It was an easy out. Avery could always find something to do to stay busy, but it felt wrong to abandon David. She realized spending the day with him risked giving him the wrong impression—she definitely hadn’t considered it a date when she’d extended the invitation—but he just seemed so . . . earnest.
“Actually, my boss just cancelled a meeting, so I’m free for the rest of the morning.”
“You’re sure?”
Avery smiled. “Let’s start in the first gallery.”
Shelley had been right. David wasn’t Avery’s type at all. But that didn’t stop her from enjoying their time together. He was funny. And witty. And intimidatingly smart. He asked thoughtful questions. And looked right at her when she answered, as if what she was saying was the most interesting thing he’d heard anyone say all day. Whether she was talking about the animals at the aquarium, or just sharing random things about living in Charleston, she’d never been around anyone who was so completely attentive.
The longer they were together, the more David’s social awkwardness melted away.
After they finished the Sea Turtle Center tour, they paused beside the small restaurant that was inside the aquarium. It was hardly a restaurant. More like a glorified snack bar. Still, David stopped and looked up at the menu. “Can I buy you lunch?” he asked.
Avery hesitated long enough that David quickly backpedaled out of his offer. “Sorry. I should let you get back to work. You’ve already given me your entire morning.”
That much was true, but Avery did have to eat. “No, that’s not it. I’d love to have lunch. Just not here.”
What was she doing? She sounded like she was flirting. She did not mean to be flirting.
David’s expression brightened. The man’s face was easier to read than a giant billboard on the side of the highway. “Did you have somewhere else in mind?”
She should back out. Fake a phone call. Something. She was definitely giving him the wrong impression. “There’s a little restaurant down the street that I really love,” Avery heard herself say. “It’s not far if you don’t mind the walk.”
David smiled, the first full smile she’d seen from him all day. “Lead the way.”
David liked her.
Avery didn’t need to be as smart as he was to figure that much out.
On the one hand, she loved the attention. Which must be why she’d agreed to go to lunch in the first place. But she really didn’t want to lead him on.
Avery didn’t spend a ton of time sitting around imagining the guy she hoped to fall in love with. If anything, she avoided the subject whenever possible. But she was pretty sure David wasn’t that guy. Sure, he was easy to talk to, but she didn’t think they had a lot in common. Avery was Charleston born and bred, Lowcountry to her very core. She lived for the salt and sand, for marshy tide waters and hot, humid summers. She spent her free time paddle boarding. Sailing. Eating really good seafood.
She glanced at the menu, suddenly wondering what David would pick. The waiter approached and she ordered the scallops—she always ordered the scallops—and waited with curiosity while David studied the menu. “I’ll have the shrimp and grits,” he said, folding his menu.
Avery hid her smile behind her napkin. Maybe she could give him a few points for that. But everything else? David was about as Lowcountry as a winter snowstorm.
“So tell me about growing up in Chicago,” she said later, after they’d finished most of their meal.
David shrugged. “What would you like to know?”
“What did you do in your free time? Tell me about teenage David.”
He grimaced. “I’m a bad example of the typical Chicago teenager. I mostly just . . . studied.”
“That’s right. College at sixteen, right? That’s intense.”
He shrugged. “It was. I didn’t have a lot of free time.”
“What about summers?”
“I took classes through the summer.”
“Good grief, Dave. You didn’t do anything fun?”
His jaw tightened, likely from her use of the nickname she really thought suited him no matter what he said, but he didn’t correct her. “I was focused on becoming a doctor. It probably makes me sound boring, but I was pretty single-minded.” He hesitated, then went on. “I know for a lot of people work is just something they do from nine to five. Something to pay the bills. It isn’t like that for me. The science of medicine, of how our bodies work and how medicine can do so much to keep them working—it’s my passion.”
He held Avery’s gaze, his blue eyes bright and focused, until she dropped her eyes to the table. Did he look at everyone with such intensity? She cleared her throat. “I think that’s really amazing. It must make your work really meaningful.”
He nodded. “It does.”
“So why emergency medicine?” Avery asked.
David pursed his lips, a tiny wrinkle appearing between his brows. “I know this is going to sound hard to believe,” he said, his eyes lifting with humor, “based on how smooth I’ve been in my encounters with you, but I don’t generally get ruffled in stressful situations. In the ER, you’re constantly making decisions and there isn’t always time to second guess yourself. I learned in med school I have a knack for that kind of quick, on-your-feet thinking.”
Avery suppressed her laugh, but she couldn’t completely hide her smile. The way David had bumbled his way through giving her coffee that morning flashed through her mind. This was a guy making split second decisions under extreme pressure?
“I know,” David said, clearly reading her amusement. “It’s hard to believe. But I know a lot more about medicine than I do about women. I don’t have a reason to doubt myself when I’m at work, but I have every reason to doubt myself in social situations.”
“I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit,” Avery said. “You’ve done fine today.”
“Only because you’ve made it so easy. Plus, it took me four days to talk myself into coming in the first place, and I changed clothes half a dozen times before leaving my house. My friend, Lucy—she’s another doctor in the ER—decided I needed a makeover and made her husband go shopping for me. I have all these new clothes and I don’t have any idea how to wear any of them.”
