Free Love on the Air by Sierra Donovan

pretty well."
    She folded her arms. "Always a method to your
madness, isn't there?"
    "Usually." He didn't bother to hide a smile. "You'd
have to do the morning news, too. And that two-hour air shift from two to four in the afternoon, between
Yvonne's and mine. It's a weird schedule, but it all
adds up to about eight hours, if you do it right. And
your day starts at about 5:30 A.M., so I'll want you to
do it right. Which means no volunteering for Yvonne
while you're doing this. You get some rest between
the morning news and your afternoon shift. Can you
do that?" He seemed to realize she hadn't said yes yet.
"And are you interested?"

    A week in the studio with Rick. It appealed to her
for more than just professional reasons, and that was
the problem. Christie thought for a moment, but there
was really nothing to think about. Any new challenge
was a vote of confidence, and she'd be a fool to turn
it down. Especially a chance to be on the air in broad
daylight.
    So she said what she should have said in the first
place. "Sure."
    "You'll have to put up with McKeon on the
morning shift. Let me know if he gives you too much
trouble." The matter settled, Rick started shelving CDs
again. "Of course, I hear that afternoon drive guy's
even worse."
    Two days later, Rick drummed out a song intro on
the black countertop. Christie entered the studio with
her clipboard of news stories and took her place across
the counter from him. As she checked over the papers
in front of her, she started singing along with the
music, without any apparent break in her concentration. That didn't surprise Rick at this point; she seemed to know the words to everything. The girl
must breathe music.

    A few days ago, she never would have started singing in front of him so easily. Rick was tempted to tease
her, but he didn't.
    Christie jotted a change on her news copy and
glanced up, breaking off the song for the first time.
"You get more upbeat songs on this shift."
    "It's called day-parting. Wouldn't want to keep your
overnight audience awake."
    She fixed him with a mock glare, and he grinned at
her. He was going to miss her when she went back to
her regular schedule. He'd been putting Christie on the
air with him for more and more of his breaks as the
week wore on, rather than just when they were going
into the news. It was fun, and it added to the show.
He and Jonathan worked together smoothly, but it
wasn't like this.
    "Rick?" He inclined his head, prompting her to go
on. "Would you mind if I slipped out a little early
tonight, after the last newscast?"
    That was as late as he officially needed her to stay,
anyway. He could spare her for the last half hour.
"Sure." Rick picked up the log to sign off on the previous hour. He kept his eyes on the page as he
scrawled his initials. "Date?" he asked her. He made
the single syllable as casual as he could.
    "A movie with Yvonne. It starts at seven." There
was a pause. In an equally casual tone, she added,
"You?"
    Rick looked up from the log sheet. Christie's eyes
were back on her news stories, checking over what she'd already checked over. Her eyelashes were lowered in studied nonchalance, but she was biting her
lower lip, an enticing little habit that she probably
didn't know drove him crazy. Right there, on the
lower left corner. As if she were nibbling an appetizer
Rick would love to sample himself.

    "Oh," he said, "you mean, do I have plans tonight?
Yes."
    She looked up, and Rick caught a flicker in her eyes.
Gotcha.
    He squinted up at the ceiling. "Let's see, tonight it's
... Budget Gourmet. Frozen beef medallions with
mushrooms."
    She smiled, and her posture relaxed ever so slightly.
"I see. Does the veal parmigiana know about the beef
medallions?"
    They both laughed.
    "Want to use that, next break?" Christie asked.
    "Sure." Rick had laid out two basic ground rules for
their on-air banter. One, he was never referred to as
the boss, he was just