Theo couldn’t help but laugh at the spectacle. Lucy was a star.

He drove her up to Miami Springs and watched the curious look on her face as he turned down into the residential area. When he pulled into his driveway, she frowned at him.

“Norton has been on my case. He wants you to autograph his fur.” Theo was relieved to hear her laugh, because she still seemed distant to him. They’d kept up their usual five-day routine and met for at least one lunch or dinner a week, but he’d spent most weekend nights at Flawless and was up to his eyeballs in practice tests. Lucy had said she understood his time constraints, but since that day at the track with Buddy she’d never warmed all the way to Theo again. She’d never again relaxed into that sweet and open and sexy woman he first encountered in the guest suite in Tampa.

Maybe the lust had left him overly optimistic. Maybe Lucy couldn’t handle a sexual relationship on top of everything else they were doing. Maybe he’d been an ass to even expect her to.

As they walked toward the front door, Theo watched her scan the outside of his home. It was a normal enough place, he supposed. A four-bedroom single-story stucco house in a brick color with white trim, a kind of home that screamed middle-class South Florida. They walked inside and he tried to see it through her eyes. He knew that most everything in the house had belonged to his parents, picked out by his mother, whose style was understated but nice.

Lucy looked around. “You boys live lush.”

He smiled at that. “It’s my mom’s doing. She was into design.”

“She knew what she was doing.”

Lucy’s eyes wandered to the fuzzy orange blob now sitting on the tile floor in front of them. Theo heard her giggle.

“This must be Beelzebub boy.”

Theo waited for the hissing to begin. And waited some more. But Norton just sat there and blinked at Lucy, his whiskers twitching, as if he was making up his mind whether to reveal his true personality or keep pretending he was something less than bad-to-the-bone.

Lucy crouched down and held out her hand. “Hello, pretty kitty.”

Theo figured that would do it. Norton hated anyone commenting on his appearance. But the damn cat just sat there-no hissing, no spitting, no skittering away like he was running from the fires of hell. Lucy moved to pet him and he rose, flipped his tail, and wandered off.

Lucy stood up. “Affectionate little bugger.”

“That was a veritable wet sloppy kiss coming from him, let me assure you. Come on back to the kitchen.”

Theo made a pot of decaf, started the oatmeal, and set the table out on the back porch. It had yet to get blistering hot, and he had to admit he wanted Lucy to admire his handiwork in the backyard. He took her on a tour of the rhododendrons and the firebush and the beautyberry, holding her hand in his.

“Jeez, Theo. When do you find time to work in the yard?”

He shrugged. “One thing I’ve learned since moving back with Buddy is that a person can do what needs to be done with the time he has. It’s a universal law I never really appreciated before, not even in med school.”

Lucy nodded. “Do you ever take time to have fun?”

“I had fun in Tampa. I have fun whenever I’m with you, and I’m having fun again right now.”

He watched her blush, and he swore he’d never seen anything more attractive in his life. There was something so tender about Lucy. She tried to show the world she was tough, with that humor and determination, but the inner core of her was tender and easily bruised, and he felt privileged that she’d let him see that part of her. It was the part that connected with his heart, yanked on it, whispered impossible things to it.

He must have been staring at her oddly, because she asked, “You OK, Theo?”

“Fine. Just thinking about mulch.”

“Ah.” She nodded, as if that made perfect sense to her. “Is Buddy home?”

“Sleeping in. He’s got a swim meet tonight. Want to come with us?”

Lucy shrugged. “Don’t think I can, but thanks.”

Theo gave her a sideways glance, noting the pleasant but cool smile she offered him. He admired the pretty cotton dress Lucy had worn that morning, something a little on the funky side that showed off her figure. She’d developed a real sense of what looked good on her, and Theo wondered if it was something Gia had helped her with or something that came to her instinctively.

He leaned in to kiss her, and she offered him her cheek. If that wasn’t an indication that something was amiss, he didn’t know what was.

“What’s up, Lucy?”

“Nothing. Just tired, I guess.”

“Let’s have it, Cunningham. Why have you frosted over so much in the last couple weeks?”

“Frosted over?” Lucy put her hands on her hips. “What are you talking about, Theo? You’re the one who’s too occupied to hang out with me.”

So that was it.

Theo watched Lucy stroll back to the porch and sit in a chair at the small breakfast table, where she stared out at the yard.

“Can I help with breakfast?” she asked absently.

“I got it.”

As Theo served the oatmeal, yogurt, and a freshly made citrus salad, he wondered how he could smooth things over with her. In the throes of lust, like in the pool in Tampa, everything seemed fairly simple: Go for it, and worry about the consequences later. Well this was later, and the disappointed woman sitting across the table was the consequence.

This was what he thought might happen.

“I bet you anything that when I’m not around you make sausage patties and Belgian waffles.” Lucy leaned in and gave him her first real smile of the day. “And don’t you try to lie to me, Theo Redmond. I know you too well at this point.”

He grinned, realizing that entire statement was true. She did know him well by now, better than any woman since Jenna. And the truth was he did occasionally snarf down waffles and sausage.

“I hope my secrets are safe with you,” he said.

“Of course they are.” She patted his hand. “Just like my secrets are safe with you-if I was allowed to have any, that is. Which I’m not.”

“Sure you are, Luce. You’ve managed to keep a few secrets from me just fine.”

She frowned a little and took a sip of her decaf. “Like what?”

“Like what happened to you back when you were nineteen, back when you started putting on all the extra weight. I keep thinking of that, and it’s like a line was drawn in your life that year. One day you were active and the next day you weren’t.”

Lucy’s face went tight.

“You’ve never answered my questions about it. You just shrug it off like it was nothing.”

She did it again right then, gave a little shrug and avoided his eyes. It had been nearly seven months since they’d started this adventure, but they still had a long way to go, and his gut told him there was something big that Lucy wasn’t dealing with and if she didn’t, she wouldn’t make it.

They wouldn’t make it.

“It’s an old story, really,” she said with a sigh. “Girl meets boy, boy humiliates girl, girl checks into the Pepperidge Farm hotel.”

“Who was this jerk?” Theo was stunned by the intensity of the anger that just welled up inside him.

“He is no one that matters, Theo.”

“He matters to me.” What kind of loser would do that to her? “Let’s track him down and make him suffer.”

Lucy’s laugh was soft and sad. “I’d really rather not.”

Theo knew they were heading somewhere, but he also knew Lucy was at the wheel. It appeared she was done with her story.

Tears began to form in Lucy’s eyes, a development that Theo was not prepared for. He started to get up out of his chair and head to the kitchen for extra napkins, but she stopped him with a gentle hand on his arm.

“No mental breakdown today, I swear. It’s Friday, and you know I only have craptacular meltdowns on Tuesdays.”

“Of course.” He stayed standing, aware that her tears didn’t care what day it was.