Summer Kisses (161 page)

Grumbling, the men dropped their leg rests, pushed out of their recliners and filed out the door, no doubt disappointed they were not going to get to hear any more of this crazy conversation.

Once they’d gone, he turned his attention back to Kelsie’s mother. “I think you should know that your daughter and I aren’t going to be seeing each other again.”

Her cheerful expression fell. She turned off the water, grabbed a paper towel and dried her hands as she walked back around the room dividing island. “It’s the breast thing, isn’t it?”

“What?” he gasped.

She clicked her tongue at him. “Just like a man, always wanting bigger and better.”

He couldn’t believe he was standing there discussing Kelsie’s breasts with her mother. Not that he’d brought the subject up.

“There’s nothing wrong with your daughter’s...uh, body. And just to set the record straight, not all men think bigger is better.”

She studied him for a long moment before replying. “Then do you mind my asking why you aren’t going to take her out again?”

It wasn’t like Kelsie had given him a choice. Cole frowned.

Melinda Collins walked over to him. “I know I’m prying, but my daughter’s happiness means the world to me. I hope you don’t mind my asking.”

First, the woman shows up with wedding cake samples for a wedding he’s not even aware he’s supposed to be a groom in. Then, she gets into the whole breast thing. And
now
she’s asking if he minds her asking about his personal life with Kelsie. Maybe she was a little on the crazy side.

On second thought, she was Kelsie’s mother. And Kelsie didn’t exactly follow normal protocol when it came to doing things either. At least, now he knew Kelsie had come by that particular trait of hers honestly.

“Our not seeing each other again wasn’t my decision,” he explained, feeling oddly guilty when he saw the look of disappointment on Melinda Collin’s face. Hell, he had no reason to feel guilty. He was the ‘rejectee’.

“I understand,” she replied in a less spirited tone.

He wished he did.

Melinda Collins wasn’t the only one who was disappointed by Kelsie’s way of thinking. “I will tell you this much,” he said. “I’m not giving up on your daughter. I really think there’s something there if I can just get her to give us a chance.”

Moisture shimmered in Kelsie’s mother’s eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”

He glanced down at the tray of cakes sitting in front of him on the table and smiled. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”

“I’ll admit it,” she said, laughing as she reached for the tray. “I’m desperate. My grandmother clock is ticking.” She pulled a business card from the pocket of her suit jacket and handed it to Cole. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just give me a call.” That said, she took her sampling of wedding cakes and walked out.

