Always & Forever: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection, Books 1 - 4)

by Brenna Jacobs

  “Wait, is that her picture? Did you look her up?” David lunged forward, trying to take the phone from John. He suddenly felt like he was back in high school. Five more minutes with John and Lucy, and they’d likely be composing messages to Avery’s work email, asking her to be David’s girlfriend—check yes, no, or maybe.

  John tossed the phone back to Lucy before David could intervene.

  “I just went to the aquarium’s website,” Lucy said. “Her last name is Middleton, by the way. And her picture is great. It doesn’t look like she has Facebook, but she does have an Instagram profile. She likes sailing. And dolphins. And cheeseburgers loaded with bacon.”

  David resisted the urge to pull out his own phone and search for Avery’s Instagram account. He also liked cheeseburgers loaded with bacon. And the idea of Avery on a sailboat . . . He shook his head. He could not get sucked into Lucy’s game.

  “Lucy, you have to stop,” David said. “You’re turning this into something it’s not. It’s not a date. It was just a neighborly invitation.”

  Lucy dropped her phone back onto the table and crossed her arms. “Why are you so sure of that? What would happen if you just tried? You’re adorable, David. Could maybe even qualify as legit hot if you would lose the glasses and keep the skinny jeans. Any woman would be lucky to have a chance with you.”

  David reached up and fingered the frame of his glasses. There was something wrong with his glasses?

  “When was the last time you even went on a date?” Lucy said.

  David dropped into the overstuffed leather chair that sat opposite the couch and pushed his head into his hands. He sighed, massaging his temples before looking back at his friend. “I’ve dated. You set me up with that nurse back in Chicago, remember?”

  Lucy stared. “That was your first year of residency! It’s been three years since then. You haven’t dated anyone else? Anyone recent?”

  “Of course I have.” David flinched at his own defensiveness. He didn’t actually have anything to prove to Lucy. She was his friend. She only asked because she cared. “Occasionally.”

  Lucy raised a doubtful eyebrow.

  “Fine. I never date. But it’s not like residency provided all that much free time. You and John never saw each other, and you were married and living in the same house.”

  “That’s true,” Lucy conceded. “You did have a girlfriend in med school, didn’t you? What was her name? Melissa, right? I remember you telling me about her.”

  David nodded. “We were together three years.”

  “Why’d you break up?” John asked.

  David shrugged. “It was mutual. When we graduated and left Boston, we were moving to opposite sides of the country for residency. I was going home to Chicago to start at Northwestern, and she was moving to Seattle. The relationship just didn’t seem as important as our careers.”

  “I totally get that,” Lucy said. “It’s normal to feel that way when you’re fresh out of med school. And I can almost see how you could be too wrapped up in residency to have dated then. But you’ve got your career figured out now. You’re settled. You bought a house. It’s time you try and live a little.”

  John nudged Lucy over and sat down on the couch beside her, picking her feet up and dropping them into his lap. “Have you ever thought about trying contacts?” he asked. “I can help you out if you want. We could run up to the office right now. I bet I have some samples that are pretty close to your prescription.”

  John was an optometrist and as earnest as Lucy in his desire to help, but David had endured enough making over for one day.

  He stood. “I think I’m okay for now.” He looked around at the bags of clothing that filled the room. “I guess I’m supposed to take all of this with me?”

  John nodded. “They’re organized by outfit already, so remember that when you’re adding them to your closet. I tried to pick stuff that was pretty neutral, so you can mix and match some, but if you have any doubts about whether or not stuff goes together, text me before you make any bold decisions on your own.”

  David looked down at his new pants, noticing how they’d stretched and moved with his body when he’d stood up. They were pretty comfortable. “Are all the pants like this?” He looked at John who perked up, likely happy to have David do something besides scowl at him.

  “Not exactly like that, but similar styles, yeah. I think I did get you a few pair of those in different colors. And you can dress them down, too. Wear them with a t-shirt and flip flops when you’re walking on the beach. Or put on a blazer over the shirt you’re wearing now and you’re ready for a date. You seriously can’t go wrong.”

