“You grew up here?” David asked.
“Yep. Born in your hospital and raised right here on the island.”
“I guess that’s a good reason to trust you as an authority on marine life.”
Avery smiled. “That, and I’m also the education coordinator at the Charleston Aquarium.”
David sank onto his porch steps and dropped his head into his hands. “Which makes you doubly qualified to make me feel like an idiot.”
“I told you not to feel bad! Seriously. I promise you’re not the first person to make the same mistake.”
David cupped his hands around his knees. “Any other innocent crustaceans you need to warn me not to kill?”
“I mean, unless you’re the kind of guy that goes around pulling legs off of crabs . . .”
“Not that guy,” David said. “I promise.”
“Then I think we’re safe to let you walk the beaches unchaperoned.” Avery moved toward her groceries, still sitting on David’s driveway, but then turned back. Why was she having such a hard time leaving? “You should come down to the aquarium sometime. I’ll give you a free tour. Just to make sure you aren’t an actual threat.”
“Clearly I need the education,” he said, his expression serious, though Avery detected a lightness in his tone that said he wasn’t all that put out by her ribbing.
“See you around, Dave,” Avery said, this time leaving his porch for good.
“It’s David, actually. Not Dave.”
Avery turned to face him, taking a few backward steps toward her house. She grinned, not even a little surprised that a guy as buttoned up as he was didn’t want a nickname like Dave. “Okay.”
“And you’ll tell me, right? If I need to worry about the hurricane?”
Ha. Avery and every newscaster in all of Charleston. “I’ll definitely let you know.”
***
Melba was sitting in a rocking chair on Avery’s front porch when she finally made it home, Jasper sitting contentedly in her lap. “Well?” she asked, not even bothering to offer a greeting.
“Well, what?” Avery said.
“Did you get the dirt on the new guy?”
“What dirt? Seriously, Melba. Why does it have to be dirt? You watch too many soap operas.”
“I’m just curious, that’s all,” she said, though she didn’t sound at all defensive. Melba was nothing if not self-aware. “A new guy moved in on my street. I’m entitled to know a little bit about him.”
Avery unlocked her front door. “I don’t know anything more than you do. He works at MUSC. He’s from Chicago. He’s super smart, apparently, some sort of child prodigy who went to college at sixteen, but otherwise, he seems like a pretty normal guy.”
“Who knows nothing about hurricanes or living at the beach.”
“You’re the one who told me to go easy on him,” Avery said. “Not everyone has our good fortune.” That was maybe an understatement. Avery knew how lucky she was. The only reason she could manage to live beachfront right outside of Charleston was because her family had owned land on Sullivan’s Island for more than a century. Her house had belonged to her grandmother, then to her parents, and now it was hers. Fully paid for, which was good because the taxes alone almost felt like a mortgage payment.
“True enough,” Melba said, standing up from the rocker. “Hey, did I see that old boyfriend of yours hanging around here the other day?”
Avery tensed. Battling about Tucker was not something she currently felt up to. “It’s not a big deal, Melba. He just stopped by to say hello.”
“Avery Grace, don’t make me call your mama. That boy is trouble and you know it.”
Avery was tempted to roll her eyes, but she couldn’t exactly fault Melba her reaction. When Tucker had broken Avery’s heart a year before in the worst possible way, Melba had been her soft place to land. Avery had cried more than a few tears curled up on Melba’s couch, Jasper snuggled beside her.
“It’s not like that,” Avery said. “We’ve been texting a little, just here and there, and he said he was in the neighborhood, so he stopped by. It’s not a big deal.”
Melba snorted. “In the neighborhood? Who else does he know that lives on the island? Nobody drives out here unless they’re visiting here. You mark my words, sweetheart, he’s after something.”
Avery stepped to Melba’s side and kissed the side of her head, giving her shoulders an affectionate squeeze. “Thanks for looking out for me, Mel. I promise he was just being nice, but I’ll be careful. You don’t need to worry about me.” Even as Avery placated Melba, a small niggling of doubt tickled the back of her mind. It had been strange when Tucker texted her a few weeks before, and even stranger when he’d shown up at her house all full of charm and compliments. She hadn’t seen him in almost a year. For him to drop in unannounced on a Sunday afternoon was . . . unexpected. If he wanted to see her, why hadn’t he called? Or even just texted? His only explanation had been that he’d been in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi.
Avery knew Tucker’s facial expressions, though. And the intensity in his eyes had said a lot more than just hi.
Avery pushed her door open and set her groceries on the floor inside. “You want to come in?” she asked Melba. “I’m cooking. You can eat with me if you want.”
“Naw, it’s too hot for cooking. Jasper and I will have sandwiches for dinner and then wine for dessert.”
“Please don’t give your dog wine, Melba.”
Melba left Avery’s porch, raising a hand and waving her fingers over her shoulder without turning back. “What you don’t know doesn’t hurt you,” she sing-songed as she walked away.
Avery shook her head, finally pushing into the cool interior of her home. Most of the year, she hardly needed to use the central heating and air. The temperatures stayed mild enough she could open her windows to the ocean breeze and count herself lucky that her power bill was so low. But once June hit, she sealed her house up tight and relished in the cold, crisp glory of a fully air-conditioned home. She loved her Southern heritage. But full summer heat and humidity without air conditioning? No amount of Southern pride was worth that nonsense.
