along the top of each of those newly leafed branches.
“That’s why I love ocotillos so much,” Joanna said.
“Why’s that?”
“Because it takes so little rain and time for them to spring back to life. It always seems like a miracle to me.”
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“I feel the same way about you,” Butch said.
She smiled, took his hand, and squeezed it.
When they stepped out of the Subaru in the parking lot at Tombstone Canyon United Methodist Church, the sky overhead was a brilliant washed-clean azure with a few puffy white clouds perched on top of the surrounding red- and-gray hills. But with the onset of the rainy season, the humidity was also on the rise-so much for Arizona’s supposedly dry heat.
Church that morning was warm and awkward, too. Marliss Shackleford was there, front and center, along with her fiance, Richard Voland, a man who had once been Joanna Brady’s chief deputy and whose resignation she had been forced to engineer and accept.
Out of law enforcement, he now worked as one of Cochise County’s few private investigators.
Marliss Shackleford and Richard Voland had been engaged for some period of time with no hint of whether or when they would take the plunge and marry. During the time of sharing, however, Marliss ended all speculation by standing up and announcing that they had recited their marriage vows in a private ceremony on Saturday of the previous week and that the wedding cake to be served during the social hour after church would be part of an informal reception.
Sitting several pews back, Joanna was stunned by this news. Her ongoing difficulties with Marliss and the complications surrounding Richard Voland’s resignation made her relationship with the bridal couple strained, to say the least. She resented the idea that she was being coerced into attending a surprise wedding reception.
All through Marianne Maculyea’s sermon, Joanna stewed about the upcoming social hour and made up her mind to leave as soon as the last hymn was sung. That plan was 227
foiled by Jenny’s disappearing into the basement for cake and punch before Joanna had a chance to stop her.
Taking Butch’s arm, she allowed herself to be led into the social hall with about as much enthusiasm as a prisoner being led to execution. A beaming Marliss, with Richard Voland at her side, waited at the door, greeting each new arrival.
As Joanna approached, Marliss leaned over and whispered in Joanna’s ear, “Love is lovelier the second time around-but then I guess you and Eleanor already figured that out.”
Marliss’s first husband and high school sweetheart, Bradley Shackleford, had been out of the picture almost as long as Joanna could remember. Under her cloud of unruly and newly frosted curls, Marliss looked so undeniably happy that Joanna couldn’t help but soften a little.
“Yes, we did, Marliss,” Joanna agreed. “Congratulations to both of you.”
Wandering through the social hall with paper cups of punch in their hands, Joanna and Butch were the recipients of their own greetings and well-wishes. Regardless of how they had learned of Joanna’s pregnancy, everyone there made some comment about the news. Finished with her punch, Joanna was standing to one side of the room and waiting for Butch to finish a conversation with Jeff Daniels when Richard Voland sidled up next to her.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
Joanna looked at him warily. Everyone knew that, in the aftermath of his divorce, Voland had fallen victim to drinking too much, but no one other than Butch knew that the real reason behind Richard Voland’s resignation from the sheriff’s department had been his unrequited crush on Joanna Brady. She had seen him occasionally since then in social settings. Basking
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in this new romance with Marliss, Voland appeared to have overcome his personal demons and his feelings about Joanna, too, but she was nonetheless leery of spending too much time in his presence.
‘All right,” she said. “And you?”
“Couldn’t be better,” he replied. “Business is picking up a little, and you know Marliss. She keeps me hopping.”
“Yes,” Joanna agreed. “I’m sure she does.”
“There is one thing we don’t agree about, though,” Voland added.
“What’s that?”
“You.”
“Richard …” Joanna began as a blush started forming at the base of her neck. “Really, I-“
‘About the election,” Voland added quickly. “Marliss is anything but unbiased when it comes to Ken Junior, and I think she’s wrong. Pregnant or not, you really are the best man for the job.”
Across the room, Marliss noticed Joanna and Richard Voland standing together. Tossing her mane of curls, she caught her husband’s eye and summoned him with a come-hither finger. Joanna’s blush, which had started for one reason, finished for another.
“Thank you, Richard,” she said. “I really appreciate that.”
Butch appeared at her side half a minute later. “Ready?” he asked.