He watched her go, shaking his head and grinning. Kelsie’s mother was a little on the crazy side, but he liked her. And better yet, she liked him. A good thing, considering how hard he’d fallen for her equally crazy but beautiful daughter.

~~~

“You can’t go on like this,” Nanci said as she stepped from her newly purchased Honda Accord.

“Go on like what?” Kelsie asked as she let herself out of the passenger’s side.

“Pretending you’d rather be going out man-hunting with me when you know damn well you’ve already found the guy you want to be with.”

“Don’t start,” she pleaded as they crossed the parking lot to Friday’s where they had decided to go for dinner and drinks that night after work.

“Tell me something.”

“What?”

“Have you returned any of Cole’s calls?”

“Not yet.”

Not that she hadn’t wanted to. She was just scared. Accepting her feelings for Cole and giving their relationship a chance meant she’d be risking her heart again. That was a big step she wasn’t sure she was ready to take yet. Maybe ever.

“Well, I wouldn’t wait too long,” her friend warned. “Some other woman might come along and snap a nice guy like that right up. Speaking of nice guys, Joe finally called to ask me out again.”

“He did?” Kelsie stopped and turned to her friend. “I can’t believe you answered the phone.”

“I made him sweat it out through three whole rings before I picked up.”

Kelsie rolled her eyes. “I’d have waited at least four.” She knew how badly Nanci had wanted to see Joe again after their date and how crazy it had made her friend waiting for his call. “In fact, I might not have answered at all.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t have,” her friend teased with a grin. “But Joe and I have some unfinished business to tend to and I am more than ready to
tend
to it.”

“So...did he happen to mention anything about Cole?”

Nanci opened the restaurant door. “He was calling to ask me out, not discuss your and Cole’s not-so-happening love life. I’d be happy to pass along a message to Cole for you, but I really think you need to call him yourself.”

Sighing, she gave in to her friend’s persistent nagging. “If it’ll make you happy, I will.”

“It’ll make
you
happy. So when are you going to call him?” Nanci asked as they made their way into the dimly lit bar area where the after work crowd had already started to gather for happy hour.

She should have known her best friend wouldn’t let her off with just a promise to call. “I’ll call him tonight.”

“Good.”

Kelsie headed toward one of the empty bar tables in the far corner of the darkened room, adding as they settled onto their stools, “If we don’t get home too late.”

It was a pretty safe bet they wouldn’t make it home before midnight. Not when there was a bar filled with men and Nanci was with her. That meant she’d safely be able to avoid calling Cole for at least one more night. And hopefully by tomorrow she’d be able to convince herself that she was doing the right thing where their relationship, or rather non-relationship, was concerned.

“Promise?”

“What?”

“I want your word that you’ll call him tonight if it’s not too late when you get home.”

Kelsie smiled. “I promise.” It was the easiest promise she ever had to make.

Nanci pulled a menu from the stand in the center of the table and flipped it open. “Good, because Joe’s stopping by my place tonight at nine, so you’ll be home in plenty of time to call Cole.”

“You tricked me!” she exclaimed, drawing a few curious glances their direction.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” Nanci admitted with a grin.

“Some friend you are.”

“You’ll thank me for it tomorrow. I promise.”

The waitress arrived to take their order before Kelsie could reply. All she could do was give Nanci the evil eye from across the table. Not that the evil eye ever achieved the desired effect on her friend, but just giving it made her feel a whole lot better.

“The drinks go on my tab tonight,” her friend told the waitress.

“That’s because she feels guilty for being a low-down, conniving best friend,” Kelsie grumbled as she slung her purse strap over the back of her stool.

“Sounds like my ex-boyfriend,” the waitress said. “Only he always made me buy the drinks. So what can I get for you two?”

“Give me a Captain Colada,” Kelsie announced, not missing the look of surprise on Nanci’s face. Then she added with a smile, “And make it a strong one.”

“What are you doing?” her friend gasped in surprise.

“I’m placing my drink order.”

“I thought you preferred light beer or wine coolers because mixed drinks hit you too fast.”

The waitress looked to Kelsie as if expecting her to change her order, but she had no intention of doing anything of the sort. It was going to take more than a few mixed drinks for her to gather the nerve to call Cole; which apparently she would be doing when she got home.

“You know what?” she said, looking over the drink menu again. “I think I will change my order.”

“I thought you might,” Nanci said, sounding relieved.

Kelsie glanced across the table at her friend and smiled, then turned to the waitress. “Make that two Captain Coladas.”

“Two? Uh, okay.” The waitress hesitated before turning to take Nanci’s order. “And for you?”

“I’ll have a margarita. Easy on the salt.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back with your drinks.” The waitress hurried away, grinning as she went.

