Cat glanced up and saw Nevada. She smiled broadly, pulled off her gloves, then hit a button on a small remote. The music went silent.

“You came!” Cat hurried toward her and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t you love this space? It’s perfect.”

Nevada hugged her back, then carefully stepped away. “I remember where you worked in Los Angeles. I still have trouble reconciling that everything is industrial here, but beautifully ethereal when you’re finished.”

Cat’s green eyes glowed with pleasure. “It’s my personal form of magic.” She grabbed Nevada’s hand and pulled her to the sketch on the wall. “I don’t always know what I’m going to be doing. Sometimes I have to let the piece speak to me. But this time, I had a vision. It’s so clear.” She laughed. “I almost feel like I shouldn’t have to make it. I can reach out and touch what it’s going to be.”

“It’s amazing,” Nevada murmured. “You’re an inspiration, honoring the town in this way.”

Cat leaned against her. “I have to. You’re from here.”

Oh, no. Not a place she wanted to go.

“There’s just one problem.”

Cat looked at her expectantly.

“It’s the subject matter,” Nevada said cautiously. “You’re so brilliant and famous. Everyone will want to come see the piece, of course. But there’s some concern that it’s rather risqué for Fool’s Gold.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Please. Don’t be so provincial. My work celebrates the power of women.”

Nevada supposed that a giant breast would be worse, but not by much. “Okay, but this is a family town. Parents don’t want to have to explain what it is to their children.”

“Why not? We should be proud of our bodies. There is beauty in each one of us.” She drew her eyebrows together. “Are you saying the town doesn’t want my gift?”

Her voice was low, almost neutral, but Nevada was getting a bad feeling in her gut.

“They are concerned about the vagina. If it were something else, maybe—”

“Something else?” Cat’s voice was a roar. “They are daring to tell me what to create? They are interfering in my artistic process? Do they know who I am? Governments pay me millions of dollars for my work. Do you know how much the French are giving me for a piece? Work I have put off to create this, as a way to thank your town.”

“Maybe if they’re not appropriately grateful you should rethink doing it.”

“Never.” Cat stalked away, then turned. “How dare they! I am an artist. They have no right to refuse. No right to complain. It’s a gift. You don’t get to say what the gift is going to be. My piece will put this little town on the map. They should beg me to give it to them.”

Her voice rose with each word until she was shouting. Nevada wasn’t enjoying herself, but she wasn’t actually nervous until Cat picked up the blowtorch and lit it.

“Okay, then,” she said, hurrying to the door. “You think about it and we’ll talk again later.”

She scurried outside and hunched over when Cat screamed. The sound was still echoing in Nevada’s ears as she jumped in her truck and sped away.



“LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE,” Tucker told Nevada. “At least now you don’t have to worry about her wanting to date you.”

“Shut up.”

Nevada wished they were somewhere private so she could punch him really hard in the stomach. She knew how — she had brothers. But on the job site, with their crew around and the blasting team putting the final touches on their work, it didn’t seem like the right time.

The good news was that watching the explosion and the subsequent crumbling of earth would probably make her feel better.

“Want me to talk to her?” he offered.

“Cat will probably attack you with a flamethrower. Which right now doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”

Tucker grinned at her. “Don’t be afraid. You could take her.”

“She has tools and a vicious will. You should have heard her. She thought the town was ungrateful. If only that were enough to make her change her mind.”

Nevada watched her men get into position. “I need to go.”

“You’ll feel better after the explosion.”

“I hope so.”

Blasting earth was a complex proposition. There were dozens of safeguards in place. Now she did a final check on her part of the operation, then settled in to watch the show.

“Um, boss?”

She turned and saw Jerry walking toward her, Cat by his side.

“You have a visitor,” Jerry said, stating the obvious.

Nevada held in a groan. “What are you doing here?” she asked Cat. “Never mind. We have to move back. We’re doing blasting.”

She led the other woman back toward the trailer and got her a hard hat. Once it was in place, Nevada put her hands on her hips.

“Why are you here?” she repeated.

Cat stared at her, wide-eyed. Her full mouth trembled at the corners. “I knew it. You’re angry with me.”

