“And your heart.”

Lucy stopped talking. She let her eyes drop to the sand, and Theo watched her stand still for a long moment.

When she finally had the courage to look up, she saw deep hurt and raw pity on his face, and she hated it. “Don’t you dare feel sorry for me, Theo.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you, sweetheart. I want to fight for you. I want to fight with you. I want to fucking kill that guy for treating you like that. He deserves to die.”

Lucy blinked. “Well, thanks. Nobody’s ever offered to commit a felony to protect my honor. It feels kinda nice.”

Theo was suddenly hit by a horrifying thought. “That wasn’t your first time, was it? Please tell me you didn’t give your virginity to that asshole.”

Lucy laughed. “Nope. I gave it to a different asshole my senior year of high school-a tortured punk poet type who wore lots of black and a Mohawk. He’s now a megamillionaire software developer, I understand, but I digress. So, no. I wasn’t a virgin the night I ended up in Brad Zirkle’s fraternity room, but I wasn’t exactly the campus harlot, either. But I sure remember… I remember…”

Lucy couldn’t finish the sentence, and the tears ran down her beautiful face and Theo stood helpless in the sand in front of her, the water lapping at his feet. “Don’t stop. Tell me everything. Get it out.”

“I… I just remember how badly I wanted to look beautiful for him that night.” Lucy shook her head as the tears continued to pour. “I worked so hard on my hair and was so careful about what I wore. I thought I looked pretty. I thought he found me attractive. I had convinced myself that I was… that I could be… oh my God… desirable.”

Theo was on her in a second. “I’m so sorry, baby. Oh, Lucy.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight. She fit so close against his chest and smelled so good and felt so damn right. He stroked her hair and felt her start to shake all over. “It’s OK. Let it go.”

“Not here.” Her body went stiff. “I can’t let it go here. Not in public.”

“C’mon, then. Let’s run.”

Theo pulled Lucy by the hand and raced across the sand. They ran barefoot across Ocean Drive and down the two blocks to the gym. She had no problem keeping up.

A couple of teenage girls yelled out, “Hey! It’s Lucy!”

She and Theo bounded up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and they raced by the receptionist, who didn’t even have time to say hello. Lucy was still crying, and Theo was literally dragging her through the cardiovascular studio, and for some reason all he could think about was that first morning she came in here, more than ten months ago, and how she choked on her Milk Duds and he had to save her and now everything had changed, but she was still choking, and he still hadn’t saved her. At least not yet.

Theo opened the door to the kickboxing gym and flipped on the far bank of lights toward the back of the room. Lucy stood in dirty bare feet on the red exercise mat, gasping for breath.

Theo frowned at her. “You’re wearing a skirt.”

She looked down, curious as to why he’d suddenly taken an interest in fashion. “Well, yeah,” she said.

“You’re going to have to take it off.”

“What?”

“Take off your skirt, Luce. Otherwise, you won’t have free range of motion in your legs, which you’re going to need when you start to kick the living shit out of Brad Zirkle.”

“Hello?” Lucy was worrying that Stephan Sherrod’s mental instability was contagious, and Theo had somehow caught it, while she watched him run to the side of the room and grab one of the kickboxing dummies- the one with the padded blue head, shoulders, and torso of an opponent who stood about six feet tall. Then he ran over to a cabinet and pulled out two thick rolls of gauze tape and returned to her side.

Theo shook his head in disgust. “I guess I’ll have to do it myself.” In one hard yank, her nice chino skirt was at her ankles, and Lucy was shocked. “Step out,” he ordered. “Right now, Cunningham.”

Lucy did as she was told, then held out her hands in front of her, palms up. Theo wrapped them quickly, testing to make sure the bandages weren’t too tight, and then stepped behind the dummy.

“Lucy Cunningham, I’d like you to meet Brad Zirkle.”

“Oh no. I can’t possibly do this.” Lucy shook her head and made a beeline for the door. She hadn’t progressed two steps before Theo snagged her skirt from the floor and unceremoniously stuffed it down the front of his shorts.

“I know you, Lucy, and you’re not going anywhere with your butt on display, so I’ll make a deal with you.”

Theo looked fiercer than she’d ever seen him. She wasn’t sure if she appreciated that comment about her butt, even though it was 100 percent accurate. “What’s the deal?”

“Simple. You tell our buddy Brad Zirkle here everything you’ve ever wanted to tell him-right this fucking minute-and I’ll give you back your skirt and you can go home. Deal?”

“I can’t do this.”

“Why not?”

The panic was so sharp that it poked at the soft lining of her throat. Her chest hurt. She couldn’t breathe. There was hardly any air to say the words… “Because I’m terrified.”

“Of what?”

“Of starting.”

“Why?”

And that’s when it happened-something broke loose inside her body, and Lucy could feel it claw at the walls of her lungs. It burned. It hurt. It hurt so much, but she just couldn’t stuff it down anymore… she didn’t have the strength any longer… and it felt like barbed wire as it came out of her mouth…

“Because I might never be able to stop!”

“That’s it, sweetheart. Let it out.”

Lucy threw herself at poor Brad Zirkle with such ferocity that Theo briefly questioned his brilliant plan. As she began to punch, he realized the most important thing was that she not hurt herself.

“Watch your form, Cunningham.”

“Fuck my form!” Lucy punched so hard, it knocked Theo back a full step.

“Listen, Lucy. This is going to be Brad Zirkle talking from now on-not me-until I tell you otherwise. Are we clear on this?”

“Crystal.” Ole Brad got a killer ax kick to the gut.

“You were fat and ugly.”

“No! I was not!” Two uppercuts to the jaw, followed by a side kick that would have broken a whole lotta ribs on a real man. “I was average size, you jerk! And I was pretty-”

Smack!

“And smart-”

Slam!

“And I was way too special for scum like you! I just didn’t know it at the time!”

Lucy was breathing hard and crying even harder.

“Nobody thought you were attractive.”

‘That’s not true!“ Lucy’s foot slammed brutally into the dummy’s chest, and she panted for air.

“Nobody liked you.”

“That’s such bullshit! I had a lot of friends! So many people liked me!” She jabbed Brad right in the nose.

“You are not attractive now.”

“Fuck you, you stupid, mean-spirited loser!” Her fists were flying, and the sweat was pouring off her face. “I am drop-dead gorgeous now-more beautiful than I’ve ever been in my life! And stronger! And I’m going to-”

Thwack! went a roundhouse kick to Brad’s kidneys.

“Kick-”

Wham! went the right jab to Brad’s eye socket.

“Your-”

Theo peeked around to enjoy the spectacle of Lucy finding just the right balance on her left foot to support a big ole juicy hook kick, which was executed perfectly…

“Ass!”

And connected with Theo’s left brow bone.

The pain was instant, and it was monumental. Right away, Theo knew there would be a lot of blood.

“Oh my God! Theo!”

He was sprawled flat on his back on the mat, the bank of lights swimming in and out of his vision. He felt the blood start a warm trickle down the side of his face and he opened his good eye to see Lucy hovering directly over him, crying so hard her tears were running down his own cheeks.