Mrs. Jones: Book One (The Jones Series #1)

Mrs. Jones

Book One of the Jones Series

B.M. Hardin

Copyrights 2014 ©

Savvily Published LLC

B.M. Hardin

Chapter One

I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else noticed that I was reciting my part of the wedding vows, before the preacher had even stopped talking.

After all, this was my
third
time around.

Naturally, I had memorized what it was that I was supposed to say.

Here I was again, for the third time, standing at an altar, in an off white wedding gown, vowing to love the man standing across from me forever.

I tried to look as happy and as hopeful as I had the first time around; though I had the feeling that I wasn’t exactly selling the part as well as I’d hope to.

I glanced briefly at my parents. They were smiling, but their eyes seemed to be passing judgment.  Earlier that day Daddy had made a comment saying that this was his fourth time given a daughter away…but he only had two daughters. You, damn right I was offend…but he was right.

After all, being on my third husband was just a tad bit depressing.

But I was already in my thirties; and if I didn’t marry now, I’d probably spend the rest of my life alone.

And that was something I just couldn’t do.

And believe me I wasn’t in this situation because I wanted to be. If it had been up to me, I’d still been married to one of my first two husbands’. But let’s just say that forever had come a lot sooner than I’d thought it would.

But on the bright side of things, I’d always heard that good things happen in three’s…did that apply to marriages too?

It’s been said that the third time was the charm and for my sake, and Santana’s, I sure hope so.

I smiled sincerely at Santana.

Santana Jones was the definition of a damn good man. From the very beginning, he had been nothing but good to me and in almost two years, I could truly say that he was still the same man that he’d always been.

You know, most people change as time goes by; but not Santana.

Santana was adorably charming, exciting and witty. He was like a rainbow at the end of a stormy day or that first cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

And I guess it didn’t hurt that he had a good bit of money; not a lot---but enough.

We could live comfortably, and worry free. I didn’t have to work, and it was more than enough to keep us stress free.

But…I must admit; it was a lot less than I was used to.

My first husband had been a doctor; the second had owned his very own technology company.

And Santana, well, he just owned one-fourth of a construction company.

Santana and three of his friends from college started the business from scratch only a year or so after graduating. Granted, they’d made a good bit of money, and had come a long way from where they’d started, but after expenses and splitting everything four ways---it was just enough.

And Lord knows that if it wasn’t for Santana, they would have probably been out of business a long time ago.

Santana was the brains of the operation; the man in the suit, behind the desk, finding and landing the contracts for their business. He went in the office during the week every single day as if he had to, to make sure that he kept things going for them. The other three were some of the laziest men I’d ever met. But they were his friends…not mine.

But getting back to the point, Santana’s life style just wasn’t as lavish as I was accustomed to.

I guess in a way that was a good thing.

Money was the root, the branch; hell the whole damn tree, of evil.

Everyone wanted a piece of the pie, and experience had taught me that they were willing to do pretty much anything to get it.

But if I had to be completely honest, with or without Santana, money was the least of my worries. I had more than enough of it stashed away; but that was a conversation for another day.

Santana and I met by mistake, and he’d swept me off of my feet by surprise.

The day that we’d met, Santana had actually mistaken me for someone else. I turned around to face him with an attitude, but instantly my face softened as I glared at the six foot, almond complexion sensation.

At first glance, I could tell that he wasn’t exactly on my level---income wise that is, but for some reason, I just didn’t care. And Santana could obviously tell that I was what you would call,
well off
, but that hadn’t stopped him from giving me an overload of his Southern charm.

And it worked.

I never once thought about being with an
average
guy.

I’d always thought that I needed more. But as it turns out, Santana was everything I’d ever needed and wanted in a man; and I was so grateful, happy, to be standing in front of him about to say
I do.

Hungrily eyeing him in his all white tux, I continued to grin at him as he recited his vows to me. He said them with so much joy; so much hope. A blind man could see that this man loved me with everything that he had in him. Santana loved me so much and it showed in everything that he said and in everything that he did.

I couldn’t believe that I almost
didn’t
marry him.

Though it wasn’t exactly the time or place to reminisce, I thought briefly about a few weeks before the wedding.

Joey
crossed my mind.

What can I say about Joey…except that…I loved him; and I always had.

Joey and I had grown up together in North Carolina. We were like two peas in a pod growing up. We were best friends and hoping to make that transition into being something more. But when my family moved to Georgia, I had no idea that I would be saying goodbye to Joey forever…sort of.

My Daddy thought that Joey was a bad influence on me and I was forbidden from keeping in contact with him.

My guess was since Joey was a tad bit older than I was, Daddy was thinking that the obvious had already happened; or that it wouldn’t be long before it actually did. Either way, he’d taken away the only person that I’d ever truly cared about.

At first, it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do but eventually, my life went on. And after a while, Joey simply became a distant memory.

That is until
Mr. Memory
resurfaced all of years and years later.

