Bitter Hearts (A Southern Loving Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

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