Tea and Destiny Read online

  “Thank heavens. Now finish telling me about Castle’s.”

  Boone complied. “A couple of storm shutters stripped away and the windows blew in. You’ll have to replace a few of these waterlogged tables and chairs, treat everything for mold, and paint, but all in all, it’s not as bad as it could have been.”

  “The deck?”

  “Still standing. Looks solid enough to me, but I’ll have it checked.”

  “And the roof?”

  Boone sucked in a breath. He hated delivering bad news and had deliberately put this off till last. “Now, I won’t lie to you, Cora Jane, but the roof’s looking pretty bad. Once the wind gets a hold on a few shingles, you know how it goes.”

  “Oh, I know well enough,” she said, sounding stoic. “So, is it bad, as in a goner, or bad as in a few stray shingles came loose?”

  He smiled. “I’d want to get Tommy Cahill over here to check it, but I’m thinking you’d be better off just getting the whole thing done. Shall I go ahead and call him? He owes me a favor. I think I can get him here before the day’s out. I can call your insurance company and see about getting a cleaning crew in here, too.”

  “I’d be obliged if you could get Tommy over there, but I’ll call the insurance people and there’s no need for a cleaning crew,” Cora Jane insisted. “I’ll be back first thing tomorrow with the girls. With them pitching in, we can clean the place up in no time.”

  Boone’s heart seemed to still at her words. The girls could only be her granddaughters, including the one who’d dumped him ten years ago and taken off to start a better life than she thought he’d be able to give her.

  “Emily, too?” he asked, holding out a faint hope that she wouldn’t be back here, in his face, testing his belief that he’d long ago gotten her out of his system.

  “Of course,” Cora Jane said, then added a little too gently, “Is that going to be a problem, Boone?”

  “Of course not. Emily and me, that’s in the past. The distant past,” he added emphatically.

  “Are you so sure about that?” she pressed.

  “I moved on, married someone else, didn’t I?” he said defensively.

  “And lost Jenny way too soon,” Cora Jane said, as if he needed reminding of his wife’s death just over a year ago.

  “But not our son,” Boone said. “I still have B.J. to think about. He’s my life these days.”

  “I know you’re devoted to that boy, but you need more,” she lectured. “You deserve to have a full and happy life.”

  “Someday maybe I’ll find the kind of happiness you’re talking about,” Boone said, “but I’m not looking for it, and it sure as heck isn’t going to be with a woman who didn’t think I’d amount to much.”

  Cora Jane drew in a shocked breath. “Boone, that is not what happened. Emily never judged you and found you lacking. She just had all these pie-in-the-sky dreams for herself. She needed to leave here and test herself, see what she could accomplish.”

  “That’s your spin. I saw it a little differently,” Boone said. “Maybe we’d better not talk about Emily. We’ve stayed friends, you and me, by keeping her off-limits. She’s family and you love her. Of course you’d defend her.”

  “You’re family, too,” Cora Jane insisted fiercely. “Or as good as.”

  Boone smiled. “You’ve always made me feel that way. Now let me make those calls and see what I can do to get this place back in working order before you get here. I know you’re going to want to plug in the coffeepot and open the doors as soon as the power’s back on. I should warn you that could be another couple of days. You maybe ought to consider staying with Gabi until it’s fixed.”

  “I need to be there,” Cora Jane replied determinedly. “Sitting around here and worrying isn’t getting anything accomplished. I imagine we can get by on that generator you had installed after the last storm.”

  “I’ll make sure it’s working and check the refrigerators and freezer to make sure things stayed cold. Anything else you need me to do before you come home?”

  “If Tommy gives you a fair estimate on the roof, tell him to get started, okay?”

  “You have my word, he’ll be fair,” Boone assured her. “And you’ll be first on his list. Like I said, he owes me.”

  “Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cora Jane said. “Thanks for checking on things for me.”

  “It’s what family does,” he replied, knowing it was a lesson he’d learned from Cora Jane, not from either of his own parents. Being supportive simply wasn’t part of their makeup.

  As he hung up, he couldn’t help wondering if there would ever come a day when he’d not regret that his ties to Cora Jane and her family weren’t of a far more permanent variety.

  New York Times bestselling author

  SHERRYL WOODS

  takes readers to the North Carolina coast with a new family and her trademark heartfelt emotions.

  Available wherever books are sold!

  New York Times Bestselling Author

  SHERRYL WOODS

  Megan O’Rourke’s beloved grandfather had always been determined to lure her out of New York and back to their ranch in Whispering Wind, Wyoming. Now his will makes it impossible for her to refuse. She’s named guardian of Tex’s daughter—a daughter Megan hadn’t known about!

  After leaving town years before under a cloud of suspicion, Jake Landers has returned to put down roots. When he comes face-to-face with the woman who shares his troubled past, he hardly recognizes the driven powerhouse Megan has become. Now she has big decisions to make—about life, love and where home really is. Jake’s only too happy to help Megan rediscover their old dreams—and maybe this time, fulfill them forever.

  Available wherever books are sold.

  New York Times Bestselling Author

  SHERRYL WOODS

  Heather Reed thought she was making the right choice when she decided to raise her daughter, Angel, on her own. But three years later, Heather realizes she needs help. Her career as an actress is faltering, and Angel’s more than she can handle alone. It’s time to track down Angel’s father… Only problem is, he doesn’t know Angel exists.

  Heather’s search leads her to Whispering Wind, Wyoming. If Todd Winston is dismayed to see his old girlfriend, he’s shocked when he looks into the angelic eyes of his daughter. Todd flatly refuses to open his life to Angel. Heather flatly refuses to leave town until she finds out why. Amazingly, they discover that through compromise and understanding, lies the road straight to family.

  Available wherever books are sold.

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  With her roots firmly planted in the South, Sherryl Woods has written many of her more than one hundred books in that distinctive setting, whether it’s her home state of Virginia, her adopted state, Florida, or her much-adored South Carolina. She’s also especially partial to small towns, wherever they may be.

  A member of Novelists Inc. and Sisters in Crime, Sherryl divides her time between her childhood summer home overlooking the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Virginia, and her oceanfront home with its lighthouse view in Key Biscayne, Florida. “Wherever I am, if there’s no water in sight, I get a little antsy,” she says.

  Sherryl also loves hearing from readers. You can join her at her blog, www.justbetweenfriendsblog.com, visit her website at www.sherrylwoods.com or contact her directly at Sherryl703@gma
il.com.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-1491-3

  Tea and Destiny

  Copyright © 1990 by Sherryl Woods

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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