Charity's Faith And Love

US Marshal Charity Caldwell has been in love with Adam Logue for what seems like forever, but the fellow marshal sees her as nothing more than a friend. Scarred by the shooting of his first love, Adam doesn't think he's capable of being in a serious relationship ever again.

Charity has faith that one day she'll get married and have the children she so desperately wants. The problem is, she doesn't want to spend her life with anyone but Adam. So with the help of his matchmaking family, she launches a plan to help Adam think of her as more than a friend, and even more than a woman--it's a plan to make him see she'll be the perfect wife!

Fun Facts:

• One of my favorite movies is Miss Congeniality, so after the serious subject matter of the first three books in the US Marshals series, I wanted the last book to be fun like the movie!
• Adam's bug sculpture was loosely based on sculptures Grandpa Joe used to make for my mom.  She collects dachshunds--both live and porcelain --and for Christmas each year, he'd make wonderful scenes of trouble our weiners had been in over the past year.  One year, he sculpted them eating the mailman, another year, both dogs were depicted happily dumping the trash!
• Of all the heroine's I've written, Charity is probably closest to the real me.  Not so much in looks or her bod--I wish!!  LOL!!--but in her general take on life.      

Reviews:

To Catch a Husband is a great, light-hearted read, to enjoy over an afternoon, or savored over a week. And then, once you've reached the end, do as this reviewer plans to do: hunt up the rest of Ms. Altom's books.

--Cindy, CK2s Kwips and Kritiques

U.S. Marshal Adam Louge can't get past the death of his fiancee 10 years earlier. Forced into counseling, his doctor suggests he start dating. Since Adam would rather face armed gunmen than date again, he formulates a plan to "date" fellow marshal Chastity Caldwell because she's safe. Too bad Chastity didn't get the memo. She's been in love with Adam forever. Now if she can just get him to realize that. To Catch a Husband, by Laura Marie Altom, is an entertaining read. Adam is so clueless that the reader won't be able to help but fall in love with him and root for Chastity.

--Kristi Ahlers

Laura Marie Altom stirs the emotions of love, as Adam can't forget his first love, and Charity can't get Adam to see her as anything but a friend. Thrown in a fellow officer that was showing interest in dating Charity, and watch the steam rise, as Adam wants to protect Charity from the fellow marshal who Adam called Suck-up Sam. Pick up a copy of To Catch a Husband and revisit the Logue family to see if Adam will recognize Charity as his soul mate.

--Helen Slifer Writers Unlimited Reviewer

Charity Caldwell has risen up through the ranks of the U.S. Marshal's office to become one of their lead agents. She can out run, out shoot and out think most of her male counterparts. What is frustrating her, however, is that in the process most of them have stopped seeing her as a female. Most especially in that list is her partner, Adam Logue. Adam comes from a tough family who are all also marshals but that doesn't explain why he can't see through to Charity's deeper self. When he looks at her, all he sees is his partner and friend, Bug. He has named her Bug because she collects insects. Heck, even her hobby is rather male dominated.

The time has come, however, when Charity's biological time clock is ticking and since she wants a husband and a family she might as well try her luck first with Adam. Charity's sister helps her begin her transformation with all new hair styles, new makeup and new clothing which leaves Adam rather surprised. His mind denies that she is female (not to mention the female for him) but his body sings another tune.

Even his family begins to see that Charity and Adam were meant to be so they begin their own campaign to get them together. It takes some doing though because while Charity suffers from some low self-esteem, Adam is dealing with having a past that includes a fiancée dying in his arms. That is a bit to overcome, is it not?

Don't give up on Charity though. I really enjoyed how Laura Marie Altom created a woman so real. I think all women go through periods in their life where they feel somehow less - whether that is in their looks, their career or whatever helps make them who they are. Now a woman can decide to just wilt and give into those doubts or they can be like Charity. She grabs the bull by the horns and goes after what she wants. She knows she wants Adam so she takes that path. However, in the course of doing it, she doesn't change who she is fundamentally. Yes, she fluffed up her looks but she didn't change her core being to impress someone else. And when she fears Adam can't give up his fears and doubts, she is really to move on and take care of herself. She stopped trying to change someone else and tried to do what was right for both of them. She wasn't willing to just be his crutch nor did she want less out of life.

