His to Honor

By Z. Peabody

Braun Hartgrove, is a retired Army Ranger and detective with the Cody, Wyoming police department and a happy bachelor. After ten-years of serving his country, Braun is happy to settle into his life in his childhood town, enjoy his bachelorhood, and enjoy some nights with his military family at his favorite place, The Caverns.

While attending his future brother-in-law’s bachelor party, Braun gets an unexpected surprise, one that he will later figure out, too late is his greatest blessing. Now the bachelors’ life doesn’t seem so enjoyable. But Braun needs to wait to claim his blessing, and wait he will, because what is his, only God can take away.

"My past comes full circle when my future walks back into my life."

Natalie Sweetwater’s budding career in modeling is not part of her plan for her future, but this is an opportunity she can’t pass up. Natalie knows that walking the catwalk will get her to where she really wants to be, owning her own talent agency, but first, she has to pay her dues, to get to where she wants to be.

One night, while waiting on her connecting flight, Natalie comes face to face with her future, although she doesn’t know it at the time. Braun Hartgrove, is big, commanding and a handsome son-of-a-gun, everything she loves. But even he can’t keep her from her goal.

The Masters of the Caverns is a set of Novellas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Z. Peabody
• Release date: Jul 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798985589269

Z. Peabody

Peabody enjoys Christian Romance.A believer in the teachings of Christ, Z. came to Christ at any early age. It was her deep love of Christ's teachings that lead Z. to read Young Adult Christian novels as a teenager. Years later, Z. finally sat down and applied pen to paper to start writing her own Adult Christian Romance novel.“My characters are not perfect, and I wanted to write storylines that show that the walk to Christianity is not always an easy one. I want characters, that have lived a life, away from Christ, and then show how they come into the body of Christ, with a testimony.”"I hope you enjoy the stories that I have created. Each story, plot, Hero, and Heroine have been created to give honor to God. My novels are Christ-centered because God had taken up permanent residence in my life, and I want to give him glory in my writings.”Until next time.—Z. Peabody

Book preview

PROLOGUE

2019

Well, if you want to have a bachelor’s party, I guess Vegas is a good place to have one. The food is catered, and the drinks flow like water—not that anyone is partaking at the drinks table, which is full of craft beers. The penthouse we’re staying in is top-notch, and the company consists of my brothers in arms: Kane, Duke, Forrest, Chandler, Thane, me (I’m Braun), and of course, the groom, Thaddeus.

We flew our New York-born friend Thaddeus to Vegas, the City of Lights, to celebrate his impending nuptials. Well, whatever the name is, it’s not working here. Coming from Wyoming, a city full of naturally bright night lights, I can’t see the stars here for the lights.

We just got in yesterday, but it feels like it’s been a lot longer to me. I look around at the others. No one is paying attention to the boxing match playing on the big projection screen. They aren’t even touching the food, nicely laid out by the hotel caterers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the company of my God-fearing brothers, but I’d much rather be back home in Cody.

Thaddeus—or Thad, as we call him—is a good friend of ours. He served in the Rangers alongside me and a few of the others. When he called me from New York, a year ago, he told me he’d met the woman who God has blessed him with. Not only did she agree to wear his ring, but she also agreed to marry him.

Looking at the future groom, I can tell he’s not happy at this moment. He’s commented that there’s nothing here for him, but he took this trip for us—even though we don’t want to be here either—we only came at the insistence of his future wife, to make her happy, mainly because she is on a lady’s only trip to Paris. So now, we’re just all sitting around, some fiddling around with their phones, and some sitting bored on the balcony. And then there’s me, standing here, leaning against the bar, watching the room.

No one has spoken for a while. Everyone is enmeshed in his own thoughts, especially me. Something pulled me here. I’m not one for bright lights. That’s why I live miles from town, back home in Cody. Truth be told, I could care less about this trip, and apparently, Thad feels the same. He’s sitting on the couch on his phone, no doubt either reading or playing a game.

After dinner, we all went out for some entertainment. We caught a bad movie, then returned to the penthouse to watch a boxing match. There is not much else to do now. Being all Saved Men of God, we don’t gamble, none of us buck around, so we don’t go around picking up random women to sleep with. Ours is a ministry of men and women who live by the teachings of Christ Jesus.

This time of year, August, the foliage on the two hundred wooded acres surrounding my home is still green, and everything is still in bloom. My refuge. And yet, I’m here.

God has blessed me with plenty, and I don’t mind spreading that wealth around. All who are present, along with those who couldn’t make this trip, are blessed by the best, and we do our part in this world to bless others that don’t have all that they need, so are in need.

That is our belief, and we all live by the belief that all blessings come from God. For us to think otherwise is simply not done.

That is the main reason I joined The Caverns—a ministry located in one of the Cody mountains. What started out as a local restaurant and winery twenty years back now serves as the base of The Cavern Ministries, an organization created to serve all in need of economic counseling or spiritual, financial, or mental help.

The Caverns is run by its board members, comprised of the original members under the ministry of Forrest Kincaid who inherited The Caverns from his uncle. It is a place not just for those who love the Lord and prefer to live their life after the Word of God, it also serves the community as a mission and pantry.

Now, I wasn’t always Saved. Before I came to the Lord, I bucked around. When I got tired of that, I joined the Army Rangers. That’s when I met Forrest Kincaid. He was the general chaplin assigned to my base.

