Page 4 of Rescuing His Kitten
The sound of a branch snapping from overhead has me spinning around and looking up. That’s when I see it: two furry white ears poking out from behind a tree.
“What the—” Before I have a chance to finish my sentence, the ears come out a little more, and I see they are attached to a woman.
I blink a few times to make sure that what I’m seeing is real. A woman wearing cat ears is stuck in a tree.
“Hello,” the woman says, looking sheepish. She starts to wave, but then she teeters and has to grab on to the tree again to keep from falling.
I curse under my breath as I rush over in case I have to catch her. “Be careful.”
“I bet you’re wondering how I got up here,” she says, her voice shaking a little. Is she scared?
“I have to think it’s got to be a pretty good story,” I tell her. I keep my voice even and calm so she doesn’t panic. “But why don’t you come down and tell me.”
“That’s a great idea.” She hesitates. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an option.”
“Are you stuck?”
“I think it appears that way,” she says, looking at the surrounding branches.
She’s not that far off the ground, and there are several large branches she could use to climb down on. I have no idea how she got up there, but I remember climbing trees with my brother when I was a kid. And I remember getting stuck in them a time or two because I climbed too high and was terrified once I got up there.
“What’s your name?” I ask, trying to keep her calm.
“Bellarose.”
“Okay, Bellarose,” I tell her as I start to roll up my sleeves. “If you can’t come down, then I’ll come up there and get you.”
“Wait, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“I think the good idea train left the station when you decided to climb the tree.” I look up at her, but she’s too far away for me to see her expression.
“True,” she says, sighing heavily. “But to be fair, I was lost in the woods, and I thought if I could get to higher ground, I could find my way.”
“I think the signs might have worked better.” I point my thumb over my shoulder to the bright orange posts with large letters and arrows showing where everything is.
“Oh,” she says, as if seeing them for the first time. “I suppose you’re right.”
I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from chuckling. Who the hell is this woman?
