Operation Date Escape

haven’t talked to Nanci since our date.”
    “I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you two.”
    “Who said things didn’t work out?”
    “Since the two of you haven’t spoken, I just assumed−”
    “ Never assume,” Joe said with a grin. “It just so happens Nanci and I had a great time.”
    But his friend hadn’t called her since their date? “So what gives?” Cole asked, curiosity getting the better of him. “Why haven’t you called her?” The question was barely out before a possible reason for his friend’s actions came to mind. “Oh, hell, say you didn’t.”
    “Say I didn’t wha t?”
    “P ull a one night stand with the best friend of the girl I’m trying not-so-successfully to win over.”
    “No need to panic, pal.” His friend’s smile widened. “I have every intention of seeing Nanci again. Let’s just say I’m playing hard to get. Now, back to your date. What happened? Kelsie run out of the restaurant on you?”
    “No,” he replied, his jaw tightening. “Kelsie didn’t run out of the restaurant. I stopped her before she had the chance.”
    “So what gives? Why the long face?”
    He looked toward the window with a frown and muttered, “She ran out of my bed.”
    Joe straightened so fast coffee spilled out over the rim of his coffee cup. “ She what?”
    Cole turned and sank down onto his bed with a sigh. Damn. He hadn’t intended to bring that up. “Nothing.”
    His friend set his coffee cup on the desk then dragged out the chair, straddling it. His expression sobered. “What happened?”
    He sighed. “Long story short, Kelsie mentioned that she liked Mexican, so I surprised her with reservations at this little restaurant I know. Candlelit tables. Soft music. The works. And the food smelled great.”
    “Smelled great, tasted bad?”
    “I wouldn’t know. We left our dinners sitting in the restaurant parking lot.”
    Joe leaned back against the desk. “What was your dinner doing in the parking lot? And what does this have to do with Kelsie running out of your bed?”
    “We decided to take dinner back to my place. I set the carry out bag on the ground while I helped her up into my truck. I got a little sidetracked and ended up driving off without our carry-out bag,” he explained as he finished changing for his shift.
    “Obviously dinner wasn’t a high priority at that point.”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Skipped right to the dessert, huh.”
    He nodded. “You could say that.”
    Joe blew out a breath and shook his head. “She must be something special. I’ve know n you a hell of a long time and you’ve never taken a woman back to your place for dessert .”
    It wasn’t that he’d never taken a woman back to his house. He had. But when he took a woman to bed, it was to hers, not his. “The woman I take to my bed has to accept me for who I am.”
    “ And Kelsie does,” Joe concluded as he reached for his cup of coffee.
    “Yeah, she does,” he said, tucking in his shirt.
    “So, uh, you and her...”
    “Yeah.”
    Joe took a long swallow of coffee. “So this funk you’re in today is because the sex wasn’t all you two hoped it would be, and that’s why Kelsie left.”
    Cole zipped up his uniform pants and buckled his belt. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
    “If it was so great, why’d she run out on you?”
    “Because I asked her to s pend the night. Huge mistake. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”
    “You asked Kelsie to stay over?”
    He nodded his reply.
    Joe groaned. “What the hell were you thinking? You told me yourself that she’s leery of getting into a relationship again.”
    “She is.”
    “Well staying over constitutes a relationship in any woman’s book. No wonder she ran.”
    “Damn it, Joe, don’t you think I know that?” He grabbed his street clothes and carried them over to the closet.
    “You could have fooled me.”
    “I had no intention of rushing into things with Kelsie, but when we’re together things tend to heat up pretty fast. But it’s more than just sex,” he explained, reaching for a hanger.
    “Sounds serious.”
    “All I know is that I want to be with her. Even when she makes me crazy. I can’t stop thinking about that smile and those incredible green eyes of hers.”
    “S eems like you’ve fallen for your little escape artist in a big way.” Joe stood and pushed the chair back under the desk.
    “Not that it matters now.”
    He turned back to Cole. “What do you mean?”
    Cole hung