He Loves Lucy (7 page)

“No!”

“We can have cheesesteaks for supper.”

“I’m up.” And with that, Buddy burst forth from under his covers and nearly knocked Theo to the floor as he made his way across the bedroom, fully dressed, all the way down to his Reeboks.

Theo shook his head and laughed. He’d been got again, by a teenager alleged to have an IQ half his own.

He used the corner of the comforter to mop coffee off his work shorts, taking a moment to look around Buddy’s room, listening to the usual morning humming coming from the bathroom down the hall.

The bedroom looked like your average teenager’s room. Computer on the desk. An MP3 player and headphones tossed casually on the floor by the dresser.

Clothes spilling out of the hamper. Sports posters all over the wall-with Lance Armstrong, Marian Jones, and Michael Phelps predominating.

But the trophy and medal collection surrounding Theo wasn’t average at all. Pinned to a strip of cork-board encircling the room were hundreds of ribbons and medals. Dozens of trophies sat on a low shelf above the desk, engraved with the name “Brian Redmond.” Though Theo couldn’t read the small print on each from where he sat, he knew well enough what they were for. In swimming, the hundred-meter butterfly and the hundred-meter freestyle. In track, the long jump, hundred-and-ten-meter hurdles, high jump, marathon, half marathon, and pentathlon.

They were from school meets, local and state competitions, invitationals, and last year’s international games. They reflected eight years of athletic achievement by a boy who surprised his parents by arriving sixteen years after Theo, with Down syndrome.

Theo’s eyes traveled to the neat little cross-stitch slogan that hung on the wall over Buddy’s bed, matted under glass and nicely framed. Their mother gave it to Buddy a few months before she died. It was the Special Olympics athlete’s oath, in a graceful cursive script:

Theo knew those words by heart. And he knew they applied to him and the rest of the world as much as they did to Buddy and his fellow Special Olympians.

A horrible noise jarred Theo from his quiet thoughts.

As usual, Buddy’s singing was very loud, very off-key, and had no identifiable time signature. And like he did nearly every morning, Buddy sang while brushing his teeth and flossing.

“
I like the way-ay
…”

Theo slipped into the bathroom doorway to watch Buddy groove his way through his oral hygiene. “Anything cool going on at school today?”

“Never is.” Buddy spit and rinsed. “So probably not today, either.”

“Track after school?”

“Yep.”

“Got your gear packed?”

“Yeah.”

Theo watched Buddy swivel his hips in front of the bathroom mirror, and couldn’t help but smile at how happy he seemed. After the accident three years ago, Buddy had simply shut down. He stopped competing. He wouldn’t hang out with friends. He became so angry at the world and so lost that it broke Theo’s heart.

He did everything he could to make it easier for Buddy. Theo dropped out of med school halfway through his M-3 year, right in the middle of a general surgery rotation, which didn’t go over well with the attending physician, not to mention Jenna. Then Theo moved back home to Miami Springs and took over his dad’s coaching post with the Special Olympics of Miami-Dade.

Theo had no choice. His aunt and uncle were too old to keep up with Buddy, and Theo couldn’t pull him out of his school and away from his friends and definitely couldn’t move him out of the house. Buddy didn’t do well with even the smallest changes in his routine, like grape instead of the usual strawberry jam on his peanut butter sandwich. Moving would have killed him.

Looking at him now, combing his hair and humming, Theo was proud that Buddy was doing so well. Theo was proud that with Aunt Viv and Uncle Martin’s help he’d managed to keep his brother’s world intact for these last three years.

Even at the cost of Theo’s own.

“I have to work the door at Flawless Friday and Saturday nights, so you’ll be staying with Aunt Viv and Uncle Martin. But we can train Saturday afternoon.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Get your backpack and let’s roll, stud.”

Buddy laughed, and Theo enjoyed watching him tilt his head back and squint his already-squinty eyes behind his thick glasses, smiling so big that his gums showed all along the ridges of his small top teeth.

When Buddy stopped laughing, he playfully shook his finger at Theo. “You’re the stud in this house,” he said, strolling into the hallway and toward the foyer.

