Operation Date Escape

above him.
    His gaze moved slowly upward and stopped. Sure enough, even in the settling darkness, there was no missing th e flame-colored hair catching in the evening breeze. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
    “Kelsie?”
    After a very long pause, she finally replied in a defeated sigh, “Yeah.”
    She didn’t appear to be injured. Despite knowing that, he couldn’t keep the concern from his voice. “Are you alright?”
    “Just perfect.”
    The sarcasm in her tone calmed him enough to have him fighting a grin. “Great. Let’s see what we can do about getting you down.”
    Joe craned his neck to look up. “So that’s your Little Cupcake, huh?”
    Nanci brought a hand to her mouth, muffling her laughter, clearly amused by Cole’s soon-to-be ex-best friend .
    Snickers and snorts erupted from the rest of his crew. Thanks to that big mouth from Station 24, they all knew this was the woman he’d been kissing in the emergency room.
    Cole turned to them, one lone dark brow raised in warning. “Not one word. In case you’ve all forgotten, we’ve got a job to do.” Hell, someone had to maintain a level of professionalism at this call.
    The Lieutenant clasped a firm hand on Cole’s shoulder and said with a grin, “She’s all yours, oh, knight in shining armor.”
    And to think he’d given up Joe’s chili, hot off the stove, for this. He stepped closer to the tree and called out to Kelsie again.
    “Yeah?”
    “Just hold on.”
    “You can count on it.”
    Sort of like how he could count on her being in some sort of predicament every time they crossed paths. People began to gather around to see what all the excitement was about.
    T o make matters worse, a news truck pulled up behind the parked emergency vehicles.
    Damn.
    “Clear the area,” he instructed his unit, then turned his attention back to Kelsie. “Can you climb down?” he asked, experience prompting the question.
    Some people had a tendency to panic at the thought of being brought down by someone else and end ed up coming down on their own.
    The leaves on the branch Kelsie clung to shuddered as she shifted to peer down at him from over the branch. The look she gave him was nothing short of glaring. “If I could, would I be hanging here in complete humiliation?”
    “Boy, someone ’s a little cranky this evening,” Joe muttered.
    Cole gave him a firm jab in the ribs with his elbow.
    “Oh, don’t mind her,” Nanci said, flashing Joe the same flirtatious smile she’d used on Cole that night at Casey’s. Joe had better watch out. “She gets that way once in a while. It’s the red hair.”
    “Can we leave my hair out of this and get me down from here?” Kelsie demanded impatiently, obviously having grown tired of her perch.
    “Hang on,” he calmly instructed. “We’ll have you down before you know it.”
    Joe nodded. “I’ll get the truck, but you’re going up after her. I think she bites.”
    “I heard that!” Kelsie exclaimed, but Joe was already on his way across the yard to get the ladder truck, laughing as he went.
    Cole’s gaze shifted back to the China doll dangling above him. It was hard to remain professional and keep the grin from his face. Rescuing Kelsie from sticky situations seemed to be becoming a habit with him.
    His friend eased the ladder truck up to the rear of the building until it was close enough to the sprawling tree for the bucket to access the branch Kelsie had somehow gotten herself stranded on.
    He signaled for Joe to stop and then climbed up onto the truck, making his way into the bucket at the end off the ladder. Reaching for the control panel, he called out to Kelsie, “I’m on my way. Don’t let go until I tell you to.”
    “Even if I did, this tree has other plans for me,” she told him as he drew near. “My shirt is caught on the branch above me.”
    He raised the bucket, moving in her direction as quickly as he could. There was no telling how long she had been up there and he didn’t want to risk exhaustion causing her to lose her grasp.
    The first thing that greeted him was her shapely, jean-clad backside. Okay, so occasionally the job did have its perks. Grinning, he raised the bucket just a little higher. Sure enough, the lace shirt she wore was pulled taut by several branch tips that had worked their way in through the sheer material.
    “Hooked you good,” he said as he reached out to un-snare her.
    “Tell me about it. ”
    “Just give me a sec and I’ll have you