Chapter Sixteen

“How are you feeling there, Typhoid Mary?” Sullivan asked, leaning against the doorjamb of Spencer’s room, trying to keep his distance in case his brother was still contagious.

“Like shit,” Spencer said succinctly from under the covers. “But I’m alive. Hopefully this…”

“Plague?” Sullivan filled in helpfully.

“Yes, plague, is done by tomorrow,” Spencer said. He struggled to sit up a bit against the pillows, and then fixed his gaze on his twin. “How was Lucy? Did you find her okay at the market?”

“She found me, which was a relief,” Sullivan said. “It was… fine.”

“Fine?”

“Fine,” Sullivan shrugged, suddenly a bit reluctant to tell Spencer how much he had enjoyed Lucy’s company that afternoon.

Spencer merely stared at him until he finally elaborated. “I mean, she’s really nice and funny, like you said. We found some good produce for her to try, she bought some books, we shared a baba ganoush, we walked to Shoreline Park and back to get some exercise in…”

“Geez,” Spencer said, sniffling and then coughing once. “That’s… more than I expected. And you were gone longer than I expected.”

“We… we hit it off. We took our time,” Sullivan said cagily.

“Hit it off?” Spencer asked, his tone suspiciously devoid of emotion.

“Well,” Sullivan said quickly. “I mean, she already knows and likes you, and since I was being you, we… we got along. As expected.”

“Uh huh.”

“And it was good. For a while, and then it wasn’t good for a while, and then it was good again,” Sullivan said quickly.

“Huh?”

Sullivan took a deep breath and told Spencer about the revelations about Lucy’s husband and his demise, her brother’s pressure to be thin on a schedule befitting him, and her emotional state during their walk to and front Shoreline Park.

By the time Sullivan and Lucy had gotten to the park, the pall of the telephone call had lifted and they had walked and talked, then walked back and talked some more, both of them seeming to be really relaxed with each other.

It was great, Sullivan thought silently. But for some reason, he just didn’t want to tell his twin what a good time he had…

“God, poor Luce,” Spencer breathed. “No wonder she’s so down on herself, and why she’s struggled with her weight. That’s a big burden on anyone, much less someone without much of a support system.”

“I know,” Sullivan said. “I mean, I know I don’t know her as well as you, but that was the sense I got – she has Brandt, and you, and not much else in her corner in either her body changes or her life at the moment.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Sounds like you know her as well as I do now. Probably better, in fact. We don’t talk that much when she’s working out. You guys were gone for hours.”

“Did I miss curfew or something?”

“No,” Spencer said. “Just… it’s just interesting, that’s all. I told you that you would like her.”

“And you were right,” Sullivan confirmed, shifting away from the doorjamb. “She’s a nice girl,” he said noncommittally, turning on his heel and going back to his own room before Spencer could see him flush.

**

Lucy and Brandt were sitting in their assigned seats on the front porch, the sun sinking below the horizon and a bag of chips being passed between them. “You realize,” Lucy said, crunching several chips between her teeth with relish, “that if Spencer saw this travesty, he would kick my ass then make me run a thousand miles on the treadmill.”

“I know,” Brandt said. “I was weak – they were calling to me.”

“And I just bought all that healthy food at the market…” Lucy said wistfully. “And ye, this tastes like ambrosia. Salt… fat… deliciousness…”

“Can I just say for both of us,” Brandt said, “that the healthy food kind of sucks? I mean, we found a couple of winners in the recipe department, but I think I’m going to quickly tire of chicken breasts and broccoli.”

Lucy sighed. “I know, me too. But I’ve been staying pretty committed to the food. But then I got that phone call from Lionel and instead of motivating me to stay on the wagon or whatever, what does it do? Makes me run to the nearest carbohydrate source.”

“At least we’ve having fruit with it,” Brandt teased, sipping from his wine glass and making Lucy laugh.

“You are a terrible influence,” she said, taking a drink from her own glass. “Mm, this is a good one.”

Brandt nodded in agreement. “How was the farmer’s market adventure, anyway?”

Lucy could feel herself blushing and was glad for the fading light of the day. “Well, I already told you about blubbering all over him about Lionel and Ryan. But the rest… it was really good. He was a little stiff at first, like he wasn’t himself, but once he relaxed, we had a really good time. He really surprised me in some ways.”

“Like how?”

“Just some of the stuff we talked about… it wasn’t things I thought he was interested in, or that I’ve mentioned before while working out that he hasn’t jumped on. I guess when he’s outside of his work, he really is a different person.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Brandt said, leaning back and enjoying the view. “I mean, I’m not always a real estate shark, and you aren’t always a master of zen and getting all handsy with people.”

“I guess,” Lucy said, choosing to ignore the handsy comment altogether. “But it was still… weird. But a nice weird,” she said, remembering the feel of his arms around her, rocking her and whispering into her hair that it was going to be okay. That was definitely nice weird…

“I’m sure it was no big deal to him, but it was a good time for me,” Lucy said with finality. “And how are the good times with Josh?” she asked, smiling at her best friend.

Brandt’s face lit up with excitement. “Oh, you are not going to believe where we went the other night…”

Lucy settled back and listened as Brandt regaled her with tales of Mr. Whole Foods, all while still secretly thinking of that hug, that note of promise, and that smile…

**

“That was fun the other day,” Lucy said shyly, dead lifting the dumb bells in her hands up over her head while ignoring the view from all the mirrors around the warehouse’s perimeter.

Spencer smiled, though his stomach tightened slightly at her comment, knowing it was a lie he was about to tell her.

A white lie, a little one, he reminded himself.

“It was,” he agreed. “Great market, right?”

“It really is,” Lucy said with a smile. “I’m definitely making it a weekly visit, if just for the baba ganoush.”

Spencer nodded, not sure of the reference. “Tasty stuff,” he settled on saying, hoping that was safe.

Lucy concentrated on her reps while Spencer counted her down from twenty. “Great work, Luce. You are killing it today.”

“Well, after that phone call…” she said, her eyes cast down to the ground.

Spencer assumed this was the call from her brother, and frowned. “Shake that off. Just concentrate on you. Without injuring yourself with enthusiasm,” he added, noting her grimace of pain as she tried to lift weights that were probably too heavy for her at this point.

“Whatever you say, boss,” she grunted, still lifting.

“How’s the food going?” Spencer asked a few minutes later when he had finally gotten her to put the weights down. “Good menu planning happening?”

“Uh… most of the time,” Lucy hedged. “A few… deviations, but I’m trying. I’m really trying.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Spencer said.

“Sure could use some more piked fruit though,” Lucy said with a teasing grin. “Speared fruit is lacking from the menu plan.”

Spencer blinked, completely confused. Piked? Did she mean picked? He laughed uneasily and nodded. “You betcha,” he said, all the while feeling like an ass.

That was the last time he was letting Sullivan take the wheelhouse when it came to Lucy.

It was just too confusing.

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