I have to applaud the fortitude shown in the characters from the U.S. Marshals' office and thank Laura for bringing them to life in To Catch a Husband.

--Lori Graham, onceuponaromance.net

Excerpt:

"Bug," Adam complained. "You wouldn't believe the crap that psychologist said to me. I mean, it was like I wasn't even in the room. I wouldn't spout off B.S. like that to even Suck-up Sam. I swear, the woman's got it in for me, otherwise, she'd have never told me to actually start dating again."

Deputy US Marshal, Charity Caldwell--Bug, as friends, coworkers and family called her because of her vast insect collection--didn't look up from pinning the Goliathus cassicus she'd ordered off the web. Wow, was he a beauty--the West African beetle, not Adam.

Well, Adam was a beauty, too. But not because of his gold iridescent wings. She snort-laughed.

"I'm pouring out my heart, here. What's so funny?"

"You had to be there," she said, attention back on her acquisition. Adam had been on this tirade for a good thirty minutes. And truthfully, though she felt for the guy, she'd heard enough. She agreed that he shouldn't be dating--at least no one but her. She loved him. Had loved him ever since their first stake out when her foot-long chili-dog fell out the van window--long story--and he'd given her his.

"Where have you been lately that I haven't?"

"Nowhere," she said. "You had to be there was a figure of speech."

"I knew it. While I was stuck in traffic getting to and from the shrink's, not to mention the time I wasted at the shrink's, something good went down and I missed it. Let's hear it."

She rolled her eyes. Shoved her obnoxiously thick glasses higher on her nose.

"Tell me . . ." Like some powerful, long-legged cat, he sprung from his chair, lunging at her mounting plate. "Talk, or the cockroach gets it."

"It's not a cockroach, and--" You're seriously invading my personal space. For just a second, she squeezed her eyes shut, breathing him in. Had any man in the history of manhood ever smelled this good? Adam's scent was this crazy-hot mixture of everything she loved. Being outside on cold rainy days, gun powder and fast food hamburgers. In short, he was her total package--only to him, she was just another of the guys.

Why, oh why, couldn't she love someone else? Why was Adam's eternally messy dark hair such a turn-on? Why did she melt with just one look into his chocolate-brown eyes? Why did his big old toothy grins turn her stomach upside down? Biggest question of all--why did she love him when she wasn't even sure he realized she was a woman?

Okay, and maybe that wasn't the biggest question, because an even more burning question was, when her biological clock was tick, tick, ticking to the point she no longer had the luxury of being choosy, why couldn't she for once banish the guy from her heart?

"Spill," he continued to tease, taking the mounting plate from her lap, setting it on the coffee table.

"Adam . . ."

"Don't think I won't tickle you, because you know I will."

Before she had time to fight him, he'd wrestled her up and out of her chair, down to the floor, tickling her ribs and underarms until she couldn't breathe from laughing.

"Stop!" she shrieked. "I'll tell you!"

"'Bout time," he said, breathing heavy, straddling her hips. Crossing his arms with a look of utter victory, she wiped the smirk off his face by pulling her best wrestling move, flipping him off of her and square into the recliner. "Ouch!" he complained. "What'd you do that for?"

"You told me to spill," she said with a sweet smile. "You just never said what."

"Anyone ever told you, you're mean?"

"Been hearing it ever since I gassed my first water bug."

"That is pretty harsh," he said, leaning back against the recliner.

"My perfect sister thought so, too." But for as long as she could remember, Charity hadn't had a problem with any aspects of her predominantly male-oriented world--even if that meant gassing her own insect specimens. Wasn't something she liked even thinking about, but she used to be a girly girl, hanging out with her mom and big sister while her twin brother, Craig, was tight with their dad. Then Craig died when they'd been seven. He'd fallen out of a tree house he and their dad had taken an entire summer to build.

It took her father a year and another summer to recover from Craig's death, and Charity liked to think that in large part, she'd been the reason her dad had again began to live. Trouble was, in her heart of hearts, she knew to her father, she'd stopped being his daughter, and assumed the role of surrogate son. She'd taken up softball, stamp and bug collecting. Even as an adult, she still very much enjoyed her bugs--the hobby her father launched. She liked the calm it brought on. The camaraderie of sharing exciting new acquisitions with her dad--even if it was now mostly over the phone or internet, seeing how he and her mom lived in small-town Wyoming. The best part of the pastime, was the order it brought to her world where chaos typically reigned--at least where Adam was concerned.

