Summer Kisses (151 page)

“I’ll be sure not to hold my breath waiting for that call.”

She would prove her friend wrong. Show her that she could and would resist the hunky fireman who kept invading her thoughts. Another perfect man just lying in wait to tear her heart in two. Just as Kyle had. She’d never forget the day she stopped by Kyle’s office to surprise him with dinner plans for their anniversary. Only the surprise had been on her. She’d walked in to find her then husband and the office cleaning bimbo going at it on his desk. The woman apparently thought getting paid to polish things meant ‘polishing’ her employer’s fully erect body part as well. The jerk.

“If you ask me, I think Cole’s the perfect man for you,” Nanci said, breaking the silence.

Kelsie rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You don’t even know the guy.”

“Okay, let’s look at what I do know. He’s incredibly sexy. Any argument there?”

“No,” she grumbled.

“He risks his life to save others.”

“It goes with the job,” Kelsie replied nonchalantly, but in all truth she admired men like Cole.

Ignoring her, Nanci went on, “He’s got a great smile which I know for a fact you’ve already taken notice of. And for the cherry on top of that sweet dish of a man, he throws candy to kids at parades.”

“And how would you know that?”

“Hey, I’ve been to parades before. Cole’s a firefighter and they always throw candy from their trucks when they go past kids. In fact, last July I wrestled a kid to the ground for a snack size Reese’s Cup.”

She shot her friend a questioning look. “You did what?”

Nanci pointed a finger at her. “Now don’t go looking at me like I’m that ugly old witch who rides the bike in the Wizard of Oz. That candy was mine. They threw it to me and this kid came charging out of nowhere to steal it. And during PMS week
nobody
takes my chocolate.”

Kelsie could relate to that, but taking candy from a kid... “Hope it was worth it.”

“Not really. By the time I got it back it was all smooshed.”

“I’m sure it still tasted good.”

“I wouldn’t know. I gave it to the kid.”

“Let me get this straight. You wrestled him for the candy and then gave it back?”

Nanci nodded. “I certainly couldn’t eat it that way. There’s a method to eating a Reese’s Cup, you know. You bite all around the outside edge first, saving the center for last. You can’t do that when the cup is smooshed. Now, getting back to you and Cole...”

“It would never work between us.”

“How do you know? You haven’t even given the guy a chance.” Nanci pulled a half empty pack of sugar-free Dentyne from her purse and held it out to Kelsie. “Gum?”

“Thanks.” She helped herself to a piece, unwrapping it as she drove. “For your information, I don’t have to give Cole a chance for me to know it wouldn’t work between us.”

“Why?”

She popped the stick of cinnamon gum into her mouth, and then tossed the wrapper into her purse, which was lying between the bucket seats. “Well, for one thing, he’s too good looking.”

Nanci arched a brow. “And you prefer ugly?”

“Kyle was hot and look where that got me.”

“Your ex’s being an asshole has nothing to do with his looks. Besides, Cole seems like a genuinely nice guy. Your mom’s going to love him,” she added as they turned onto the street where Kelsie’s mother lived.

Kelsie felt a rush of panic at the mention of her mother. “No, she won’t.”

Her friend laughed. “Of course, she will.”

“She won’t have a chance to ‘love’ him, because she’s not going to find out about my going out with Cole. Your lips are sealed, remember?”

Laughing softly, Nanci pretended to zip her lips shut again, murmuring, “She won’t find out from me.”

Unfortunately for Kelsie, sealed lips in Nanci’s case was in reference to the glossy topcoat her friend had applied over her bright pink lipstick. Because the first thing out of her friend’s mouth when her mother slid into the backseat behind them was, “Good morning! Nothing’s new with me. You might check with your daughter though.”

“I’ve already heard,” Kelsie’s mother replied.

She had? Kelsie met her mother’s gaze in the rearview mirror, surprised to find her frowning. Of all people, she would have expected her mother to be beaming with delight over the news.

“What on earth were you thinking?” he mother scolded. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about it.”

“You’re upset about it?” Kelsie said in surprise as she pulled back out onto the main street.

“Of course, I’m upset. What mother wouldn’t be?”

