Operation Date Escape

mother.”
    “So who’s the lucky guy this time?” he asked with a knowing grin.
    She shrugged. “Some guy my mother knows.”
    “His name is Max,” Nanci tossed out. So much for her keeping her big mouth shut.
    “Max, huh?” Dr. Andy repeated.
    “Maybe he’ll be hot to the max,” Heather teased.
    “I’m betting not,” Nanci said, casting a sympathetic glance Kelsie’s direction.
    He flipped through the appointment book. “So where’d your mother find this one?”
    That was a good question. Her mother really hadn’t said where she’d met this guy. “Probably through work. Anyway, I guess he and my mother were talking and he mentioned to her that he needed to find a date for his company picnic. That was all he had to say to set my mother into matchmaker mode.”
    “ A company picnic,” Heather said, her tone oozing with sarcasm. “Sounds like that promises to be a real exciting date.”
    Dr. Andy snickered .
    Nanci just stood there grinning.
    “Go ahead, laugh all you want,” Kelsie told them. “This is your last opportunity to find humor in my mother-driven love life.”
    Dr. Andy stopped laughing and turned to face her. “What do you mean by that?”
    “It means her mother has promised to stop fixing her up with blind dates if she’ll do her this one last favor and go out with this guy,” Nanci explained.
    Both Dr. Andy’s and Heather’s eyes widened.
    “Your mother actually said that?” he said in disbelief.
    She nodded. “Sure did.”
    “She did,” Nanci concurred. “I was at her mom’s for dinner and heard her say it with my own ears.”
    “Wow,” Andy gasped. “She must be pretty sure this guy’s going to be ‘the one’ to make that kind of promise.”
    Heather pushed the filing cabinet door shut. “I don’t know, Kelsie. I think I’d be a little worried. If the guy can’t get his own date for his company picnic, he’s got to be a real loser.”
    Nanci nodded in agreement. “You can pretty much bet he’ll be a loser. But she’s off the hook after this one last date. And who knows, maybe he’ll end up being the one .”
    Kelsie snorted. “Don’t count on it.”
    Dr. Andy chuckled. “ The one doesn’t exist as far as Kelsie’s concerned.”
    Heather nodded in agreement. “Yeah, even if he was perfect, he wouldn’t be in her book.”
    “You got that right,” her friend muttered.
    Kelsie pushed away from the desk and stood. “I’d love to stay here and continue discussing my pathetic love life, but I have a patient to see.”
    Despite the ribbing she received from her co-workers, she left the office smiling. She didn’t care what her blind date looked or acted like just as long as it put an end to her mother’s matchmaking attempts. She couldn’t wait for the weekend. Just knowing this was going to be the last date her mother ever set her up on gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘dream date’.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

    Kelsie climbed into Nanci’s car, more than ready for a night out on the town. Hell, she’d settle for a night of dumpster diving if it meant no calls from her mother about her blind date with Max the next day.
    “Let’s go before she catches me here,” she told Nanci. “Hurry.”
    Nanci hit the gas and pulled away from Kelsie’s place. “Who’s going to catch you?”
    “My mother . That’s who!”
    “You’re running from you r mom now, too?”
    “Leave Cole out of this. And for your information, I’m not running from my mother. I’m simply trying to avoid her until this weekend’s over.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she’s determined to drive me crazy.”
    Nanci laughed. “Why? What’s she done now?”
    Kelsie eased back against the passenger seat. “Let’s see,” she said as she buckled her seatbelt. “Where to start? How about the fact she left Post-it notes on my car windshield, my apartment door and on my refrigerator while I was at work today.”
    Nanci arched a brow. “I’m thinking the only logical re sponse at this point would be – why?”
    “They were to remind me about my blind date tomorrow.”
    “Guess she’s determined to make sure you don’t blow him off.”
    “ Rest assured I won’t be blowing anything.”
    “Never say never,” her friend teased with a grin.
    “ Believe me, ‘never’ is the perfect word choice. There will be absolutely nothing going on between Max and me tomorrow.”
    “Think about it, Kels. It’s like the lottery. Odds are your mother has to pick a winner