Then she looked over that the small groups of men and women who continued to dart looks her dark lover’s way and nixed that hope for good and all. Mine, she thought to herself. Allll mine.

Turning her head toward Cat, Dylan cracked her sun sensitive eyes just the slightest bit open. “Did you need something?”

Cat smirked. “Oh, the many ways I could answer that particular question. However, since we’re in public right now, I just was wanting to tell you that I saw an ad here for a coach over at St. Catherine’s Girl’s High. The candidate has to have a teaching degree too. I think they want them doing the Health classes or something.”

Dylan chuckled. “Your mom will think she’s died and gone to heaven. You…teaching. In a Catholic girl’s school even.”

“Mm. You have a point there.”

“Is it something you’re considering?”

“I don’t know. Guess it’s good to keep my options open.”

“True.”

As Dylan’s eyes slipped closed, Cat thought back on the past three weeks of her life. True to her lover’s prediction, no more than two days had passed since the championship game when her phone began ringing off the hook. Seemed that every single coach and owner in the league wanted to talk to her. She’d even been surprised by the number of calls coming from outside the United States. Teams from Spain, France, Germany and Japan were hustling to beat the band. She was, it seemed, a very hot commodity.

Thus far, Horace Johnson had managed to keep his word. She received the letters releasing her from her contract, and there was, as Haley Locke put it, no muss and no fuss to go with them. The team’s owner—he hadn’t sold yet—refused to be interviewed in the aftermath of the last game of the season. Of course, it had helped that he’d just been released from the hospital after an attack of angina, and the press wasn’t all that inclined to push.

More surprisingly, he’d let Dylan go just as quietly as he’d let Cat, and most of the other Badgers go as well. Cat often wondered just what it was that Dylan dangled over his head, but realized that in this case, some secrets were best kept behind locked lips. At least until she’d determined her life’s path and couldn’t be hurt by them anymore.

Dylan had fielded more than her fair share of calls—she was the Goddess, after all, and number one in anybody’s eyes, be it as a player, a coach, or a combination of the two. She’d turned them all down with class and aplomb, leaving her many callers feeling better than any right to feel, considering she’d said ‘no’ to their offers.

Finally, when neither of them could take anymore, Dylan suggested a vacation on Antigua. Cat had jumped at the suggestion before it had even fully left her partner’s lips, kissing her soundly for her good judgment, then rushing off to pack. They’d both left their cell phones at home, and their destination with Mac, who was under orders not to breathe a word of it to anyone under penalty of a severe hurting. He’d gotten the message loud and clear.

So why, she mused, was Carlos, the admittedly hunky cabana boy, coming toward them with a tray in his hand? A tray that bore something that looked suspiciously like a phone atop its silvery elegance?

As he approached, Carlos flashed a toothy grin at them both while bowing at the waist. “Good afternoon to you Ms Cat and Ms Dylan,” he began in his lightly accented voice.

“That’d better not be a phone in your hand,” Dylan muttered from her place on the lounge.

The young man’s smile faltered slightly, then regained previous wattage as he bowed again. “Yes, Ms. Dylan, it is a phone.”

“I’m gonna kill Mac,” she grumbled, pressing her top to herself in deference to Cat, and reaching for the phone.

“No, Ma’am, it is not a Mac. He says his name is a….Thad Carter?”

Dylan and Cat exchanged glances. Thad Carter was the head coach of the Dallas Mavs, the men’s pro basketball team. Pressing the phone to her ear, Dylan said, “Thad? That you?”

“Dylan! Thank God. I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“I’m on vacation, Thad.” Cat could see her lover’s jaws clamp hard on the invective that was just begging to come out.

“Oh.”

“So, what was so urgent that you had to call halfway around the world to speak to me? Is the sky falling? Stock market crash? Horace Johnson finally bit the big one while screwing his admin? What?”

Thad chuckled. “No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that…well….I…..”

“Spit it out, Thad. I’m beginning to tan unevenly here.”

Cat smothered her laughter with a hand to her mouth. Dylan turned and tipped her a wink.

“I’m waiting, Thad.”

“Ok, listen, it’s like this. You probably haven’t heard the news, being on vacation and all, but I’ve been named the Head Coach of the USA Women’s Basketball team for this year’s Olympics. And, well, I’d like you and Catherine to consider playing for my team. Now I know that you’re both semi-retired, but you’re also the best female players in the damn world, and I want you and your talents on my side of the court. We’ll win the gold if you’re there, sure as shit sticks to a sheep’s ass.”