Charity's dad was their town's sheriff, and he'd encouraged her to follow in his footsteps. And because she loved him--never wanted to again see hollow loss in his eyes--she'd done just that and made him proud. Sometimes, she feared, at the expense of her own dreams.

Don't get her wrong, she loved her work--it meant the world to her. It's just that lately, she'd started wanting more. Which was where her whole baby craving came in.

The more she'd hung out with her dad and other guys, the more easy it'd become. Until now, she felt more at home with guys than girls--most guys, that is. Up until meeting Adam. Adam bore the distinction of being the one man who made her crave being all woman. Therein lied the rub, seeing how he saw her as just another guy.

"Yeah," he said. "That lady doc today? She reminded me of your sis. Lots of make-up and perfect hair that looked like it wouldn't budge in a stiff breeze. Could've been a fifty-something hottie if she'd taken the know-it-all stick out of her ass."

Charity winced. Would Adam talk like that around a real girl? Not that she wasn't a real girl with all the requisite parts and needs, but--

"You want me to call in a pizza?"

"I thought the poor lady doctor with the stick in an unmentionable spot gave you an assignment?"

He shrugged, then leaned over and back for the cordless phone she'd left on an end table.

He pressed the Talk button. "Oh, man. It's dead. Bug, how many times do I have to tell you to put the phone back on the charger?"

"Sorry. Use your cell. Better yet, call from your own apartment."

"You know I like it more here. Besides, I'm under stress. You have to help me."

He was under stress? Ha! He didn't know the meaning. Staring out her fourth floor condo's window at a steady autumn rain, she massaged her left hand with her right.

"Okay?" Adam asked.

She glanced his way, wishing she still didn't feel breathless from having him all over her. What would it feel like having him on top of her for a purpose other than tickling? "Uh huh," she said in response to his question. "Lately, the rain seems to make me stiff. Must be getting old, huh?" She grinned, but the statement held a sad truth. No, she wasn't ancient, but at thirty-five, if she wanted more from her life--husband, kids, house--it was time to get on with it.

From the same table where he'd found the dead phone, he grabbed a tube of pear-scented lotion her girly-girl sister, Stephanie, gave her for her birthday. Only reason Charity had even opened it was because she'd run out of her usual generic brand.

He flipped open the green tube's top, waved it under his nose. "Nice." Glancing at the label, he whistled. "Victoria's Secret. La dee da."

From her spot on the floor a few feet from him, Charity lunged for the lotion, but missed when he held it over her head. "Do you always have to be such a spaz?" she asked.

He flashed her one of his slow grins that were so breathtakingly gorgeous, they were really starting to tick her off. "As a matter of fact," he said, lowering the lotion to squeeze a dollop into his palm. "Yes, I do have to be a spaz. Which is precisely why you love me, right?"

Why did he do this? Spout words that to him meant nothing, but to her--

She lost all capacity to think when he took her hands in his. He'd rubbed his hands together first, warming the amazing-smelling lotion, then smoothing it over and into hers, methodically massaging each finger until she was nearly purring from pleasure.

"How's this feel?" he asked.

"G-good."

"You okay?" he asked.

"Sure. Why?"

"I dunno. You seem tense."

Maybe because she was? How would he feel if the tables were turned? If he'd loved her for as long as he could remember, then some buttinski shrink told her to start dating other men? Only that was the problem. They weren't dating, and Adam didn't love her. So, yes. She was tense. Crazy-tense. Which led her to say, "That's good. On my hands, I mean. You can stop."

"Sure?"

She nodded.

He released her, and once again she could breathe.

"Okay, then, I left my cell in the truck, so let me run out and get that and I'll call in an order. What do you want? The usual?"

"I guess." Look at them. They were like an old married couple--only without the sex. Only, if Adam were hers, she'd want to--well, you know--every night of the week!

"You're grinning again," he said, pulling on a leather jacket before heading out the door. "When I get back, you'd better tell me what happened today, or else."

If by, or else, he meant he'd tickle her again? Charity would gladly take her chances.