A Texas Soldier's Family Read Online Free Page A

two dozen members of the press were already assembled.
    His mother stepped up to the microphone. “Thank you all for coming. Like you, we have been shocked and alarmed to hear allegations that not all of the funds from the Lockhart Foundation have been sent as promised to the local organizations we assist. We haven’t yet been able to verify what has actually happened but we are looking into the matter.”
    “You seem skeptical that any payments were missed,” a reporter looking for a more salacious story observed.
    From the front row, where she was seated, Garrett could see Hope shaking her head, wordlessly warning his mother not to answer.
    But Lucille could not remain silent when her integrity was in question. “I admit I don’t see how it could have happened, when I signed all those checks myself.”
    At that, it was all Garrett could do not to groan. His mother had just announced she was personally liable for whatever had happened.
    “And yet there are now—at last count,” the chief investigative reporter from the Dallas Sun News said, “ sixteen charities claiming they’ve been shorted. It’s pretty suspicious that all those groups would be claiming the same thing, don’t you think?”
    Sixteen , Garrett thought, stunned. Just a few hours ago, when Hope had shown him the talking points on her tablet, it had been three .
    Hope got up gracefully to her feet and moved across the row to the aisle.
    “Why isn’t the Lockhart Foundation’s chief financial officer, Paul Smythe, answering any of our questions?” another correspondent asked.
    “He’s out of town on a personal matter,” Lucille said calmly. “When he returns, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
    “And if you don’t?” another journalist pressed, as Hope glided onto the stage. “Are you prepared to fire Mr. Smythe and/or anyone else involved in what increasingly looks like a severe misappropriation—if not downright embezzlement—of funds?”
    His mom faltered.
    Hope took the microphone. “Now, Tom, you know as well as I do that’s premature, given that nothing has been confirmed yet...”
    With grudging admiration, Garrett watched Hope field a few more questions and then pleasantly end the conference with the promise of another update just as soon as they had information to share.
    “So what’s next?” he asked when the family had reassembled in the foundation quarters.
    Hope lifted Max into her arms, cuddling him close, then looked at Lucille. “We move on to Step 2 of our scandal-management plan.”
    * * *
    “D ID YOU VOLUNTEER to drive us out to Laramie County? Or were you drafted?” Hope demanded two hours later, when Garrett Lockhart landed on the doorstep of her comfortable suburban Dallas home.
    She already knew he wasn’t gung ho about the plan to have his mother stay at the Circle H, the family’s ranch in rural west Texas, to get her out of the limelight until they could figure out what was going on with the foundation.
    Garrett shrugged. Clad in a blue shirt, jeans and boots, with the hint of an evening beard rimming his jaw, he looked sexy and totally at ease. “Does it matter?”
    Yes, oddly enough, it did matter whether he was helping because he wanted to or because he had been forced to do so. “Just curious.”
    He flashed a half smile. “Combination of the two.”
    It was like pulling mud out of a pit. “Care to explain?” Hope directed him and his duffel bag to the driveway, where a ton of gear sat, ready to be loaded into the back of her sporty red SUV.
    He fit his bag into the left side, where she pointed. “Given how we feel about each other, a three-plus hour journey locked in the same vehicle is bound to be a little awkward.”
    No kidding . Hope set a pack-n-play on top of his bag. “Then why bother?”
    He lifted her suitcase and set it next to his. “I don’t have a vehicle of my own to drive right now, and I won’t until I get to Laramie County and can borrow a pickup from one of my