Summer Kisses (166 page)

“I’m finally over you,” she said in surprise.

Both Kyle and Nanci stopped the name slinging and looked her way. “What?” they replied in unison.

She looked up at her ex. “You know, I’ve wondered at times how I would feel if we ever ran into each other again. Now I know. We were really never meant to be, you and me. I don’t love you. In fact, I realize now that what I felt for you when we were together was more youthful infatuation than real love.” Cole had shown her the difference.

That last thought took her by surprise. How had that happened? Feeling the way she did about Cole presented her with a whole new set of problems, but it had also helped free her of her past.

Kyle chuckled drunkenly. “Yeah right.” Then he leaned across the table to hover just inches from her face. “You and I both know if I wanted you back in my bed I could have you there with a snap of my fingers.”

A second later he was lying on the floor, curled up in a ball and moaning.

“Snap that,” Nanci hissed. Grabbing for her purse, she looked to Kelsie. “Time to go.”

“What did you do to him?” she asked as they weaved their way out of the club.

“Who me?” her friend asked with feigned innocence.

“Kyle was lying in the fetal position when we left him and you were smiling.”

“Okay, so my foot slipped off the top rung of the chair.”

“Slipped?”

Nanci nodded. “Into his crotch.”

She glanced down at the pointy toed heels Nanci had worn that night with a wince. “Bet that hurt like hell.”

“You can count on it,” she said with a mischievous grin as they hurried across the lamp lit parking lot. “That’ll teach him to invade your personal space and be a dickhead at the same time.”

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

She turned to Nanci as they slid into her car. “For the record, I would never ever go back to Kyle. Not even if he was the last man on earth and someone slipped me an entire bottle of female Viagra.”

Nanci burst into laughter. “That’s my girl.”

She glanced back toward the night club. She had faced the demon from her past and had come out of it mentally intact. Kyle was an ass and always would be. Allison could have him.

“You okay?” her friend asked as they pulled out onto the street.

“I’m great.”

“So much for finding a new place to hang out.”

“Yeah, I could do without having to see Kyle and Allison ever again.”

“Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and a shark will eat them on their honeymoon.”

Kelsie burst into laughter. “You are so bad.”

“I try my best. What do you say we go back to my place and watch a chick flick?”

“Sounds like a plan.” She laid her head back against the seat. This had actually turned out to be one of the best nights of her life. And seeing Kyle taken down by Nanci was definitely the icing on the cake.

Kelsie pulled up to the address her mother had given her. The place where she was to meet her very last blind date. That alone had her smiling.

She lowered her window halfway down, looking around. Judging by the number of vehicles parked outside, it had to be the right place. Though there were a few cars in the mix, most of the vehicles that filled the driveway and the road in front of the house were big, shiny trucks.

The house where the company picnic was being held was a newer split-level home with a privacy fence separating the backyard from the road in front. Woods provided the backdrop for what looked to be a partially fenced in backyard.

She sat in her car, listening to the radio. A glance at her watch had her frowning. Had her mother gotten the time she was supposed to meet her date at the picnic mixed up? Or had he already arrived and decided to skip taking her in with him? Not that it would break her heart or anything. But then she’d still owe her mother one more blind date. She’d just as soon get it over with.

Her ‘date’, the one and only Max, was supposed to meet her at her car at one o’clock so they could make their entrance into his company picnic together. It was now a few minutes after one with no date in sight.

Ten minutes later she was still waiting for her mother’s ‘Mr. Perfect’ to arrive. Kelsie glanced at the clock on the dash again with an irritated frown. She didn’t have all day to sit there and wait for her date to arrive.

Her pale pink nails tapped the steering wheel impatiently. He had to show up. Otherwise, her mother’s promise never to fix her up again would be null and void.

Reaching for her purse, she dug inside for her cell phone. She would call her mother and double-check the meeting time. She pulled up her contact list and had just started to scroll down for her mother’s number when it occurred to her she’d be better off not calling. All she had to do was keep quiet about the date not happening and she was home free. Her mother would never know.

