Full Tilt (Full Tilt #1)(84)

“Speaking of nerves, heard anything more from Mr. Chihuly?”

“Unfortunately not. But to my mind, it means he’s still aiming to see the exhibit on opening night. I count no news as good news.”

“So do I.”

She led me to the gallery, a small, L-shaped space, explaining how my glass would be exhibited. The long wing would hold the individual pieces for sale, and the installation would be in the shorter wing.

Scaffolding had already gone up in the short wing, and a team of two men and a woman were carefully bringing in boxes from an adjoining storage room. Each box was marked with numbers and their generalized location in the installation.

Eme introduced me to Wilson, the team leader. I guessed he was in his fifties, a huge guy built like a barrel who looked like he’d break more glass than not.

He must’ve read my thoughts because he bellowed a laugh as he shook my hand, saying, “I’m on loan from a glass studio in Los Angeles. I know I look like a lumberjack but I won’t break nothing.”

“I trust you,” I said. Not that I had a choice. Nerves were firing off little tingles in my hands and feet, making them numb.

This is it. This is really happening.

“My assistant should be here any minute,” I said. “Let me give her a call to see where she’s at.”

“She’s here,” Tania cried, rushing in. “I’m so sorry. Accident on the boulevard. Bad one too. Snarled up everything.”

She was introduced to the team and then all eyes turned to me.

“Ready?” Tania said.

I took a huge breath. “Let’s do this.”





We called it quits around four o’clock. The other workers cleared out, and Tania and I both sank onto a bench, surveying the work so far.

“It’s going to be brilliant,” she said. “Look at that. Not even a third assembled and it’s already breathtaking. You did it.”

“We did it. This didn’t happen without you.”

I stared up at my glass, at the yellow coils and blue ribbons that had been wired together and suspended from the ceiling so far. “Do you think Kacey will love it?”

“Honey, Kacey’s going to lose her mind over it.” She laid an arm across my shoulders. “And if you don’t mind me saying, I’m so glad she’s here to share this with you. That you have her to share it with.”

“Me, too,” I said. All day, through the mental and physical intricacies of setting up the glass, my thoughts had never been far from Kacey. She was with me all the time. A hundred times I stopped work to look over my shoulder, sure she was there watching.

I missed her.

Tania gave my shirt a tug. “Want to head out? Grab an early dinner?”

“I’m not hungry,” I said. “I have to get to A-1 soon anyway.”

“Shit, you should quit. In a week, you’re going to be famous.”

I rolled my shoulders. “I don’t know about that.”

“I do know about that. Have you seen Eme’s roster of guests?” She whistled low in her teeth. “Even without Chihuly it’s going to be a golden crowd, and all here to see you.” She rose from the bench and stretched her back. “Maybe you should take the night off. Take Kacey out somewhere and celebrate.”

“Good idea. I might do that.”

She ruffled my hair. “Or maybe you should take the night off and just get some sleep. You look like you need it.”

After she left, I sat for a few moments more, looking around the room.

This is happening.

I stood up. Or tried to. My breath caught hard in my lungs, then disappeared without me even exhaling. I tried to draw in another and couldn’t get it past my throat, as if I had a steel band wrapped around my chest.

Oh shit…

I sat back down, sucking in shallow huffs of air.

Easy. Nice and easy, I told myself, even as my heart clanged in my chest. My gaze darted around for a stray worker locking up or the janitor. I reached for my phone to call 911…

No! It’s not that bad. It’s not…

Gradually the band around my ribs loosened. Finally, it fell away and I could inhale to the bottom of my stomach.

Fatigue. I’d been working my ass off. That was all.

I nodded, rose carefully from the bench and left the gallery. My stride was sure, my breathing deep and regular. But every nerve ending cried out for Kacey. I needed her. Every inhale and exhale marked the seconds that passed without her, and I felt them slipping through my fingers like sand.





I took some of Tania’s advice and called in sick to A-1. My first time doing so in the five months I worked there. Harry was pissed it was such short notice, and I wondered why that didn’t bother me more, to leave him in a bind.

Because Kacey is more important than driving up and down the Strip all night.

I had an almost desperate need to see her. I rubbed my palms on the thighs of my jeans as if I were a junky jonesing for a fix. I called her and though she had to work too, she managed to squeeze out of it.

I took my beautiful girlfriend to a fancy restaurant at Mandalay Bay, which overlooked the glittering Strip. She was more radiant than all of the lights beyond the windows, and she teased me for staring more than once.

The food was delicious and what I needed after a long, emotionally and physically-draining day. By the time we left the restaurant, my need to be with Kacey had morphed into a fierce desire to have her alone. We’d planned to catch another fountain show at the Bellagio, but while we waited for the check, I slid even closer to her in our booth.