Complicated Relationships (The Southern Devotion Series Book 3) by Amy McClung

worked my butt off to graduate with honors in childhood education. Teaching children had been my dream because I had a teacher that had been better to me than my parents ever had, and I wanted to pay that forward to another child. Falling in love had never been in the plans."
    Falling in love? Oh no, she is in love with Derrick, and this weekend made that even clearer for her it seems. I moved my arm away from her and put a little space between us. What a disaster; I could feel the anger bubbling inside me. Lanie would be the second girl that I lost to Derrick Collins. It isn't his fault, but it still hurt.
    "After college I found a job with a local elementary school. I was the youngest teacher they had at only twenty-two.  They started me out with another teacher, Bradley, which I shadowed for my first year. During that year, we grew closer and then one day…"
    Her words trailed off, and I tried to make sense of everything in my head. "Wait, so Bradley is the one you fell in love with, not Derrick?"
    Lanie's head whipped around, "What? Tristan I told you, Derrick and I went out one time. There are no feelings there."
    "I'm confused. I still don't understand why this story is making you cry?"
    "I'm getting to the point," she promised sincerely. "I fell in love with Bradley, head over heels. He seduced me then trashed me to the principal afterward. He told them that I came to him and offered my body in exchange for help during the year. They fired me for fraternizing with a colleague and said I needed more time to mature. The next year I took a job at Katelyn's school. You'd think I'd learned my lesson about mixing business and pleasure, but I still asked Derrick out. The reason I'm upset is that I like you."
    "Women are confusing," I said shaking my head. "I'm so lost."
    "The one time I've been in love, he demolished me, Tristan. He trashed my dreams and broke my heart at the same time. After my date with Derrick, I knew that it was a bad road to go down again, and part of me was glad that he didn’t want to go out a second time. Now I'm falling in love with one of his best friends. I can't let the fact that I dated a parent get back to my school, or I could lose my job again."
    "I don’t think you'd have to worry about losing your job for dating a parent. Is it in the rules?"
    "They say it's frowned upon. There was another teacher who fell for a student's parent, and she quit to marry him. I'm not sure if they would've fired her or not but…Tristan it scares me. For the first time in my life, I'm happy, and if we don’t work out, I can't have you use this information against me."
    Tracing my thumb across her cheek, I said, "I'd never use it against you. That's not who I am." Pausing I thought about everything she said and something dawned on me. "You're falling in love with me?"
    "I think so." She bit her lip as a smile spread across her face. With my hand behind her neck, I pulled her close capturing those sweet cherry lips with mine. I pushed my fingers through her hair as she moaned against my mouth. She lifted herself up and straddled my waist on the bench.
    "Do you want to go back inside?"
    "Yes."
    That was all I needed. We stood with our hands clasped as she pulled me into the cabin and straight to our bedroom.

Chapter Thirteen
    Getting to know you
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    "Was Mary Jane the first girl you fell in love with?" Lanie asked as her finger traced lines across my chest. She noticed that I tensed up at the question. "I'm sorry."
    "No, don’t be. My feelings for Mary Jane were different than I ever had for anyone. I'm not sure now if it's that our friendship is so strong that I confused it with love or what. The truth is, what I'm feeling for you now doesn’t feel anything like what I felt for her which makes me think that I'm falling in love for the first time now…with you."
    "Tristan, I…so, is it too early to define what we are?"
    "If it's ok, I'd like to call you my