“Absolutely not,” he said without hesitation. “You can tell her a guy called Max wants to take her out. That’s what some of the guys call me.”
She nodded in understanding. “Short for Maxwell.”
“As far as Kelsie will know it’ll be just another blind date.”
Melinda Collins’ smile widened. “I can do that. So what’s your plan?”
“The station’s annual summer picnic is coming up next weekend and I’d really like to take your daughter to it.”
“Is this going to be a masked picnic?”
He laughed. “No.”
“But she’ll know who you are the second she sees you there.”
“The plan has its flaws. As long as you can help me get her to the picnic, I’ll take it from there.”
She studied him for a long moment.
Had he made a mistake asking her to help him? “If you don’t want to do this, I’ll understand.”
“Not on your life,” she replied, waving the suggestion away with a slender, manicured hand. “I’d do anything to see my daughter truly happy again and I think you might be the man to make that happen.”
“I know I am,” he told her. He’d never meant anything more. “Now all I have to do is convince your daughter of that.”
*
Kelsie turned into Nanci’s drive, waving to her friend who stood waiting on the front porch.
Nanci practically flew to the car. An amazing feat considering the height of the heels her friend was wearing. Then again, she was used to wearing ‘hooker’ pumps. The higher the heel the better.
“A little hungry?” Kelsie asked with a grin as her friend settled into the passenger seat beside her.
“Starving. Especially for your mom’s cooking. I’m so glad she still invites me over.”
“Why wouldn’t she? It’s a family dinner and you’re family.”
“Don’t go getting me all teary-eyed.” She made like she was joking, but there was no missing the emotion in her voice. It meant a lot to Nanci to be included.
“It’s true,” Kelsie told her. “You’re the sister I never had.”
Nanci laughed softly. “This reminds me of that beer commercial. You know the one where everyone’s saying - I love you, man.”
“Well, we do. So get used to it.” She backed out onto the street and headed for her mother’s.
“When your mom called to invite me to dinner, she said we were going to be celebrating. You run off and get married and not tell me about it?”
“Only in my mother’s dreams.”
“So what’s going on? She was beyond her normal happy state when she called.”
“She closed on the Danver place today.”
“House hell. That place is a mansion,” Nanci said excitedly. “No wonder she was in such a good mood. That place has been up for sale forever.”
“I know. There aren’t that many people around with that kind of money to shell out.”
Nanci whistled. “Your mom must have made a killing on that deal.”
“No doubt.”
“Pull over,” her friend said as they drove through town.
“What for?”
“I want to pick up a bottle of wine for tonight’s celebration.”
Kelsie pulled up in front of the liquor store and waited while Nanci ran inside to make her purchase. Five minutes later, her friend was jumping back into the car, smiling and clutching a brown paper bag.
“Mission accomplished,” Nanci announced.
“You look like a wino, holding onto that bag like that,” Kelsie noted with a grin as she pulled back out onto the main street.
Nanci set her purchase on the floor by her feet. “I’ll have you know I went for the good stuff this time around. Not the usual chug-it-down-in-a-back-alley kind of wine.”
“Meaning the bottle has a cork instead of a screw off lid?”
“Exactly.”
“I’m impressed.”
A few blocks later they pulled up to her mother’s condo.
Nanci leaned her head out the open passenger side window and inhaled with a groan. “Mmm…I can smell the garlic bread from here.”
“Homemade lasagna and garlic bread,” Kelsie said, her stomach growling in anticipation. “Doesn’t get any better than that.”
Her friend reached for the wine she’d purchased and pulled the bottle from the bag before following Kelsie up the flagstone walkway.
The front door to the condo swung open and her mother stepped out to greet them. “Come on in. You two have perfect timing. I just took the garlic bread out of the oven.”
“We know. We could smell it from the car.” Kelsie exchanged smiles with Nanci as they stepped inside.
“This is for you,” her friend said, handing her mother the bottle of Chianti she’d purchased.
“What’s this for?”
“To help celebrate your big closing today. Thought it would go well with the lasagna.”
“Well, aren’t you a sweetheart?”
“I drove her to the wine store to get it,” Kelsie cut in with a grin.
Her mother laughed. “Well, thank you both. Come on,” she said, motioning for them to follow her. “Dinner’s ready. I hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” her mother said as they followed her back to the kitchen.
“I need a corkscrew,” Nanci said, setting the bottle of wine on the counter.
“Top drawer by the dishwasher,” her mother called out as she placed a piece of lasagna onto an empty plate. “Kelsie, honey, you know where I keep the wineglasses.”
Kelsie grabbed three crystal wine glasses from the cupboard and carried them back to the table where Nanci was opening the wine. This night was just what she needed to get her mind off of Cole. Off of men in general.
“Honey…” her mother called back over her shoulder in that tone Kelsie had come to know all too well.
“Yes?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
She was afraid that was what her mother was going to say. She turned to Nanci who was pouring the wine. “Fill mine to the top.” Then she turned back to her mother. “What favor?”
“There’s this really nice young man I met the other day.”
Kelsie rolled her eyes. “Not again.” There went any hope for a night a complete relaxation.
“Honey, just hear me out,” her mother said as she carried the plates over to the table. “I really think you’ll like this man. He’s perfect for you.”
“Mom,” she pleaded as a dull throbbing began at her temples. She had seen firsthand the kind of men her mother thought were perfect for her.
“Trust me, honey. You’ll like this one.”
No, she liked Cole. Too much.
“Nanci, help me out here,” her mother said as she took her place at the table.