The idea as fleeting. Past experience told her that her mother would be hunting her down in the morning to see how the date had gone. There was no way she’d be able to lie to her.

“So now what?” she muttered in irritation. Here she was doing the guy a favor and he doesn’t even have the decency to−

A tap on the partially open driver’s side window startled her from her thoughts. Her head whipped around, a startled gasp leaving her lips. The open phone slipped from her hand, clattering onto the passenger side floor.

“Cole?”

He smiled at her through the partially open window. “Hey, doll.”

Heart racing, she reached out with trembling fingers to lower her window the rest of the way down.

“W...what are you doing here?”

Had he followed her there?
The possibility that he had both angered and excited her.

He leaned into the open window, flashing that sexy, lone dimpled grin she’d been trying so hard to get out of her thoughts. “I would’ve been here sooner, but I ran into road construction.”

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you here?”

“As luck would have it, I’m your date.”

It took a moment, but when his words finally hit her – like a ton of bricks, she said, “You what?”

He motioned toward the house. “I’m taking you to my company picnic.”

“Your company picnic?”

He nodded, grin still intact.

What was going on here?

“I’m not sure what you’re up to, but I’m supposed to be meeting a man named...” Her words trailed off as the realization of what her mother had done hit her. Cole Maxwell. Max.

Shit.

“You’re Max?”

“To some of my friends,” he replied with a calmness she certainly didn’t feel at that moment. In her case, every single sensitive part of her body was going haywire. All she could think about was what it had been like to be made love to by this man. A man she’d done everything in her power to force from her thoughts. And now here he was in her life again.

She forced herself to focus on the present and the situation she’d suddenly found herself in. “My mother was a part of this?” It was more a statement of fact at this point than a question.

He nodded. “I’ll admit she might have helped me out a little, but it was my idea.”

“My mother did more than help a little. She lied to me.”

“There wasn’t any lying,” he argued with a smile.

“I...you...” She gave a frustrated groan. “How could she have done this to me? Her own flesh and blood!”

“I think your mother felt guilty about the wedding cake thing, so she agreed to help me out.”

“The wedding cake thing?”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “After your mother found out we had gone out, she brought a tray of wedding cake samples in to the station for me to taste. Apparently one date to her meant you and I were engaged or soon would be.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped. “I can’t believe she would do something like that.”

“Trust me, she did. My entire crew witnessed it.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. “This is unreal.”

“If I remember correctly, your mother is rather fond of the cappuccino truffle torte. But you, on the other hand, are more the French vanilla with cream cheese icing kind of girl.”

She groaned and dropped her head back against the headrest, covering her face with her hands. “I can’t believe she did that.”

His husky chuckle echoed in the car. “Her grandmother clock is ticking, you know.”

She lifted her head to look at him. “She actually said that?”

He nodded with a grin.

“I am so sorry. I told Nanci something like this would happen if my mother found out I liked you.”

“So you do like me.”

How had that slipped out? Luckily, she hadn’t blurted out her need to feel his lips on hers again, to have him make love to her the way only Cole could.

“I can’t do this,” she said, reaching out to turn the keys in the ignition. “I have to go.”

His hand covered hers, stopping her. “Don’t leave.” It wasn’t an order. It was more of a determined plea.

She was angry with both her mother and Cole for deceiving her the way the two of them had. But she was even angrier with herself for wanting him the way she did.

“Why shouldn’t I?” she asked, her narrowed gaze pinning his down.

“Because you and I need to talk.”

“Yeah, well we could have done that over the phone,” she replied and then cringed. Why did she have to go and bring up the phone?

The widening of his grin told her she had indeed prompted thoughts of their last phone conversation. Thankfully for her, he made no mention of it. In fact, he said nothing at all for several long moments, just stood there grinning.

