OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE (11 page)

“Honey, judging from the picture I saw of your date in the paper, your intentions might just fly out the window once you
get some time alone with him.”

“Don’t count on it,”
she told her mother.

I
gnoring her, her mother set off down the carpeted corridor.  “Come on, girls.  Victoria’s Secret awaits.”

“Ooh,” Nanci cooed.  “I’m liking this.”

Confused, Kelsie looked to her mother as she hurried to keep up with her.  “They don’t sell clothes at Victoria’s Secret.”

“
Honey, it’s not about what you wear on the outside that matters.  It’s what’s under your clothes that makes a woman feel sexy.”

“
And if she feels sexy, she’ll exude a certain confidence that will drive men wild,” her friend added with a knowing smile.  “Therefore, it’s time to give up those granny panties you like to wear.”

Heat flooded her cheeks.  “
I don’t wear granny panties.  They’re cotton briefs!”  Her eyes widened.  Had she really just blurted that very personal piece of information out in the middle of a crowded mall?  Looking around, the odd stares aimed her way told her she had.

It appeared her humiliation was destined to continue.  And considering the way her luck had been going that week, she wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see her underwear choice broadcast on the evening news that night.

“Honey, how do you ever expect to catch a man with something as unsexy as cotton briefs?”  Shaking her head, her mother made a beeline into Victoria’s Secret. 

“I’m not trying to catch a man,” she called after her mother as she and Nanci
followed behind.

Her friend snorted.  “Come on, Kelsie.  Why don’t you just admit it?
  You’re afraid wearing slinky lingerie will weaken your determination to control your sexual urges.  Especially around a man like Cole Maxwell.”

“That’s ridiculous.”  What did her underwear have to do with controlling her wants and needs?  “One has nothing to do with the other.”

Nanci stopped just inside the entrance of the lingerie store and turned to her.  “Oh, yeah?” she said with a widening smile.  “Then prove it.”

Her mother nodded.  “Yeah, prove it.”

Kelsie groaned.  This wasn’t fair.  They knew she was a sucker for a challenge.  Always had been.  They were playing downright dirty. 

Her mother and Nanci stood waiting for her reply.

This was the last shopping trip she was going on with the two of them together.  “Fine,” she mumbled, caving under the pressure.  “I’ll buy something sexy to wear.  But I’m telling you right now that Cole’s never going to see it.”

“Never say never, honey.”

“Your mom’s right.”

“She’s such a smart girl,”
her mother said, sending a warm smile Nanci’s direction. 

“Smart ass maybe,” Kelsie muttered under her breath.

“Time’s a wasting.”  Nanci took her by the arm and set off through the store, weaving around the various display stands of lace and silk.  “We’re going to sexy you up and then we’re going to sacrifice your old lady underwear to the god of fire.”

Six pair
of low-cut lace panties and three thongs not much thicker than dental floss later, Kelsie’s underwear wardrobe had been revamped.  Her mother and Nanci had also talked her into purchasing two demi-cup push-up bras which she had to admit fit her really well.  Better yet, she actually had cleavage. 

“All set?” her mother asked when she’d finished checking out.

Grabbing her packages from the counter, Kelsie nodded.  “Lead on.”  Turning, she followed her fashion dictators out of Victoria’s Secret and into the mall.

“
Ooh, check out those earrings,” her mother said as they passed by a jewelry store’s window front.  “They’re exactly what I’ve been looking for and they’re on sale!  I’ll be right back,” she called out as she disappeared inside.

“Any news
on your book?” Nanci asked as we waited outside of the jewelry store. 

“Nothing yet, but I just sent the
partials of OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE out to the publishers who requested it.”  She had sent several query letters out and had, much to her surprise, received very positive responses to her date-ditching guide concept. 

“That’s great
,” her friend exclaimed. 

“I’d rather no one else know about it
if you can manage to keep your lips sealed for real this time.  Especially around my mother.”

“Hey, I didn’t tell your mother about Cole.  You did.”

“You might as well have,” she said with a frown.  “Nothing’s new with me.  You might check with your daughter though.  Sound familiar?”

“Wait a minute,” Nanci said as realization lit her eyes.  “
Are you telling me your mother still doesn’t know about OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE?”

“
I don’t see any reason to tell her about it unless something comes of it.  So keep your fingers crossed the publisher wants it.”

“
They’re going to love it and someday I’ll be able to say I knew her before she became rich and famous.”

Kelsie laughed.  “I hardly think one book is going to make
me rich and famous.”

“It did for that lady who wrote Harry Potter.”

“Well, if it does happen I promise I won’t forget you.  Maybe I’ll even hire you on as my personal assistant and you can go with me on all my book tours.” 

