Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,23
or eating during the past couple of hours made his heart beat a tad bit faster. “Actually, give me whatever snack you’re getting for Matt.” He could tell his words pleased Matt.
“Two cowboy snackers coming right up,” Mary said and left the table. Cameron turned his attention back to Matt. “So, what else is going on with you? You keeping your grades up? Staying out of trouble?”
“For sure,” Matt replied. “I can’t be a sheriff when I grow up if get into any trouble now. Besides, Mom would kill me. Right now I’m trying to figure out what I want to do for my birthday tomorrow.”
“Birthday? I didn’t realize tomorrow was a big day for you. Are you going to have a party? Invite all of your friends?”
Matt frowned. “That’s kinda babyish. I know I want to go to Evanston and eat at the Dragon Wok restaurant. That’s me and Mom’s favorite place to eat besides here, but I want to do something else, too. I just don’t know what.”
“You have a pair of ice skates?” Cameron asked, knowing that lots of the kids owned skates for winter skating on local ponds. Matt nodded and Cameron continued, “This cold weather has made the pond out at my place perfect for skating. I can probably dig out my old skates from somewhere in the house. I used to be pretty good on the ice.”
“That would be awesome!” Matt exclaimed, his blue eyes gleaming with excitement.
“What would be awesome?” Mary asked as she arrived back at their table with two plates containing slices of cheese and pepperoni, chunks of summer sausage and carrot and celery sticks with a small cup of ranch dipping sauce.
“Sheriff Evans says for my birthday tomorrow we can come out to his place and skate on his pond, then go into Evanston and eat at the Dragon Wok. That’s exactly what I want to do for my birthday,” Matt exclaimed with obvious happiness.
Mary’s face didn’t hold the same expression. “Oh, Matt, honey, Sheriff Evans is in the middle of a big investigation. I’m sure he doesn’t have the time to...”
“To take off for an afternoon?” Cameron said, not letting her finish. “To be honest, it sounds like just what I need, a little downtime to help me keep my sanity. I’ve been working crazy-long hours for the last couple of months and particularly in the last week. I’d love to spend some time with Matt and you for his birthday.”
“Oh...I don’t know...” Mary was obviously not feeling the same eagerness he was.
“Please, Mom. It will be so much fun,” Matt pleaded, his hands clasped together before him as if asking an angel to answer his prayer.
Mary looked at her son’s face and then shrugged and smiled. “All right, then I guess that’s what we’re doing for your birthday.” She looked at Cameron. “We’ll talk about the arrangements later.”
As she returned to the kitchen Cameron and Matt ate their snacks, talking about ice skating and favorite Chinese food. When they were finished, Matt excused himself to find his mother. “Tell your mom when she gets a chance I still need to talk to her,” he told Matt just before he scurried away.
Cameron wanted to find out about the exchange between Mary and Denver Walton. It was about fifteen minutes later that she returned to the table where he sat.
“Matt said you still needed to talk to me,” she said as she sat in the chair her son had recently vacated. “Is this about tomorrow’s plans?”
“No, although why don’t you plan on being around my place at two. We’ll skate for a couple of hours and then head into Evanston for dinner. I wanted to ask you about Denver Walton.”
She frowned. “Denver? What about him?”
“Ben told me that a month or so ago Denver came in here asking about a job and got a bit huffy with you when you told him no.”
Her eyes lit up with memory. “That’s right, I’d forgotten all about it. But we all know Denver has more than a little bit of a temper. He cussed me out, told me he was never going to eat here again, then was back the next day for breakfast as if nothing had happened.” Her brow crinkled with a frown. “Why? Is there some evidence that Denver had something to do with the murders?”
“No, nothing like that. But after Ben talked to me I realized I don’t know that much about Denver. What do you know about him?”