Operation Date Escape

where Cole might be.”
    Kelsie groaned. “You mean Joe’s on shift?”
    “Yeah, he is. Why?” Nanci asked as the phone reception worsened.
    “Because he and Cole always work the same rotation.” The crews worked a twenty-four hour shift and then had the next forty-eight hours off. “How could you not know that?”
    “Joe and I don’t exactly spend a lot of time discussing his work shifts if you know what I mean.”
    No doubt too busy having uninhibited sex if she knew her best friend. Kelsie groaned. “Damn it. I really don’t want to wait any longer to talk to Cole. Not when I finally gotten the nerve up to do it.”
    “Then go to the station.”
    “I don’t know,” she said with a frown. “It’s not the most private of places to have the discussion Cole and I need to have.”
    “Okay, ” Nanci replied. “Go ahead and wait until he’s off duty and give some other woman the chance to come into his life before then...”
    Nanci was right. She’d wasted enough precious time trying to get her head on straight. Cole was the kind of man a woman would snap up if given the chance , and she wasn’t prepared to take the risk. “I’m going.”
    “ Good. Now about the write up...” Nanci said but once again the phone went dead.
    Write up? Kelsie shrugged and shoved her cell back into her purse as she walked back to her car. She was going to set things right with Cole, even if it meant doing so in a less than private setting like the station.
    * * *
    Kelsie parked in the back parking lot of the fire station and sat there for several minutes, gathering up her nerve. Then, heart pounding in anticipation of seeing Cole again, she got out, locking her purse in the car. Shoving her keys into the back pocket of her jeans, she headed for the entrance.
    Stubby greeted her when she stepped into the firehouse. “Can I help you?”
    It wasn’t anywhere close to the warm reception she had received at the firehouse picnic. They must have heard what she’d done to their friend.
    “Is Cole around?” she asked with a lot less confidence than she’d felt driving over there.
    He hesitated, glancing toward the stairs.
    “Please, Stubby,” she begged, something she was not beyond doing at that point. “It’s really important that I talk to him.”
    She was well aware that the crew was like a second family for these firefighters. In having hurt Cole, she had hurt a part of their family. She was the bad guy in their eyes, or in her case woman, and for good reason. But she hoped to fix that as soon as she worked things out with Cole.
    “Just don’t play anymore games with him,” he warned with a frown. “He’s been hurt enough as it is already.”
    Hearing that tore her apart. “I’m not here to hurt him. I promise.”
    “Fine. Wait here while I go page him.”
    “Thank you.” She motioned toward the door she’d just come through. “I’ll wait for him outside if that’s all right.”
    He nodded. “Sure. I’ll let Cole know where you’ll be.”
    She watched him walk away, disappearing into the office. Did they all hate her? Even worse, did Cole? Tears stung her eyes as she turned and headed back outside to wait. At least , out there they’d have a bit more privacy to discuss their relationship. One she hoped still existed, even if that hope only now seemed to be a tiny flicker.
    She waited for him, her p alms growing damper with each passing minute. What if Cole didn’t come out? What if he sent someone else down in his place to send her away? If he refused to come out, she would go right back into the station and find him. She would make him understand that things had changed.
    But she didn’t have to go in after him. The firehouse door swung open and Cole stepped outside.
    The pounding in her heart intensified. She mouthed his name, but nothing came out as she stood staring at him.
    He moved toward her with a dark scowl, no warm smile to greet her this time. As much as it pained her to see him looking at her that way, she had every intention of erasing that frown with a heartfelt apology and her admission of love.
    “Hey,” she finally managed to say, her voice quivering.
    “What are you doing here?”
    And she thought Stubby’s welcome had been a cold one.
    She bit anxiously at her bottom lip. She’d never seen this side of Cole. Not that she hadn’t expected him to be upset with her for what she’d done, but this was beyond that.
    “I...” She sighed. “Can we