Through Forrest’s help, and of course the scriptures, I learned to curve the pull of my flesh and turn my life over to God. I’m not perfect, and I’m no Saint, but I do all right.

I leave my position at the bar, walk into the kitchen, and open the fridge door. Dang it, I grumble. No more water. I stride back out into the main area. I’m heading downstairs to get a few bottles of water, I announce and grab one of the penthouse keys from the coffee table.

Why don’t you just call in-service, Thad suggests. They could bring some up.

That would make sense, but I want to get out of this space for a while. Nope. I’ll go down and get some water. I open the door, shout, I’ll be back, and close it behind me.

This hotel came with a nice enough restaurant lounge, and as soon as the elevator doors open, I head straight to the lounge area. Settling in at the far corner of the bar, enjoying the solitude, I listen to the piano player strumming the keys on the piano in the corner, his tune adding to the superficially cheery ambiance. It seems like a nice respite from what is not going on upstairs.

I set my second now more-than-half-empty glass of water down, pay the bartender, and turn around to walk away, resolving myself to return to the lack of excitement back in the penthouse. Then I stop dead in my tracks.

I do a double take. I stare, with all my attention on the vision standing at the entrance of the lounge. In walks a tall, mocha-skinned beauty. My first glance at her seems so inadequate, this cowboy needs to take a second look. My attention is piqued. I’m old enough to appreciate a beautiful woman, and I’m praying that she is old enough to be appreciated by a grown man.

My eyes lift to her head full of chocolate hair bunched into a messy bun. If she let all those tresses loose, they may well fall past her shoulders. Then there are her beautifully shaped almond eyes with their long lashes. I can’t quite tell the color of those eyes. Not that it matters. I’ve seen more than enough. Judging by her tiny nose, rosy lips, and high cheekbones, this woman is beautiful. She’s in a plain gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans—and even adding in that boost provided by her combat boots, she’s tall…about five-foot-ten.

I find that I can’t look away from her. I like the physical, of course, but it’s my spirit-man that must be happy, so her spirit-woman is what I hope to get to know.

Still standing just inside the doors, her lovely head turns, left then right as she takes in the room. Mercy, I hope she’s not looking for someone. After another minute of her glancing around, I realize that she’s obviously looking for a seat. Before I can make my way over to her, she spots a small table near the window, overlooking the atrium below, she walks over and sits down.

I walk backwards until I’m standing beside my chair, just staring. I watch the bartender go over to her table, take her order, and then return later with a glass of water. Even after he’s placed the water on her table and return to the bar, I continue watching the lady.

She looks around the lounge a few times, then seems to pause. Her eyes do another sweep of the room, and that’s when she meets mine. We boldly stare openly at each other, each appreciating the other’s attributes. She is beautiful. I reach up and rub an ache in the middle of my chest. Feelings of possessiveness, need, and want assail me.

Now, I’m old enough not to get turned by a beautiful face, and I won’t, but when she looks in my direction, I flip. I notice now her hazel-green eyes, and I’m hooked. Her bi-racial heritage is prominent. I can’t take my eyes off her. When I blink, she looks away, glancing back out the window.

I reach across my chair, pick up my glass off the bar, and turn to look back over at her, leaning back with my elbows on the bar railing. I keep staring.

A bit of time passes, and our eyes meet several times. Shyness is not her forte. She’s been eyeing me, here and there, same as I’ve been admiring her.

I signal to the bartender without taking my eyes off her. He comes over. I nod in the woman’s direction as I ask the bartender, Did she order anything to eat?

No. Just water. You want me to send her another one? she asks.

No. That would be unsafe. The lady doesn’t know me, I say and then, without any hesitation, I walk over to her table.

As if anticipating my approach, she pulls her gaze from the window and looks dead at me. I watch as she uses her booted foot to push the chair opposite hers back from the table.

I stand at her table and smile. Well, thank you. I’ve never had a lady push my chair out for me before. May I sit down?

Mercy!

It’s hard not to swallow hard. This woman is even more beautiful close up. I was wrong—her eyes are green-hazel. And when she smiles up at me, the whole lounge seems to brighten with shards of light.

God, in his mercy, has truly blessed me this night. I came to the Lord later in my life, but once I took that step, I never looked back.

Of course, she replies, smiling.

I can appreciate a beautiful woman. I’m not dead, but this conversation will not go far as anything physical goes.

First…ID, I say.

She hesitates a second before she reaches into her backpack, then she pulls out a wallet, and flips it open to show me her ID. I check her age. Twenty-one.

There are blessings.

I remove my Stetson and sit down, setting my hat on my knee. All the while, my eyes have only left her face long enough to look at her ID. Now, I know a treasure when I see one, and clearly, one is right here, right now, sitting in front of me.

Convention? she asks.

I smile. Even with just one word, her sexy voice has dips and peaks like a beautiful song I could listen to all day and night.

I shake my head. You?

No. Layover.

How long? I follow up.

As if reading my mind, she answers, Five hours. I see her smile vanish.

I’m kicking myself. My voice sounds so raw as I speak to her and deeper than usual. I don’t mean to sound so gruff, but I’m choking up with emotion all the while as I look at her. This woman is absolutely beautiful.

May I ask your name? I manage after a second. It seems I can only force out a few words at a time. My tongue is tied.

Valerie.

I raise an eyebrow. She spoke her name with a hint of a laughter. Though she had tried to slide her fingers over