“Sounds good to me.  Lots of cities mean
s lots of men.  I’m all for that.”

Why didn’t it surprise her that Nanci would take the
ir conversation that direction?

“S
orry to keep you two waiting,” her mother said as she stepped from the store, jewelry store bag in hand.

Kelsie eyed the bag.  “What did you buy?”

“I couldn’t decide between a pair of sterling silver hoops I liked and a pair of sterling silver beaded drop earrings.”  Her mother held up the bag with a smile.  “So I bought both.”

Of course, she did. 
Her mother collected jewelry like Nanci collected men and vibrators.  And what did she collect?  Bad dates.  Lucky her.

“
Is anyone else hungry?” Nanci asked a few stores later.

“As long as there’s coffee, I’m game,
” Kelsie replied as they made their way toward the food court.

“I could use a little something,” her mother said.

Nanci glanced around the food court.  “The pizza’s calling out to me.”

“It does smell pretty good,” Kelsie
had to agree, more than a little tempted by the smell of fresh-out-of-the-oven pizza that lingered in the air around them.  “But I just had pizza for lunch yesterday, so I think I’ll give Chinese a try today.  Maybe some chicken teriyaki.”

“
I’m going to have a strawberry and banana fruit smoothie,” her mother said.  “Can I get anyone else one while I’m there?”

“No thanks,” Nanci said.  “Love them, but not with pizza.”

Kelsie shook her head.  “I’m going to grab a Diet Coke.  Thanks.”

Her mother
set off across the food court to the smoothie stand while Kelsie and Nanci went to get in line for their food.

Deli tray in hand, Kelsie turned and searched the crowded lunch area for Nanci and her mother.  She spotted them in the center of the food court, waving her over. 

“How did you manage to find a table?” she asked as she walked up to them.  The place was packed.

“A little bit of luck and a whole lot of speed,” Nanci
told her with a grin.

“Speed?”

“Yeah, I was faster than the old lady with the walker I was racing to the table against.”

“You didn’t,” Kelsie gasped.
 

“No,” Nanci said, laughing.  “But I did break into a run for the table when I saw the people before us get up to leave.  Nearly lost my pizza slice in the process.”

Kelsie laughed.  Only Nanci. 

“How’s the smoothie?” she asked her mother as she settled onto the chair next to her. 

Her mother moaned softly.  “Mmm, very good.  And worth every empty calorie.”

Kelsie set her tray on the table and then placed her purchases on the floor between her feet.  The smell of the chicken teriyaki had her mouth watering.

The three of them went through the remainder of the sales flyers as they ate, deciding on what stores the wanted to stop in before heading home.   

“
Is that a fortune cookie?” Nanci asked between chews, pointing to the wrapped cookie next to Kelsie’s plate.

Kelsie nodded.

“I love those things.  I can’t wait to see what it has to say about you.  Open it,” her friend said excitedly.

Your day will be filled with torturous shopping?
  Kelsie resisted the urge to voice that thought aloud.  They had her best interest at heart.  Picking up the tiny package, she ripped it open and pulled the fortune cookie free of its wrapper.  Then she cracked it open. 

“
What does it say?” her mother asked anxiously.  “That you’re going to have a long life?  Maybe even come into an unexpected windfall?  Better yet, you’re going to have tons of children?”

Kelsie rolled her eyes.  Only her mother would wish for the fortune to be ‘tons of children’. 
How a cookie was supposed to be able to predict one’s future was beyond her.  Pulling the sliver of paper tucked inside the broken cookie free, she skimmed over the words printed across it in disbelief. 

“No way,” she muttered, shaking her head.  If she hadn’t
picked up the order herself, she would have thought her mother or Nanci had done this as a joke. 

“Kelsie?” her mother said, lowering
her slice of pizza back down onto the red and white checked paper plate it had come on. “What is it?”

Sh
e quickly crumpled up the sliver of paper.  “It’s nothing.  Just a bunch of nonsense.”

“Come on,” Nanci urged.  “Nonsense is fun.  Read your fortune to us.”

“I’d rather not.”

Her friend laughed.  “Maybe I have you confused with someone else, but I could have sworn I’ve heard you say that you don’t believe in fortunes.”

“I don’t.”

“So what’s the big deal then?  Read it to us.”

“Fine,” she said with a resigned sigh.  “But this is stupid.”  She unfolded her fortune and read, “
Romance will soon ignite in your life.
”  Below which were six lucky numbers.

“Ignite!” Nanci repeated with a squeal of delight, drawing several looks their way.

“Will you keep it down?” Kelsie said with a groan.

