Bitter Hearts (A Southern Loving Book 3) (3 page)

“Kari?”
Farrah said, with a surprise look on her face.

“I’m
sorry,” Kari blushed. She was too busy checking out Hank that she wasn’t even
paying attention to Farrah.

“This
is Hank Jackson,” Farrah said, and turned her attention to Hank. “This is Kari
Hayes, the decorator I told you about.”

“How
can I forget,” Hank said grimly.

Gosh,
Kari thought he didn’t want to work with her any more than she wanted to work
with him. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, shaking his hand and quickly pulled
it away from him.

“Well
Kari, I have to get back to preparing a menu, but Hank will fill you on the
wood he’ll use for the baby furniture,” Farrah said. She gave Kari a quick hug
before walking into the house.

“So,
you’re the Jeff Gordon this morning with the wicked road rage?” Hank glared at
her.

“Well
if you weren’t driving slow like a turtle, I wouldn’t have had to pass you this
morning,” Kari said, and made a beeline to her car.

Hank
laughed and shook his head. “Speed kills,” he said, looking at her sternly.

Kari
scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. “So does wearing tight jeans,” she said,
backing out the driveway and sped down the gravel road. Looking back into the
rearview mirror at the man who rubbed her the wrong. It wasn’t too late to quit
the McBride Project.

***

Hank
stood there grinning like a loon, as he watched the sliver luxury SUV kick up
dirt as it sped down the road. When Farrah asked him to build a custom crib for
the newest McBride, Hank didn’t think that decorator and designer Kari would be
so beautiful. With her brown sugar skin and eyes the color of whiskey.

“What
are you thinking?”

Hank
turn around to see Austin standing there looking at him with a sly smile on his
face. “It’s not what you think.”

“What
am I’m thinking?” Austin said, sticking his hand into his pockets.

“Didn’t
you mention having a booty call or something like that?” Hank went to his truck
and pulled the tailgate down and sat.

“I
may have mentioned rebound sex,” Austin said, taking a seat next to Hank. “But
not with Kari Hayes. I’m not one against mixing business with pleasure, but I
have a pregnant hormonal wife in that house and if something happen between
Kari and you…”

“Don’t
worry, Kari Hayes is not my type,” Hank mumbled, as he looked up at the sky.

It’d
been two months since Natalie made her choice to leave him. She was doing what
makes her happy but at his cost. Hank never really thought they would ever get
this to place. What happen to finding some semblance of harmony and
understanding? For the life of him he couldn’t find any of those things that
divorcees talked about. All he felt was emptiness and depression. Hank felt
like there will never be inner peace for him. Maybe he’ll just be one of those
good guys who finish last.

“Hold
up,” Austin said, gawking at his cousin. “Is it because Kari’s black?”

“No!” 
Hank said, running his finger through his hair. 

“Then
what it is?” Austin asked, as he analyzed Hank closely.

Hank
pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve only seen Kari once, and I know for a
fact that she is a snobby woman.”

Austin
howled with laughed. “How the hell did you come to that conclusion?”

“Natalie
is a big spender, I recognized the designer shoes and clothes she was wearing,”
Hank said with a pained expression on his face.

“Well,
this conversation is moot since obviously you’re going to keep everything
professional,” Austin said. He stood up and slapped Hank on the back. “I’m sure
you know this by now, but you’re invited to dinner and Farrah is not taking no
for an option.”

“Can’t
you tell her I’m busy or something,” Hank pleaded. Since Natalie left, he spent
dinner time at the McBride dining room table or Farrah would bring over food.
He didn’t mind Farrah’s cooking, he actually believed he gain a few pounds on
her delicious meals.

“You
were busy last night and the night before.” He paused and looked at Hank with a
straight face. “Now, you don’t want my wife to nag me all night about you. ‘Do
you think he’s okay?’ Or ‘He probably don’t like my cooking anymore.’”

They
both looked at each and laughed.

“I’ll
be there for dinner,” he conceded. Hank walked to his truck door and stopped
and glance back at Austin. “I just want you to know that I’m happy for you.
Mama would be proud of you.”

“Thanks,”
Austin said, clearing his voice. “She would be proud of you too, but most of
all Hank, Mama would want you to be happy.”

Hank
nodded his head and got into his truck and traveled the winding dirt road back
to his house. For the first time in his life, Hank didn’t know the meaning of
love. He thought he knew the meaning, but now with everything going on with him
and Natalie, he wasn’t sure. Of course his cousins had wives now; Austin was
madly in love with Farrah and Shane had Jasmine.

In
this time and day love was associated with what a person had and their
financial wealth. No one loved a person for who they were. Love was supposed to
be divine and selfless but in his case it wasn’t. Hank could honestly admit
that never experienced that type of love, not even with Natalie. The way
Natalie loved him was held on conditions, such as if she could get those new
Jimmy Choos or Prada purse. Natalie’s life was all about keeping up with the
Joneses.

He
made a pact with himself that night as he laid in bed, mourning the loss of his
relationship. He would never allow a woman to weasel her way into his heart
only to break it. Hank’s heart was poison and no amount of love could bring
down those walls he put up.

***

Kari
sat in her office in the heart of downtown Nashville, gazing out the window
into the partly cloudy sky. Her studio was called
K-By Design
.  Coming
to Nashville was the best thing that she could’ve done. She moved to a place
where no one knew her or the family she came from. Sighing, Kari pulled out her
iPad and started to design the nursery.

The
objective was to create a nursery for the twin boys. Farrah made it adamant
that she wanted to stay away from the traditional baby boy blue, but to add a
piece of Austin into the room such as the guitar, horses and reclaimed wood. 
Kari choose grayish-blue and paired it with taupe and buttercream.

