Black Hills

to you and me, Lil.” He brushed his thumb, lightly, over the inside of her wrist. “I thought about staying here tonight, talking you into bed.”
    “You couldn’t.”
    “We both know I could.” He tightened his grip on her hand until she looked at him. “Sooner or later, I will. But tonight, the timing’s off. Timing counts.”
    All her softer feelings hardened. “I’m not here for your convenience, Cooper.”
    “There’s nothing convenient about you, Lil.” His free hand snaked up, gripped the back of her neck. And his mouth, hot, desperate, familiar, captured hers.
    For the moment he held her, panic, excitement, need fought a short and vicious little war inside her.
    “There’s nothing convenient about that,” he muttered when he released her.
    He rose, took their empty bowls to the sink.
    “Lock up after me,” he ordered, and left her.

PART TWO
    HEAD
    The head is always the dupe of the heart.
    —LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

11
    March bit like a tiger, stalking from the north to spring in a killing leap over the hills and valleys. Snow and ice plunged out of the sky, cracking tree limbs with their weight, downing power lines, and turning roads into treachery.
    At the refuge, Lil and any of the staff or volunteers who could make it trudged, plowed, and shoveled while the relentless wind blew mountainous drifts into frigid ranges.
    The animals retired to their dens, wandering out when the mood struck them to watch the humans shiver and swear. Bundled to the eyeballs, Lil crossed paths with Tansy.
    “How’s our girl?” Lil asked, thinking of the lioness.
    “Weathering this better than I am. I want a hot, tropical beach. I want the smell of sea and sunscreen. I want a mai tai.”
    “Will you settle for hot coffee and a cookie?”
    “Sold.” As they plodded their way toward Lil’s cabin, Tansy gave her friend a sidelong look. “You don’t smell like sea and sunscreen.”
    “Neither would you if you’d been shoveling snow and shit.”
    “And we’re the smart girls,” Tansy commented. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
    “Even smart girls shovel shit. It should be a bumper sticker.” Lil stomped and scraped off snow, and felt her muscles quiver in response when the first shot of warmth inside the cabin hit her. “We got through the worst of it,” she said as she and Tansy stripped off gloves, hats, coats, scarves. “We’ll haul the dung over to the farm first chance. Nothing like shit for farming. And I’m going to insist this is the last ice storm of the season. Spring, with its flash flooding and acres of mud, can’t be far off.”
    “Joy.”
    Lil headed back to the kitchen to start coffee. “You’ve been Miss Cranky Scientist the last few days.”
    “I’m tired of winter.” Scowling, Tansy dug a tube of ChapStick out of her pocket and smeared it on.
    “I hear that. But I hear something else, too.” Lil opened a cupboard, pulled out her stash of Milano cookies, handed Tansy the bag. “And call me crazy, but I suspect the something else has a penis.”
    Tansy gave her a droll look, and took a cookie. “I know a lot of some-things with penises.”
    “Me too. They’re freaking everywhere.” Warm, and happy for a cookie break, Lil leaned back while the coffee brewed. “I have this theory. Want to hear it?”
    “I’m eating your cookies, so I guess I’m obligated to.”
    “Good. The penis is here to stay, so those of us without them must learn to appreciate, exploit, ignore, and/or utilize them, depending on our own needs and goals.”
    Tansy poked out her bottom lip as she nodded. “It’s a good theory.”
    “It is.” Lil got down mugs, poured the coffee for both of them. “As we’ve elected to work in what is still a male-dominated field, the ratio of us v. them may demand that we appreciate, exploit, ignore, and/or utilize more often than those of our species who have not elected to work in this field.”
    “Are you correlating hard data or will you conduct an empirical study?”
    “At this point, it’s still in the observation/speculation phase. However, I do have, on some authority, the identity of the penis which is, I believe, playing a part in making you Miss Cranky Scientist.”
    “Oh, really?” Tansy got a spoon and dumped three doses of sugar in her coffee. “Who would the authority be?”
    “My mom. She misses little. I’m informed that while I was away the spark quotient between you and a certain Farley Pucket increased.”
    “Farley’s