  David blinked. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself to take the pants from a beach look to a date look without John’s help, but he could at least appreciate the versatility.

  “Don’t let it overwhelm you,” John said with a grin, clearly sensing his hesitation. “I promise it’ll get easier.”

  Three days later, David stood in the middle of his bathroom and studied his reflection in the giant mirror that hung above his sink. He had to admit he did look better. He’d refused the contacts Lucy kept trying to foist on him—he liked his glasses and didn’t want to give them up—but he had agreed to try a different frame. And they were better. Hipper, without being hipster. David wore the same magic pants he’d tried on at Lucy’s, with a light blue button down, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked casual, but intentional. And still like David, which was the most important part. He wouldn’t pretend to be anyone but himself, not even to impress a woman.

  He glanced at his watch. The aquarium opened at nine, which meant he had seventeen minutes to get there if he wanted to be there right when the doors opened. He walked to his bedroom and sat down on the corner of his bed. Should he wait an hour? What if Avery was busy doing other things and couldn’t give him a tour after all? Should he have called and scheduled something, so she knew to clear her schedule? He pulled out his phone and texted Lucy and John in the group chat Lucy had started on makeover day. I can’t do this, he typed. Do I go now? At lunch time? What if she’s busy? Should I take her something? Flowers? What do I even say?

  No flowers! Lucy immediately responded. It’s way too soon for that.

  Go now, John responded. And take coffee. Coffee is easy. Nonthreatening.

  Ohhh, that’s a good idea, Lucy agreed. Do that!

  I don’t even know how she LIKES her coffee, David typed. Isn’t that a little presumptuous?

  Just get an extra of whatever you get for yourself, John texted. Even if she doesn’t end up drinking it, she’ll remember the gesture.

  David stared at his phone, wondering if he really ought to be taking dating advice from a couple who had started dating in high school and gotten married before either one of them had finished their undergrad. They weren’t exactly a typical couple. Still, they were more qualified to give advice than he was. And they were all he had.

  He closed out the text thread and pulled up Google Maps, finding the closest coffee shop to the aquarium. It only added three minutes to his trip.

  Standing, he slipped his phone into his pocket before moving back to the bathroom mirror for one final glance. “Hey Avery, you remember me?” he said to his reflection.

  No. That was terrible.

  “I was just in the neighborhood and thought you might want some coffee.”

  He leaned forward. Was that spinach in his teeth?

  His shoulders dropped. Stupid smoothie. After a quick floss, he squared himself to the mirror. “Hi, Avery. Great to see you. Want to show me the dolphins up close?”

  His words—his stupid words—echoed around the bathroom.

  What was he doing? Who did he actually think he was?

  In one swift motion, he tossed his new glasses onto the bathroom counter, and stormed into his bedroom where he grabbed his old frames from his nightstand drawer. He shoved them onto his face, feeling at once more comfortable, and headed out the front door.
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br />   Baby steps, he thought to himself. New clothes today; maybe he’d wear the new frames tomorrow.

  Chapter 3

  “Hey, Avery?”

  Avery turned to see her friend, Shelley, one of the ticket receptionists who worked out front, standing in her office doorway. “Hey. What’s up?” she asked.

  “There’s a man out front asking for you?” Shelley shrugged. “He said something about a tour?”

  “What, like he wants to book one? Is he from a school?”

  “No, more like he thinks you’re supposed to give him one.”

  Avery searched her memory. Had she agreed to give someone a tour of the aquarium? She glanced at her watch. She had an hour before she had to meet with her boss and update her on the new hands-on program they were launching for the local elementary schools, but she’d hoped to spend that hour going over her notes and finalizing her budget numbers. “You’re sure you don’t have any idea who he is?” she asked Shelley.

  “I’ve never seen him before. Youngish. Blond. Dorky glasses?”

  Avery searched her mind but came up with nothing. Who could it be? “Okay.” She stood up to follow Shelley from her office. “I’ll come see who it is.”