“Not exactly.”

Tears filled Cat’s eyes. “I was so hurt by what you said. It was as if you stabbed me in the heart and then crushed my soul. The very essence of my being. What you asked me to do, how you want me to change… I thought you knew m-me.” Her voice trembled on the last word, as if she were holding in a sob.

Nevada swore under her breath. She moved away from the trailer, motioning for Cat to keep up with her.

“I wasn’t trying to crush your soul.”

“How could you have said those things to me?”

“Telling you Fool’s Gold doesn’t want a giant vagina in the center of town is the truth.”

“But it’s my gift. It’s who I am.”

“Transcendent?”

The corners of Cat’s mouth turned up. Nevada might not be into the girl thing, but she had to admit that Cat defined beauty.

“Yes,” Cat whispered. “I want to give this to them because it’s like giving it to you. Every time you see it, you’ll think of me.”

“You got that right.”

Crap and double crap, Nevada thought. Someone called out the one-minute warning. She grabbed Cat and moved her farther back.

“I already have a vagina,” Nevada said, unable to believe they were having this conversation. “Can you do something else?”

Cat shook her head.

Nevada sighed. “This isn’t about you. I understand that you’re giving us a gift, but don’t you care that we don’t want it?”

“You don’t understand. When you see it completely, you’ll be grateful. Everyone will be.”

“No, we won’t. We’ll be horrified. Can’t it be something else? A circle? The shape of a woman?”

Cat laughed. “Don’t be silly. Of course it can’t be something else. This is what I have to do. It’s out of my control.”

“Technically, it’s not. You’re the one building it. You’re the one who—”

Then she was flying through the air.

She’d been partially aware of some kind of countdown, but she hadn’t been paying attention. Who could notice anything else with Cat being her usual crazy self? That meant she wasn’t paying as close attention as she should have been and didn’t bother making sure they were back far enough.

One second she’d been talking, the next she was airborne, although not for long. The ground came up very quickly and turned out to be much harder than it looked. She slammed into it with a force that knocked the wind out of her.

For that heartbeat there was nothing, then she gasped for air, choking as she inhaled. Every part of her hurt. Her ears rang and her head seemed to be spinning.

“Someone has a lot of explaining to do,” she muttered, cautiously sitting up.

She moved her legs, pleased that nothing seemed injured. She drew in more breaths and found her head clearing.

Cat!

She saw her friend was also sitting, looking stunned. Thunder shook the earth. They both turned and watched part of the mountain fall away. A huge cloud of dust rose toward the sky.

“Are you all right?” Nevada asked.

Cat nodded.

“I should have been paying more attention,” Nevada said, thinking she should also be standing, but it seemed too difficult.

“I’m fine.” Cat crawled toward her. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Just shaken.” She laughed. “Like a James Bond martini.”

Cat grinned.

Nevada heard shouts from behind them. Great. Someone had noticed them flying by and was about to make a fuss.

“I’m not going to the hospital,” she muttered.

Cat moved closer and put her hands on Nevada’s shoulders. “You’ll be okay,” she said, then lowered her head and kissed her.

Nevada knew she might have some kind of post-explosion trauma thing going on, but she could still recognize a kiss when it happened. Warm, soft lips settled against hers. That’s what she noticed first. Soft, not firm. Gentle. Cat’s perfume surrounded her and those powerful artist’s hands gripped her shoulders.

Nevada sat frozen, not sure what to do. Pushing away seemed the best option, but she didn’t want to be mean about it. Nor could she figure out exactly where to push without giving Cat the wrong idea.

Before she’d worked out a plan, she heard someone yell.

“Gold!” a man’s voice cried. “Can you see the gold?”

Cat drew back. Nevada shifted away and told herself this would be an excellent time to stand up and run. Before she could, Tucker, Will and several of the guys surrounded them. She could hear someone yelling for the paramedics. Tucker knelt beside her and shook her slightly.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded, sounding furious. “You could have been killed.”

He looked pissed and worried and somehow, in a twisted, girly kind of way, that made her feel ever so much better.

“I wasn’t,” she pointed out.