Nanci closed her menu, shoved it back into its holder and then leaned forward, pinning Kelsie with her gaze. “Two Ultimate Captain Coladas?”

She shrugged. “What can I say? I’m really thirsty. Hope you brought lots of cash tonight. Those mixed drinks can really add up.”

“I have my Visa with me if the need arises. But I’m not too worried.”

“You should be. I’m feeling pretty wild tonight.”

Her friend simply laughed. “Intending to be a real party girl, huh?”

“You bet.”

She snorted. “As if that’s ever going to happen.”

She bristled at her friend’s reply. She could be a party girl if she wanted to. “There’s always a first time for everything.”

“Sounds like I might have to up my Visa limit for tonight,” Nanci said, clearly finding humor in Kelsie’s warning.

“Laugh all you want. Tonight’s the night I drink you under the table. Unless you decide to save yourself some serious cash and let me out of my promise. Then we can just forget all about your offer to buy my drinks tonight...”

“Not a chance. Like it or not, you are going to call Cole tonight.”

Damn.

Three Ultimate Captain Coladas and an order of chicken quesadillas later Kelsie stumbled into her apartment and closed the door. This was it. She’d made her best friend a promise and she was woman enough to keep it.

She fumbled several times with the door chain before successfully hooking it. Ha, see there. She wasn’t drunk. An intoxicated person couldn’t have figured the door chain out. She had. So there, Nanci had pulled the mother-hen routine for nothing.

Nanci had shut her off after the third drink and then stressed how lucky she was to have her there to drive her home. Then she’d had to listen to her friend’s praises of Cole the ‘perfect one’ all the way home. Then came the final insult. Nanci called her a chicken shit!

Turning, she wavered slightly and then moved down the hall toward her bedroom, undressing as she went. She wasn’t a chicken shit, no matter what Nanci thought.

The walls seemed to slant in towards her as she walked, slowing her progress. Okay, so maybe her friend had a point. She’d overdone the alcohol just a bit in hopes of gathering up the nerve to call Cole. It was her way of preparing for the anger she knew was certain to come. Not that she could blame him. She had pretty much run out on him on their last date.

She closed her bedroom door behind her with a sigh. Ready or not, she was calling Cole tonight. She needed to make him understand that she wasn’t ready for a relationship with him or any man.

She stripped down to her bra and panties and then stumbled over to the bed where she reached for the cordless phone. She had Cole’s number memorized from the umpteen times she’d dialed him and then hung up before he could answer.

The phone rang once...twice, and just as she was about to hang up out of habit he answered.

“Hello?”

Damn.

“Hi.”

“Kelsie?”

His husky voice oozed over her and she closed her eyes. She had to stay strong. Be firm. Only not in the way she knew he could be.

“Stop thinking about that,” she immediately scolded herself.

“Thinking about what?”

She tugged at her bra, fumbling with its clasp to unhook it, but her fingers were being about as uncooperative as her tongue. At least her thinking process was still intact.

“Have you ever tried to take a bra off yourself before?”

He chuckled. “Can’t say that I have.”

“Well, let me tell you, men should have to wear these damn things everyday and then we’d find out just how much you all appreciate them.”

“Are you all right?”

She dropped into a sitting position at the edge of her bed. “Oh, no you don’t. I’m not going to fall for that one.”

“What one?”

“You want me to say that I’m not alright. That I think about you all the time. That─”

“Do you?”

“What?” What had she been saying?

“Think about me. Have you been thinking about me, Kelsie?”

“Wouldn’t you?” she asked. “I mean if I were you and you were me wearing my bra, wouldn’t you think of me?”

“I’m going to take a wild guess here, but have you been drinking?”

She fell back onto the mattress with a soft sigh. “Just a little. Nanci and I went out after work. She had to buy my drinks because she tricked me into calling you tonight. And you really need to stop changing the subject.”

He gave a husky chuckle. “And that subject would be?”

She stretched her arms out above her head, twirling a curl between her fingers. “Sex.”

“Sex?”

“Just because you’re hot in the sack...no make that really hot in the sack and a nice guy to boot doesn’t mean I should go out with you again. In fact, it’s all the more reason why I shouldn’t.”

“I see. So you’re looking for a not-so-nice guy to spend the rest of your life having really bad sex with.”

“Exactly. Then I won’t have to worry about falling for him.”

“Like you are for me?”

“Yes.” She scooted up the mattress to rest her head on her pillow. “You’re really good at this breaking up stuff.”

“Not as good as you think. I still intend to get you to go out with me again.”

“Maybe we could just meet up for some really great sex and leave the relationship part at the door,” she suggested with a yawn.

“Afraid I can’t do that,” he replied. “I’m in a little too deep at this point to do that.”

She sighed sleepily. “I was afraid you’d say that. It looks like I’m just going to have to...” What was she going to do? She had no experience in breaking guys’ hearts and she certainly didn’t want to start now. Even if she did, she was just so tired. Her eyes drifted close.