“I think I might need ice,” he groaned, watching as

Lucy raced out the door without her skirt. He nearly laughed, but it hurt too much.

Theo endured the indignity of Lucy’s ministrations and the litany of Tyson’s questions-which seemed to focus on why Lucy was kickboxing on the weekend in a pair of leopard-print underpants-as he drove them to the emergency room.

Lucy sat with Theo while he waited for the plastic surgeon on call to arrive, and she held his hand while the local anesthesia kicked in. She couldn’t stop apologizing.

“Your face, Theo! Your beautiful face!”

The surgeon was finishing up the last of six delicate stitches just above Theo’s left eye when he broke out laughing. “I’m sorry.” The surgeon snorted, handing the supplies to the nurse. “I’ve just got to tell you, Lucy-some women threaten it, but most don’t actually kick their man in the head.”

Theo chuckled out of the area of his mouth that wasn’t numb. “She had some anger issues she needed to let go of,” he slurred.

Lucy sighed. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

“Good luck to the both of you,” the surgeon said as he left the room. “And go easy on the guy, Lucy. Med students need understanding lovers.”

Tyson drove them back to Theo’s house, still doing his best to get all the details about why Theo had Lucy’s skirt shoved down the front of his shorts. Buddy was staying at Martin and Viv’s house, so after Tyson left, it was just the two of them. Lucy made sure

Theo was comfortable on the couch and got him his pain medication and a cool drink.

She sat next to him. He reached out for her hand. She stroked his hair. All the while, Norton stayed in the dining room doorway, glaring at them with distrust.

“How bad does it hurt, Theo?”

“Not so bad. It’ll heal up real quick.”

“But you’ll always have a scar.”

“We all have them. Mine’s just going to be more obvious than some.”

“Will you ever forgive me?”

Theo leaned his head back against the sofa cushion and sighed. “There’s nothing to forgive. We got the job done. That’s what matters.”

Lucy nodded in silence, then laid her head down on Theo’s lap. “I feel empty inside. That’s the only way I can explain it.”

Theo stroked her hair.

“It’s very calm inside me. It’s like I hacked up a giant hairball that’s been giving me indigestion for years.”

Theo laughed softly. “Maybe that’s Norton’s problem.”

“Nobody’s ever done something like that for me. Thank you, Theo,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, baby. Will you stay with me tonight?”

Lucy raised her head and frowned at him. “The whole left side of your face is swollen. You can only see out of one eye-granted, that might be the best way to see me naked for the first time, but…”

Theo laughed and said, “We still have a few weeks left before the big payoff, but I need you to sleep with me tonight, keep me company. It’s the least you could do after kicking me in the face.”

Lucy took him by the hand and looked at her watch. They’d spent nearly four hours in the emergency room and it was close to midnight. “Let’s get you to bed, then.”

Theo led her to the room at the end of the hall and then to a queen-size four-poster mahogany bed. He unceremoniously removed his shorts and shirt and stood by the bed wearing nothing but a pair of pale blue cotton boxers and a fine down of chest hair. Lucy tried to swallow, but there wasn’t enough moisture in her mouth to get the job done. She licked her lips.

“I never asked you, but was this your parents’ room?”

Theo nodded. “Does that bother you?”

Lucy stared at the nearly naked man in her direct line of vision and knew that nothing could bother her at the moment. Nothing mattered but that a gorgeous and barely clothed Theo Redmond was about to climb into bed with her.

“What clothes should I take off?” Lucy’s hands had already started to tremble, and she’d already begun to analyze the quality of the light coming from the bureau lamp. Not too harsh. About a 60-watt bulb. A wide white shade that diffused the glow. It would probably be all right.

“You know my preference.”

She watched Theo climb in between the sheets and prop himself up on the headboard with a groan. The man was in severe pain, but he still wanted to see her naked. This was good news.

Lucy unsnapped the waistband and pushed the skirt down over her hips, smiling to herself with the memory of how Theo had ripped it from her body a few hours ago. She’d always think back on that moment fondly.

Then she pulled her pink scoop-neck T-shirt over her head and stood before Theo in a cream and black leopard-print bra and panty set. Theo’s good eye had popped quite wide.

“Lucy-don’t move.” Theo adjusted his position against the headboard and hissed with pain.

Lucy gasped. “Are you OK?”

“Do you have any idea how I’m going to ravage that body come December?”

She smiled. “Tell me.”

“I’m not going to let you out of my clutches for at least a week, and clothes will be strictly forbidden. You’ll have to do dishes naked, work naked, scramble eggs naked, dance naked. I’m picturing naked kickboxing, skinny-dipping, all-nude Andy Griffith marathons…”

“Being naked in front of Floyd the barber isn’t a turn-on for me. Can I borrow a T-shirt to sleep in tonight?”

Theo laughed, gesturing to the middle drawer of the bureau. Lucy selected a well-worn but clean Special Olympics T-shirt and pulled it down over her head. She reached up her back, unhooked her bra, and pulled it through an armhole.

“I’ve always loved to watch women do that. There just isn’t an equivalent for men.”

Lucy smiled, clicked off the light, and climbed into bed next to Theo, her trainer, her business partner, her lover, her hero.

Theo scooted down and opened his arms. Lucy rested her head on his chest-that not too hard and not too soft place that smelled like heaven to her. Theo caressed her shoulder.

“Everything you told Zirkle tonight was dead-on correct, you know.” Theo traced his fingers up and down her arm. “You are beautiful. You are strong. And you are smart. But you left something out, my sweet Lucy.”

“I did?”

“Mmm-hmm. You’re one hell of a brave woman.”

She nodded, feeling Theo’s soft chest hairs brush against her cheek. “That’ll come in handy when I see Brad Zirkle again, won’t it?”

“I’ll be right there with you.”

“You can’t do this for me.”

Theo laughed at that, hard enough that Lucy’s face got tossed around on the surface of his chest. “Think of it like the military press, Luce. I’m not going to do any of the work for you, but I’ll be there, just in case you need me.”

Lucy rubbed her cheek against Theo’s warm skin and waited until his breathing became slow and deep and his hand slid away from her shoulder.

When she was sure he was asleep, she whispered, “You are the love of my life, Theo Redmond.”

Office of Doris Lehman, MSW, PhD

Though he’d known for a week that he was coming along to Lucy’s appointment, it still surprised Theo to find himself there, on a little pinkish couch, looking at weird Japanese girls on a paper screen.

“You don’t have to do the show, you know,” Dr. Lehman told Lucy. “You have a choice.”

“I choose to confront Brad Zirkle and be done with it.”

Doris squinted in Theo’s direction, and he rubbed his palms on the top of his slacks. He had the vaguest feeling that the therapist didn’t like him all that much. Maybe all therapists were like that. Theo promised himself that he’d never need therapy of any kind.

Doris eventually returned her attention to Lucy. “Do you know what you’re going to say?”

“I’ll come up with something-and I promise they won’t have to cut to a commercial this time.”

“Would you like me to come?”