“Charming, Thad. Utterly charming.”

She could almost feel the man’s blush on the other end of the line. “Sorry. It’s just….”

“I know what it’s just, Thad.” She sighed, rolling over to one side so that she was facing Cat, who looked to be ready to go into convulsions unless she found out what they were talking about, and soon, too. “Listen, you’re right. We’re both semi-retired, and we took this vacation to get away from all the hounds and freaks and assorted other nutjobs wanting a piece of us. So I can’t give you our answer right now. We’ll have to discuss it between us.”

“I understand,” he replied quickly. “I am a little pressed for time, though. This was kinda sprung on me the last minute too.”

“Spreading the wealth around. I like that about you, Thad. But the fact is, we’ll take all the time we need to come to a decision. Neither of us is in the mood to be pushed right now. If that is too tough on you, go ahead and get someone else.”

“No, no. I want you two first. It’s a lot easier for top prospects to say yes if they know the top dogs are already in the pen.”

“Another brilliant analogy from a man full of…something.” But she grinned as she said it, and she knew he could hear the levity in her voice. “Give us a day or two to talk it over, alright? We’ll call you when we’ve made up our minds.”

“Either way?”

“Either way. I promise.”

“Alright. I’ll look forward to hearing from you, then. And I’m sorry about disturbing your vacation.”

“That’s fine. Talk to you later.”

Hanging up the phone, she waved Carlos away, then rolled to a sitting position on the lounge. Cat was all but buzzing with anticipation, gem green eyes sparkling in the strong sunshine. “Well?”

“That,” she teased, “was Thad Carter.”

“I know that.”

“He coaches the Mavs.”

Dylan could hear her lover’s teeth grinding. “I know that, too, dear.”

“Yes, I guess you do.” Hands over her head, she gave a leisurely stretch, showing off every deeply tanned and muscular ripple in her skin. A short distance away a man, too busy eyeing Dylan to know where he was going tripped over his wife, dumping her into the sand. Cat chuckled despite her frustration.

“C’mon, Dylan, stop teasing the tourists and give already.”

“The tourists?”

“No, you rat. What did Coach Carter say to you?”

Dylan gave an offhand shrug, then peered down at her fingernails. “Oh, he might have mentioned that he got suckered into taking the Olympic head coaching job and wants us to play for our country in the Olympics this summer.”

“You’re shitting me!”

“Nope.”

Cat tried hard to keep the joy flowing inside her deeply bottled. Without knowing how Dylan felt about the whole thing, she wanted to keep her reactions inside until she was sure, one way or the other.

Dylan, however, could easily read the happiness in her lover’s beautiful face, and it brought a smile to her own. “You did mention, once, that you would have liked to represent your country in the Olympics, right?”

“Well, yes,” she replied, trying to keep it casual. “I might have mentioned something like that once or twice.”

Dylan nodded carefully. “So…it’s something that you might want to consider?”

“It might be,” she replied slowly. “If it’s something you’re willing to consider as well. I know what happened last time, Dylan. It just about ruined your career.”

“But it didn’t. And the more I think about it, the more I think I’d like to try the whole experience again. With you.”

“Funny. That’s exactly what I was gonna say to you. Except for the ‘again’ part.”

“So, we’re in?”

“We’re in.”

And the two lovers kissed to seal the deal.

Seven months later, Cat grinned as she looked over the mantle in the house that they both shared. Inside a velvet lined, glass fronted box hung two gold medals, their rewards for taking the USA team to the very top of the Olympic world. She grazed her fingers very close to the glass, seeing the bright and shining memories of that heady, wonderful time in the medals hanging before her. She could almost hear the chants of “USA! USA! USA! USA!” when they’d been called to the top of the podium to receive their just rewards. A large framed shot held the place of honor next to the medals. It was a picture of the whole team standing atop the highest step of the podium. Dylan and Cat, in the center, were holding hands, eyes sparkling with tears of pride as they watched the flag being hoisted to the top of the arena, mouths frozen in the singing of the National Anthem.

“God,” she whispered, “what a time.” She could feel the goosebumps prickle across her skin and a warm, tingling flush of blood moving through her. “What a time.”