Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,72
to an agreement that I’d buy the café from her for five hundred dollars.”
Mary looked at Cameron incredulously. “A paltry sum for a future for me and my son.”
“Violet didn’t need your money. Despite the fact that she lived in the back quarters of the café and dressed from clothes she got at the thrift store, she was an extremely wealthy woman. She loved you and Matt. She once told me that she thought the two of you were a gift from God, the daughter and grandson she’d never had. You should have taken what she had to give. She wound up leaving her fortune to a pet humane society.”
“That’s a great place for it to go. She changed my life by selling me this café for a pittance, gave me the hope of a future for me and my son and I’ve tried to honor her memory by the way I run the café.”
He touched the back of her hand. “You’ve done a fine job honoring her and you’ll continue to do so for as long as you want.” She started to pull her hand away from his, but he tightened his grip, his eyes holding a wealth of emotions that both thrilled her and frightened her a little bit.
“Mary, there’s something I need for you to know,” he said. “I’m in love with you. I think I’ve been in love with you since the first time I walked into the café and saw you there. When this is all over I want you in my life, I want you and Matt as my family.” The words tumbled from him in one long breath, as if he’d been holding them in for a very long time and couldn’t halt their escape.
Mary pulled her hand away from his, her heart thudding the rhythm of uncertainty. She wished he hadn’t spoken the words aloud, at least not now...not yet. She wished he hadn’t basically thrown the ball of their future relationship into her court. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t sure she was ready for him.
“Cameron, you know I care about you very deeply, but everything is such a jumbled mess in my head, in my life right now.” She hated how her words dimmed the sparkling light in his eyes and tugged a tiny frown into the center of his forehead. “I just... I don’t want to...”
“It’s okay,” he said, halting her awkward, stumbling words. He finished his drink in one large swallow and then stood. “It’s getting late and I’m going to call it a night. Do you need anything else?”
She’d hurt him by not being able to tell him that she returned his love, that she wanted the same things he did for the future—a future together—but she couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. “No thanks, I’m fine. I think I’ll just sit here and finish the last of my wine.”
He gave her a curt nod and carried his glass into the kitchen. As he walked back through the living room he murmured a good-night and she did the same, her heart heavy.
Alone.
She was alone the way she always had been, alone and afraid and now with a heart half-broken. There was nothing more she’d like than to give Cameron her future, but what he didn’t understand was right now she didn’t quite believe she had one.
* * *
Cameron stared up at his darkened ceiling, feeling not only like a fool, but also with a heartache he hadn’t experienced since Bobby’s death.
She didn’t love him. He’d made a mistake, misjudged her. He’d put his heart out for her to take and she’d rejected it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Their lovemaking had been nothing more than an impulsive release on her part, an act that really had nothing to do with love.
His job was to protect her and Matt, and that was his only job, his only role in her life. It wasn’t his place to love her or need her. Somehow, someway he had to move forward knowing that.
He awakened the next morning with his heart still heavy, but with the resolve to be the friend and protector that Mary needed no matter how painful it was to him.
It was early enough that he was the first one up. He showered and dressed in his uniform for the day and then went into the kitchen to make coffee.