He Loves Lucy (15 page)

“Look, Luce. What I’m getting at is there’s a lot more to life than how much you weigh and what size you wear.”

Her mouth opened. She blinked at him.

“You need to get your mind off that crap for a while. It really isn’t all about what you look like.”

‘Thanks for the pep talk.“ She stood up, and Theo stood with her.

“All I’m saying is there’s a bigger picture. Maybe you need to expand your horizons a little.”

She cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. “Since when did you become a philosopher, Theo?”

“I think about three years ago. So what are you doing two weekends from now?”

“Nothing.”

“Then I’d like to show you someplace where nobody gives a rat’s ass about your percentage of body fat. Where nobody will judge you by your appearance. A place where you can stop judging yourself for maybe the first time in your life.”

The music stopped inside the club for an instant, and it got quiet out in the courtyard, so quiet they could hear the ocean.

“I don’t know any places like that, Theo,” she whispered.

“I do.”

Lucy shrugged. “All right. So what’s a girl wear to a place like that?”

“Sensible shoes and sunscreen,” he said, smiling.

“I’m Buddy, Theo’s brother. I have mental retardation and I’m a track star.”

Lucy had barely made one pass around the University of Southern Florida stadium before she found the brothers Redmond, or they found her. She’d really had no idea what to expect-Theo had told her only that Buddy was sixteen and had Down syndrome and that Lucy should come to Tampa for the weekend to watch him compete in the Florida State Games.

And now Buddy stood very close to her, his face on fire with delight, his smile very wide and a little wet, and he was staring at her through thick glasses, waiting for her response.

“Cool. I’m Lucy,” is what she said, and they shook hands.

Theo hung back, relaxed and hunky as always, in a red polo shirt with the words
Special Olympics Miami-Dade Coach
stitched on the left upper chest. Theo was a Special Olympics coach? Why hadn’t he mentioned that?

“I know who you are, Lucy.” Buddy gave her a slow nod. “You’re the pretty fat lady Theo goes on TV with. Your butt looks a lot better now than it used to.” He kept going. “I weigh one hundred twenty-six pounds and I don’t eat junk, except on nights Theo’s too tired to cook, so I can win in competitions. My mom wouldn’t let me get fat like a lot of Down syndrome people.”

Lucy had no idea how to respond to all that.

Just then, a pack of four teenagers strolled by, all in different-colored T-shirts, all obviously Special Olympics athletes, and they pulled Buddy into their group with excited hugs and loud greetings.

Theo hollered after him, “Meet me at the main registration tent at four! Do
not
be late-we’re having dinner with Aunt Viv and Uncle Martin before the opening ceremony!”

“You got it, stud!” Buddy waved at Theo, winked at Lucy, and was swept off into a sea of people walking toward a banner that read:
Olympic Village
.

Theo turned to her and grinned. “He can be a little direct sometimes.”

“And you said nobody here would care about the size of my butt!”

He laughed, putting his arm around her shoulder and giving her a friendly squeeze. “So how was your drive? Did you enjoy Alligator Alley?”

There was little to enjoy on the highway from Miami to Tampa via Naples-unless you reveled in endless desolate swampland and no mobile phone coverage. “It was relaxing. I listened to some good tunes and got here in no time.”

“Great. Do you think you would be comfortable staying with us this weekend? It would be much better than a hotel.”

Lucy frowned at him. “Us who? You and Buddy? I don’t think that’s-”

“My aunt and uncle’s best friends have a winter home here but are already back in Boston. They gave us the place for the week.”

Whoa
. Lucy had planned on the Red Roof Inn, not living under the same roof with Theo and his family.

“There’s more than enough room for all of us. And Viv and Martin would love to meet you.”

She shook her head. “I could never impose like that.”

Theo laughed. “Don’t be silly. I’d love your company, and that house is so big we could lose each other in it. Plus, it’s staffed, as in there’s a maid, a cook, a gardener, and a pool man. Come enjoy it with us.”

She felt her eyes go wide.

“Please say yes, Luce.”

Theo was looking down into her face with such adorable tenderness that Lucy nearly lost her breath. She couldn’t be angry at him, she supposed-he obviously had no idea what he did to her with those sea blue eyes, how he confused her with his affection, excited her with his touch, left her feeling lost when she wasn’t in his company.

