Operation Date Escape

intend to make you pay for stressing me out. If I get grey hair prematurely I’m blaming it on you.”
    “I’ll pay for the dye job,” she told her with a smile. She was feeling better already.
    “ Before you ask, because I know you will, I didn’t tell anyone where you are. I did, however, tell them I was going to see you.”
    “Nanci,” she groaned.
    “I had to , or else they’d be worried about me, too. Joe’s got enough to worry about with Cole.”
    Kelsie bit her lip to keep from asking, but the need to know won out. “How is he?”
    “Let’s see, the last time he called me...”
    “Cole called you?”
    “M ultiple times. He’s convinced I’m hiding you somewhere. What the hell happened between you two? Everything seemed great at the picnic.”
    “It was ,” she said with a sigh.
    “ So how do you go from perfect to leaving town?” Nanci asked.
    Kelsie walked over to the window, looking out over the lake. “ I panicked,” she admitted, her voice catching. “The next thing I knew I was running.”
    “ I pieced some of that together from Cole’s phone calls. What’s going on with you? What was so bad that you felt the need to leave town without a word to anyone?”
    She turned to face her friend. “Cole and I made love again.”
    “Gee, that would make me run, too.”
    “Do you want to hear this or not?” she said with a frown.
    “Sorry. Go on.”
    “That night with Cole was... Well, it was the hottest sex I’ve ever had in my life.”
    “And that’s a bad thing?”
    “No, it was incredible.”
    “So let me get this straight. Sex with Cole was so good it sent you running out of town? Glad I’ve never had sex that good.”
    “It had nothing to do with the sex,” she explained, her frustrating growing.
    “Then why?”
    “I panicked because Cole told me he thought he was falling in love with me.”
    Nanci’s eyes widened. “No shit!”
    She nodded.
    “ Oh my God. I can’t believe you. You have this incredibly gorgeous man, one who according to you is fantastic in bed, tell you he thinks he’s falling in love with you and what do you do? You leave him standing in your dust.”
    “I admit I could’ve handled the situation better than I did,” Kelsie said as she s tepped out onto the balcony, wine glass in hand.
    Nanci followed her outside. “Maybe you should think about getting some sort of counseling. I mean if─”
    “ He said he thinks,” she said, cutting her friend off.
    “What?”
    “Cole thinks he’s falling for me. That’s not the same as being in love with me.”
    “For a man it is.”
    “And what if I’m right?” she asked, sipping at her wine. “What if Cole thinks he’s fallen for me? Then after a few years of us being together he suddenly realizes he’d thought wrong?”
    “ He’s not Kyle.”
    “I know that.”
    “Then what’s the problem?”
    “I never felt for Kyle the way I feel for Cole. I thought I knew what love was before. What if I’m wrong again and I’m not really in love with Cole?”
    “You’ve hardly given Cole a chance to...” Nanci choked on her wine. “Hold on. Back up! What did you just say?”
    Kelsie turned to her, leaning back against the railing. “I said I never felt the−”
    “Not that part,” her friend said, cutting her off. “The last part.”
    She had to think for a moment of what it was she’d said. Then it sank in. Granted she’d thought about her feelings for Cole more than once since running out on him, but having spoken the words aloud made them real. “I’m in love with Cole,” she said, feeling a bit dazed. She looked to her friend. “I love him. Oh, shit.”
    “ Oh shit? Love is supposed to be a good thing. Not an ‘oh shit’ thing.”
    When it was something as huge as this was it was definitely an ‘oh, shit’ moment. “What have I done?”
    “ I can tell you what you didn’t do. And that’s tell Cole you were in love with him when he opened up to you about his feelings? Am I right?”
    “I didn’t really know how deep my feelings were for him until...” She groaned. “I’m in love with Cole.”
    “This is sooo great!” Nanci exclaimed. “I thought I’d never hear you say those words. And it couldn’t be with a better guy. Cole’s perfect for you. And patient. A huge requirement for a guy you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. Just remember when we go to pick out bridesmaid dresses that I look like hell in blues and yellows. Any other