Page 58 of Georgia On My Mind (Southern Promises)

Stephen rolled his eyes. “Jessica found out about Traci and me…”

“Oh, God.” Hart knew it was only a matter of time before Stephen Kaufman’s sordid little affair came crashing down around his family.

“Yep. She caught us in bed at my house. I thought Jess and the girls were staying with her parents for the weekend. Surprised the hell out of me.”

“I’ll bet.” Hart’s inner dialogue was screaming obscenities at what a fool Stephen was, images of his own past infidelity in DC flashing through his mind. The thought of Jessica and her daughters having to experience that heartache made him sick to his stomach.

“The little bitch is threatening divorce. She says she’s going to take me for every penny I have. Ha! Little does she know a certain prenup she signed years ago will prevent that from ever happening. She’s getting next to nothing. I’ll make sure of it.”

Hart had to stand, his hands fisting at his sides. “What about your daughters?”

Stephen stifled a frown. “Yeah, I’ll have to shell out a pretty penny in child support, I’m sure. I never wanted that many kids in the first place, especially girls. I should have known Jessica and all her pink would damn me to a world of daughters.” Hart watched as the man dared to look him in the eye and speak. “Life would sure be a hell of a lot easier without them.”

Swallowing to keep the bile from reaching his mouth, Hart glared at Stephen. The Kaufman daughters were precious. Even the small amount of time he had spent with them had shown him how sweet and innocent they were; all four of them displaying unique personalities. For their own father to cast them aside as a nuisance was beyond his comprehension. The thought of any more pain brought to those little girls and Jessica was sickening. The next sentence out of his mouth surprised him. “I quit.”

“Excuse me?”

Hart started to shut his laptop down and gather a few items, shoving them into his briefcase. “Yeah, you heard me. I quit. I no longer want to work for someone as slimy and conniving as you.”

“What the hell?” The look on Stephen’s face was almost comical. The guy didn’t know what hit him.

“Do your own goddamn commission reports. And for the record, I’m letting HR know about every single time you asked me to cover for your ass, including those times you fucked your mistress on the company dime. It’s over Kaufman. Have a nice life.” Hart confidently strode past Stephen in a huff.

“You stupid little fucker, you’re one to talk!” Stephen yelled. “I gave you a chance when no one in our industry wanted to come near you with a ten-foot pole! You think HR is gonna believe someone like you? I’ll bury you! Mark my word, you’ll never work in this town again!”

Hart was barely able to make it out of the office without gripping his hands around Stephen’s throat and strangling the bastard. He was done.

***

“What are you doing home? You’re never home this early.” Gia was sitting on the sofa with her laptop on the coffee table. Papers were spread out before her, and she was holding a coffee cup. Her call time for the show wasn’t until five-thirty, and they usually managed to have a quick snack together before she left.

Hart put his briefcase on the dining room table and shrugged off his suit jacket, hanging it over a chair. Loosening his tie, he collapsed next to her on the couch and placed his hand on her thigh. “What are you working on?” he asked with interest.

Her face lit up as she reached for the computer and snuggled into him. “I’m working on my website. It’s a work in progress, but I’ve managed to import some great photos and added a bio page. I had to get permission to use some of the live shots from So You Think You Can Dance. As long as I don’t put together a video to sell or anything like that, I’m allowed to use them. What do you think?”

Resting his chin on her shoulder, he peered at the computer screen as she scrolled through several pages of her site. Each image was stunning, capturing Gia mid-dance move, the strength, and elegance of her body breathtaking. She clicked on a video clip, and he watched as she performed a musical theater piece from Thoroughly Modern Millie, and another hip-hop dance with a sturdy Latino guy, both of them dressed in high-top tennis shoes and retro-graphic tee’s. She had told him she made it into the top-twenty on the live show but was then cast off, which ended her season. Hart couldn’t grasp why she’d been cast off because he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Gia owned the stage, and he knew without a doubt she was meant to dance.

“That’s so great,” he managed to say.

She turned and looked at him with concern. “Is everything okay? You didn’t tell me why you’re home so early.”

Hart nodded, shifting in his seat, and hunching over his thighs. Rubbing his palms together nervously, he admitted what he had done. “I quit my job today.”

Gia waited for a beat as if soaking in the news. “What did Stephen do now?”

Hart blew a breath of air out through his nostrils. “Jessica caught him and his girlfriend in bed together. They’re getting a divorce.”

“Oh, no. Those poor little girls.”

“I know.”

“Did you lose your cool? Did anything bad happen when you told him?”

Trying to find the words was a struggle. “I just couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t live his lie.” He felt Gia wrap her arms around his waist.

“You’ll find something else; something better. In the meantime, you can be my full-time cabana boy.”

Eyeing her with a cocked brow, he couldn’t help but smile. “Cabana boy, huh? If I recall, I kick ass at that job.”

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