The man squeezing her shoulder so tightly was her friend. Her trainer. Her business partner. Yes, she’d been ga-ga over Theo since the moment they met. But he was not her lover, and despite the sparks she felt in his presence, he seemed to be happy just being friends.

The faster she could come to grips with that, the saner she’d be. And the more she could just enjoy her next date with Tyson.

“Sure, Theo. I accept.”

Theo had led her to a big blue-and-white-striped tent where dozens of volunteers handed out badges.

“Theo!” An older lady in a hat decorated with an array of fishing lures smiled warmly at him. “What can I do you for, handsome?”

“Hi, Mimi.” Theo kissed her cheek. “This is my friend Lucy Cunningham, and we need to pick up her pass for the weekend.”

“Welcome, Lucy!” Mimi opened her arms and leaned over the utility table, pressing Lucy to her big bosom. “Any friend of Theo’s is a friend of mine.”

Mimi rooted through a box of manila envelopes. “Ah. Here we go.” She opened the flap and pulled out a long white neck strap looped through a laminated card that read:
All Access Pass
.

“Is this your first time at the State Games?”

Lucy poked her head through the strap and flipped the ID badge faceup. “Actually… uh…” Lucy forgot what she was saying because Theo had just reached over and extracted her ponytail from the strap, then stroked the back of her neck. “It’s my first Special Olympics anything.”

Mimi’s mouth opened in surprise. “Oh, wow!” She smiled at Theo conspiratorially, then squeezed Lucy’s hand in both hers. “It’s going to blow your mind, sweetheart.”

They went to a Mexican place on Fowler Avenue for dinner, where Lucy ordered the grilled sirloin, pinto beans, and a salad arid was thoroughly charmed by Theo’s family.

Vivian and Martin Redmond were much older than

Lucy anticipated, in their early eighties if she had to guess, and she soon learned they were Theo’s great-aunt and great-uncle. Vivian was gracious and kind and Martin was a firecracker and had them all laughing. Lucy saw immediately that Theo’s stunning blue eyes were a trait among males in the Redmond clan and Martin must have been a real looker in his day. Lucy glanced from Theo to his uncle and back again and was hit by this wistful thought-that it would be nice to know Theo when he was an eighty-year-old charmer, telling jokes to his grandchildren while they ate dinner at some Mexican joint.

Irrational longings like that did nothing to lower her expectations, Lucy realized. She had to stop being such a sentimental goofball.

“Lucy, we’ve been so impressed by your progress on the
WakeUp Miami
show.”

As nice as it was, Vivian’s comment brought Lucy right back to reality. It made her realize she’d gone several hours without thinking of herself as Lucy Cunningham, media makeover guinea pig. She’d gone most of the day without worrying how her legs looked in her shorts, whether her upper arms were too fleshy for this conservative tank top, or whether she was sweating like a sow in the sun.

She glanced at Theo across the round table and he smiled at her.

“Thank you, Vivian,” Lucy said.

“So tell us about your family, Lucy. Do you have any brothers and sisters?”

And apparently, that was it-there would be no haranguing her about calorie intake or how many abdominal crunches she did each day or the total inches lost off her upper-thigh circumference. They’d already moved on to another subject. Lucy sighed in relief.

“My mom and dad retired to Fort Lauderdale a couple years ago, and I left Pittsburgh and moved to Florida to be near them. I have an older sister who’s married with three little kids-she lives in Atlanta- and a younger brother who’s in his medical residency back in Pittsburgh.”

The table got very quiet, and Lucy looked over to see that Theo’s fork had paused in midair. He put it down and cleared his throat.

“Interesting,” he said. “I didn’t know your brother was in medicine.”

“Mmm-hmm…Pediatrics. He’s in the internship year of a three-year residency. We don’t see him often because I guess the internship year is the worst.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“Theo was going to be a doctor,” Buddy announced matter-of-factly. “But then Mom and Dad died and he had to come home to be with me and then his girlfriend said she couldn’t love him if he wasn’t going to be a doctor. Norton didn’t like her, anyway.”

Buddy reached up and stroked Theo’s hair, as if to comfort his big brother. Then Buddy started to cry.

