A Texas Soldier's Family Read Online Free PDF Page B

looking over the property, which was quite beautiful in a wild, untamed way. Overgrown shrubbery, dotted with blossoms, filled the air with a lush, floral scent.
    He studied the sun disappearing slowly beneath the horizon in a streaky burst of yellow and red. “But she and my dad sold the place after my grandfather Henderson’s death, when she was twenty-three. They used the proceeds to start Dad’s hedge fund and stake their life in Dallas.”
    It was a move that had certainly paid off for Frank and Lucille Lockhart. They’d made millions. Hope turned her attention to the collection of buildings a distance away from the house. A couple of barns with adjacent corrals and a rambling one-story building with cedar siding and a tin roof. Maybe a bunkhouse? “When did the property come back into the family?”
    Garrett reached down and plucked out a long weed sprouting through the bushes and tossed it aside. “My dad bought it for my mom as an anniversary gift the year he sold his company so he could retire. They were going to fix the ranch up as a retreat. He purchased property in Laramie County for all five of us kids, too. So we’d all have a tangible link to our parents’ history here.”
    Hope shifted Max to her other breast, glad they had the light from the interior of the house illuminating the porch with a soft yellow glow now that it was beginning to get dark. It was just enough to allow her to see what she was doing and yet afford her some privacy, too.
    “I gather your dad also grew up in West Texas?”
    Garrett nodded, his handsome profile brooding yet calm as he surveyed the sagebrush, live oak trees and cedars dotting the landscape. “On the Wind River Ranch, here in Laramie County. My parents bought that back, too. My brother Wyatt started a horse farm there.”
    Max nursed quickly—a sign of just how hungry he’d been. When he was done, Hope shifted her sated son upright so he could burp, and used her other hand to refasten her nursing bra. “So you all have ranches then.”
    “No.” Garrett paced the length of the porch, both hands shoved in the back pockets of his jeans. The action drew her attention to his masculine shoulders and spectacularly muscled flanks. Without warning, she recalled the feel of his rock-hard leg beneath her palm, the heat radiating from the apex of his thighs. Wondered what it would be like to be held against all that sheer male power and strength.
    Then she pushed the disturbing notion away.
    Oblivious to the lusty direction of her thoughts, he paced a little farther away. “My dad gifted me a house and a medical office building in town.” He chuckled when Max let out a surprisingly loud belch.
    “It’s okay. I’m done,” Hope said.
    Garrett turned to face her. Noting she had rebuttoned her blouse, he ambled toward her once again. “Sage received a small café in the historic downtown section of Laramie and the apartment above it.”
    Hope spread the blanket out on the seat of the swing and laid Max down so she could change his diaper. “So you’d all eventually settle here?”
    He moved even closer, gazing fondly down at her sleepy baby. The tenderness in his gaze was a surprise.
    “That was their plan,” he admitted in a voice so gentle it made her mouth go dry.
    She drew in a breath for calm. Which, to her consternation, did not help.
    She still was wa-a-a-a-y too aware of him. Still far too curious about the man who was proving to be such an enigma—all Texas military gentleman one moment, all tough, edgy alpha male the next. Telling herself to dial it down a notch, Hope cocked her head. “What’s your plan?” she asked bluntly.
    His gaze dipped to her lips, lingered. “To sell both properties and move on.”
    “Your mom said your tour of duty was about up.”
    “Twenty-nine days. I saved my time off for the end, so I’m on R & R through the rest of it.”
    “And then...?”
    “I either reenlist and become a staff physician at Walter Reed in