Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,61

rose from the sofa. “Yeah, we should get back to the café. I forgot to leave breadcrumbs behind me and the snow is really coming down.”

Together they left the cabin and raced toward the café’s back door. By the time they reached the kitchen, they both looked like snowmen.

As they shook off the snow that covered them, Mary sent all her waitresses home but one for the night shift and then turned to Cameron.

“Thank you and now you’d better get out of here because I’m sure you’re going to have a busy night with the weather and everything else that’s going on,” she said as she walked with him out of the kitchen and into the main eating area.

He grabbed his hat from the hook on the wall, wanting to say something...needing to say something but unsure what it was. “Don’t be foolish again,” he finally said gruffly and then he walked out into the near-blizzard conditions.

Chapter 12

Just as Mary expected, the café was dead for the evening rush. The snow continued to fall until dusk and then finally stopped, leaving behind about three inches of the fluffy stuff.

She popped popcorn for her and Matt and they sat at one of the tables eating from the big bowl and drinking hot chocolate. As she talked to her son about snow days and making snow angels and how excited she’d been the first time she’d seen snow, in the back of her mind her thoughts were of Cameron.

While they’d sat in the cabin she’d seen the kiss in his eyes before he’d leand forward and fear had shuttered through her, fear for him.

What if Jason stood just outside the window, watching them?

What if Jason somehow figured out how deep in her heart Cameron had crawled? Then Cameron would have a target placed firmly in the center of his back.

Mary couldn’t let that happen. Cameron had owned part of her heart long before they’d fallen into bed together. She knew he wanted her again, but that wasn’t going to happen, either.

Her biggest fear was that Jason would never be done with her, that he would just keep killing waitresses and friends and neighbors until there was nobody left in town but the two of them and Matt. He wouldn’t stop until she was as alone, as isolated as she had been when they’d been married. Maybe she’d be insane by then, her mind fractured from all the losses she’d endured.

“Mom? Are you okay?”

Matt’s voice pulled her from her horrible thoughts. “I’m fine,” she assured him with a forced smile and patted his hand on the table. “I was just wondering if this snow is going to melt by morning.”

“I hope not! I’m ready for a snow day from school. Jimmy and I already have plans to build a snowman in front of the café and put a cowboy hat on his head.”

“Hmm, sounds just like the kind of advertising I could use,” she replied with a smile. “But I wouldn’t count on a snow day so early in the school year. I have a feeling the plows will be out all night cleaning off the roads.”

Rusty left the kitchen carrying an old checkerboard set and challenged Matt to a game. As they played, Mary walked over to the window and stared outside where night had quickly stolen over the land despite the fact that it was just a little before seven.

Mary had never been afraid of the dark before, but since learning that Jason was still alive and the murders had occurred in the middle of the night, darkness brought with it a simmering anxiety that gnawed at her soul.

However, she didn’t expect Jason to come at her in the night. She had a feeling he’d want to see her face in the starkness of sunshine, in the brightness of light when he came for her. He’d want her to see his glee when he killed her and wrapped their son in his arms.

The evening seemed endlessly long. At eight she sent home Regina, the only waitress working, and that left only Rusty in the place.

She allowed the checker games to last until nine and then she sent Matt to bed just in case the school buses ran in the morning.

“You might as well head home,” she told Rusty. “If anyone comes in I can handle the grill, although I’m not expecting anyone this late on such a night.”

“I heard the latest forecast on the radio earlier and this is all supposed