Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,73
he stood at the window and stared outside where the sun was just peeking up over the horizon.
He shouldn’t have confessed his feelings to her in the midst of the chaos, with the anxiety that a bomb could explode at any moment. Maybe if he had waited longer her reply would have been different.
He jerked away from the window, once again feeling like his thoughts were foolish. The truth of the matter was that he’d probably been right when he’d believed that he might be her transitional man. He’d clean up the danger around her, he’d shown her that lovemaking could be wonderful again and that was all that his role in her life would remain, what it was meant to be.
All his fantasies about her and Matt living in this house, filling it with life and laughter had been nothing more than the fantasies of a lonely man. Maybe it was time he looked around at some of the other women in town who had made it quite clear they would be up for a date with him. Still, the idea of dating anyone else held no appeal. Loving Mary had become a habit he had to learn to break and what he needed most was time.
It was almost eight when he dropped Matt off at school and then got back into the car to drive Mary to the café. She’d been quiet since getting up, distant and introspective.
As they drank coffee and Matt got ready for school, their conversation had been strained and superficial. He wished he hadn’t told her how he felt. He wished he would have kept his feelings deep inside so they could continue to enjoy the light, easy friendship they’d had before last night.
“Nice to see the sunshine,” she said as they headed toward the café.
“A day or two of this and the snow will be completely gone,” Cameron replied. As he pulled into the café, he frowned at the amount of cars and trucks already parked. There was even a delivery truck pulled up from Riley’s Furniture Store.
“What the heck?” Mary muttered from beside him. “Do you know anything about what’s going on?”
“Don’t have a clue,” he replied honestly.
Together they got out of the car and he was surprised to see that the Open sign on the café was still turned to Closed. The café was always open by six-thirty in the morning. Why were all of these people here and why was the café still closed?
Obvious concern created a creased frown across Mary’s forehead. She pushed open the door that was unlocked. Cameron was just behind her as a group of people with paint cans and rollers, paintbrushes and cleaning supplies all yelled surprise in unison.
Several waitresses were there, as well as Rusty. Junior stood next to George Wilton who wielded a paint roller like it was a foreign object that had magically appeared in his hand. There were other familiar faces and even Brandon Williams was there in his scooter, his lap filled with a variety of cleaning supplies and rags.
Courtney Chambers stepped forward, her pretty face wreathed in a smile. She wrapped Mary in a big hug and then stepped back from her. “You have done so much for all of us and now we think it’s time we give a little back to you. We’re here to clean up and paint the back rooms and we’ve all chipped in and bought you the navy-and-beige sofa that was in the window at Riley’s Furniture Store. You told me once that you thought it was pretty. Hopefully by tomorrow you’ll have your place back the way it should be.”
As she was talking, Mary’s eyes had welled up with tears. “We figured we’d all work through the morning and get as much done as we could,” Courtney continued, “and then you can go ahead and open up for lunch and some of us will continue working in the back while the others man the café. Does that sound like a plan?”
The tears spilled onto Mary’s cheeks and she nodded her head affirmatively and then turned and ran back out the front door.
“I think we must have overwhelmed her,” Courtney said as Cameron went after her.
She ran straight to his car and got into the passenger seat. He climbed in behind the steering wheel and didn’t say anything as she cried for several minutes, her face averted from him.
She finally pulled a tissue from her purse, swiped at her cheeks, and the unexpected