than he was by getting on a scale in front of a live studio audience and tens of thousands of viewers-and he just informed her she hadn’t been an asset until she’d become thinner?

She stood up. She glared down at him. “Unless this is about business, it will have to wait.”

“Don’t be so sensitive. Loosen up. Sit down. I’ve got good news.”

“I really only have five minutes, tops.” Lucy’s blood boiled. She’d taken this job for one reason-Sarah Thorns. In Sarah, Lucy had seen a kindred spirit, a real mentor, someone who’d managed to remain a decent person while she’d made her way in the business world. This position had appealed to Lucy because it would allow her to keep a hand in a variety of projects. The pay was excellent, too. But from the beginning, the one downside of this job had been Stephan. Lucy had figured Sarah would serve as a buffer between them. And she had, until she went in for routine cosmetic surgery and died. Now there was no Sarah-just one weird-ass boss, who sat in front of Lucy, his face lit up with malevolent delight.

“I’ve nominated the Palm Club campaign for this year’s Eddies.”

“You what?”

“I just sent in the preliminary application.”

The Eddie Award was like the Academy Award of the advertising industry, and every year the professional association gave out honors for excellence in advertising, marketing, and public relations. Lucy had never been nominated for anything in her life. She’d never even gone to the awards ceremony.

This was incredible news, but the look on Stephan’s face cautioned her not to get carried away with her excitement.

“What’s the catch?”

“Well, the application process is quite detailed. You’ll have to start coming in a little early to work on it. It’s due in two months.”

“I can’t come in early, Stephan. That’s when I work with Theo.”

“Ah, right. Well, maybe you can skip a day here and there. It probably won’t matter much. I’ve managed to stay in shape with a three-day-a-week regimen, myself.”

As Stephan tapped his belly contentedly, Lucy found herself speechless. Stephan was encouraging her to slack off. Why in the world would he do that? The reputation of his company was riding on this enterprise.

“You aren’t trying to lose a hundred pounds, Stephan.” Something else was off about this. “Besides,” she pointed out, “the Eddies are for ad campaigns with quantifiable results. This campaign won’t be done for another nine months. To send it in now would make me look like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Stephan shifted in the chair and chuckled again. “Well, let’s give it a shot anyway. You can just talk about how much you’ve lost so far. So where are we now-fifteen pounds?”

Lucy shook her head in incredulity. “I’ll be weighed on the show this morning, but it will be over thirty-five pounds, I’m sure.”

“Shit!” He jumped up from his seat and stood over her, his mouth hanging open. “You’ve managed to lose thirty-five pounds? Are you absolutely sure? Let me see you! Stand up! Turn around!”

Stephan had always been an odd bird, and Lucy had never judged him too harshly for his decidedly strange behavior since Sarah’s death. The two of them had started this agency twenty years ago, and losing her had been hard on Stephan. But today’s display had Lucy worrying about his mental stability.

“I am not your 4-H entry, Stephan.” Lucy stood up from her chair and hoisted her laptop onto her shoulder. As she made her way toward the door, she heard him say something under his breath that she swore sounded like, “You have to fail, you bitch.”

When she spun around, he looked quite innocent, a pleasant smile on his face.

“What did you just say?”

“I said, ‘You’ve really found your niche.’” Stephan motioned for her to pass ahead of him. “I’m proud of your initiative.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, taking a step forward. Under her breath she added, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Lucy knew Dan was visiting her parents, but she had no idea Mary Fran was there, so the sight of her peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink threw her.

“Frannie?”

“Hey, girl!” Mary Fran made one step toward the back door and stopped. The potato peeler fell to the floor and she gasped.

“Oh, sorry. Mary Fran, this is my friend Gia. I brought her over for her first-ever Saint Patrick’s Day party.”

Frannie’s eyes continued growing in circumference. She stood as still as a statue and said nothing. Lucy had never known her sister to be so impolite.

Gia didn’t seem bothered by the stare and moved quickly to introduce herself. “Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Gia Altamonte.”

“No shit,” Frannie said, then smacked herself on the cheek. “I’m sorry. It’s just… I mean… I didn’t expect Lucy to walk in the back door with-”

“Sweet baby Jesus and Mother of God!” Dan nearly fell over his tongue when he stepped into the kitchen, and Lucy feared he would need surgery to reattach his jaw. Holden was squirming in Dan’s arms to be put down.

