Complicated Relationships (The Southern Devotion Series Book 3) Read Online Free

is not a pleasant smell at all.
    Trying to sleep had become ineffective. I stood up, stretched my back until it cracked, and lifted my shirt to my nose to cover the foul smell from the kitchen. The shirt smelled like a mixture of beer and cleaning fluids, so it wasn't much better of a smell. I pulled it over my head and walked into the kitchen barefoot and dressed in only jeans.
    Macy stood at the sink scraping burnt eggs down the garbage disposal. I walked up behind her to help and noticed she had her earbuds in. When she turned around, she screamed, and her hands shook enough to spill hot coffee all over my chest. "Shit!" I screamed out and grabbed a hand towel from the stove bar to wipe the hot liquid off my skin.
    "I'm sorry, T!" Macy cried out. She wet a washcloth and pressed cold water against my skin to keep me from burning. I grabbed it from her hand and finished getting the spots that hurt. "Don’t sneak up on me, T."
    "Next time don't use earphones, a garbage disposal, and a blender all at once and you might have heard me.  What are you doing in here?"
    "Trying to cook breakfast.  I was trying a new recipe, and it didn't work out. I thought you'd still be in bed."
    "I fell asleep on the couch."
    "Oh. Sorry," Macy apologized as she realized how loud she'd been with me sleeping in the adjacent room.
    "No worries, squirt. I'm going to head upstairs to catch some real shut eye though. Don't worry about breakfast for me. Make something simple. There are frozen waffles, strawberries, and syrup. Go nuts  a little today."
    "Ok, want me to wake you up in a few hours? We could have a movie day?"
    "Give me at least five hours of sleep and I'm all yours, kid."
    The next five hours I gained some restful sleep for a change. When Macy woke me, I felt refreshed and ready to sit up for a bit. We sat down to watch a movie when Derrick called asking if I could work. Macy was disappointed but seemed to understand that I had to go.

Chapter Five
    Chivalry isn't dead
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “Hey there, pretty lady,” I said as I spotted Lanie at the end of the bar again.
    “Hi, I spoke to you last week,” she said as though she was only another face in the crowd. She had no idea that her face had starred in a few very vivid dreams of mine.
    “I know. I’m glad to see you back, Lanie . You only got through the two jerks this year and had two more stories to tell me.”  It was apparent by the shocked look on her face that she didn’t expect me to remember her name or story. “Did you think I’d forget?” She stumbled over her response, so I saved her by leaning down close to her ear and saying, “I told you, not all of us are jerks.” 
    Someone yelled out “Bartender” so I excused myself to go tend to the individual whose speech was thoroughly slurring at this point. “Did you know we have a special that if you have a certain type of car key, you win a free drink?” 
    The guy took the bait, reached into his pocket and slammed his keys on the bar. “Sheck ‘ems out, besha I gots one,” was how it came out of his mouth that reeked of whiskey.
    Grabbing his keys, I said, “You don’t have the magic key. However, you did win a free sober ride home!” Sometimes they argue with me or get angry. This guy looked excited; he cheered before dropping his head to the bar to take a nap. I motioned for Bobby, our bouncer, to come get him.
    We had a special room to the side of the door for our sober rides pickup. We called it the drunk tank. It’s a room with three plush couches for them to pass out on comfortably. Each sofa had a wastebasket next to it ready to assist in sobering them up. Whenever a customer was too sloshed, we confiscated their keys. Then we'd figure out which car was theirs, provided they have a keyless remote entry, so we don’t tow it, and we send them off to sober ride. It’s a lot of work but worth it to save them from getting on the road. Occasionally we ended up with an