Who was this woman in her car and what had she done with her real mother? “I thought you wanted me to date,” she said in confusion.

“What?”

“How did you find out about Cole asking me out?”

“Cole?”

“The hunk she’s going out with Saturday night,” Nanci happily chimed in.

Her mother shot forward in her seat, her expression changing to one of surprise. “You’re going on a real date?”

As opposed to all those awful blind dates her mother and Nanci had set her up on? “You said you knew.”

“Not about that,” her mother said, easing back again in the seat. “It appears you’ve been keeping a lot of things from me lately, young lady,” she added in that perfected guilt-inducing tone all mothers knew how to use.

Then it dawned on her what her mother had actually said. She hadn’t known about her date with Cole, so what other secret was she supposed to be keeping from her mother. “What were you talking about?”

Her mother reached into her purse and pulled out a folded newspaper page, shoving it through the opening between the two front seats. “I was referring to this.”

Her gaze shifted from the road to the paper her mother was waving beside her. There on the front page of the local newspaper was the picture of her in Cole’s arms after he’d rescued her from the tree.

“LOCAL FIREMAN RESCUES DAMSEL IN DISTRESS,” Nanci read with a giggle. “And it goes on to say the unidentified female victim had gotten herself stuck in a tree after climbing out of one of the second story windows at the Touch of Spice lounge.”

“Aaaah!” Kelsie groaned, glancing down once more at the picture of her staring up all cow-eyed at Cole. “I can’t believe they actually put this in the paper.”

“Red light!” her mother shrieked.

Her gaze snapped up to see the rapidly approaching light. With a gasp, she stomped on the brake, leaving a set of tire marks behind them on the road. By some miracle, she managed to stop just behind the white line as a car passed by on the crossroad. “Shit.”

“Shit is right,” Nanci said. “I can’t be in an accident today. I wore my shopping undies instead of my thong.”

Leave it to Nanci to worry more about what her ass would look like to rescuers instead of just how bad this could have turned out.

“Maybe we should forget this whole shopping thing,” Kelsie suggested.

“After I went and had my hair done this morning just for our little outing?” her mother muttered.

“Fine, but it’s not going to be an all-day event,” Kelsie told them. “I feel like something the cat dragged in.”

“At least you don’t look like you feel today in this picture with Cole,” Nanci remarked, studying the paper more closely. “You look great, all things considered.”

Her mother gasped. “Cole? The same Cole you have a date with tomorrow?”

“Every mouthwatering inch of him,” Nanci wasted no time confirming.

Kelsie groaned. What were the odds that if she took a really sharp left turn her friend would fly out the open window and take her big mouth with her? She was seriously tempted to find out.

“And to think I worry about you choosing men who are all wrong for you,” her mother said as she reached between the seats to snatch the paper back.

Kelsie fought the urge to laugh. Most of the ‘wrong’ men in her life lately had been chosen by her mother.

“Mmm...he’s a real looker,” her mother muttered appreciatively from the backseat. “Glad you finally took the bull by the horns and asked a man out.”

“I didn’t ask him,” she told her mother, not wanting her to think she had any real interest in Cole. “He asked me out.”

“Ooh, even better,” her mother squealed in delight. “He clearly likes what he’s seen.”

“He should,” Nanci said with a smile. “The guy had a great view of her backside from that rescue box he went up after her in.”

Kelsie shot her the ‘evil eye’, something she seemed to be doing a lot more of lately.

“Honey, you really shouldn’t scrunch your eyebrows up that way,” her mother chided. “It’ll give you premature wrinkles.”

“I wasn’t scrunching.” Scowling. Maybe. Throwing eye darts. Definitely. But she had a good reason to. Her best friend had a big fat mouth!

“I don’t know what you’re so upset about,” she said, holding up the newspaper for Kelsie to see in the rearview mirror. “This is a really good picture of you.”

“Too good,” Nanci agreed. “Guess it’s safe to say you won’t remain unidentified for very long.”

“Just what I need,” Kelsie groaned. “People I know wondering what in the world I was doing in up a tree outside of a strip club.”

“Strip club?” her mother blurted out.

She nodded. “However, I didn’t know it until I was already inside.”