Kari
was so engrossed with the task of sketching the crib, she didn’t hear her
assistant, Corey, walking into the room.

“How’s
it going?” he asked.  Corey knew exactly what she needed at this time, he sat a
bag of red Swedish fish candy down on the table next to her.

Putting
her pencil down, she turned around and looked at her best friend. Corey took a
chance on her when she told him about her plans to move to Nashville and open
K-By Design.  Corey was what some girls would call boy band sexy. He was
average height with raven black hair and piercing blue eyes.

“I’m
working on the McBride project as we speak,” Kari said. She watched as Corey
picked up the sketch work she was working on. His face was expressionless which
was tortuous for her because Kari was always her worst critic.

“It’s
great,” he said, and nodded his head. “I like the color pallets.”

“Wonderful.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “You’ll have to oversee some of my other
projects since the McBride will need all my focus,” she said.

“No
problem. You know I have your back,” Corey said, digging into the bag of candy
and popping a red fish into his mouth.

Kari
went back to designing the furniture, but it was hard especially, with Corey
slurping his coffee and chewing so damn loud on the candy. When Corey becomes annoying
it meant that he wanted to talk, but Kari didn’t have time to talk. She had to
design a custom made crib that was classy and modern.

“K,
I need to tell you something,” Corey said, smacking on candy.

“Okay.”
She frowned. This wasn’t like Corey to stall on telling her something.

“Now,
I don’t want to pry,” he started to say. “I was on Facebook and noticed that
Sam is getting married.”

Kari
stopped sketching, her body became tense when Corey mentioned her ex-fiancé’s
name. “Oh.” Was all she could say. No one knew the reason she vanquished Sam
from her life, not even Corey.

“Girl,
are you only going to say ‘Oh’?” Corey shook his head in disbelief.

“What
am I’m supposed to say?” she asked.

“I
don’t know, maybe pick your damn phone up and call him.” Corey peered over at
her. “What’s the deal, is he like the one who got away?”

“Corey,”
Kari said, losing patience with her best friend. “Sam and I have been broken up
for two years now.”

“I
know,” he huffed. “You still love him! Come on Kari, you haven’t dated anyone
since you broke up and moved out here.”

Kari
slammed the pencil on the desk and looked at Corey, his faced went pale. “I’m
tired of talking about Sam, I don’t give a damn who the hell he’s marrying.”
Picking up her briefcase, she tossed all her work into it. “I’m going home for
the remainder of the day.”

“Kari..,”
Corey tried to say.

“Cut
it,” she said, holding her hand up in the air. “I don’t want to hear it, thanks
for the Swedish fish.”

For
two years Kari made it her business to forget about the man she fell in love
with. The man she wanted to marry. The hopes of building a future with Sam went
tumbling down when she found her future husband was only with her for the
financial gains.

Two Years
Ago- San Francisco California

Walking
off the elevator, Kari stood in front of the apartment. Holding her hand up to
the door, she was about to knock but realized she finally had a key to Sam’s
apartment. Opening the door, she walked into the quiet bachelor pad placing her
purse on the grey sectional sofa she picked out herself.  Going into the
kitchen, Kari placed the bag of groceries down on the counter. She started to
take out the ingredients for the meal she was planning for them tonight.

She
was about to rinse her hands in the sink when a pair of crystal drinking
glasses grabbed her attention, most importantly there was pink lipstick on one
of the glass. Curiosity was getting the best out of Kari. Not once did she
suspect that Sam was cheating on her.

Cooking
a romantic meal was the last thing on her mind, instead of cooking Kari went
snooping. Yeah she knew if you go looking eventually you will find something
you don’t want to. Headed to the bedroom that she slept in countless times, she
paused by the door when she heard the muffled talking from a deep voice that
she knew and a female voice that was eerily familiar.  Kari crept to the door
and stared into small crack in the slightly open door.

Sam
Russell was the man she put so much high stakes in, even when her parents told
her that he wasn’t good. Parents have the knack for recognizing a joker from a
king. It look like her family was right about Sam considering that he was in
bed with her best friend.

“Mariah,
you have to go,” Sam said, as he slung his gangling body off the bed. His
chestnut brown hair was disheveled and hazel eyes still held lust from his
afternoon lovemaking with goldilocks.

Kari
felt like a peeping tom, she scrunched her face up and concentrated on the two
people inside the room. Her fingers trembled in the air before she touch the
door in front of her. Damn her heart was beating fast.

“I’m
tired of sneaking around like some whore,” Mariah pouted, sitting up and bed
she allowed the sheets to fall.

Kari
got an eye full of fake double ‘D’ breasts.
You’ve got to be kidding
me,
she thought. If Sam was going to cheat on her, he should at least do it
with someone who wasn’t her best friend.

“Mariah,”
Sam exclaimed, jamming his foot against the corner of the mahogany dresser as
he fumbled with his pants.  “Shit.”

“Don’t
Mariah me!” Mariah yelled, standing up from the bed, she picked up her bra and
panties that was scatter on the floor.  “We agreed that Kari was temporarily.”

“It’s
not easy,” he sighed, looking into the mirror as he buttoned up his red dress
shirt.

“Wait
a minute.” Mariah went across the room and turned Sam around to look at her.
“You fell in love with her.”

“Mariah,”
he groaned. “Sweetie, we already talked about this, Kari-”

“The
goal was for you to marry the heartless spoiled bitch, and take half of her
fortune,” Mariah hissed.

“I
know that…I haven’t forget the objective.” Sam practically collapsed on the
bed. “But I can’t help that our engagement is talking a little longer than
expected”

Kari
felt sick to her stomach. Sam was only with her for the money. Not once had she
ever paid for anything for him nor did she mention her family’s wealth.