Operation Date Escape

free.”
    He maneuvered one branch tip at a time out of the lace, ignoring the chorus of ‘Someday my prince will come... ’ ringing out below him.
    Kelsie groaned. “Friends of yours?”
    “Yeah,” he admitted with a shake of his head. Freeing the last bit of lace, he straightened. “They appear to be bonding well with your friend.” Nanci had just joined in with the all-male chorus below.
    “ Yeah, well, she’s dead when I get down from here.”
    He glanced down at Joe and his Merry Men in blue. “I might very well be sitting in jail with you.” Turning his attention back to Kelsie, he asked with a grin, “You work here?”
    If looks could kill...
    He chuckled. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Let’s get you into the bucket here before the news crew figures out a way to get close enough to snap a picture of you.”
    “News?” she shrieked.
    He nodded. “Just pulled up.”
    “Oh, God. I think I’d rather you just leave me up in this tree.”
    He gave another husky chuckle. “I have no intention of leaving you up here. If you’re worried about the media, you can hide your face in my shirt when I take you down.”
    “Are you always this accommodating?”
    “It depends. Would that make me too perfect?”
    “ Sorry to tell you, but you’ve moved beyond perfect in my book,” she replied as he helped her into the bucket.
    “ Damn. I was afraid of that.” He kept a firm grip on her arm until she was safely inside. “Almost there.”
    She nodded shakily.
    The second he released her to stand on her own, her legs gave way beneath her. He caught her, bringing her up against him. “You okay?”
    She clung to him. “My legs are just a little weak from hanging on to that branch for so long. I’ll be fine.”
    Not willing to take any chances, he continued to hold her as he lowered the bucket. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you were doing up there in the first place.”

    Heat rushed to her cheeks. “I was sort of attempting to get out of”
    “A bad date?” he finished for her.
    She nodded.
    “Ever hear of leaving by the front door?”
    “I had my reasons for leaving the way I did.” Research for her book being one of them. Safely ditching her date another. But she wasn’t in the mood for explanations. Needless to say, this escape plan would not be going into her survival guide. That is, unless she added a chapter of date escape not-to-do’s. The only good thing to happen that night was that the floor show that had begun when she’d headed upstairs had kept her date too distracted to notice she hadn’t returned yet.
    “You know,” he said with a lone dimpled grin that made her legs weaker than they already were, “if you’re trying to get me to go out with you, all you have to do is ask.”
    “What?”
    “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble to get my attention.” He wriggled his dark brows playfully. “You’ve already got it.”
    Kelsie pushed him away. “I was not trying to get your attention.”
    “That so?”
    Legs still not cooperating, she was forced to grab for Cole’s shirt to steady herself again. “That’s so!”
    “Then I guess you dressed that way to impress your not-so-perfect date,” he said with grin. “Lucky guy.”
    She followed his gaze downward to discover two more of the buttons on her lace shirt had come undone, revealing more than an eyeful of flesh. With an embarrassed gasp, she pulled the gaping material together and fumbled to work the buttons back through their holes. But her trembling fingers refused to cooperate.
    “Here,” he said, pushing her hands away. He quickly re-buttoned her shirt and then drew her to him as the bucket settled onto the back of the truck. “Camera pointed our way,” he said in a tight whisper.
    Having no desire to have her face plastered on the front page of the paper, she clung to him, burying her face in the front of his uniform shirt.
    When he helped her out of the bucket and to the ground, he continued to block the news crews’ view as best he could. “Let’s get you over to the Medic truck.”
    “I’m fine,” she said, lifting her head to look at him.
    Cameras clicked around them as the determined news reporters went after their story.
    Kelsie groaned.
    “What’s done is done,” he whispered near her ear. “And I have a job to do. Seeing that you are checked out is part of it.” Giving her no time to refuse, he led her over to the awaiting Medic vehicle.
    Oddly enough, she found herself wanting