J. Jance - Outlaw Mountain

Marianne laughed. “Of course I’m not quitting, but the first thing I have to do is rewrite my Thanksgiving sermon once more. The bulletin’s going to be out of date, but that’s all right, too.”

“Hold on a minute, Mari,” Joanna said. “I have to ask someone a question.” She turned to Butch. “What do you think about having a pregnant minister?” she asked.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said.

“But for a wedding?” she asked. “What about that?”

Butch shrugged. “That’s fine, too.”

“What about April then?”

Butch’s face split into a wide grin. “April would be just fine, but what pushed you over the edge? I thought you weren’t ready to think about setting a date.”

“Daisy,” Joanna said, holding the phone away long enough to give Butch a brief kiss.

“Daisy?” he asked.

“That’s right,” Joanna said. “You heard her. She told me not to be too predictable.”

When dinner ended, Joanna’s Bronco and Butch’s Subaru were the last two cars in the parking lot. With an almost full moon rising overhead, Butch gathered a shivering Joanna into arms.

“Any plans for the weekend?” he asked.

“No. Why?”

“I had thought we’d be going to Tucson this weekend to look for a ring, but now that the ring situation is under control, I’ve decided to spend my ring money on something else.”

“What?” Joanna asked.

“Don’t you want it to be a surprise?”

“Tell me.”

“After you told me about your Colt misfiring, I did a little research. It turns out Colt 2000s are notorious for doing just that-misfiring. You need a new gun-another Glock maybe.”

“But, Butch,” Joanna objected, “I paid a ton of money for that gun.”

“And it doesn’t work,” Butch replied. “If you’re going to be my wife and sheriff, too, you’re going to have a gun that works.”

“Right,” Joanna said. “It looks like we’re going shopping.”

J.A. Jance is the author of the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, and two standalone thrillers. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.