“Uh, well-”

“Yes? No? What’s the story with you, ducal You busy or what?”

“Gia, I’m sorry, but I can’t today. I’m just kind of-” Her second line began flashing, and this time it was Mary Fran’s cell.

Lucy abruptly ended the call with Gia and answered her sister.

“I’ve reached the end of my rope. I’m going to talk to an attorney on Friday, and I’m really leaving this time.” Mary Fran said all this without any kind of greeting.

Theo continued to fume. The man had a temper! And he seemed perfectly content just to sit there in the chair and boil over until Lucy broke down and said something to him.

“My flight gets in at ten thirty Saturday morning. I’m bringing all the kids.”

“Whaa-?”

“Shoot! Hold on just a second.” Mary Fran put her hand over the mouthpiece and screamed, “Don’t you dare put that in your sister’s nose!” Then she was back. “I have to go. Ten thirty, don’t forget.”

“Mary Fran, this really isn’t a good time for me.”

“Dan told me all about it. We’ll talk. I promise. Love you.”

Click.

Theo picked up his backpack and held it in his lap. He looked like he was about ready to produce a few choice words to go along with the seething just as Lucy’s phone rang again.

Perfect. Her mother.

“I’m so sorry, Theo. Just a second.” She picked up the phone. “Hi, Mom.”

“I hope I am not disturbing you, but Gia just called me to say you’re in a funk.”

That was quick.

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“That’s not what Dan told me. According to him, you haven’t been fine for a decade. Why didn’t you come to me about this?”

Theo was making moves like he was going to stand up and leave. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She mouthed to him, I’ll just be a minute.

“Are you listening to me, Lucy?”

“I never really envisioned having this conversation over the phone, Mother.”

“Well, I’d say the phone is better than never at all. Let me get your father on the other extension. Bill!”

Oh, Jesus.

Theo stood up. “We’ve managed to really screw this up, haven’t we, Lucy?”

“Wait. Just wait a-”

“Hello. This is Bill Cunningham.” Her father was on the line.

“Bill, for God’s sake, this is Lucy, not a telemar-keter. We are discussing that thing I told you about.”

“Which thing? You tell me about a lot of things in the course of a day, Maggie.”

“Lucy’s thing. Her feelings about what happened at Pitt State.”

“Oh, sure. Gotcha.” Lucy’s father cleared his throat. “Now Lucy, you didn’t have to pretend with us. You could have told us that it hurt like the devil. You didn’t need to protect us.”

Theo tossed the backpack onto his shoulder and turned to go. Lucy stood up behind her desk. “Wait?‘ she whispered.

“No, I think we should talk about this now,” her mother said, her voice getting wobbly. “You really shouldn’t have been worried about anyone but yourself! We could have found help for you right then, before things got so out of control. Maybe you wouldn’t have gotten so heavy.”

Lucy rolled her eyes, then saw that Theo thought the eye rolling was for him. Not you, she mouthed.

“Maggie?”

“Yes, Bill?”

“Hang up the phone so I can talk to Lucy alone.”

“Do you really think that’s a-”

“Just hang up the damn telephone so I can speak with my daughter.”

Click.

“Hi, pumpkin. How are you doin‘?”

Theo’s hand was on the doorknob.

“Quite crappy at the moment, Dad.”

“Does this have to do with that trainer of yours? I noticed at the party how you look at him. Lucy, I don’t want to see you hurt. Are you sure he’s the right kind of man for you?”

Her dad noticed the way she looked at Theo? He noticed anything?

“You know, sweetheart, we love you for being you, not because you’re getting all gussied up on TV. You don’t have to do any of this.”

Theo shook his head, exasperated.

“I know I don’t have to, Daddy. But I want to.”

“Then do it, but only if it makes you happy. No more sadness, pumpkin.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“And your mother’s right. You didn’t have to try to spare us anything, Lucy. What happened to you back in school was not your fault. You did nothing wrong, well, except for having sex out of wedlock, but I’m not an idiot. I know all my children have done that.”

“I can see you don’t have time for this. See ya, Lucy,” Theo opened the door.

“Dad-?”

“So don’t ever hold back from us again. You got something to say-you just come right out and say it. Are we clear on that?”

Lucy heard a rush of air on the line and knew that her mother had picked up. “I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t stand it! Are you all right, Lucy?”

“I’m good, Mom. Dad helped me out a lot.”

There was a pause. “He did?”

“Yes. And now I have to get back to work.” Theo was out the door. “Thanks for the call, Mom. And thanks for the chat, Dad. I love you both.”

“We love you,” her mother said.

“Don’t be a stranger,” her father said.

She hung up the phone and tried to reach Theo before he got in the elevator, but she was a second too late. So she cupped her mouth in her hands and yelled into the closed doors, “Good luck on your test tomorrow!”

And Lucy turned around thinking to herself how funny it was that a person can spend an entire decade making a huge unscalable mountain out of something that can be taken care of in a five-minute phone call.

It started with a few postings on the TheoandLucy.net message board. In between ongoing commentary on the nearly nude beaded party dress Lucy had worn the previous month and the pros and cons of the low-carb lifestyle-a subject that got so nasty and personal that it required intervention by the site moderator-a few fans began to speculate about what had happened to Theo.

Some claimed the flu to which he’d allegedly succumbed was really something much more serious, such as mad cow disease or meningitis. One fan claimed to have seen Theo hospitalized. Then another came up ‘ with the theory that Lucy and Theo had a terrible argument and had broken up and that Lucy was now engaged to marry Tyson. Yet another speculated that Theo couldn’t handle Lucy’s celebrity and jealousy had driven him underground.

But when Theo opened the Sunday Miami Herald one morning to see their gossip column chock-full of the same drivel, he nearly spit out his coffee. The subject of Theo and Lucy was more than just one item among many-it was the entire column, and it featured three photographs and quotes from, of all people, Lola DiPaolo and Stephan Sherrod.

“They can’t stand the sight of each other anymore,” was one of the statements attributed to Lola. And Stephan was quoted as saying, “As much as I hate to admit this, it looks like Lucy has lost her commitment to this project. It’s sad, really. She was starting to come out of her shell.”

Then Theo carefully examined the photos the newspaper had selected and felt the bile start to rise in his throat. He hated that what he and Lucy may or may not be feeling for each other was up for public commentary. He hated that he’d put himself in this situation. He hated the thought of how hurt Lucy would be when she saw this.

The first photo was of Lucy’s initial TV weigh-in, and Theo was shocked at her appearance. He’d not forgotten where they’d started, but the sight of Lucy at that size no longer registered in his brain. It didn’t even look like her. The second photo showed them running at the high school track back in May. The third photo showed them dancing at the Mandarin, Lucy pressing her cheek against his chest in the seconds before she raised her face to him. Theo was relieved to see the photographer somehow missed the actual kiss when his eyes strayed to the photo caption. It read: Who’s in training now?