Operation Date Escape

settled onto the sofa.
    “At least she wouldn’t have to push you to go out and meet Mr. Right. You’re a dating machine.”
    “I’m not that bad.”
    She gave her friend the ‘yeah, right’ look.
    “Okay, so I like to date. Speaking of which, I’m so glad you agreed to give Cole a chance.”
    “I only agreed to go out with him to get my heels back.” Kelsie lifted her leg, wiggling a heel-clad foot. “As you told Cole, these are my favorite.”
    “Who are you trying to kid? You know you want to go out with the guy. It just took a little convincing.”
    “ Don’t you mean blackmail?”
    Nanci nodded with a grin. “My kind of guy.”
    “Then maybe you should go out with him.”
    “Can’t. I’m going out with his friend, Joe. You remember him. He’s the one with the really big-”
    “I’m not listening,” Kelsie said, slapping her hands over her ears. “I’ve had enough sex talk for one night.”
    Nanci leaned over and tugged her hands away from her ears. “Big truck . You know, the one Cole rescued you with tonight. You really need to get your mind out of the gutter.”
    Kelsie snorted. “My mind? I’m not the one who wishes she could date a statue because he’d be hard all the time.”
    “ Hmm...maybe I should start a male statue collection.”
    “I think you’d need to get a bigger place.”
    “So much for that idea,” Nanci said, reaching for her wine glass. Raising her other hand, she hit play on the remote.
    “What are we watching?”
    “My favorite - Romancing the Stone.”
    Kelsie couldn’t contain her groan. They had only watched that movie a few dozen times over the years. She could probably recite every line by heart. “Only if you promise not to keep replaying the scene where Michael Douglas slides down the hill into the water and lands headfirst between Kathleen Turner’s legs.”
    “You’re killing me here,” her friend said with a pout. “You know that’s my favorite part.”
    “Your fantasy you mean.”
    Nanci hid her smile behind her wine glass as she brought it to her lips. “Okay, I admit you wouldn’t hear me complaining if some sexy movie star ended up with his face wedged between my legs.”
    “The poor guy would have drowned if it had been you instead of Kathleen Turner. You’d have put him in a leg lock to keep him there.”
    She sat back as the movie started. “What better place for a man to be than between our legs, seeing to our needs.”
    Kelsie choked on the handful of popcorn she’d just stuffed into her mouth.
    “You okay?”
    She nodded, waving away her friend’s concern. “I’m fine.”
    But nearly choking had Kelsie thinking about the first time Cole had come to her rescue at Casey’s Bar and Grill. The way his hands felt smoothing over her back. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t fine. She was thinking way too much about Cole Maxwell, his kisses, and just how hot the sex promised to be between them if she could get past her fears and give him a chance.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    The big screen TV wasn’t the only form of entertainment that morning at the firehouse. Most of the excitement centered around the tree rescue Cole had performed the night before and one feisty little redhead the other men were still determined to refer to as ‘Cupcake’.
    To make matters worse, he and Kelsie had made the front page of the local paper. The picture was one of him bringing her down from the tree in the bucket. Unfortunately for her, the reporter managed to get a clear shot of her face so everyone who got the paper in Worthington would know she was the woman he’d rescued from the tree behind the soon-to-be-defunct strip club.
    It was amazing the firehouse’s copy of that morning’s paper had any ink left on it, considering how many times the men had passed it around.
    “I had no idea that Cupcake was a stripper,” Stubby said as he tossed the newspaper aside and reached for the remote control of his miniature fire truck. It was one of twelve that lined the far wall next to the big screen. They were toys for overgrown boys, providing the men there with both entertainment and a bit of sport, a playful distraction from the harsh realities of their job.
    “Kelsie’s not a stripper.”
    “A peeping Tom?” Joe teased as he eased back in his recliner.
    Cole frowned in irritation. “No, she’s not a peeping Tom either.”
    “So she just has a thing for shimmying up and down tree branches?” the Lieutenant threw in with a hearty chuckle.
    Ha. Ha.