Operation Date Escape

tonight is to the sofa.”
    “As you can see,” Cole said, “we’re like one big happy family.” He went on to introduce her to the rest of his crew and their wives and then led Kelsie over to the food table.
    “Hungry?” he asked, handing her a paper plate.
    “Starved.”
    “Well, let’s see what we can do about that,” he answered with a wink.
    “Your friends are all so nice,” she said, glancing back toward the picnic tables.
    “It’s a job requirement.”
    “I take it the ability to tease is another,” she said as she plucked several cherry tomatoes from the veggie tray in front of her.
    H e grabbed them some plastic silverware from the wicker basket on the table. “They really like you.”
    “Do you think so?” she said, and then quickly added, “Not that it matters. It’s not like you and I will be going out again.”
    “We will if I have my way.”
    “Cole...”
    “What?” He grabbed the large metal fork from the meat tray and stabbed at a steak, dropping it onto her plate. “It’s no secret that I’ve got one hell of a crush on you.” He did a quick scan of the picnic goers and added, “Along with about every other guy at my station.”
    “Are you always this persistent?”
    “Not always.” He stabbed at a steak for himself. “I just like to see things right in the world. And our being together is right.”
    She lowered her plate to the table with a sigh and turned to him, no doubt intending to tell him all the reasons why they shouldn’t be a couple. But he didn’t give her the chance. Instead, he set his plate down and drew her to him for a kiss.
    “Hey, you two!” Nate hollered from across the yard where he and another firefighter were in the middle of a game of horseshoes. “Get a room!”
    Cole broke off the kiss, noting the flush that had returned to her beautiful face. He grabbed their plates from the table. “Come on. Let’s go eat where we can have a little privacy.”
    “I...I don’t mind eating with your friends,” she said, clearly affected by the kiss.
    “I do. I have to look at their mugs across the dinner table enough as it is. I’d much rather be focusing on something a whole lot prettier. You.” He nodded toward the iced down keg that sat next to the oak tree a few feet away from the food tables. “Can you grab us a couple of beers?”
    “Sure.”
    He watched as she walked over and grabbed two plastic cups from the stack beside the keg and filled them. His smile widened. She was so unlike the other women he’d taken a chance on. Kelsie fit in. She belonged there. With him.
    The woman of his dreams turned from the keg and smiled at him. “All set. Let’s go eat.”
    He led her away from the others. “There’s a clearing just on the other side of those trees,” he said. “We’ll eat there.”
    They stopped beneath the shade of an old oak tree. Cole set the plates down on the grass and then turned to her. “Wait here. I’ll go grab us a couple of lawn chairs.”
    “I don’t need a lawn chair.” She settled onto the grass, folding her legs. “It’s a picnic. You’re supposed to sit on the grass to eat.”
    “I thought it was supposed to be on a picnic blanket.”
    She looked up at him, her green eyes challenging. “What’s wrong, Cole? You afraid of getting a little dirty?”
    He lowered himself onto the grass beside her with a grin. “On the contrary, doll, there’s nothing I’d like better than to get a little dirty with you.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

    Kelsie’s pulse quickened at the thought of ‘getting dirty’ with Cole. No matter how attracted she was to the ‘perfect’ side of him, she loved his bad boy side even more. Thankfully for her, there were others around or she might very well have taken him up on his offer.
    Her gaze moved over him, prompting her to immediately retract her last thought. No might about it. She definitely would have taken him up on his offer.
    “Considering it?” he asked, his voice low and teasing.
    She laughed and shook her head. “Not for a second.”
    “Liar,” he said with a knowing grin as he reached for the plates he’d set on the ground and handed hers to her.
    Ignoring his accusation, she cut into her steak. It was so tender it gave the plastic silverware no resistance whatsoever. Stabbing at a piece, she brought it to her mouth.
    “Well?” he asked as he cut into his. “Any good?”
    “Mmm...” she groaned. “Definitely as good as it smelled from the road. I can’t