Lucy gestured toward Gia. “Dan, this is my friend from the gym, Gia Altamonte. Gia, this is my charming and sophisticated brother, Daniel Cunningham.”

Dan shuffled forward, bending as he eased Holden’s feet to the floor, his hand outstretched and his cheeks redder than the day their dad caught him using his Norelco to shave the heads of Lucy’s Barbies.

Dan stood in front of Gia in a hunched position, as if in deference to the queen.

“You can stand up, Dan,” Gia said, smiling down at him beneficently.

“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head as if to clear his vision. “I just keep seeing these two words: Swim suit Issue. Am I dead? Is this heaven?”

Gia laughed and patted his head, and in her rather irritating nasal voice she said, “So, we gonna drink green beer today or what, Danny boy?”

Lucy was pleased at how easily Gia slipped into the rhythm of the Cunninghams. She entertained everyone with the description of a recent photo shoot in Los Angeles, all while bouncing Holden in her lap. She explained that she had eight siblings and eleven nieces and nephews and was quite used to kids.

“Do you want children of your own?” Dan asked over dessert. Though he’d only had one beer, Dan had sported a look of drunken reverence through the entire meal. At least he’d stopped gawking, and for that Lucy was grateful. She had to admit it was cute the way Dan said their guest’s name-“Gee-ahh.”

“Sure. Someday I’d like a few kids of my own.”

A satisfied smile crept across Dan’s face. “Wanna have mine?”

“Oh Lordy,” Mary Fran mumbled.

“Daniel!” Lucy’s mother refilled Gia’s teacup and looked apologetic. “Would you like more sugar, sweetheart?”

“Thank you.” Gia wrenched her head to the side to avoid Holden’s attempt to rip out one of her hoop earrings, then smiled at Dan, “I’m not sure what would happen if a redheaded Irish dude and a Cuban girl had kids. They could turn out cute, I guess, with a little luck.”

Dan turned his twinkling eyes and a wide grin upon Lucy and shook his head in wonder. “You look marvelous, Luce. Have I told you that?”

“No, actually. You haven’t.”

“You do. Fabulous. And when was the last time I told you that you were the best sister a guy could have?”

Lucy let her eyes flick toward Mary Fran, then back to her brother. “That would be never.”

“Ah. My oversight.”

Lucy had to laugh. If she wasn’t mistaken, Gia really liked Dan, sitting over there in his chair just being who he was-an average-looking pediatrics intern in a pair of Levi’s and a nondescript cotton sweater. She had to admit Dan was funny and smart and would probably make a decent catch for somebody at some point. She just hadn’t thought it would be anytime soon or that he’d catch the attention of somebody as glamorous as Gia Altamonte.

It was almost as far-fetched as someone like her snagging someone like Theo.

• • •

Theo didn’t even recognize her at first. He walked into the green room at the TV station and took a seat near the doughnut table. He let his gaze move casually around the room to the three TV monitors bolted to the wall and to the small knot of people chatting nearby.

That’s when he saw an attractive woman seated on the edge of a table, talking on a cell phone, one leg bent, her hair falling in glossy waves of at least three different colors. Then she clicked the phone shut and looked up, tossing her hair back.

“Lucy.” Her name came out like a gasp. Theo sat very still, realizing with confusion that his pulse was tripping.

Well, of course it was. He was just surprised. That was all. He was looking at the cumulative effect of a good balance of freestyle, cardio, and core strengthening along with lean protein, complex carbs, and fruits and vegetables.

He was merely reacting to all the changes in her numbers made visible. Her body fat mass was down. Her lean muscle mass was up. She’d lost a bunch of pounds and a bunch of inches from her upper arms, chest, hips, waist, thighs, and calves.

He’d done a great job with her. He had a right to a little increase in his pulse.

The soundman walked toward Theo and nodded. “She’s looking awesome,” he said, stopping in front of Theo.

“Thanks.” As soon as Theo said it, he realized the guy’s compliment wasn’t really meant for him but for Lucy. Theo heard his own nervous laugh.