“Nope.” Theo grabbed his car keys off the hall table and opened the door for his brother. “You’re the only stud around here, dude, and we both know it.”

“How much have you lost now, Lucy?”

Veronica hadn’t asked that question in about six days, which might have been a record for Lucy’s assistant. “Not sure. The month’s not over yet.”

Maria Banderas munched on her taco salad and waved her fork around. “I don’t know how you do it! I’d be weighing myself every ten minutes if I were losing weight as fast as you are. You’re a better person than I am!”

Lucy gave Maria a polite smile. “If you were losing weight this fast they’d have you in the ICU, hooked up to an IV. Everything’s relative.”

“It’s good to see you’re eating actual food.”

Veronica made that preposterous comment just as Lucy popped a cherry tomato into her mouth. She chewed desperately so she could respond. “Of course I’m eating food! What else would I be eating?”

Her assistant looked sheepish. “Well, Stephan said you had to be cheating to be doing so well-like a liquid fast or vitamin shots or something.”

Lucy shook her head in disgust. “At least if he’s paying attention to my weight that means he’s paying attention to one detail of one account, which is a miracle.”

“No kidding.” Maria’s eyes got wide. “Thank God you’re still here, because we’d be dead in the water if we counted on Stephan. It’s like he’s sleepwalking! Remember the asphalt company proposal I asked him to approve last week? He hasn’t even picked it up.”

Lucy frowned. “That’s a potential big-money account. I’ll talk to him.”

“You might want to talk to him about the phone bill while you’re at it,” Veronica said. “He didn’t pay it last month-flipped out that it was too expensive and we could get a better deal and told me to do the research.”

Lucy put her fork down and stared at Veronica.

“So I gave him a couple options, right? But he still hasn’t decided and he won’t pay the overdue bill and we just got a cutoff notice. How’s an advertising company supposed to do business without phones?”

Lucy closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and repeated the words to herself:
Eight more months
.

“Don’t you
ever
do that to me again, Cunningham.”

Theo greeted her at the Palm Club door as usual, but he wasn’t wearing his standard Happy Trainer face. His lips were pursed tight. His marine blue eyes were stern and had none of the unnatural sparkle she’d grown accustomed to. And Lucy knew it was her fault.

“I’m really sorry, Theo. I left you a voice mail to apologize yesterday. I thought I hit the snooze but somehow fell back asleep.”

“Don’t do it again.”

“OK. OK. I’m sorry.”

Theo punched in a fifteen-minute warm-up on the recumbent cycle and extended his hand for her to have a seat. He started scribbling on his clipboard.

“I hate getting out of bed at four in the morning as much as much as you do, Lucy, if not more.”

“I understand. But for the record, I hate it a lot.” She started pedaling.

“You’re the one who picked this ridiculous time.”

“It’s the only time I had. I have to be at work at eight!”

“Where’s your food journal?”

“In my bag.”

“I don’t see it.”

Lucy watched in horror as Theo tossed aside her new zebra-striped panties. In the last couple weeks, her underwear had begun to fall around her knees, so in a moment of recklessness in the Filene’s lingerie department, she’d decided to oomph up the style while she bought three sizes down.

Now Theo knew she wore zebra-striped panties.

Lucy comforted herself by stealing a peak at Theo while he bent over her bag, noting the perfect man butt in those navy blue shorts, those golden legs etched into bands of long, strong muscle. She decided to use small talk to smooth things over with him.

“I suppose getting up at four puts a real damper on your busy social schedule.” She pedaled along at a comfortable pace, knowing Gia had to be wrong when she claimed Theo didn’t date much. Look at him! He was -Prom King material! “In my case, it doesn’t matter if I go to bed before your average fifth grader.”

Theo stood up with her food journal in his hand and an annoyed expression in his eyes. “Uh-huh.” Then he leaned toward her and with lightning speed adjusted the programming on the cycle. Lucy immediately felt her leg muscles burn with the effort.

“Hey!”

“Those things you’re feeling now are called hills, Cunningham. They go up, and then they go down. The hard parts won’t last long, so just do it and look happy.”