“This isn’t going to work,” she said halfheartedly.

He broke eye contact just long enough to glance over his shoulder toward the house where the picnic was in full swing and then back to her, the expression in his dark eyes tender. “It can work. And for the record, you’re wrong about me.”

“How so?”

“I’m not perfect, Kelsie. Not by a long shot. All I ask is that you give me the chance to prove it to you.” He hesitated, his smile widening. “You know, I have to say I never thought I’d find myself trying to convince a woman how ‘not perfect’ I am.”

“Look, Cole, I’m sure you’re going to make some other woman very happy─”

“I don’t want some other woman,” he said, effectively cutting her off. “I want you.”

“What about the other woman?”

“What other woman?”

“The one Joe said you had moved on to.”

“There is no one else. Hasn’t been since I met you.”

“But I thought...”

“Why would I want any other woman in my life?” he said no longer teasing. “Hell, Kelsie, you make life so much more exciting when I’m with you. Always throwing me a curveball when I’m expecting a fastball straight down the center. I want that. I want you.”

Her heart was in her throat. That was the most romantic thing a guy had ever said to her. And at the same time the most frightening.

“Damn you, Cole Maxwell. Saying things to me like that is an unfair tactic.”

“Is it working?” he asked, his expression almost boyishly hopeful.

“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “It is.”

He straightened and opened the door, reaching for her hand. “Good. Because I wouldn’t have been the only one who would have been disappointed if you had decided not to stick around for the picnic.”

She let him pull her out of the car, meeting his gaze as he slid his arms around her waist. “If you’re referring to my mother, it wouldn’t matter because I’m not sure I’m ever going to speak to her again anyway.”

He chuckled. “Your mother doesn’t seem like the type who can be avoided for very long. But I wasn’t referring to her. I was referring to Nanci.”

“Nanci?”

“Yeah. She’s out back with Joe.”

She put up her hand. “Hold up. Are we talking Nanci, as in my best friend Nanci with an ‘i’ instead of a ‘y’?”

He nodded.

She stiffened. Was everyone she knew in on this blind date set up? “Are you telling me my best friend knew you were who I was going to be meeting here today?”

“Yes and no.”

“Which is it, Cole? Yes or no?”

“Both actually.”

“Do you mind telling me how that’s possible?” she asked, her irritation growing.

“Joe decided not to tell Nanci you were coming until they arrived at the picnic.” He pointed to the driveway. “That’s his silver Explorer parked next to the mailbox, so I’m assuming she knows now. Joe was afraid she might let it slip if he told her any sooner.”

At least her friend hadn’t turned traitor on her like her mother had. “I don’t like being lied to.”

“No one lied.”

She shot him an accusing glance.

“Well, not really. I am your blind date. I’m taking you to my crew’s annual picnic, and one of my nicknames is Max. So you see, doll, no lies.”

As much as she wanted to let him have it for pulling this crazy stunt, she couldn’t. Cole had gone to all this trouble just to see her again. And she had to admit it was the perfect plan to get her to go out with him again. He knew she wouldn’t have accepted if she’d have known it was him she was meeting that afternoon. And, despite all her protests, it felt good to be in his arms again.

She sighed in surrender and relaxed in his arms. “You are crazier than my mother.”

“Thanks. I’ll consider that a compliment.”

“Cole...”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you call me that?”

“What?”

“Doll.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Because that’s what you remind me of with those big beautiful green eyes. Those incredible lips.” He bent to brush his lips lightly over hers. “And this perfectly petite body.” His hands glided up the sides of her shirt to graze the swells beneath it.

She shuddered. He made her feel so unbelievably sexy. She whispered his name, pressing into his touch.

He responded by threading his fingers through her hair and lowering his mouth to hers once more, this time deepening the kiss.

She clung to him, her body aching for more. But the flow of laughter drifting out over the privacy fence pulled her back into reality.