He continued to study Lucy as she chatted with one of the morning show’s assistant producers. Lucy smiled at the young woman confidently, nodding and listening as the producer waved her hands and laughed. Theo stared at the soft curve of Lucy’s cheek and felt a jolt of surprise when she tucked a thick segment of hair behind her ear.

Lucy had pretty hands. Long fingers. He’d seen them a hundred times-why hadn’t he ever really seen them? And what was with her hair today? It almost looked like it had red in it, and he could have sworn it had been just plain brown. Why couldn’t he take his eyes off her face? Why was he feeling like this while looking at Lucy?

Theo wiped his palms on his pants and looked around the room uncomfortably. He’d never seen Lucy dressed up. That had to be it. She’d worn sweatpants the first two times they’d done the show. And he knew he’d never seen her with her hair down or with makeup on, at least never anything on her lips, which looked shiny and soft today.

He had to get out of there.

“Hey, Theo!” Lucy waved to him, her beautiful eyes looking right into his. Theo felt his heart thud in his chest as she stood up from the edge of the table and smiled.

She wanted him to look. She stood tall, with her shoulders back, showing herself to him. She looked at him like she knew something he didn’t, and frankly, it left him a little unhinged. It was like Lucy was daring him to accept the changes in her. Theo took the dare and let his eyes devour her from head to toe and back again. Lucy Cunningham was curvy and female and flat-out beautiful. Oh hell…

Right then, Ramona walked into the green room along with Lola and Tyson. In today’s installment of Wake Up Miami, the trainers were scheduled to work with four members of the studio audience. The theme of today’s show was designing a personalized motivation strategy.

Lola sat down next to Theo and he caught a whiff of her perfume. Theo glanced her way and quickly tried to figure out what he’d ever thought was attractive about her. Lola’s quads were so hard you could bounce a quarter off them. Her arms were nothing but corded muscle. Her collarbones stuck out in the vee of her shirt. He recalled how the tanned skin pulled tight over every one of Lola’s ribs, the corrugated surface of her abs, and the sharp bones at the barely there swell of her hips.

Then he looked at Lucy. She was soft and round and glowing. She was funny and sweet. She was complicated. She was brave. She was feminine. And she was smiling at him like they were sharing a very private joke.

And he wondered, Who’s the one with doe eyes today?

Tyson plunked down on the chair next to him. “Day-um. She’s looking fine.”

Theo turned to see Tyson leaning forward, his elbows balanced on his knees as he stared at Lucy. Theo didn’t like the laserlike focus of his friend’s expression. Not one bit: He glared at him.

Tyson looked Theo’s way and laughed. “What? What I do?”

Just then, the assistant producer left the room and

Lucy turned to pick up her laptop from the floor. Tyson let out a big rush of air. “She’s getting a real nice booty on her, Redmond. Squats? Lunges?”

Theo’s brain started to burn hot. He couldn’t see straight. “Her booty is none of your business.”

“Hey, it’s just part of my continuing education refresher course. Gotta keep my booty-ologist certification up-to-date, you know.”

“Go refresh yourself with someone else’s booty,” Theo said.

Tyson laughed. “Don’t tell me you hadn’t noticed what you’ve been working with! C’mon, Theo-open your eyes. She’s a nice-looking woman, and in about another ten pounds I plan to ask her out, so don’t you even think about slackin‘ off now.”

Before Theo could recover enough from the shock of anger to respond, Tyson gave him a playful punch and strolled across the room to chat with Lucy. Theo watched his friend elicit a shy smile from her and was shocked again-this time by the stab of jealousy. He was jealous?

The realization sobered him up but quick.

This was not a part of his plan. Since Jenna left him six months ago, he’d decided to shut down his heart and focus on his own dreams. Of course his heart still did the job for Buddy and Uncle Viv and Aunt Martin, but not for women. That was the plan-there was no time or energy to waste on a woman. All Theo’s life, all he’d ever wanted to do was be a doctor, and it was finally within reach again. He could not afford the distraction.

Besides, Lucy was not just any woman-she was his

job, for God’s sake, not to mention his ticket back to med school.

Theo watched Tyson put his big hands on Lucy and guide her into the hallway. It took everything he had not to run after them.