“As in someone’s about to light your fire,” her friend added, thankfully lowering her voice
for that announcement.  “And who better to do that than a man who knows all about fires.  A man like Cole Maxwell.”

“That’s
the perfect fortune for you,” her mother said with a smile.

“
Anyone could have gotten this fortune cookie,” Kelsie told them.  “It’s a random thing.”

“No, it’s fate,” Nanci corrected.  “And that particular fortune cookie was fated to be yours.”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Kelsie argued.

Ignoring her, her mother continued with a pleased-as-punch smile
, “I guess it’s a good thing we hit Victoria’s Secret.  Sounds like those bra and panties are going to come in handy this weekend.”

“Think about it, Kelsie
,” Nanci said as she reached for her drink.  “If Cole’s kiss got you as hot as you say it did, imagine what the guy’s going to be like in bed.”

Her mother perked up like a cat d
id when a can opener started to run.  “Kiss?  No one mentioned anything to me about any kiss.”

“It was nothing,” Kelsie lied, but the memory of it alone
had warmth oozing through her.  “And you two can stop looking at me that way.  I’m not going to bed with Cole.”  Her gaze dropped down to the sliver of paper in her hand.

Or was she?

*
              *              *

Kelsie groaned as she eyed the mountain of empty pink hangars and discarded clothes
that were strewn across the top of her bed.  Her mother, a certified neat freak when it came to clothes, would have had a nervous breakdown if she saw the mess her daughter had made.  On second thought, she would probably be thrilled by the fact Kelsie had cared enough to worry about wearing just the right thing on her date with Cole. 

She glanced around with a groan
.  Every inch of her usually tidy bedroom had suffered the effects of her pre-date dressing frenzy.  Purses, from clutches to shoulder bags, were scattered across her dresser and heels of every height and color littered the floor around the bed like the end of a really big shoe sale at a department store.  The only thing missing were the boxes and tissue paper.

N
othing she had tried on seemed quite right for her date with Cole.  It was either too businesslike, and she wasn’t about to close any deals with Cole that night, too laid-back, and she wasn’t about to lay anywhere on this date, or too sexy, and sexy was definitely out of the question.  That is, with the exception of the lingerie she was wearing, something she had no intention of letting her hunky date see her in.

Maybe if she had the body to show them off...

She quickly shoved that thought aside.  Cole Maxwell was too perfect.  She couldn’t allow herself to lose sight of that.  No matter how tempting it was to give in to her attraction to him.

She glanced at her reflection in the dresser mirror with a frown. 
Maybe she ought to have taken her mother’s advice and gotten a boob job.  At least then she wouldn’t have to worry about what she chose to wear on her date.  Cole would be too busy staring at her medically enhanced D cups to really care. 

But
D cups were way out of her league.  She was too petite to carry anything around that size.  Not without becoming a walking circus attraction. 

“
Good things come in small packages,” she said, mimicking her mother.  It was a phrase Melinda Collins had used often during Kelsie’s teen years.  When all of her friends’ breasts were straining at the buttons of their too small, midriff baring tops and she was scarcely out of her training bra.  Thank God she’d made it to a small ‘B’.

It was only after
her divorce that her mother started rethinking the ‘small package’ theory.  No doubt, her mother’s change in how she looked at her daughter’s lesser endowments was brought about by Kelsie’s own whining.  The woman Kyle had been screwing around with behind her back had centerfold-sized boobs and left Kelsie feeling like her failed marriage was her fault.  That her less than womanly attributes had Kyle looking elsewhere.   

The phone rang, drawing
her from her thoughts.

“Not again,” she muttered with an eye roll.  Her mother had already called three times that day to make sure
she wasn’t thinking about backing out of her date.

Sighing, she crossed the room to answer it, stepping over scattered heels as she went.  A sudden thought gave her pause.  What if it wasn’t her mother at all, but Cole calling to say something had come up and he needed to cancel their date?  Or, even worse, what if he was calling to tell her that he was coming early?

Oh, that would be great.  She was nowhere near ready to go out.  And she certainly couldn’t greet him dressed as she was.  Not in only her newly purchased Victoria’s Secret bra and panty set.

Stepping up to the nightstand, she glanced down at the caller ID
.  Nanci’s cell phone flashed across the screen.  She grabbed for the cordless, bringing it up to her ear.  “Hey.”

“Hey back at you.  I was just calling to see how things are going.”

She knew better.  She could read her friend like a book.  Like her mother, Nanci was calling to make sure she hadn’t gotten cold feet and backed out of her date with Cole.  As if anything about her could be cold when Cole Maxwell was involved. 

“Admit it, Nanc
i.  My mother asked you to check up on me, didn’t she?”