Operation Date Escape

choice. Cole frowned.
    Melinda Collins walked over to him. “I know I’m prying, but my daughter’s happiness means the world to me. I hope you don’t mind my asking.”
    First, the woman shows up with wedding cake samples for a wedding he’s not even aware he’s supposed to be a groom in. Then, she gets into the whole breast thing. And now she’s asking if he minds her asking about his personal life with Kelsie. Maybe she was a little on the crazy side.
    On second thought, she was Kelsie’s mother. And Kelsie didn’t exactly follow normal protocol when it came to doing things either. At least, now he knew Kelsie had come by that particular trait of hers honestly.
    “Our not seeing each other again wasn’t my decision,” he explained, feeling oddly guilty when he saw the look of disappointment on Melinda Collin’s face. Hell, he had no reason to feel guilty. He was the ‘rejectee’.
    “I understand,” she replied in a less spirited tone.
    He wished he did.
    Melinda Collins wasn’t the only one who was disappointed by Kelsie’s way of thinking. “I will tell you this much,” he said. “I’m not giving up on your daughter. I really think there’s something there if I can just get her to give us a chance.”
    Moisture shimmered in Kelsie’s mother’s eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”
    He glanced down at the tray of cake s sitting in front of him on the table and smiled. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”
    “I’ll admit it,” she said, laughing as she reached for the tray. “I’m desperate. My grandmother clock is ticking.” She pulled a business card from the pocket of her suit jacket and handed it to Cole. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just give me a call.” That said, she took her sampling of wedding cakes and walked out.
    He watched her go, shaking his head and grinning. Kelsie’s mother was a little on the crazy side, but he liked her. And better yet, she liked him. A good thing, considering how hard he’d fallen for her equally crazy but beautiful daughter.
    * * *
    “You can’t go on like this,” Nanci said as she stepped from her newly purchased Honda Accord.
    “Go on like what?” Kelsie asked as she let herself out of the passenger’s side.
    “Pretending you’d rather be going out man-hunting with me when you know damn well you’ve already found the guy you want to be with.”
    “Don’t start,” she pleaded as they crossed the parking lot to Friday’s where they had decided to go for dinner and drinks that night after work.
    “Tell me something.”
    “What?”
    “Have you returned any of Cole’s calls?”
    “Not yet.”
    Not that she hadn’t wanted to. She was just scared. Accepting her feelings for Cole and giving their relationship a chance meant she’d be risking her heart again. That was a big step she wasn’t sure she was ready to take yet. Maybe ever.
    “Well, I wouldn’t wait too long,” her friend warned. “Some other woman might come along and snap a nice guy like that right up. Speaking of nice guys, Joe finally called to ask me out again.”
    “He did?” Kelsie stopped and turned to her friend. “I can’t believe you answered the phone.”
    “I made him sweat it out through three whole rings before I picked up.”
    Kelsie rolled her eyes. “I’d have waited at least four.” She knew how badly Nanci had wanted to see Joe again after their date and how crazy it had made her friend waiting for his call. “In fact, I might not have answered at all.”
    “I’m sure you wouldn’t have,” her friend teased with a grin. “But Joe and I have some unfinished business to tend to and I am more than ready to tend to it.”
    “So...d id he happen to mention anything about Cole?”
    Nanci opened the restaurant door. “He was calling to ask me out, not discuss yours and Cole’s not-so-happening love life. I’d be happy to pass along a message to Cole for you, but I really think you need to call him yourself.”
    Sighing, she gave in to her friend’s persistent nagging. “If it’ll make you happy, I will.”
    “ It’ll make you happy. So when are you going to call him?” Nanci asked as they made their way into the dimly lit bar area where the after work crowd had already started to gather for happy hour.
    She should have known her best friend wouldn’t let her off with just a promise to call. “I’ll call him tonight.”
    “Good.”
    Kelsie headed toward one of the empty bar tables in the