“Nevada and Cat are friends,” the mayor said. “Nevada has shown Cat around town.”
Nevada winced. So much for doing the right thing, she thought. It had come back to bite her for sure.
The mayor sighed. “I appreciate you defending Nevada. That speaks very well of you. At this point I don’t care who fixes this, I just want it fixed and I want it on the record that we’ve had this discussion. There will be no giant vagina in my town. Do you understand?”
Nevada and Tucker both nodded.
“Good. Now you may go.”
They stood and quickly left the room. Once in the hallway of city hall, Nevada leaned against the wall.
“If I weren’t in the middle of this, it would be really funny.”
“Tell me about it.” He leaned against the wall opposite. “Now what?”
“We talk to her and explain the town doesn’t want her gift.” She wanted to say Tucker should do it, but Cat hadn’t spent any time with him since arriving in Fool’s Gold. “I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure? I can try.”
“No. You’re the ex. There’s too much emotional baggage. She’s my friend.” Sort of.
“What are you going to say?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
NEVADA WENT TO THE GOLD RUSH Ski Lodge and Resort to look for Cat. The tiny, strange man who was her assistant said that Cat was working and gave Nevada the address of an industrial center on the edge of town. Nevada drove there.
The huge building had been subdivided into a dozen or so smaller light-industrial sites. The one at the end was nearly double in height. Thinking about how much room it would take to build a giant vagina, Nevada chose that one and knocked on the door.
No one answered. She rang the bell, then finally opened the door. She was met with a blast of music. Black Eyed Peas, she would guess.
Scaffolding filled the center of the huge room, just as it had back in L.A. when Nevada had first met Cat. It rose up to the nearly twenty-foot ceiling. Massive sheets of metal stood in a rack, and she could see the basic structure of the piece had already been started. Poles were strapped together to form a giant V. A pulley system would raise the metal up to the level of the poles.
Cat stood by a long table, cutting pieces of metal with wicked-looking shears. Heavy gloves protected her hands. Up against the wall was a sketch of what the piece would look like when it was done.
There were swirls and waves, intricate designs covering the feminine curves. If one could ignore the fact that it was a vagina, it was very beautiful.
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.