A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons
HEATHER MACALLISTER

Marlie Waters's Christmas List:1. Get a roommate so she can afford her mortgage after broken engagement.2. Check! Her old family friend Tyler Burton needs a room. So what if he's been her longtime crush?3. Ramp up her home-business success.4. Oops. She works so much that Ty presents her with a 12 Days of Christmas charity auction dating package–just to get her out of his hair!5. Okay, get a move on with twelve surprisingly fun dates.6. Hmm. Start to see Ty as pretty hunky…and living under the same roof.7. Wow. Kiss Ty. Get hot 'n' heavy under the tree one night!8. Start to believe in holiday magic…9. …until Ty breaks her heart again.10. Make a new Christmas list. Well, maybe after unwrapping Ty just one more time….

Praise for Heather MacAllister…

“Witty, romantic, sexy and fun…and Heather’s books aren’t bad, either.”

—New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd

“Curling up with a Heather MacAllister romance is one of my favorite indulgences.”

—New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

“For quirky fun and sexy wit, Heather MacAllister is my go-to author.”

—Award-winning author Amanda Stevens

“Clever, funny and with a completely satisfying ending, this is a must read.”

—RT Book Reviews on His Little Black Book

“Great humor and great sex abound.”

—RT Book Reviews on Undressed

“A one-sitting read for me. I got so caught up in this story that I really didn’t want it to end.”

—The Best Reviews on Male Call

“The plot was inspired, the dialogue was witty and the secondary characters were extraordinary.”

—Writers Unlimited on How to be the Perfect Girlfriend

Dear Reader,

I’ve always been fascinated by the twelve days of extravagant Christmas gifts given by someone’s true love in the carol. What was with all the poultry? Every year, there are articles about updating the gifts, but what I admire is the time and thought involved in giving presents for twelve days. You’ve really got to like somebody to go to that much trouble. I reversed things in A Man for All Seasons because Tyler discovers his childhood friend, Marlie, is his true love—but only after he gives her dates with twelve other men.

I hope you enjoy their story and Marlie’s dates based on the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”

Merry Christmas!

Heather MacAllister

www.HeatherMacAllister.com

A Man for All Seasons

Heather MacAllister

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Heather MacAllister lives near the Texas gulf coast where, in spite of the ten-month growing season and plenty of humidity, she can’t grow plants. She’s a former music teacher who married her high school sweetheart on the 4th of July—is it any surprise that their two sons turned out to be a couple of firecrackers? Heather has written more than forty romantic comedies, which have been translated into twenty-six languages and published in dozens of countries. She’s won a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award, RT Book Reviews awards for best Harlequin Romance and best Harlequin Temptation, and is a three-time RITA

Award finalist. When she’s not writing stories where life has its quirks, Heather collects vintage costume jewelry, loves fireworks displays, computers that behave and sons who answer their mother’s emails. You can visit her at www.HeatherMacAllister.com.

To Andy,

my man for all seasons

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

1

“SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!” Marlie Waters winced at her housemate’s grim expression.

Tyler stood in the doorway of her home office and jammed his arms into his shirt sleeves. He looked exactly like a man who’d been about to get laid and had been interrupted. Because he had been. By her. Not the laying, the interrupting.

“I was distracted.” Marlie gestured to her computer. “I was concentrating on the website and checking to make sure it looked the same in every browser and decided a snack sounded good and while I was thinking about code and something to eat, I wasn’t thinking about you and…” Your chest.