“What on earth were you doing there in the first place?”

“Meeting her date,” Nanci answered for her.

“The one you set me up with,” she reminded her mother. “But that’s beside the point. The issue I’m more concerned with now is what my patients are going to think when they see that picture of me in the paper?”

Nanci raised her hand, waving off her concern. “Chances are they won’t even realize it’s you with Cole’s hunky face front and center. And you can pretty much guarantee that most of the women who read this are going to be wishing they had thought of your plan to catch a tall, dark and incredibly sexy firefighter first.”

“You’re the one who called 9-1-1. Not me. And I certainly didn’t plan on having my strip club fiasco picture plastered all over Worthington.”

Her mother laughed. “I should hope not. But at least something good came from it. You’ve got a date with a really handsome firefighter. I think you should be thanking Nanci.”

She didn’t have to glance her way to know her friend was wearing an
I’m-waiting-for-your gratitude
smile.

“No thanks needed,” Nanci chirped. “Just be sure to name yours and Cole’s firstborn daughter after me.”

“Cole and I are not going to be having babies together,” Kelsie said determinedly.

“But you would make such pretty babies,” Nanci carried on.

Kelsie groaned in frustration, her head starting to pound.

“What in Heaven’s name were you doing up in that tree anyway?” her mother demanded. “And behind a strip club of all places. I didn’t even know there were any of those in Worthington.”

“There aren’t. At least, there won’t be once the good citizens of our town get wind of it. And, to answer your question as to why I was in the tree in the first place, I was trying to get away from Jack the perverted jeweler.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. “You mean that nice man I set you up with? The one who owns a jewelry store?”

“I guess that depends on what you consider nice,” Nanci said, glancing back between the seats. “The guy had your daughter meet him at a strip club. Then the creep went on and on about how he was looking forward to doing the nasty with a real redhead. I think I would have skipped the tree and just jumped out of the window at that point.”

“He what?” her mother shrieked. “Why that perverted little slime ball!”

A week ago, that same slime ball was on her mother’s list of possible future son-in-laws. “It’s alright, Mom. I handled it.”

“Even if you handled it by getting yourself stuck in a tree...” Nanci taunted.

“One more word and you’re going to be riding the rest of the way to the mall in the trunk of my car.”

Her mother scooted forward to lean between the bucket seats. “You two can fight later. Right now I want to hear all about this hunky firefighter who asked my daughter out. After all, he might just end up being the father of my future grandchildren.”

Oh, God, her mother’s mental wheels were turning. Kelsie made a mental note to keep her away from the engraving store at the mall or she’d be pre-ordering wedding invitations and engraved cake servers.

“Mom, Cole asked me to go out to dinner with him. Not to have his children.”

“You never know what might come from dessert afterwards,” Nanci threw in with a smile.

“I do and that would be nothing,” Kelsie said firmly, not that anyone was listening. They had already moved on to their own in-depth discussion about Cole Maxwell and his more-than-impressive physical attributes.

~~~

By the time they arrived at the Eastland Mall, Kelsie’s mother knew everything there was to know about her adventures with Cole Maxwell. That is, with the exception of the heated kiss she and Cole had shared the day he’d taken her home from the emergency room. That was about the only piece of information Nanci hadn’t let slip through those loose lips of hers. Even so, her dear, soon-to-be-ex best friend had provided more than enough information as far as Cole Maxwell was concerned to start her mother’s matchmaking wheels turning.

“Okay, enough about Cole. I want to relax and enjoy this shopping trip,” Kelsie told her mother and Nanci as she drove through the busy parking lot looking for an empty space to park in. Not that she really thought they’d listen to her request, but it was worth a try.

“There’s one,” Nanci said, pointing to a minivan that was backing out of a parking place about twenty feet ahead of them.

“Put your turn signal on,” her mother said excitedly.

She did, waiting patiently while the van backed out. Only another car whipped around the end of the aisle and turned into the space the minivan had just vacated.

“Bitch,” Nanci hissed.

Kelsie sighed in frustration. The longer it took to park, the longer it would take to get this shopping trip over with. She wasn’t anywhere near the shopaholic Nanci was. “We’ll find another one.”