Nanci held up a hand. “Uh-uh. I’m remaining neutral in this one. Unless, my doing so means I won’t get dinner. In that case, I’m on your side.”
“Nanci!” Kelsie exclaimed. The traitor. She reached for her glass of wine, taking several long swallows.
“Sorry, Kels, hunger calls.”
She watched her best-friend-turned-traitor dig into the piece of lasagna her mother set on the table in front of her. Unfortunately, she’d lost her appetite the second her mother had started on the date thing again.
“Honey, I’ll admit I haven’t always picked the best men for you in the past…”
“You think?” she muttered with a frown. She loved her mother but the woman was like Cupid from Hell when it came to making matches.
“Give me one more chance,” she pleaded.
“Mom−”
“Please say you’ll do this for me.”
“My schedule’s pretty full right now,” she lied out of sheer desperation.
But her mother wasn’t letting it go. “I swear it’ll be the last time I ever set you up with a blind date. If you’ll just do me th
is one last favor and go out with Max.”
“Max?”
“He’s tall, dark and handsome,” her mother said, working hard to sell her on him. “He has a good job. Killer eyes. And best of all he has great teeth.”
No man was that perfect. Well, except one. Her mother had a tendency to exaggerate when it came to describing the men she wanted to set her up with. This was clearly one of those exaggerations.
“I think you should take her up on her offer,” Nanci said between bites. “Think about it, Kels. No more blind dates. All you have to do is go out this one last time.
She looked to her mother. “This is the last one. You promise?”
“Yes.”
The thought of never having to suffer through another one of her mother’s fix-ups again was enough to risk agreeing to go out on one more guaranteed bad date. And seeing as how she’d recently finished writing her bad date survival guide there was no need to suffer through any more blind dates just for research purposes.
“All right, I’ll do it.” One last date.
“Oh, thank you, honey. I knew I could count on you. He needs a date for his company picnic next weekend and I told him you’d go with him.”
Why didn’t it surprise her that her mother had already given the go ahead before asking? She took another drink of wine. “What’s his number?”
Her mother paused mid-bite. “His number?”
“So I can call to finalize things.” Something told her that this was going to be another dud date. Why else would her mother be acting so strange?
“I’m afraid Max is going to be out of town on business, so you won’t be able to call him, but I have the date, the time and the address you’re supposed to meet him at.” She stood and walked over to the counter where her purse sat. Reaching in, she pulled out a piece of paper and carried it back to the table, handing it to Kelsie. “Here you go.”
Kelsie looked down at the scrap of paper in her hand. Her last blind date. Thank God. Then maybe she could live a normal life.
“Nanci,” her mother said as she settled back into her seat, “I saw this neon yellow vibrator on Ebay last night. I think it was called the ‘Dancing Banana’.”
Her friend’s eyes lit up. “I don’t have that one yet. When does it go off?”
“Tomorrow.”
Kelsie’s gaze shifted from her mother to her best friend. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t destined to ever live a quote unquote ‘normal’ life. Despite their quirks, she wouldn’t trade her mother or Nanci for all the normalness in the world.
*
The bell over the waiting room door rang, drawing Kelsie’s gaze to the glass window separating the waiting area from the office.
“Mom?” she mouthed in surprise.
Her mother waved as she walked up to the window.
Kelsie slid the window open. “Hi. What’s up?”
“I just finished showing a house in the area and thought I’d stop by and say hello.”
Her mother never just stopped by to say hello. “Why are you really here?”
“Well,” she said, looking guilty, “I wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about your date with Max.”
How could she forget? Her mother brought it up every time they spoke. “I haven’t.”
The bell rang again and Kelsie looked past her mother to see that her next patient had arrived. “I have to get back to work.”
“Okay, honey. I’ll talk to you later.”
She slid the window shut with a sigh.
“Max, huh?” Heather repeated with a grin as she stepped over to the filing cabinet and pulled open the top drawer.
“No comment or I’ll ask my mother to fix you up with a guy, too.”
“Ooh, shudder at the thought,” the younger girl replied with a feigned shiver.
Dr. Andy stepped into the office with Nanci trailing right behind him. “Is my patient here?”
“No,” Kelsie replied. “Just mine.”
“I thought I heard the bell a few times.”
“You did. It was my 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 your 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 buck
led 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 response 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 sometime.”
“If we’re comparing my blind date compatibility to the lotto, then odds are I’ll have to go out on a million or so more dates before my mother finally hits the jackpot.”
“I’m trying to think positive here.”
“That makes one of us.”
“It’s a good thing we’re going out on the town tonight. A couple of drinks, a little dancing, and you’ll be in a much better frame of mind.”
“The last time we had drinks together I had no mind left by the time I got home. I’m sticking to Diet Coke tonight.”
Nanci shrugged. “Suit yourself. You can be my designated driver tonight. I feel like letting loose tonight.”
Kelsie laughed. “Tonight? Who are you kidding? You always let loose.”
Her friend’s gaze shifted her direction. “Something I’m trying very hard to teach you to do.”
She’d let loose with Cole and look what happened. She’d slept with him. The memory of his large hands caressing every inch of her naked body had her fighting the urge to squirm in her seat.
Kelsie groaned.
“You okay?” Nanci asked as she pulled her cell from her purse.
“Just a little tired.”
“Well perk up. We’ve got a big night ahead of us.”
She forced all thoughts of Cole from her mind. Or, at least, shoved them as far back in her mind as she could. What was it going to take to make her forget about Cole Maxwell?
Nanci punched a few numbers into her phone and brought it to her ear.
“Who you calling?”
“Joe. I told him I’d give him a call before I went out tonight.”
OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE Page 20
