Read Online A Man for All Seasons by Heather MacAllister - Free Book Online Page A

that about her, but for the long haul, he wanted some spice and excitement. Not spice and excitement all the time—that would be exhausting—but enough to keep life interesting.
    Some guys didn’t want any of that. Ty knew men at work who wanted to come home at a certain time and know that dinner was pork chops on Tuesday and Chinese takeout onFriday, that Sunday afternoons were for kicking back on the couch and watching sports. Marlie was exactly right for those guys. He could see the appeal in that kind of life. Ty, himself, would get bored, but he sure was going to miss living with her. He never had any worries on the domestic front, and in return, he was glad to check out the funny noises in her car or fix a leaky faucet. They’d fallen into the pattern as though they’d been living together for years. Marlie was made to be a wife and mother.
    While Ty understood what her ex had been feeling, he bet that someday, Eric would be kicking himself for not realizing how good he’d had it.
    Heck, if the timing were different, Ty might be tempted by her, himself. But he wasn’t ready for a tame life of domestic responsibility. And when he was—if he ever was—Marlie would probably be married with a couple of kids.
    Axelle had stationed Ty by the auction tables to answer questions and distribute brochures. Nobody had any questions and everybody already had a brochure. Nothing much was going on yet. Truthfully, he was getting a little bored. Marlie, home alone, was probably really bored. So, when he spied one of her webcams, he turned away from the room, stuck his head right in front of the lens, and made a silly face.
    Â 
    M ARLIE SNORTED CHICKEN noodle soup.
    If Axelle caught him doing that, Ty was toast. Marlie had spent all afternoon working with her and knew the woman wanted every detail to be perfect tonight. Not only was this Axelle’s first fundraiser, it was also the first fundraiser for the Midtown Mentors. While it was a good program, Axelle had taken on the auction as a vehicle to draw attention to her restaurant. She wanted to impress the type of people who would frequent Ravigote with a classy, perfect-down-to-the-last-detail event. So if she had seen Ty making faces at Marlie, she would have had a cow. But only prime beef, of course.
    Marlie laughed, once she’d gotten soup out of her nose. Ty was lucky she hadn’t been streaming that particular camera over the internet.
    On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t have cared. That made her laugh again and she remembered the time she’d sprained her ankle playing soccer when she was eight, and she’d had to go to the camp infirmary. She’d been trying not to cry because her parents hadn’t been located yet and Tyler, who was supposed to walk her back to their cabin, wouldn’t know where she was. He was mad at her, anyway, because he wanted to go to the swimming pool with his team because of some girl he liked. Marlie was scared until she saw Tyler’s head pop up outside the examining room’s window. He’d made faces at her from behind the nurse, and she’d tried not to laugh so the nurse wouldn’t make him go away.
    He’d made that same face just now. He didn’t have much of a repertoire. Still, tears pricked her eyelids because Tyler could have gone to the pool that day after all. But instead, he’d stayed with her until her parents came and drove them back to the cabin.
    She hadn’t thought of the incident at all since then.
    Marlie wished she could communicate through the camera. Sure, she had his cell number, but it would have been more fun to make faces back at him.
    She punched in his number and watched him straighten and reach for his phone. “You goof! What are you doing?”
    â€œChecking to see if you were paying attention.”
    She laughed. “Why aren’t you mixing and mingling?”
    â€œI have brochure duty.” He held them up