He sounded so genuinely upset that Joanna felt sorry for him. “You don’t have to say anything, George. It’s all right. Butch asked me to marry him and I said yes. That’s all there is to it. An item in Marliss Shackleford’s column certainly wouldn’t be my first choice for letting the world know, but now the word’s out, and it’s all right.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Have you talked to your mother then?”
“Not yet.” Joanna laughed. “I talk a good game, but maybe not quite that good.”
“I understand,” George Winfield said with obvious relief. “But do call her as soon as you can. For all our sakes.”
“All right,” Joanna said. “I will.”
As soon as she ended that call, Joanna tried returning Fran’s call, only to be told that the assistant medical examiner was unavailable. Well, Joanna thought, it turns out so am I.
She stood up and started into the lobby to tell Kristin she was leaving. Frank Montoya met her at the lobby door. “For someone who didn’t come to work today, you’ve had yourself quite a day,” he observed.
“Is everything under control?” she asked.
“As much as it can be.”
“Good. I may not look sick, but I’m having a sick day nonetheless. Since you’ve done a great job of handling things so far, keep right on doing it. We’ll talk about all this tomorrow morning. What do you say?”
“You’re the boss,” Frank replied. “Tomorrow it is.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
With that, Joanna left the office and rushed home, where she showered for the second time that day. This time she worried over her makeup and spent the better part of half an hour trying to get her hair just right. When it came time to dress, she chose with care, settling at last on her pearl-gray suit with an off-white silk blouse. She liked that outfit especially. It made her seem taller, and it showed off her red hair and green eyes to good effect.
Pausing in front of her dresser after spraying on one final spritz of perfume, she opened the top drawer and pulled out a tiny velvet-covered jewel box. She opened it and stared.it the contents for some time before dropping the box into her pocket. Minutes later, the dogs’ frantic barking announced Butch’s arrival.
She hurried out to the car before he had a chance to come inside. “So, Mr. Unemployed,” she said, getting into the Out back. “Are you sure you can afford to take me out to dinner?”
Butch grinned at her. “At least Marliss spelled my name right.”
Joanna rolled her eyes. “What did you do with Junior?”
“Moe and Daisy Maxwell,” Butch answered. “As soon as I told them what kind of a bind I was in, they offered to take him, and I accepted. Besides, Junior knows Daisy and he likes her. She promised him another chocolate shake.”
“And where are we going? Not Daisy’s, I presume.”
“The Rob Roy, of course,” Butch said, naming a recently built golf course out near Palominas. The clubhouse contained an upscale dining room that had quickly become one of the hot-spot dining places in all of Cochise County.
“Since I’m a sentimental slob, where else would I take you? After all, that’s where we had our first real date. You look beautiful, by the way.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Their table was in a secluded corner of the elegant dining room. A chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot was waiting for them when they arrived, as was a beautiful bouquet of roses-a dozen of the delicately colored apricot ones that were Joanna’s favorite.
“There’s only one thing missing,” Butch apologized, as they sipped their first glass of champagne. “I love you. I’m thrilled that you’ve said yes, regardless of whether or not it was under duress because your mother was holding a gun to our heads. But you were so damned busy today that I couldn’t catch up with you long enough to drag you to a jeweler. Which I’m sure I should have. After all, with our engagement already public knowledge, you’d better turn up with a ring pretty damned soon or we’ll be in even more trouble.”
Joanna fingered the stem of her champagne flute. “Have you priced engagement rings lately?” she asked.
“Well, yes. I have. But I’m fearless,” he added. “I’m. sure I can handle it.”
“What would happen it I told you I already have an engagement ring?”
His face fell. “You don’t mean that there’s someone else…”
Had Butch not been so serious, it might have been comical. Reaching in her pocket, Joanna fished out the tiny box. She flipped it open to reveal the diamond engagement ring that lay inside, then she slid the open box across the table.
For a long moment Butch stared at the ring with its glittering emerald-cut stone. “What’s this?” he asked finally.
“Andy gave it to me,” Joanna explained. “I never had a diamond before we were married. We couldn’t afford it. And with Jenny coming along so soon, we couldn’t afford one for a long time afterward, either. Andy bought it for me for our tenth anniversary, but by the time it arrived, he was in the hospital dying. I tried wearing it for a while. But finally I just put it away in a drawer and left it there. Andy gave it to me, Butch, and it was exactly the kind of ring I would have chosen for myself. But it never meant what it was supposed to mean. Or what it can mean now-for us.”
“It’s very beautiful,” Butch said. He was still staring at the ring with downcast eyes.
“Yes, it is,” Joanna agreed.
“And you’re suggesting that we use this ring-Andy’s ring-for our engagement, yours and mine?”
“It was Andy’s anniversary present,” Joanna said. “It would be our engagement ring. Don’t forget, you and Andy are both a part of my life now, Butch. You always will be.”
For what seemed an eternity, he continued to stare at the ring. Then, carefully, he pried it out of its velvet-covered bed. When he looked up at her, he was grinning.
“One thing about me, I’m smart enough to know a good deal when I see one. As far as the world is concerned, even though I have money in the bank, I am currently unemployed. It was nice of Marliss to point that out, by the way. So, since Andy already bought this and since I can be pretty well assured that the size is right, once and for all, Joanna Lathrop Brady, will you marry me?”
“Yes, I will,” she returned. With that, he slipped the ring on her finger.
Myron Thomas, co-owner of the Rob Roy, had been observing them from a discreet distance. “Bravo, bravo!” he exclaimed. “Let me be the first to congratulate you. What an extraordinarily beautiful ring,” he added, as he refilled both their flutes. “Did you choose it all by yourself?”
Myron’s question was addressed to Butch, who looked at Joanna and smiled. “No,” he said. “I believe you could say we picked it out together.”
Dinner passed quickly. They skirted around the when-and-where wedding questions in favor of less difficult subjects, only one of which was Jenny’s suspension from school. Joanna would have been content to keep on talking the night away, but at nine o’clock sharp, Butch looked at his watch and signaled for the check. “Daisy has to be in to open the restaurant by five o’clock in the morning. I promised it wouldn’t be any later than ten when we stopped by to pick up Junior.”
While the waiter headed for the cashier’s station, Butch turned back to Joanna. “Which reminds me. We haven’t talked about that at all. Did you make any progress on the Junior situation today?”
“No. How could I?”
Butch seemed perplexed. “But we talked about it last night, and I thought-”
“Talked about what?”
“About checking with the authorities in South Dakota.”