Lucy tried not to laugh. Theo’s foul temper made her want to giggle. “You’re in an ugly mood.”

“You didn’t write down a goal for today. Where’s your damn goal?”

She continued to huff and pedal. “Right now, Master and Commander, my goal is to get through this appointment without running you over with this bike.”

“Stationary bike, empty threat.” Theo snapped the journal shut and put his hands on his hips. “Look, I’m sorry if I’m grumpy, but you just have no idea how hard it is to get Buddy out the door in the morning.”

Lucy had never heard him mention his dog before. “What kind is he?”

“Who?”

“Buddy.”

Theo seemed even more annoyed, if that were possible. Her attempt at chitchat was obviously a flop. She tried again. “Your dog, Theo. What kind of dog is Buddy? That’s all I’m asking.”

She watched Theo go from annoyance to full-out laughter in a flash. “Buddy is my brother. It’s a nickname for Brian. And there is no dog. We have a goddamn feckless, evil cat.”

“You have a
cat
?” That just wasn’t right. Men like Theo didn’t have cats. Unless they were gay. Could it be? The no dating? The earring? The perfect hair?

“He’s my brother’s cat. He’s possessed by Satan and his name is Norton.”

“You really have a
brother
?” Mercifully, Lucy had reached the top of a hill and was headed down. Her legs tingled with relief and her lungs stopped seizing.

“Sure do.”

“I’m sorry, but I just have to ask. Are you gay? You’re single and attractive and you wear an earring and have a cat. This is Miami Beach, right?”

Theo closed his eyes and slowly shook his head, a look of near pain on his face. Eventually, he opened his eyes. “I like women, Cunningham. Always have. Always will.”

“I knew that. The cat thing threw me, I guess.”

“By any chance, are you done interrogating me? If so, I’m going to check my mail. I’ll be back in a few and we’ll stretch out.”

“Fine.”

He turned to go, then looked over his shoulder, offering her a mischievous grin. “So is there a zebra-striped bra to match?”

Lucy’s mouth fell open. She watched Theo jog across the nearly empty cardio studio toward the offices, where he opened what Lucy knew was the door to the trainer lounge and disappeared.

It had taken more than two months, but she’d just discovered Theo had a temper. Theo had a cat! He used words like
goddamn
. He had a
brother
. And he liked zebra-striped underwear.

Then she wondered if his brother was as good-looking as Theo was and why in the world he had to worry about getting him ready in the morning. Was he ten years old or something? If so, where were the kid’s parents?

Suddenly the bike switched gears on her again, and she was pedaling for all she was worth. Lucy made a mental note to not to miss any more workouts, because clearly, payback was a bitch.

They’d been inside Nordstrom’s all of five minutes when she heard the shocked whisper behind them: “
My

God! It’s Gia Altamonte and the fat woman from
WakeUpMiami!

Gia whipped her head around so fast her Versace sunglasses went flying off her head and clattered to the parquet flooring of the designer shoe department.

“Is that you talkin‘ to my friend like that?’ Gia placed her fists on her hot pants-clad hips. ”Yes, I’m speaking to you, Grandma.“

Lucy cringed at Gia’s fingernail-on-chalkboard verbal assault on a woman in her sixties wearing a pale peach linen skirt set and a horrified expression. Gia looked the woman up and down and added, “Who you think you are, lady? If you worked twice as hard as she does, she’d still look twice as good!”

The woman slinked away into the atrium, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

“I’ll tell you, people can be so frickin‘
rude
.” Gia bent in half and scooped her sunglasses from the floor, and set them back on her pert little nose. “You OK or what?” She placed a hand on Lucy’s elbow and nudged her out into the aisle and toward the designer sportswear collections.

“I’m fine. You’re probably accustomed to people recognizing you. I’m not.”

“You get used to it, but you can’t let them say nasty stuff to you like that.” Gia ran her fingertips over a filmy blouse with a plunging neckline and a price tag with way too many numerals on it. “One day, I swear to God, a total stranger came up to me at the corner of Seventh and Fifty-fourth in New York and tells me I had visible panty lines in my
Vogue
layout. Can you flippin‘ believe that garbage?”