Silent Killer Page 0,108
morning came, they showered together and made love again. Cathy tried not to think about the past and tried even harder not to wonder about the future. She wasn’t a seventeen-year-old kid with her head in the clouds and a bunch of foolish dreams in her heart. She was thirty-four, widowed and the mother of a son who would soon turn sixteen. She had somehow survived her husband’s horrific murder, a mental breakdown that nearly destroyed her and a mother and in-laws who had been determined to keep her son from her. Maybe she had been weak and helpless. Maybe she had needed a trial by fire, so to speak, to harden her into a mature woman. All she knew was that she would never again allow other people to make her decisions and tell her what to do. Whatever she had with Jack this time around, be it sex or love or a combination of the two, she wanted it. If their relationship turned out to be a short affair, so be it. And if it became more…
Jack came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. She squirmed against him.
“Go sit down,” she told him. “The pancakes are almost ready.”
“How about I pour us both a cup of coffee?” He released her and reached out to retrieve two mugs from the overhead cupboard.
“Thanks. And while you’re being my helper, get the syrup out and put it on the table. I’ve got two kinds. Plain pancake syrup and blueberry flavored. The blueberry is Seth’s favorite.”
“How about that. It’s my favorite, too. One more thing your son and I have in common.”
Cathy flipped the four large pancakes on the griddle before replying. “What else do you and Seth have in common?” She tried her best to keep her voice calm and even.
“You,” Jack replied. “You’re important to both of us. You’re his mom, and you’re my…You’re my what? Girlfriend? Lover?”
Cathy breathed a sigh of relief. “I like the sound of both. How about girlfriend in public and lover in private?”
“So you’re okay with my referring to you in public as my girlfriend?” He popped her on the butt before he poured their coffee.
“Yes, I’m okay with it, just as long as I can call you my boyfriend.” She giggled. “God, we sound like a couple of kids, don’t we.”
He set their full mugs on the table, and then searched the cupboards for the syrup. “How do you think your in-laws will feel about your dating me?”
“I’m sure they’d prefer that I date Donnie Hovater.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they would.”
Cathy flipped the pancakes onto two plates, turned off the griddle and carried the plates over to the table. “I prefer you.” She set the plates on the table. “I like Donnie, but he doesn’t put butterflies in my stomach or make me shiver when he touches me or—”
Jack yanked her into his arms, nuzzled her neck and then he lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “In case there’s any doubt in your mind, I’m crazy about you, honey.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe, gave him a quick kiss and said, “I’m crazy about you, too.”
His smile vanished. “Sooner or later, we’ll have to talk about it, you know. About the past. Our past together and our separate pasts.”
“Not now. Not yet.”
“No, not yet, but someday soon.”
Yes, someday soon, she would have to tell him why she had married Mark Cantrell. But did she dare tell him the truth?
Seth stopped outside the kitchen when he heard his grandmother mention his mother’s name. What was she doing here so early in the morning? Grandmother lived nearby and often dropped in unexpectedly, but seldom for breakfast. He stood quietly by the closed door and listened.
“You seem terribly upset, Elaine,” Mona said. “Why don’t you sit down and let me get you some coffee.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I just got off the phone with Gayle Laney. She lives across the street from Cathy.”
“Yes, dear, I heard you, but when I asked if Cathy was all right, you said that she was, so why are you so upset?”
“Where’s J.B.?”
“He’s shaving.”
“I don’t know if we dare tell him about this.”
“About what?”
“Gayle was doing what she believed was her Christian duty,” Elaine said. “She’s not a busybody, and she even said it was none of her business, but she thought, as Cathy’s mother, I should know.”
“For goodness sakes, know what?”
“That there was a strange car—a Corvette—parked in Cathy’s