As she unloaded her groceries, Avery’s phone pinged with an incoming text.
From Tucker.
Have dinner with me? The text read. I’ll bring over some take-out and we can eat at your place.
Avery reached for her phone and stared at the screen, her hand trembling as she thought about what to say.
Did she want to see Tucker again? Have dinner with him again?
Tucker had broken her in ways that had done long term damage. She’d been ready to commit, dive headfirst into a springtime beachside wedding with a dozen bridesmaids and a yacht club reception when he’d dumped her completely out of the blue, saying he just wasn’t ready to settle down. Avery suspected what he really meant was he wasn’t ready to settle down with her. She didn’t exactly fit the mold of a proper Charleston attorney’s wife, and Tucker’s family was the kind of family that definitely cared about being proper. His mother had never really loved his relationship with Avery. When they broke up, she’d figured she’d finally gotten through to Tucker that Avery just wouldn’t do. Not if he wanted to actually be somebody in the circles that mattered.
Avery had never cared about fitting into anybody’s circle. And maybe that was the problem.
After the breakup, Tucker had ghosted her without a backward glance. No messages. No calls. Nothing. He’d completely cut her off.
But maybe he’d changed.
Maybe he’d decided to stop listening to his mama and do what he wanted for once. Maybe he’d missed Avery enough to forget about being the perfect Charleston son.
Melba’s warning echoed in her head, but Avery pushed it aside. Dinner didn’t even have to mean anything, did it? Maybe it just meant they were two old friends, reconnecting over a shared meal.
It was just one dinner. How much damage could it actually do?
Chapter
2
David leaned against the counter of the nurse’s station in the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital emergency room and spared a quick glance at his watch. Nine hours. He’d been on his feet, working nonstop for nine solid hours. He needed food. And a bathroom break, probably. And five minutes of quiet meditation if he had any hope of making it to the end of his shift.
Most of David’s colleagues had been surprised when David had chosen Emergency Medicine. He blamed Hollywood. Television shows had long since convinced American TV viewers that ER docs were both rugged and handsome, with a little bit of daring mixed in. Just because David looked like a podiatrist, all boring and buttoned up, didn’t mean he had to practice boring medicine. He liked the way his brain had to work in the ER—compartmentalizing, prioritizing, deciding what patients needed what treatment and when. Every day was a giant logic puzzle that only he could sort out.
But nine hours was a long time to go without food.
In the doctor’s lounge, Lucy, the only person in the entire hospital David had known longer than three weeks, sat hunched over a pizza box, her phone in her hand. Lucy had attended the same residency program at Northwestern that David had, though she had been a year ahead of him. They’d become good friends, good enough that he’d trusted her when she’d recommended MUSC as a launch point for his career.
She looked up when he entered. “Want some?” She shoved the box in his direction. “It’s fresh.”
He dropped into a chair beside her and reached for a slice. “Thanks.”
When Lucy didn’t even look up from her phone, he nudged her knee with his foot. “What are you reading?”
“A trashy romance novel. Care to join me?”
“You’re still reading those things?” David asked. She’d had the same habit during residency.
“Absolutely. It’s the purest form of escapism.” She clicked off her phone and set it face down on the table then reached for another slice of pizza. “How are you? Settling in okay?”
“To the hospital? Sure.”
“I meant the city. But I’m glad you like the job, too. I knew you would.”
“The city is . . . hot,” David said. “And humid.”
“But?” Lucy prompted, her smile wide. “You still like it, right?”
David thought of the walking tour he’d taken the weekend before at his neighbor’s suggestion. It had been a good idea. He’d never been big on history—he loved the absolute nature of science a little more—but it was hard not to be impressed by cobblestone streets and buildings that were centuries old. Charleston had a story. And he could definitely appreciate that. “I like it,” he finally agreed. “My neighbor sent me on a walking tour of downtown. It helped.”
“Hey! You’re meeting your neighbors. That’s good.” Lucy knew him too well. Meeting people wasn’t exactly his specialty.
“Just one,” he said. “A woman.” Avery’s face flashed through his mind and heat pooled in his cheeks. He looked away, hoping Lucy hadn’t noticed, but he was too late.
She grinned. “A woman, huh? I’m guessing by your face that she’s young and beautiful and made you all kinds of nervous.”
“Stop,” David said. “It’s not like that. She’s beautiful, yes, but that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t even know her last name.”
“So ask her.” Lucy leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “Dating would be good for you, I think.”
“Yes, because spending eighty percent of my time at the hospital makes for a great social life.”
Lucy scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You don’t have to be here that much and you know it.”
“Either way, Avery is not the kind of woman that usually looks at a guy like me.”
“Oh, please. You mean a guy who is a doctor with an oceanfront home in Charleston? Yeah. Exactly what every woman doesn’t want.”
“You’re oversimplifying things.”
“You’re overcomplicating things,” Lucy shot back.
