Bitter Hearts (A Southern Loving Book 3) by Ava Thorn Read Free Book Online

room.
    “What
made you come all the way out here?” she blurted out. As soon as the words came
out her mouth Kari wanted the floors to swallow her up.
    “Don’t
worry, I didn’t come out here to pop champagne,” he quipped with a smirk on his
face. “You left this at the ranch.” Holding out his hand he offered her the
green scarf.
    “Oh
thanks.” Kari took the scarf from him and placed it on the desk.
    “I
didn’t just come here to deliver you the scarf,” Hank said, after shuffling
back and forth. “I…came here to apologize for the way I treated you.”
    Wordlessly,
she stood there staring up at him. “I can accept your apology if you can accept
mine for giving you the middle finger.”
     “Apology
accepted,” he said, and extended his hand to her. “We must shake on it.”
    “Ditto,”
she said, shaking his hand.
    Letting
go of her hand Hank walked around the office. “You have a nice office,” he said,
looking around the pristine white office, with a glass top desks, and nice art
on the walls, and a work area in the back that was cluttered with fabric.
    “Thanks,”
she said.
    “I
saw the designs you did for the nurseries and I must admit that you have a gift.”
He sighed, all of the wariness suddenly showing on his face. “Can I hire you to
decorate my cottage?”
    Kari
was taken aback by his request. “You want to hire me?” she asked pointing to
her herself. “To work for you?”
    “Yeah,”
he blushed, sticking his hand into his pockets.
    “Wow,”
she was still in shocked. “Fine, I have to get measurements of the rooms you
want me to decorate and what colors you like.” Kari ticked off, going to her
desk she sat down and jotted down a few notes.
    “Kari,
I want all the rooms done. Living room, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen.” His
voice was deep.
    The
sound of his deep, smooth southern voice captivated her. Looking up from her
seat she stared into his cool grey eyes. “Oh ok-okay,” she stuttered.
“Just…um…um…give me directions to where you stay at so I can get the
measurements and we can go over colors together.”
    “I
have time now,” he offered.
    “To
go to your house?” she asked.
    He
grinned in answer. “No. About the color stuff you were talking about earlier.”
    “Of
course. Hold on.”
    Hank
watched as Kari walked around the room. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing high
heels and was way shorter than his 6’2” stature. Hank had to admit Kari was a
pretty woman even with the tiredness in her eyes. She turned and looked at him
with a small smile at the corners of her mouth. Damn, her walk was like a slow
dance as her hips swayed from side to side.
    “Okay,
here are the color pallets.” She waved for him to come to a large white table.
    He
plopped down on the chair next to her and tried not to pay attention to how
delectable her perfume smelled. “I don’t know anything about this decorating
crap,” he said.
    “What’s
your colors?” she asked.
    Her
scent was intoxicatingly sweet, too sweet. He leaned away from her and took a
fresh breath of air to clear his nose and head. “I don’t know, all I want is
for my house to look different.”
    Kari’s
head was tilted towards him. His jaw twitched angrily when he mentioned wanting
the house to look different. She wanted to ask him why, but figure it was none
one of her business. “Most of my single male clients always go with dark colors
for their living room and kitchen.”
    “What
about the bedroom?” he asked.
    “The
bedroom should be a soft place to land at the end of a long day.” She smiled at
him. “Do you have anything in mind?”
    “You’re
the decorator. I’m paying you the big bucks.” He shrugged, picking up the blue
stress ball on the desk and squeezed it a few times.
    “You’re
a southern man,” she said, taking the ball from him. “I would do a rustic look
for the master bedroom. I like the bedroom you did in the McBride house.”
    “I
only design and build the