Blue was already sick of talking to people and giving his side of the story, and he was only halfway through his meetings for the day. The Las Cruces Police and the district attorney meetings were over, but he still had to sit down with the Reed family lawyers as they tried to figure out how to best spin the story.

Even though the antagonistic meetings were over, and this afternoon’s would be in favor of the Reeds he was not looking forward to spending more time thinking about the incident in general, and specifically what it meant for his relationship with Lucy.

What was he even thinking about a relationship? He had no way to even get a hold of her. They were in the same state now, but might as well be a million miles apart. After Blue’s conversation with Nikola yesterday he’d tried texting and calling again. Same response—nothing. He was blocked.

In a world that was so connected, where 10,000 miles meant nothing, why was 223 miles like living on another planet?

Blue pulled into his dad’s driveway, but didn’t get out of the rental car. More hours of talking about something he wished he could forget still lay ahead. If only he’d handled it differently, it might not have turned out like this between him and Lucy. The second she walked into the skybox, he should have run to her, escorted her away, and … that would have avoided the entire incident.

He should have seen. He should have anticipated. He should have avoided it all. What good were his years as a quarterback if he couldn’t do those things? What about his current job? If he didn’t anticipate and act on the fire ground, people would die.

All of his training, all of his college years should have prepared him to recognize the threat and react.

Blue’s dad appeared on the front porch, obviously wondering why Blue was still sitting outside. At least it got Blue out of the same thought spiral he’d been going down for the last ten days.

His dad had wanted to go to the interviews this morning, but Blue insisted on going alone. The purpose of the trip to Las Cruces was to help his dad and brother, but there was still a lot of healing left to happen between them. Spending hours this afternoon listening to everyone rationalize why the Reeds were justified and someone else was to blame would not make him have better feelings toward his family. Especially when he knew Lucy would take a lot of the blame, and Blue would spend most of the day defending her and they would keep pushing and insulting her, then a fight would break out and they’d be worse off than when they started.

How had he not seen that when he’d agreed to come back to Las Cruces? Yeah, it would have just led to subpoenas, but maybe some more time would have helped.

His dad tapped his watch and spread his hands to ask what was up. The police interviews had gone longer than expected and they were late for the meeting with Carl and his ilk. And for the whine-fest where everyone would say how great the Reeds were and how wicked Lucy was. When all Blue wanted was to talk to Lucy and tell her he was sorry.

That’s really what was eating him up inside, he realized. There had always been a chance that things wouldn’t work out with Lucy, but he couldn’t stand the thought of it happening like this, with so much unsaid between them. The thought of leaving it unresolved was unthinkable. Why wouldn’t she just stop blocking him? With one click on her phone, she had put up the most effective virtual offensive line known to man.

But wait. What if he went after her in the real world instead of going after her through her phone only? He wasn’t a one-play guy. He could be creative, try something unexpected. Like that fire yesterday, when the new guys had fiddle-farted around with the door instead of just bashing it down. And when bashing the door didn’t work, just bashing down a wall. If it was a real wall between Blue and Lucy instead of an electronic one, he’d flatten an entire building using nothing more than his fists. If he had to go through fire to get to her, he’d do it. Just face the fire and get burned if it got him closer to her.

So what was stopping him now? Two hundred-twenty-three measly miles?

What else? Some meetings with a bunch of people he didn’t feel like listening to all day?

“Twist my arm,” muttered Blue, starting the car and throwing it into Reverse. As he backed out, he rolled down the window. “Sorry, Dad! Something came up! Be back late.”

Blue didn’t wait long enough to hear his dad’s answer. Albuquerque was calling to him.