“Where do you think?” Butch returned, nodding in the direction of the corral, where a cloud of dust showed that Jenny and Kiddo were once again racing around a set of barrels. Closer at hand, the dogs were still chasing one another in ever-widening circles. “Should we bring them inside?” Butch added. “What if the new dog decides she doesn’t like it here and takes off?”
“I think she’ll be all right,” Joanna said. “We’ll put out food and water. What time are George and Eleanor due?”
“Seven.”
“It’s too hot to stand out here talking,” Joanna said. “I’m going inside to change.”
Inside, the rammed-earth home with its thick walls, high ceilings, and state-of-the-art air-conditioning was pleasantly cool. Joanna hurried down the long bedroom-wing corridor, shedding her uniform as she went. After a quick shower she returned to the kitchen, where the tantalizing smell of baking bread wafted from Butch’s well- used bread machine.
Butch was working at the center island, tearing and spinning lettuce for salad.
“How’d it go today?” he asked.
“Not much progress on the Mossman homicide,” she told him, snagging a baby carrot off the granite-tiled countertop and munching away. “Had to empty the jail this afternoon because the AC went out. I ended up raising hell with the AC contractor to get him to have it fixed today.”
“You emptied the jail?” Butch asked. “What did you do with all the prisoners?”
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“Right about now they’re all out in the rec yard having a picnic. The AC’s back on, but it’s still too hot to put the prisoners back in their cells.”
“Isn’t that dangerous, having all of them out at once?” Butch asked.
“They’re mostly misdemeanors,” Joanna responded. “Besides, we brought in extra personnel to help out. It’s fine. Now what can I do to help?”
“Sit,” Butch said. “Take a load off. Have you told Marianne and Jeff the news?”
After years of being childless, Joanna’s friend, the Reverend Marianne Maculyea, and her husband, Jeff Daniels, had finally adopted twin babies from China, Ruth and Esther. Months after losing Esther to a fatal heart condition, they had been surprised and delighted to learn that Marianne was pregnant. That baby, a boy named Jeffrey Andrew, was a fifteen-month-old red-haired handful, while Jeffy’s big sister, Ruth, would head for kindergarten in the fall.
“Not yet,” Joanna admitted. “I haven’t told anyone, not even Eva Lou and Jim Bob.”
Jim Bob and Eva Lou Brady, Joanna’s former in-laws, were still very much a part of her and Jenny’s lives and of Butch’s, too. “I decided that the best way to keep peace in the family was to tell Mother first, although I did mention it to Frank.”
“What did he have to say on the subject?”
“I told him about our idea of giving Marliss an exclusive. He didn’t like it much.”
“Maybe we should listen to him,” Butch said. “After all, he’s in charge of media relations.”
“But it’s our baby,” Joanna objected. “And we’re doing this our way.”
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Butch chuckled. “Our way or the highway.”
Which sounded fine, right up until dessert was served, which is when Joanna finally screwed up her courage enough to drop the bomb.
“You’re not!” Eleanor Lathrop Winfield exclaimed at once, pushing aside her untouched dish of homemade ice cream.
Joanna nodded. “I am,” she said.
“What are you going to do, then, drop out of the race? Resign?”
“Neither one,” Joanna answered. “I’m going to run for reelection and hopefully win.”
Eleanor immediately appealed to Butch. “Surely you’re not going to let her do this.”
“Let?” Butch asked mildly. “This isn’t up to me, Eleanor. It’s up to Joanna.”
“George,” Eleanor said. “You tell them. It’s just not possible to be a new mother and sheriff all at the same time.”
“Why not?” George asked, carefully spooning his ice cream.
“Yes,” Jenny agreed. “Why not?”
“Who’s going to look after the baby?” Eleanor demanded.
“I am,” Butch said.
“Have you ever taken care of a baby before?”
“Never,” Butch said. “But that’s the way it usually is with first-time parents-on-the-job training. I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”
“He cooks a mean steak,” George Winfield offered. Eleanor answered her husband’s comment with a scathing look.
