Tea and Destiny Read Free

lumberjack. He managed to have a light tan on slightly freckled skin that by all rights should only turn beet-red in the sun. His hair and beard were a golden shade just shy of red. He had laughing blue eyes that could undress a woman in ten seconds flat, usually before the introductions were completed. He was bold and brash and irritating. His treatment of women had all the finesse of the caveman’s, yet they flocked to do his bidding. With a reaction that was part astonishment, part dismay, she’d observed his effect on them at the wedding.
    To top it off, his opinions on most subjects were diametrically opposed to her own. At the rehearsal dinner they’d been barely civil to each other. Their introduction had quickly escalated from hello into an argument about something so inane she couldn’t even recall it now. It might have had something to do with the hors d’oeuvres. Liz had witnessed the clashes with interest, which made her plea to Ann for help all the more unbelievable. Ann realized later it should have made her suspicious at once.
    “Think of him as a project,” Liz had challenged. “You’ll have weeks to work on him.”
    “I have six kids staying with me, plus a full-time career. I don’t need a project. I need a maid.”
    “You need a man.”
    “Oh, no, you don’t,” Ann said, just catching on to the direction of her friend’s devious thoughts. “Just because you’re crazy in love and radiantly happy doesn’t mean that everyone aspires to the same state of marital bliss.I do not need a man. I especially do not need a man who thinks that watching wrestling is cultural.”
    Liz had laughed. “Hank does not watch wrestling.”
    “Okay, maybe it was tractor pulls.”
    “You’re just a coward.”
    “Hardly. I just don’t have time to waste trying to rehabilitate a thirty-seven-year-old man. It’s too late.”
    “You’re a psychologist. You know perfectly well it’s never too late to reform someone.”
    “If they want to be reformed. What gives you the idea that Hank Riley has any desire to change?”
    “Think of it as an experiment. You could probably get a great research paper out of it.”
    “You’re stretching, Liz.”
    “I’m desperate,” Liz had admitted finally. “I already told him you’d do it.”
    “Why on earth would you do that?”
    “It was a calculated risk. When have you ever turned down a stray?”
    “Hank Riley has a home to go to. From everything you’ve told me and my own observations, he has more women to look after him than Hugh Hefner. He does not need me.”
    Liz merely smiled. Ann found the reaction irritating. And, unfortunately, challenging.
    “Maybe you’re the one I should be trying to reform,” Ann had finally said with a sigh of resignation. “Send him on. I suppose it won’t kill Jason and Paul to share a room for a couple of weeks. I’ll put Hank in Jason’s room. It’ll probably give him nightmares with all those awful sci-fi posters on the walls.” That thought had cheered her considerably.
    Liz, however, had looked very guilty. It had left her virtually tongue-tied for just long enough to panic Ann.
    “Okay, Liz. What is it you’re not telling me?”
    “Now don’t be upset,” Liz pleaded. “You can still back out if you really want to.”
    She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, Lord. It must be even worse than I thought.” She peeked. “Okay. Out with the rest of it.”
    “It’s just that it’s more like a couple of months, actually. Maybe three or four.”
    Ann had protested loudly at that, but she’d known she was beaten. There were moments when she’d even convinced herself it would be just fine. It would be good for the boys to have a male role model around. Not that Hank was the one she would have chosen, of course, but a little of that macho nature of his might be okay for them for a short time. He could take them fishing, play baseball. She could do those things perfectly well herself, but she knew in her heart it