Operation Date Escape

and offered him a quivering smile. “I really hope you find the happiness you deserve. I’ll never forget you.” She turned and walked away, taking his heart with her.
    Cole closed his eyes, listening to the sound of her high-heeled sandals clicking on the sidewalk as she moved further away. She was walking out of his life again, this time for good, but not because she’d wanted to. This time he’d made the decision for her.
    He opened his eyes once more, unable to take his eyes off her departing form. Her slender shoulders shuddered as she sobbed quietly. Tears he’d caused.
    Damn.
    What was he doing? He was a ‘good apple’ and ‘good apples’ didn’t let the woman they loved walk out of their life. He took a step forward, calling out to her, “You can still change things, you know.”
    She stopped and turned to him, her cheeks damp with tears. “W...what?”
    He started toward her with renewed determination. “I said you can change things.”
    “How?”
    “You can stop running away and give real love a chance,” he told her as he reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek.
    She nodded . “I’m done running, Cole. I swear. And if it’ll make you happy, I’ll turn down the offer on my book. All I want is to spend the rest of my life proving to you just how much I love you.”
    “I don’t want you to turn the offer down.” He drew her into his arms. “But you should have told me about the book.”
    “I know that now.”
    “Another thing you should know is that I’m not about to let the only woman I’ve ever loved escape from my life again. If I have to, I’ll write my own book on how to get a beautiful, green eyed China doll to the altar and keep her there until the preacher pronounces them husband and wife.”
    She gasped. “Cole...”
    “Yes?” he said with a grin.
    “Are you proposing?”
    Her question was followed up by eleven very male voices hollering at him in unison from the two open firehouse windows above, “Get down on your knees!”
    He laughed and nodded toward the faces pressed against the window screens. “I believe you’ve already met my family.”
    She laughed softly and then gasped, her hand flying to her mouth, as he dropped down onto one knee in front of her.
    He looked up into her eyes, the tenderness she remembered so well back in his. “Kelsie Collins, you make me crazy.”
    “I know,” she said with a soft sniffle.
    “ But it’s the kind of crazy I can’t seem to live without.” He reached for her hand. “I have the ‘perfect’ solution for all those bad dates you’ve been going out on. A surefire way to never have to suffer through one ever again.”
    “And that would be?” she asked with a smile.
    “Marry me, Cupcake.”
    “Cole, b e serious,” she pleaded.
    “I ’ve never been more serious. I love you, Kelsie Collins. I want you in my life. To make me crazy. To make me smile. To keep me on my toes.”
    “And on his back!” Joe hollered.
    “That, too,” Cole agreed with a grin. “Say you’ll marry me.”
    “Marry him!” His crew bellowed from above.
    “ I’d love nothing more,” she said, her words taut with emotion. “Yes, Cole, I’ll marry you.”
    He stood and pulled her into his arms. “I love you, doll.” He brushed his lips over hers lightly a first and then cupping the back of her head he deepened the kiss.
    When the kiss finally ended, she looked up at him. “You know, Cole, for a ‘good apple’ you really know how to kiss.”
    He gave a husky chuckle and then bent to whisper against her ear, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
    “ What’d she say?” Stubby called down amidst the hoots and hollers of the other men.
    Cole looked up at them with a wide grin, “Would I be kissing her if she ’d said no?”
    “I don’t know, Cole,” Joe said. “With a girl that looks like that I think I’d be kissing her whether she agreed to marry me or not.”
    “Back off, Joe,” he warned playfully. “You’ve already got a girl.”
    “Hey, Kelsie, ” Nate chimed in. “Forget about Cole. I’m a much better catch.”
    “Sorry, Nate, ” she told him with a smile. “It seems I’m officially off the market now.”
    “You sure?”
    She nodded happily. “Absolutely. I’ve finally found the ‘perfect’ man for me.”
    “Some guys have all the luck ,” he muttered.
    “Don’t we though,” Cole said as he drew his beautiful fiancée to him again for another kiss, one that promised a lifetime filled with