  They walked side by side down the long corridor that led to the aquarium offices. “I actually wondered if he was your boyfriend when he first showed up, but I don’t know. I’m not sure he’s exactly your type.”

  Avery looked at Shelley, feeling slightly affronted. “What? I don’t have a type.”

  Shelley rolled her eyes. “You totally have a type.”

  Avery stopped. She’d known Shelley a long time. As long as she’d been working at the aquarium, and they’d gotten to be close friends. It wasn’t so much that she minded Shelley having an opinion about her dating life. She’d earned that right when she’d brought ice cream to work every day for a week after Tucker had broken up with Avery. She was just surprised that Shelley seemed so certain. Was Avery really so predictable? “I need more information,” she said to Shelley’s retreating form.

  Shelley turned around. “It’s not a big deal. I totally didn’t mean for that to offend you.” She must have read the not so pleasant expression on Avery’s face. “Lots of people have a type. It just means you know what you like.”

  “Yeah, but what is my type? How can I have a type if I don’t even recognize what it is?”

  Shelley sighed and leaned against the wall. “Okay. The guy you brought to the Christmas party last year. The one with the hair and the Sperrys and the pink shirt?”

  Avery thought back to the party. Charlie. Or, was it Chuck? She couldn’t remember. He’d been nice enough, but they’d only gone out a couple of times.

  “Then there was Wyatt,” Shelley continued. “Up in Accounting? Same hair. Same shoes. Same preppy Charleston wardrobe. Well and then, Tucker, obviously. He totally fits the same mold.”

  An image of Tucker flashed through Avery’s mind. Had the three men Shelley mentioned all been lined up on the sidewalk, they would have looked like fraternity brothers. Fraternity brothers who all did their shopping at Lacoste. Avery had never really made the connection before, but once Shelley pointed it out, she couldn’t deny it.

  Her shoulders dropped. “I suddenly feel so . . . predictable.”

  “It’s not a bad thing,” Shelley said. “I go for guys who wear boots and like hog hunting. You like yacht club boys with perfect teeth. Everybody has a preference.”

  Avery hated stereotypes—growing up in the South she’d been exposed to her fair share—but she knew the type of man Shelley meant when she said yacht club boys. They were the kind of men who were privately educated, knee-deep in old family money, and possessed lifetime memberships at the yacht club. The kind of men that were always nice to their Southern mamas and liked their tea sweet with a splash of good bourbon.

  What rankled was trying to figure out what it was about that kind of man that made Avery take notice. Why did she pick the yacht club boys? The answer crystalized in her brain in an instant, filling her with a potent kind of shame. She picked the yacht club boys because of the first yacht club boy who had picked her. Tucker. Everyone else? They were just shadows of the first man she’d ever fallen in love with.

  Avery thought of the dinner they’d shared the night before, sitting on her back porch, listening to the waves, feeling the ocean breeze. They’d mostly just reminisced about their relationship—they’d been together eighteen months and most of them had been pretty good—but Avery had detected the same something in Tucker’s eyes that said he was maybe looking for something more. When he’d left, he’d squeezed her hand then leaned in to kiss her forehead. “I’ve missed you, Avery,” he’d said.

  What was that even supposed to mean?

  Avery rounded the corner and almost bumped into Shelley who had stopped at the end of the lobby. She pointed across the vast, open space. “See him? Over there by the benches?”

  “Oh!” Avery said. “That’s my new neighbor.” She searched her mind for his name. “David.” She almost called him Dave and the thought made her smile. He’d been adamant that he was not a Dave, but Avery kind of liked it. “I did tell him I’d take him on a tour, but man, he couldn’t have picked a worse day to show up.” She bit her bottom lip, glancing one more time at her watch.

  “There’s a Behind-the-Scenes tour of the Sea Turtle Center at eleven,” Shelley said. “That might keep him occupied a while.”

  “That’s perfect,” Avery said. “I can spend the next half hour with him, then he can do the tour, and maybe I can buy him lunch after.”