Lucy’s body buzzed in embarrassment. She felt like she was intruding on a private family matter.

Vivian caressed Buddy’s shoulder and Martin shrugged sadly and Theo looked at her from across the table and grinned.

That was the last straw for Lucy. Theo was so completely
not
what she’d first assumed him to be. He was single-handedly raising his brother. He had the patience to coach special athletes. He was brilliant enough to get into med school. He’d had his own share of loss and pain. And he was able to hang on to his fine sense of humor in the process.

She felt ashamed at how she’d once assumed Theo was just a pretty face and a perfect body. She’d done the one thing she’d always despised most-she’d. judged someone by his appearance.

And right then, Lucy knew that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, it would be a blizzardy day at Disney World before she’d ever find a man she wanted more than Theodore Redmond.

The pageantry of the opening ceremonies surprised Lucy. She was expecting something schmaltzy and low-budget, not something so powerful. Seventeen hundred athletes ranging in age from eight to eighty stood in clusters under bright field lights and a cobalt blue evening sky, their T-shirts forming a rainbow around the stadium track.

Loud, inspiring rock music blared from the sound system as a cavalcade of law enforcement vehicles roared onto the grass, their lights and sirens sending the crowd into a frenzy. Then the torch was carried into. the stadium by a small group of police officers who’d completed the last ten miles of a statewide torch run.

After a rousing welcome speech from the emcee, a young woman assigned the job of reciting the Special Olympics oath rose from her chair onstage. Little by little, she neared the microphone, her left leg dragging, her physical imperfections clear for all to see. She stood tall in front of the huge crowd and said the words slowly and deliberately, in a voice thick with difficulty: “Let me win,” she said. “But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

Lucy sat in the bleachers between Martin and Vivian, humbled to tears. She wondered how many hours of practice had gone into that short walk to the podium and those simple lines of speech. She wondered how much courage it had taken for that woman to do what she’d just done.

Suddenly it was clear why Theo wanted Lucy to be here. He wanted to teach her a compelling lesson in a gentle way. He wanted her to learn to put her own struggles in perspective. Theo, who was out there somewhere in the sea of red shirts, was a very smart man.

Lucy tried to surreptitiously wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I cry every year.” Vivian handed her a tissue. “It can be overwhelming to see how much potential there is in all of us.”

Lucy appreciated Vivian’s words and her quiet smile and told her so. Together they watched as officers handed the torch to a few Special Olympics athletes, who took off around the track to light the Special Olympic Flame of Hope, the fire shooting high into the dark sky.

The emcee announced, “Let the Games begin!”

Competition began early the next day and ended late into the afternoon. Theo’s aunt and uncle lasted only a few hours before the sun and the heat sent them back to the house. They did stay long enough to see Buddy win the one-hundred-meter and the long jump and then receive medals for the events.

Twice that morning, Lucy, Vivian, and Martin left their seats in the stands for the shady picnic area, where the award platforms were arranged behind potted plants. Twice Buddy stood atop the highest of three blocks while a volunteer hit the play button on the boom box and the Olympic theme blared. Twice Buddy smiled, pumped his fist in the air, and the instant the music ended shouted, “Who loves me now?”

The second time he did this, Lucy turned to Theo to ask him what Buddy was doing, but Theo had already started to explain. He said it was Buddy’s good-luck ritual, one he’d used since he was eight, when he won his first Special Olympics event.

“It was the two-hundred-meter breaststroke, and right before it started my mom went to the side of the pool and hugged him and said, ‘Everybody loves you, Buddy.’ So when he touched the wall first, he ripped off his goggles and pumped his fist in the air and yelled, ‘Who loves me now?’ Everyone laughed, and he’s been winning ever since.”

By four that afternoon, Buddy had six gold medals hanging from his neck and Lucy felt like she’d run a marathon herself. The heat and all the pure emotion was exhausting, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the competitions. There seemed to be a lot of hugging going on, which fascinated her. Hugs seemed to be as important as the medals. After a singles tennis match, the victor dropped to her knees and kissed the court before she was crushed with hugs from her coach, parents, friends, and even her competition. When a tall, strong high jumper hit the bar with his shoulder and cried in disappointment, he was hugged by his rivals.