I'LL BE WAITING ALWAYS

Deputy/Sheriff Miguel Kinkaid signing in. That Miz Barbara knows I have very little time for this sort of thing but she's real good at twisting arms. So I said I'd write on this thing--once at least--and she can stay off my back if I never show up here again.

When I was assigned here over two years ago now, I had planned on doing my duty and, as soon as Sheriff Cobb returned, I'd be back in the Austin area. It didn't work out that way. The sheriff was asked to stay there after his special schooling--and his teenage son was "over the moon" as he put it. I was given a choice--I could stay on here, or I could destroy a young man's dreams. So I stayed and went from deputy to sheriff in a year's time with only one major upheaval in the peace of this town.

The main reason I stayed, the one you will learn about when you read the book, has red hair, green eyes, and a loveable foster daughter. She can also be the most stubborn, exasperating woman I have ever known!

Things got a little hot around here. You are planning on reading the book, aren't you? Well, I guess you will have to in order to find out what a hotbed of crime this podunk country town became for a short time. No, I won't tell you all about it. No hints either. I want Miz Barbara to sell lots of books.
I'll just add it certainly is not boring around Harts Corner, Texas.

MM (yeah, I sometimes give in and call her by her initials since everyone else does) keeps me hopping. She can get that pretty little nose into more prickly cactus than any woman you'll ever see. And she's certainly not going to listen to me yell about the dangers she gets herself into. She will continue to do her thing--even though I do try to sweet talk her into letting me do my own job. She'll pull back a bit but then her mind starts gnawing on a mystery or a clue, and she's off again.

Bethy Rose and I are trying to convince her that we need to be a family. I've been on bended knee more than once. MM's weakening some but she still believes the Butler women are not good at relationships. I don't know why she still believes that; she's certainly good at this one. We've given this togetherness a try, under the same roof, for almost a year now. The roof's still on, none of us bear any scars from verbal or physical fights, and we can still shoot off lightning bolts between us at the proper moments. 

I'll keep asking. Bethy Rose will continue to tell MM's she's looking more like an Old Maid--though I dare not laugh when she does. One of these day's she'll walk down the aisle in one of those white satin and lace creations women have to have on that special day.

And I'll be waiting at the altar for her whenever she does it.