I was celebrating my 28
th
birthday with my first husband, Tony, at a restaurant one evening when I accidently bumped into a gentleman on my way to the bathroom.

Joey.

We both stared at each other in complete awe.

He was my first love; my first everything.

And there he was, in the flesh…looking like a million bucks.

After the initial shock and brief conversation, I found out that he was now living in Georgia, and had been for the past few years; just in the next town over.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

All of the emotions that I had buried for him had come rushing back to my heart and my remembrance all at once. He was my weakness. I had such a weak spot for him; similar to the way that most people had a weakness for chocolate or ice cream.

And let’s just say that Joey quickly became my
favorite desert.

Of course, one thing led to the next and Joey and I began to have an affair; during my first marriage, my second, and well as for the third…

I now pronounce you husband and wife. Please kiss your bride…

The preacher’s announcement interrupted my thoughts of Joey.

Coming to, I winked an eye at Santana as he puckered up and kissed me like never before.

I really did love him; I wasn’t sure if I was totally or extremely in love with him, but still yet, I loved him.

Santana’s rough hands caressed my cheeks as our lips continued to do their first official
dance
as husband and wife.

Finally, allowing me to come up for air, Santana smiled at me and stared deep into my eyes.

“I love you,” he said softly.

“I know,” I smirked and grabbed his hand as we faced the cheering crowd.

After jumping the broom, we both began to run until we were completely out of the church doors.

Santana embraced me once more, and I inhaled the scent of his chest.

I could hear his heart racing; as if it was about to
beat
him to death.

As he wrapped his arms around me, I knew that I had made the right choice.

I was Mrs. Niveah Leanna Jones, and I always would be.

Well…hopefully.

~***~

“Good morning Mrs. Jones,” Santana chimed in my ear.

The smile on his face was priceless.

I was married again---and I couldn’t believe it!

After two terrible marriages, for a while, I had given up on love.

It seemed like everyone that I ever truly loved either left me, or had to die to get away from me; and I was starting to think that it was my destiny to be alone forever.

But along came Santana.

He was different and I knew that no matter what, he would always love me and remain loyal to me.

He wouldn’t leave me when he felt like I was no longer good enough. He wouldn’t want to back out of our marriage simply because I no longer served a purpose in his life.

No, he was going to love me, forever---I was sure of it.

But then again; I was sure the first two times too.

We moved to Georgia because my Daddy came up with an astounding engineering idea that hundreds, even thousands of companies use still to this today.

Instead of simply buying his idea, they moved his family closer, to Georgia, so that my Daddy could see the initial process and launch all the way through.

We had come from living from check to check; to having more money than we knew how to spend. Our lives changed drastically, and though we weren’t as rich as some; we were a long way from poor and from where we used to be.

Our lives changed drastically, fast, and we all had to learn to keep up with those around us.

We lived in a nice, gated community and surprisingly, we weren’t the only
black
family there. We were surrounded by wealthy, educated, people of
color
.

My first husband, Tony, and his family were actually our next door neighbors.

We were a family of five; Daddy, Mama, my older brother Antonio, my oldest sister Shante, and I was the youngest.

But Tony was one…of twelve.

Their house seemed as though it’d taken up half of our street. It was one of the biggest houses I’d ever seen. Tony’s father was a famous and very wealthy doctor and out of all of the brothers in front of him, Tony had been the one to follow in his footsteps.

But Tony was nothing like his father.

Mr. Johnson, though very rich and extremely busy; he still loved his family. He adored his wife and his children. He was faithful and no matter how much money he had; his family was always first.

Tony on the other hand, had his priorities all mixed up.

Once his father retired, he left him all of his celebrity clientele and from that moment on Tony was never the same.

At first, things were amazing between us. I mean after all, we had been around each other and each other’s families for years. We were very comfortable with each other and we truly thought that we had it all.

All we’d wanted was something genuine and everlasting; but something happened to Tony along the way.

The more money Tony made, the bigger asshole he became. The kind, and gentle man that he once was, became non-existent. He seemed to be angry all the time. He started turning to other outlets such as alcohol and drugs to relieve some of the pressure and to give him an extra boost throughout the day.

And turning to everything else, turned him completely away from me.

But no matter what, for me, divorce just wasn’t the way out.

Understand one thing, I was the youngest. Just when I was becoming my own, I was taken away from all of my friends and put in an environment that I knew nothing about. Mama became so busy being the face of the family. Daddy was always working. My oldest sister a year later married and eventually moved away. And my brother, well, I just won’t even go there. Either way, when I needed someone the most; I was always alone. I made a few friends, but I bonded better with boys, and that’s where Tony came in. I guess in a way he was Joey’s replacement, but my attachment to him became something that I just couldn’t control. If I could breathe for him I would have. It seemed as though I was living my life through him. The love that I had developed for him was scary. I felt like I just couldn’t survive without him. I loved him more than I loved myself. How could I just let him go?