Operation Date Escape

that.” She cast a quick glance his way. “Cole told me you had no idea what they were planning. So, unlike my mother, you’re off the hook.”
    Nanci let her hand fall away. “Well, judging by the smile I saw on your face when you two arrived, I’m assuming Cole’s already been forgiven.”
    “Not quite,” he answered for her.
    “He’s right,” Kelsie said with a stubborn tilt of her chin. “I only stayed because I knew you were going to be here.”
    He pressed a hand to his chest. “Ouch, that hurt.” Then he chuckled. “But don’t you two believe a word of it. She stayed because she wants me - bad.”
    “In your dreams,” she shot right back.
    Joe snorted, choking on his drink.
    “Hey ! Whose side are you on?”
    “Sorry,” his friend replied, pointing to the plastic cup in his hand. “It went down the wrong pipe.”
    Nanci laughed. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad you stayed.”
    “Yeah,” Joe said, slipping his arm around his date’s waist. “It’ll give Nanci here something else to talk about besides sex. I swear this woman here has a one-track mind.”
    His date looked up at him. “You have a problem with my sex talk? Maybe we’ll just forget that phone sex I promised you later.”
    “Sweetheart, I’m always up for phone sex,” he said, eyeing the purse slung over his date’s shoulder. “Speaking of which, you got your cell with you?”
    She nodded.
    “Good, let’s take a walk in the woods and see what kind of coverage our phones get.”
    Joe led her away, the two of them giggling like a couple of teens.
    Cole turned to Kelsie. “Do you think they even remembered we were here?”
    Her gaze drifted to the thickening of trees Joe and Nanci had disappeared into. “Somehow I doubt it. Sex and anything associated with it has the tendency to alter brain function.”
    “So did you bring your cell?”
    She turned back to him. “What?”
    “Just in case you decide you’d like to have your brain function altered a little, too.”
    “Oh, you have inhaled too much smoke,” she told him, those green eyes looking up at him with more than a hint of amusement. “Besides, I left my cell in my car.”
    “I’d be happy to go get it for you.” He loved getting her fired up.
    “We’re not going to have sex. Phone-wise or regular ever again.”
    “Never say never,” he warned with a grin. Because if he had his way, there would definitely be a next time.
    “Cole,” she groaned in frustration.
    He laughed. “Come on , Cupcake. Let’s get the rest of the introductions over with.”
    He led her in the direction of the checkered tablecloth covered picnic tables where his lieutenant and the rest of his crew were seated with their significant others.
    “Maxwell!” the Lieutenant called out.
    Cole smiled. “Lieutenant.”
    Standing, the lieutenant held his hand out to Cole in greeting. “Glad you could make it.”
    “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
    The lieutenant looked toward Kelsie with a smile. “Aren’t you going to officially introduce us?”
    Cole slipped an arm around her waist. “ This is my date, Kelsie Collins. Kelsie, Lieutenant Calhoun and his beautiful wife, Maggie.”
    She returned his smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    “Actually, we’ve already met,” the lieutenant informed her with a grin.
    “We have?”
    “Well, not officially until now. You were a little preoccupied with a tree last time I saw you.”
    Cole watched the color deepen in her cheeks. “Ignore him,” he told her with a husky chuckle. “He likes to give pretty girls a hard time. Doesn’t he, Maggie?”
    The lieutenant’s wife nodded and then shook a chastising finger at her husband. “Behave yourself.”
    “It’s all right,” Kelsie assured her.
    Maggie Calhoun turned to her with a warm smile. “We’re so glad you could join us today. From what I hear, you’ve made quite an impression on our Cole here. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a great catch he is.”
    “Keep on selling me, Maggie,” Cole told her with a grin. “I’ve been trying real hard to convince her of that, but she’s a tough sell.”
    “Judy did the same thing to me at first if you remember right,” Stubby joined in from the far end of the picnic table. “If you ask me, I think women are put on this earth to drive men crazy in bed and out.”
    “Stubby McGuire!” his wife gasped, smacking him on the arm. “Keep it up and the only place I’ll be driving you to