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“Are you kidding?” Spreading her arms, Cat lounged back into the incredibly soft leather of the bucket seat. “Lead on, Madame. I’m yours for the evening.”

“Geez,” Cat remarked, stepping out of the car and eyeing the grounds of Dylan’s estate, “this place have its own zip code?”

“Ha, ha,” was Dylan’s droll reply as she walked toward the door and inserted her key. Opening the door, she is almost bowled over by two very large, very

feisty dogs, who stopped briefly to greet her, then pelted outside to snarl at the intruder to their domain.

“Halt!” Dylan yelled, freezing both dogs in their tracks before Cat had the chance to either scream or keel over. “You’d better both be sitting by the time I

turn around, or I’m going to have a nice pair of matching furs to hang over the fireplace.”

Brunhilde and Siegfried sat immediately. Siegfried look chagrinned. Brunhilde just looked pissed.

Turning, Dylan walked in between her two dogs, laying a hand on each of their huge heads. “This, my dears, is Cat. She is a friend. Understand?”

Brunhilde gave a soft chuff, not entirely convinced. Siegfried promptly rolled over onto his back in an invite for a belly rub.

Cat broke into laughter, completely charmed by the goofball’s antics.

Brunhilde growled.

“Brunhilde!”

Bending at the waist, Dylan stared into Brunhilde’s intelligent eyes. The dog’s eyes shifted away, then back again.

“Jealousy doesn’t become you. Deal with it.”

Brunhilde growled again, softly.

“I mean it.”

After a long moment, Brunhilde gave an almost human sigh, and dropped gracefully down to her belly, resting her head on her paws.

“Good girl.” Dylan looked up to see Cat’s concerned gaze. Her expression softened. “Don’t worry. She won’t hurt you.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Cat replied, looking at Brunhilde, and her mistress, in turn.

Dylan’s eyebrow rose.

Cat blushed. “I…um…I don’t want to come between you, that’s all. It’s obvious you mean everything to her.”

“And she means everything to me.” This was said with a truly loving look toward the ‘she’ in question. A look that was returned with equal emotion. “She’ll

be alright.”

Siegfried whined, still waiting for his belly rub.

Cat looked at Dylan, a question in her eyes.

“Go ahead,” Dylan said, laughing. “He won’t shut up until you do.”

Cat approached the dog slowly, squatted down, and began to rub his warm, soft belly, to his extreme delight and appreciative groans.

A moment later, she was almost launched into orbit by the feel of a large, wet, and very cold nose pressing on the inside of her free arm. Brunhilde’s

slightly grudging, slightly beseeching gaze caused the laughter to well up again, and Cat gave into it, reaching up and scratching the large dog gently

behind the ears.

“Alright, you two. Enough with the hedonism. Inside.”

All thoughts of pleasure forgotten, the two dogs immediately rose to their feet and trotted into the house. Dylan and Cat followed close behind.

“Wow…” was all Cat could say as she entered the grand residence. Huge, airy and open, it was as if someone had stepped into her dreams and brought

them to life.

Dylan looked over her shoulder, smiling as she noticed Cat’s rapt wonder. “I’d give you the nickel tour, but we’re running late. Feel free to look around

while I scrounge up those damn papers. Be back in a minute.”

As Dylan jogged up the stairs, her faithful companions only a step behind, Cat took immediate advantage of the invitation and walked to the first thing that

caught her attention: a wall made entirely of glass, which looked out onto the back of the huge, sprawling grounds.

In the foreground, down a slight hill, sat a sparkling, and quite large, in-ground pool which gave the illusion it was being fed from the artfully created

waterfall set into the hill. At the base of the waterfall, Cat could see a good-sized Jacuzzi just waiting for some lucky person to immerse herself within its

warm, swirling waters.

Behind the pool, brightly lit against the darkening night, was a large, clay floored basketball court.

“So this is how the other half lives,” she said softly, her breath slightly fogging the glass in front of her. “Niiiice.”

Turning away from the window, Cat looked over the large living room. Dylan’s tastes apparently ran toward modern. Leather and chrome dominated the

huge, open structure. Tasteful, colorful, and no doubt frightfully expensive pieces of abstract art decorated the otherwise barren walls.

In one corner sat the mother of all entertainment centers. Cat got pleasant chills just looking at it. Part of her, the electronics geek that was all her father,

itched to dig in and play, to see just what all that sleek metal and glass and fabric was capable of.

Her fantasies were interrupted at the sound of Dylan’s quiet return. She turned, quite aware of the goofy look on her face. “Quite a place you’ve got here.”

Dylan shrugged. “It’ll do.” Then she smiled. “Glad you like it.”

“Like it? A girl could fall in love here, you know.”

Dylan’s eyes sparkled. “She could, could she?”

The change in the tenor of their banter finally penetrated Cat’s hazed mind, and she froze for a moment as the words replayed in her head. Then she

smiled. “Yes. She could.”

The two stared at one another, separated only by the silence of emotions a hair away from being revealed.

Dylan’s cell-phone shattered the intensity of the moment into a million shining fragments. “What?” she barked the second the phone was up to her ear.

“Testy, testy!” Manny’s voice was its usual annoyance. “You planning on getting those papers to me before Chanukah, sweetheart, or am I going to have to

send the nice Nike people to come down and collect them personally?”

“Call me sweetheart again, Manny, and I’ll break you like the slimy little twig you are.”

Cat’s eyes widened, not realizing that this passed for normal banter between the two.

“Ooooo, someone’s got a touch of the PMS, nu?”

“Cut it, Manny. I’m headed out the door now. I’ll be there in ten.”

“Ta, sweetheart.”

Growling, Dylan snapped the phone closed and shoved it back in its place.

“Everything okay?” Cat asked cautiously.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, Dylan forced herself to calm. She smiled. “Never better. Let’s get outta here before my head explodes. Brains are a bitch to

get out of leather.”

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ESPN’s annual coverage of the Children’s Cancer Initiative Pro-Am Three on Three tourney. I’m Bob

Haskell, here with my partner Jan Wainright in sunny California to cover what promises to be an interesting and fast-paced weekend of athletic

competition”

“You’re right about that, Bob. Especially after yesterday’s surprise announcement which shocked the sporting world and caused tickets, already going

briskly, to completely sell out in just a little over twenty minutes.”

“And that surprise, Jan ,is of course the announcement that Dylan Lambert, the Goddess of Women’s Professional Basketball, will be competing in this

year’s tournament.”

“It certainly surprised me, Bob.”

“I’m sure it did, Jan. Now, let’s get to the particulars. Basketball isn’t the only sport being played during this four day event.”

“You’re right, Bob. Some of the teams that are competing in the basketball arena are also going to be competing on an entirely different court. Made of