The Guardian's Honor

The Guardian's Honor
Marta Perry

Coast Guard officer Adam Bodine finally finds his long-vanished great-uncle. But the secretive elderly man has adopted some new kin…single mother Cathy Norwood and her disabled little boy. Adam is grateful when Cathy convinces his relative to reunite with the Bodines. Until he learns why she's so eager. Though his heartstrings are tugged by their plight, he knows he doesn't deserve them in his life–not with his past. Unless one big extended family can teach Lieutenant Bodine something about love and honor.

It couldn’t be too comfortable for Adam to carry her son, with those metal braces bumping against his chest, but it didn’t deter him.

Adam was looking up at Jamie, laughing at something, and the expression on Jamie’s face made Cathy’s heart stop.

A fierce longing swept through her to have that for Jamie—a strong man to carry him on his shoulder, to make him laugh, to show him how to grow up into a good man.

She pushed the thought away just as fiercely. It wasn’t likely to happen. Just look at how Adam had reacted, stepping away so quickly after he’d kissed her. That should tell her all she needed to know.

But there was more to know.

MARTA PERRY

has written everything from Sunday school curricula to travel articles to magazine stories in more than twenty years of writing, but she feels she’s found her writing home in the stories she writes for the Love Inspired lines.

Marta lives in rural Pennsylvania, but she and her husband spend part of each year at their second home in South Carolina. When she’s not writing, she’s probably visiting her children and her six beautiful grandchildren, traveling, gardening or relaxing with a good book.

Marta loves hearing from readers, and she’ll write back with a signed bookmark and/or her brochure of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. Write to her c/o Steeple Hill Books, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279, e-mail her at marta@martaperry.com, or visit her on the Web at www.martaperry.com.

The Guardian’s Honor

Marta Perry

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

—Colossians 3:13

This story is dedicated to Bill and Molly Perry,

my dear brother and sister-in-law. And, as always,

to Brian, with much love.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

“What are you doing?” The woman’s soft Georgia drawl bore a sharp edge of hostility.

Adam Bodine took a step back on the dusty lane and turned toward the woman with what he hoped was a disarming smile. “Just admiring your garden, ma’am.”

Actually, the garden was worthy of a second glance. By early September at the tail end of a hot, dry summer, most folks would find their tomato plants shriveled to a few leafless vines, but these still sported fat red tomatoes.

The woman rose from where she’d been kneeling, setting a basket of vegetables on the ground, the movement giving him a better look at her.

She was younger than he’d thought in that first quick glance. A faded ball cap covered blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, its brim shielding her eyes so that he couldn’t see what color they were. Light, he thought. Her slim shoulders were stiff under a faded, oversized plaid shirt, giving the impression that she braced herself for something unpleasant. Was that habitual, or did his appearance account for it?

“These tomatoes are about ready to give up,” she said, still guarded. “Did you want something?”

He did, but it was far better if this woman didn’t know what had brought him to the ramshackle farm deep in the Georgia mountains. At least, not until he knew for sure he was in the right place.

“Just passing by.” He glanced back down the winding lane that had brought him to what he hoped was the last stop on a long hunt. Please, Lord. “I don’t suppose you get many strangers up here.”

“No.” The tone said she didn’t want any, either. “Look, if you’re sellin’ something…”

A chuckle escaped him. “Do I look like a salesman?” He spread his hands, inviting her to assess him.

There wasn’t much he could do to make his six-foot frame less intimidating, but he tried to ease his military bearing and relax his face into the smile that his sister always said was at its most boyish when he was up to something. At least the jeans, T-shirt, and ball cap he wore were practically a uniform these days.