Oh, man. He really was an open book. “You chose well this morning,” Avery said, looking over his outfit. “You look nice.” She hoped he sensed her sincerity. He did look nice. His pants fit well, and the blue in his shirt made his eyes pop in a way that had fully kept her attention all morning long.
David looked down at his clothes. “Thank you. John told me to wear blue if I wanted to make a good first impression.”
Avery fought hard not to laugh. Not at him, just at his openness, maybe?
“What happens if you happen to meet a woman in your ER?” Avery asked, a teasing grin on her face.
David scowled. “What, you mean, like a patient?”
“Sure,” Avery said. “Women do get sick and come to the ER, don’t they?”
“Of course they do. But I don’t see them as women, I see them as patients. It engages an entirely different part of my brain.”
“Even if she’s beautiful?”
“Especially if she’s beautiful. It’s important that I remain objective. Every woman in my ER deserves to be treated exactly the same, regardless of her appearance.”
Avery took the last bite of the triple chocolate cheesecake she’d ordered for dessert, impressed by how quickly he’d responded to her question. It wasn’t something he’d had to think about, and it definitely wasn’t just a line he delivered because he thought it sounded good. Even after only knowing him a short amount of time, Avery was positive about that. David wasn’t going to say anything he didn’t actually mean. “Doctor Daniels, that was an excellent answer.”
David shrugged. “I try not to bring my emotions into my work at all, if I can help it.”
Avery frowned. “But isn’t it good to engage with people? I like doctors more when
they’re friendly.”
“Of course,” David said. “That’s part of the job. But I can be friendly and engaging without engaging my emotions. Think about it this way. Most of the time when people come to the hospital, they’re experiencing things for the first time so their emotions are running really high. Everything feels significant. But for their doctors, we’ve possibly seen dozens of patients that day. We’ve seen it all, heard it all, answered the same questions hundreds of times. We can’t afford to engage emotionally with every patient. It would be too exhausting.”
Avery nodded. “I’ve never thought about it that way, but I see what you’re saying.” She scraped her fork across her empty plate, wishing she had about three more bites of her dessert left. It had been delicious. “Still, I bet you at least notice when a woman is beautiful.”
David rolled his eyes, lifting his shoulders in a semi-defeated shrug. “I mean, I’m human. An awkward one, but still, human.”
Avery smiled. He wasn’t as awkward as he thought he was. There was something adorably charming about the way he just said laid all his cards on the table all at once.
David cleared his throat. “I, um. . .” He hesitated, taking a deep breath before continuing his sentence. “I would definitely notice if you came into the ER.” The tips of his ears turned bright pink and he gave his head an almost imperceptible shake. “Not that I want you to get sick or anything. Or come to the hospital for any reason. That’s not, I mean, I wasn’t trying to say—”
Avery held out a hand, stopping his bumbling explanation. “I know what you meant. Thank you for the compliment.”
David slid the crumbs of his dessert around on his plate. He’d only eaten half of his and Avery felt tempted to ask if he’d mind if she finished the rest. He’d gotten something lemon, she thought. She liked lemon.
“What about you?” David asked, finally looking up and meeting her eye. “Are you always this confident and self-assured? It must make dating easy for you.”
If any other man had asked the same question, she’d suspect the guy was fishing, hoping she might reveal her current relationship status in a nonthreatening way. But David? She doubted he had those kinds of subtle moves. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t use the opportunity to her advantage, creating a defined friendship boundary before David asked her out. From the number of compliments he’d thrown her way, she was pretty sure he would ask her out. She didn’t want to just shoot him down. He was too sweet a guy for that. But she maybe could use Tucker as an excuse.
She wasn’t totally sure she could call what was happening with Tucker an actual relationship. Not yet, anyway. Questions pulsed around in her brain about whether or not she actually wanted whatever was happening with Tucker to be an actual relationship, but she ignored them for the time being. In the context of defining her friendship with David, that part didn’t necessarily matter.
“Dating definitely isn’t always easy,” Avery said. “But things are going okay right now. I just started seeing someone again.”
David frowned. “Again?”
“He’s an old friend—an old boyfriend. But we’ve been hanging out a little bit, and, I don’t know. Something might be happening.”
“A rekindling,” David said, not even trying to hide the dejection in his voice. “That’s too bad.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he started shaking his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I’m . . .” His face turned bright red. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that out loud.”
That wasn’t the response Avery had expected, and yet, when she thought about it, it was exactly the kind of answer she should have expected from David. The longer she spent time with him, the more he puzzled her. No, that wasn’t right. He wasn’t puzzling at all. He was maybe the most genuine guy she’d ever met. There was no posturing, no trying to look cool. What guy admits to trying on six different outfits before leaving his house? She’d never met anyone who had such a complete lack of game. And that’s what was puzzling. That even with all that, his compliments still made her feel all tingly inside. She couldn’t decide if she’d enjoyed being around him all day because she felt flattered by his unfiltered adoration, or if she liked being around him because she liked . . . him.
