Blue finished a lap then climbed out of the pool. The air was chilly, but the sun was out and after a half an hour in the water, the chill felt refreshing. The swim had been cleansing in a way, and now, dripping wet and out of breath while the warm sun and cool air bathed him, he felt better than he had since the incident yesterday.

Now he could talk to Lucy and try to fix things.

After watching the coverage on the local channels and the sports channels, and the national news channels until the sun rose, he hadn’t gotten any kind of a good night sleep. Oh, and YouTube. A guy had captured the entire event from right outside the skybox. Well, he caught it all until an Aggie fan had cold-cocked him, knocking him unconscious and sending him to the hospital. That guy was only one of the dozens and dozens of injuries.

Watching the video had been torture. Why had he moved so slowly? Why had he given his dad and brother a chance to be decent human beings before moving in? And when he did decide to act, why had he let his dad’s grubby little friends block him from intervening? The video showed them getting in his way as Jesse and his friends pushed Lucy around and around in circles. Trying to be polite, Blue had side-stepped and spun away from them rather than just shoving them to the side, or better yet, punching them out and getting to Lucy as quickly as possible.

What he’d done to his father had come as a surprise to Blue when he watched the video, and he’d been careful to only watch it once since it was so painful to re-live.

All of that had only delayed him ten seconds or so, but those seconds had been vital in the abuse Lucy had taken and in the escalation of the incident. If Blue had been faster, everything would be different now.

There was nothing he could do about it now except call Lucy and beg her to forgive him. He didn’t know if she would ever forgive him, and didn’t know if she should after what Blue’s family and their friends had done to her. The thought of it made him burn up all over again. Yeah, it was time to call her and plead with everything he was worth for her forgiveness.

When Blue walked into his dad’s house, he saw him sitting on the couch holding his phone, shaking his head. The black eye was a bitter reminder of everything that had happened in the skybox, and his father still hadn’t given Blue a good reason for trying to keep him from helping Lucy. Blue shoved his anger down. This was his father after all, and he hoped to forgive him at some time. Blue definitely had to be careful in the future about trusting his dad with … well, with anything he cared about.

“Feeling better after blowing off some steam?” asked his dad.

He was, but he could tell by his dad’s scowl that something new was worrying him. “What’s wrong?” Blue realized he had stopped one step into the room and had the towel on his head drying his hair. He pulled the towel down and wrapped it around his damp shorts.

“I tried reaching out to her, Blue.” He shook his head again. “If I had known yesterday that you two…” he made a vague waving motion with his hands, “then all that never would have happened. You should have told me sooner. Regardless, I called her this morning because I wanted to let her know I was sorry about what happened, and see if we could start fixing it, but she started yelling at me, using profanity and everything. I let her vent for a minute, and she even threw some Spanish words in there that sounded particularly harsh.”

Blue knew Lucy could be fiery and feisty. Blue didn’t imagine her going off on someone like that, but he did understand if she was still ticked. And the Spanish seasoning did sound like her.

His dad got up and came to stand next to Blue. “When she finally let me get a couple words in, I told her that she can be mad at me all she wants, after all it was my guests who mistreated her, but she shouldn’t take that out on you. I asked her to at least talk to you.” He laid a hand on Blue’s shoulder.

Maybe now wasn’t the best time to call her. It might be a good idea to let her cool off for a minute.

Wait, what had he just told himself? Be careful. Don’t trust him. That hand on his shoulder was suspiciously affectionate.

It wasn’t like his dad would flat out lie about something like that. It would be way too easy to know if he wasn’t telling the truth because what else were he and Lucy going to talk about once they finally got a hold of each other?

“Sit down, Blue. Let’s talk about this.” They took up opposing spots on the long L-shaped couch. “Both sides were so wrong yesterday. I feel bad, but the whole incident wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t come up there. Universities have restrictions on athletes and cheer for a reason.”