“I’m not. Besides, the first time we met, I . . .” He sighed, not sure how to explain the embarrassment he’d endured when Avery had caught him trying to cover his windows with plywood. For a hurricane that had ended up turning back out to sea anyway. “Let’s just say I didn’t make the best first impression.”
Lucy leaned forward in her chair, pushing the pizza box out of the way. Her phone buzzed and she gave it a brief glance before turning her attention back to him.
“Do you need to get that?” David asked, hoping she really, really needed to get it. The look on her face said he wasn’t going to like the direction their conversation was headed.
“It’s not urgent,” she said, with a shake of her head. “Just test results. I’ll look at them in a minute. First, tell me about this bad first impression.”
David fidgeted with the stethoscope hanging around his neck. “It was nothing. I just . . . it doesn’t matter. She’s out of my league.”
Lucy stood up and tossed the last of her pizza into the trash. “You sell yourself short, David. You always have. Just get over yourself and tell me what she’s like.”
David had often admired Lucy’s dogged determination, but he’d never been on the receiving end of it before. She was relentless. “She’s from here. Born and raised. She works at the aquarium. Her father built my house. That’s literally all I know.”
“Is she seeing anyone?”
David shifted. “We spoke for less than ten minutes. How should I know?”
Lucy chewed her lip. “The aquarium, huh? That’s cool.”
“She said she’s the education coordinator there. Actually, she told me she’d give me a free tour if I stopped by some time.”
Lucy’s face lit up. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place? That’s perfect!”
“Stop. I see what you’re doing here, Lucy. It’s not perfect anything. She was just being neighborly.”
“Being neighborly is telling you that trash day is on Mondays or pointing out the place to buy the best coffee. She did not offer a free tour of the aquarium because she was trying to be neighborly. She wants to get to know you.”
“It didn’t feel—”
“Can you just trust me on this?” Lucy said. “I’m a woman, remember? I know how our brains work.”
David sat, blinking. He hadn’t considered even for a minute that Avery had actually meant for him to come to the aquarium. But then, David didn’t have a lot of experience interpreting a woman’s motives.
“What if you’re wrong?”
“So what if I am? At the very least it could provide an opportunity for you to get to know her a little better. And from the blush I saw creeping up your face, I think you want to get to know her a little better.”
“But, I . . .” David hesitated. “I still don’t think you understand. Avery is . . .”
“Not out of your league, David.” Lucy folded her arms across her chest. Clearly she was done debating. But she’d never actually seen Avery. She couldn’t know what David was up against. “What time is your shift over?” She stood and pushed her chair back in, slipping her phone into her coat pocket. “You’re definitely going to the aquarium to see Avery, but I think we need to do a little tweaking first.”
“Tweaking? To what?” David ran a hand across his face. He had a feeling he was not going to like whatever it was Lucy had planned.
“Stop asking questions. Six? Seven? When are you done?”
David sighed, recognizing the inevitability of his fate. When Lucy set her mind to something, there was no arguing with her. “I’m here until six.”
Lucy looked at her watch again. “I should be finished up by then. Let’s plan on leaving together.”
“You’re not going to tell me anything else, are you?” David leveled a stare at his friend.
Her phone pinged again and she grinned. “Duty calls, David. I really have to go.” She pushed out of the doctor’s lounge, then yelled over her shoulder, “See you at
six!”
***
Three hours later, David stood in Lucy’s living room, surrounded by piles of new clothing from stores he’d never even heard of. Lucy had deployed her husband, John, on what she had called a mission of utmost importance. John had been all too happy to comply. He was that guy. The guy that always looked impeccably dressed, even when he was dressed down in denim and t-shirts. David wasn’t so clueless he couldn’t recognize good fashion sense. He did. And was happy to own that John had some. But he wasn’t that guy. He wore clothes that were functional. Comfortable. And scrubs. Lots and lots of scrubs.
He adjusted the shirt John had made him try on. “I’m supposed to leave it untucked like this?”
“Absolutely,” John said. “And you don’t have to button it all the way to the top. Leave the top button open.”
David tugged at his pants. “I just feel like these are sitting so low.” He looked at Lucy. “I wouldn’t have agreed to this had I known you were going to make me wear skinny pants. I feel ridiculous.”
Lucy smirked from her perch on the couch. “Only because you aren’t used to them. I promise you don’t look ridiculous. You’ve been desperate for a makeover for years, David. Why not now? You’re in a new city, you’ve got a new job, and now you’ve got a woman you’d like to impress. These clothes are going to help.”
If only David’s older sisters could see him now. They’d been begging him to tweak his wardrobe for years, they just weren’t bullheaded enough to make him do it. Not like Lucy. All they’d needed to do was stop asking him for permission.
“I never said I wanted to impress Avery,” David said.
Lucy opened her mouth to respond but John spoke before she could. “Who’s Avery?” he asked.
Sufficiently distracted, Lucy grabbed her phone off of the coffee table, swiping a few times before holding the screen out to John. “She’s David’s neighbor. She invited him to go to the aquarium with her.”
“That’s not what happened,” David said. How had this situation gotten so out of hand?
“Nice,” John said, taking the phone.
Always & Forever: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection, Books 1 - 4) Page 50