  “I’ll get him on the tour and bring you his pass,” Shelley said. She stopped, tilting her head and giving Avery a knowing look. “You know, he is kind of cute. What’s he do?”

  “He’s a doctor at MUSC,” Avery said.

  Shelley’s eyebrows went up. “Really?” She narrowed her gaze, studying him from across the room. “You think he likes hog hunting?”

  Avery almost snorted. She didn’t know David at all, but ten minutes of conversation had been more than enough to convince her he was not the hog-hunting type. She’d put money on it. “Pretty sure that’s a no, Shell.”

  Avery crossed the busy lobby, noticing the moment David saw her coming. He instantly stiffened and cast a worried look over his shoulder like he was hunting for the nearest exit. He held a drink carrier in his hands, two coffee cups perched inside, but had there been a trash can nearby, Avery was pretty sure he would have dumped them. He turned and placed them on the bench behind him, then immediately picked them up, before setting them down again. He moved his body in front of the cups, blocking her view, just as she arrived.

  “Hey,” she said. “You came.”

  “I did,” David said. “It’s my day off, so . . . here I am.” A blush crept up his neck. “How are you?”

  “I’m good.” Avery looked at the bench behind him. “Did you bring coffee?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” He stepped to the side revealing the coffee he’d unsuccessfully tried to hide. “I just thought . . . you know, since it’s morning, and you’re working, and people drink coffee in the morning . . .”

  Poor guy. Was he always this nervous? “That was really nice of you,” she said. “I’d love some.”

  David’s shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit and he picked up the drink carrier, lifting one of the cups out and offering it to her. “I just got two of what I normally drink. I hope that’s okay.”

  Avery took a sip, willing herself not to make a face. The drink didn’t taste like coffee, it tasted like straight up dessert. “Wow,” she said. “That’s . . . sweet.”

  David’s eyes went wide. “Is it?” He took his own sip. “Sorry. I guess I’m used to it. I always add a swirl of salted caramel and fresh cream.”

  “How do ever you maintain your figure,” Avery joked.

  “Here, you don’t have to drink it.” David reached for her cup. “I should have thought about the sugar.”

  She mov
ed the cup out of his reach, then took another sip. The flavors were definitely growing on her. “Oh, I’m not giving this up. I didn’t say I didn’t like it. It just isn’t what I was expecting.”

  David forced out a breath. “You’re sure you’re not just saying that to be nice?”

  Avery took another long sip. He’d maybe ruined regular coffee for her forever. “I’m positive. This is delicious.”

  Shelley showed up seconds later, a behind-the-scenes pass attached to a bright blue Charleston Aquarium lanyard in her hand. She handed the pass to Avery, then smiled at David before turning back to the ticket counter.

  “I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” David said.

  “No, it’s great,” Avery lied. He’d obviously made quite the effort to get there. If she’d thought herself capable of turning him away before, she definitely wasn’t going to now. “Come on.” She motioned toward a side entrance for employees. “I can get you in over here.” They moved in and out of the crowds until they reached the door where Avery used her ID to buzz them in. “I’m actually really glad you came. You know, I’ve given the same invitation dozens of times. No one has ever taken me up on it before.”

  David stopped, something flitting across his face before he schooled his features into something more neutral. “Oh. Right. Well, lucky me, I guess?”

  In an instant, Avery realized what had happened.

  The coffee. David’s nerves. He’d treated her “free tour of the aquarium” like it was some special invitation she’d only extended to him, like it was more of a date.

  And she’d just told him she’d invited half the island to do the same thing. Talk about dashing a guy’s hopes.

  Avery’s phone pinged with a text and she gave it a quick glance. She held up a finger to David. “Sorry, this is my boss. Give me just a sec.”

  So sorry, Avery, the text read. I’ve got to pick up a sick kid from school, so I need to push our meeting to tomorrow morning. Can you confirm?

  Avery typed out a quick response confirming the reschedule.

  “I don’t mind going through on my own,” David said. “Truly. I don’t want to take you from your work.”