He must have sensed Blue retreating because he pushed harder. “That girl could never be accepted into this family after such bad blood, and I’m not just saying that because she’s a—” he muttered an unpleasant word under his breath, “—Lobo. I might lose my job, son. And even if I don’t, I don’t think it’s possible to ever recover the damage done to my reputation. You think the NCAA is going to want me involved in the March Madness bracketing again? Who’s going to invite me to speak after seeing that horrible, one-sided YouTube video?”

“One-sided?” said Blue. He really didn’t want to start anything with his dad yet, but pretending like events had happened differently than they actually had, wouldn’t help. “It’s video. It’s not like it’s been doctored or anything.”

His dad sat back and sighed then stared at Blue for a moment. Blue stared right back. There was still a lot of healing left to do between them, as well as an honest confrontation, but that could wait until the media storm died down and some of the decisions were handed down by the university and the Las Cruces Police Department.

“I can see you’re still not ready to give her up,” said his dad. “Text her. She flat out told me she already had your number blocked, and never wanted to see you again. Call her. Ask her. If you can get her to answer.”

That sounded like the first smart thing his dad had said all day. The rest of it about how Lucy would never fit into their family after what had happened—Blue wasn’t ready to process. Even after half a day to let everything simmer and sink in, he was far from feeling on top of it all. He just knew he couldn’t go another minute without reaching out to her.

He jumped to his feet. “I’m gonna do it.” He jogged to his room, which was right off of the family room where they’d been sitting, and grabbed his phone. He didn’t want to hurt his dad, and maybe Blue’s lack of trust and having to call her would take even more healing than they already required, but he could worry about that down the road. He’d never felt as strongly about anyone as he did about Lucy. Not even close.

Just seeing her name in the list of his text contacts made him smile.

Lucy, I really want to talk to you. Are you still in town? Let’s meet up. Say when and where.

And he waited. On a day like today she had to be practically staring at her phone, right? Answering calls and texts from concerned, or at least interested, friends and family. She’d always been one to reply quickly, and as the seconds ticked away, so did Blue’s hope.

Maybe she was in the pool or on a bike ride or just trying to hide from everything. If only Blue knew where she was staying he could show up at her door and apologize in person.

The text still hadn’t gone through. Or at least it hadn’t been received. Why had he waited so long? Why had he given his dad a chance to call her before Blue even called?

Blue plopped down on the couch as he hit the dial icon on his phone and avoided looking at his dad. Suddenly he felt frantic that he wouldn’t be able to reach her. It rang and rang until a pre-recorded message notified him the number he was calling was unavailable. No voicemail or anything. He checked the text and it still hadn’t been received.

She really had blocked him. Ten minutes ago she had been talking to his dad and told him she was going to do it. Well, she had done it and now he had no way to get a hold of her. Blue’s dad had been straight with him.

“I can tell it’s killing you, Blue.” He didn’t look up and his dad went on. “It’s probably better for something like this to happen now instead of down the road when—”

“I’m going to take a shower.” Blue stood and walked out, looking down at his phone as his dad droned on.

“I know you thought she was special …” his voice trailed as Blue got farther away.

She is special. It wasn’t just a thought. From that moment at Questival when she’d come bounding up the steps of the Capitol carrying her teammate, it was as if his guardian angel was shining a spotlight that even a self-proclaimed bachelor like Blue couldn’t ignore. He hadn’t actually seen an angelic marquee or anything, but he could easily imagine huge neon signs pointing at her that read: THIS IS HER! THE ONE YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE WAITING FOR! THE ONE WHO IS WORTH IT!

He’d give her some time. She’d respond.

Blue had to force himself to put the phone down and climb into the shower. As soon as he got out, he grabbed it, still dripping wet and stared with disappointment at the lack of notifications. She hadn’t even seen his text yet. Or if she’d seen it in a notification screen, she hadn’t opened it.

The one who was worth it had blocked him from her life.