But Tucker was still a thing. And possibly a big thing.
“I guess it’s good you let me know you’re seeing someone,” David said. “I’m pretty sure I like you enough I would have wanted to ask you out again. You’ve just saved me from a lot of unnecessary anxiety.”
Avery smiled. “Can we be friends without you feeling any anxiety? Because I’d love to be friends.”
David blew out a breath and his face relaxed. “After all the ridiculous things I’ve said to you today, I think offering friendship is pretty nice of you.”
“You haven’t said anything ridiculous.” Avery reached over and squeezed his arm. “I really like that you’re so open about everything. And I promise I didn’t make up an old ex-boyfriend just to keep you from asking me out. If the timing were different . . .” Avery’s words trailed off, leaving David room to fill in the blank however he wanted. She wasn’t actually sure things would be different if she wasn’t seeing Tucker again, but David didn’t need to know that. “What do you say? Friends?”
“I hardly know anyone else in Charleston,” David finally said with a shrug. “I could use a friend.”
Avery held out her hand. “Here. Give me your phone.”
David unlocked the screen and handed over his phone. Avery opened up his text messages and sent herself a text before handing it back. “There. Now you have my number, and I have yours.”
David looked at his phone, clearly amazed that it had been so simple. “Is that how people exchange numbers these days? That was so easy.”
Avery chuckled. “You really should get out of the hospital more.” She glanced at her watch and then dropped her napkin onto the table. “I’ve got to get back to work.” She stood up. “Thank you for lunch, and for coming to see me. I’m really glad you did.”
David stood up as well. “Of course. I had a really nice time.”
Something about the way he looked at her made Avery’s breath catch in her chest. It was a tiny something, but it wasn’t so tiny that she didn’t notice, that she didn’t wonder why this man, so very different from anyone she’d ever dated before, still affected her. She bit her bottom lip. “So, I’ll see you around?”
He gave her that same full smile she’d already grown to appreciate. “I hope so.”
Chapter 4
David pulled the curtain closed around his patient and ran a weary hand across his neck. “Hey, Annie?” he said to the nurse walking toward him. “Can you call ortho down for a consult on this broken arm? Patient name Gregory?”
“Sure thing. Have you seen Dr. Wiseman?” Annie said. “Lab results just came back for her.”
“I’m here,” Lucy said, as she rounded the corner. Lucy took the results from Annie then fell into step next to David. “Hey, how was the aquarium?” she asked. “You never responded to my text.”
David grunted. He hadn’t responded because there wasn’t anything to say. Sure, Avery had given him her number, but she’d made it really clear she only wanted to be his friend. Talking about it just made him feel more ridiculous.
Lucy nudged him. “Hey. I deserve more than a grunt.”
“She invites everyone to the aquarium. It wasn’t a special invitation. Just something causal that she says to anyone new to the area. And it was clear that she knew I thought it had meant something more which just made the entire thing embarrassing and awkward.”
Lucy bit her lip, obviously trying not to laugh. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
“It was, Lucy. It really, really was.”
“Did you get her number?” she asked, giving him some side-eye.
He hesitated. “Only because she’s my neighbor and she said we could be friends. But she made the friends part really clear.”
Lucy
shook her head. “I still count that a victory. She wouldn’t have given you her number if she found you repulsive, right?”
David groaned. Were things really so bad that his success was defined by whether or not he was repulsive? “What an accomplishment,” he said dryly.
They stopped outside a curtained triage area. “This is me,” Lucy said, “but we aren’t done talking about this.”
The last thing David needed was Lucy hounding him about Avery. It was already hard enough to keep her off his mind. At work, he managed fine. The ER kept him engaged enough there wasn’t much time to sit around and think about his neighbor. But when he wasn’t at the hospital, it felt as though he was suddenly seeing Avery everywhere. At the little grocery store on the island. At the coffee shop next door. In her front yard or on her porch or in her driveway. It seemed like every time David came home from work, she was outside, her sun-bleached hair and tan skin taunting him on an almost daily basis. Did the woman never go inside her house? And it’s not like David worked consistent hours. He rarely got home at the same time of day. How was she always around? Was that new? Or was it that he was simply looking for her more than he had before?
Despite their frequent encounters, weeks went by and David never did anything more than raise his hand and wave in a friendly, neighborly way. Whenever he thought of their not-at-all-a-date day at the aquarium, his face still flushed with embarrassment. He couldn’t quite muster the nerve to try and talk to her again. Even if she hadn’t found him repulsive.
David looked over the chart of his next patient, sharpened his focus, and pushed Avery from his mind. He wasn’t a lovesick teenager. He was an adult, perfectly capable of schooling his wandering thoughts. And school them he did, all the way through the end of his shift and the first two hours of his evening at home.
Then Avery showed up on his back porch, blood dripping down her leg.
He pushed open the screen door. “Hey.”
She stood, slightly hunched, a rag pressed into her inner thigh. “Hi.” She swallowed. “Um, I think I maybe need some stitches.”
Always & Forever: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection, Books 1 - 4) Page 52