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

by Brenna Jacobs

  “You seem like you’ve got a lot on your mind,” David said as he fell in step beside her. “I can see you thinking.”

  “Yeah?” As long as he couldn’t see what she was thinking, they might make it through the rest of the night. “I guess I do. Work stuff, and Tucker stuff. Family stuff.” She reached down and pulled a sand dollar out of the sand, rinsing it in the surf that swirled around her feet. She held it up. “See? The bottom is completely smooth. No little purple hairs. That’s how you know it’s already dead.”

  “Got it,” David said. “What sort of family stuff? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Nothing big,” Avery said. “My parents just keep pestering me to move upstate so I can be closer to them and my brother, Shawn. Shawn’s wife is from Greenville, and as soon as they had kids, my parents moved up so they could help out. I think my parents dream of perfect Sunday afternoon meals with all of us together.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad,” David said.

  “Not at all. But, who wants to live in the Upstate? How could I when I’m used to this?” She held her arms out, motioning to the beach around her then spun around, her face tipped up to the sky. The first stars had appeared, twinkling next to the faintly red light she immediately recognized as Mars. “If you come out here in the wintertime, there’s an hour just before the sun sets when you can see four planets at once, stretching in an arc across the sky.” She pointed at Mars, then slowly traced a line across and down toward the horizon. “Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and then Venus.” She looked back at David. “Jupiter will be out later tonight, but . . .” She shrugged. ‘The winter sky is better.”

  David studied her a moment. “You really do love it here, don’t you?”

  Avery smiled. “As much as I’ve ever loved anything.”

  David reached down and picked up his own sand dollar, holding it up for Avery to inspect. “This one’s good, right?”

  She pulled it from his hand, her fingers grazing against his in a way that shouldn’t have made her heart skip but did anyway. “Yep. That’s a keeper,” she said before handing it back.

  They walked a few more steps in silence before David spoke again. “I love that about you.”

  Avery looked at him and smiled. “What?”

  “That you feel so passionately about things. That . . . I don’t know. It just seems like everything you do, you do it like you really mean it. I wish I could be more like that.”

  “But you are like that, aren’t you? You’re clearly passionate about your work.”

  “My work, yes. But you’re like that with everything.”

  Avery stifled a laugh. “It got me in trouble when I was a kid. My mother used to tell me I had the ideas of a genius, but the forethought and impulse control of a drunken teenager.”

  “Sounds like a dangerous combination,” David said. “But seeing as how I’ve only lived here a couple of months and I’ve already stitched you up once, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  Avery bumped his shoulder with hers. “Hey, now. Don’t be judging. There was nothing unsafe about pressure washing my roof. That was just bad luck.”

  “Weren’t you pressure washing your roof while on your roof?”

  Avery rolled her eyes. “Fine. Maybe I could have been slightly safer. But there was one corner that I just couldn’t reach from the ladder. What else was I supposed to do?”

  “I really do admire your boldness. If anything, I had too much impulse control growing up. It seems like all I did was watch from the sidelines, calculating the likelihood that I might get hurt or that someone might laugh at me. I went to a pool party once and spent an hour and forty-five minutes sitting on the side of the pool watching everyone else swim. I finally found the courage to jump in fifteen minutes before the party was over. It was the best fifteen minutes I had all summer and I just remember thinking, why didn’t I jump in sooner? What was I so afraid of, you know?”

  Avery shrugged. “I definitely recommend jumping in the pool, but . . . I don’t know. I think you’re pretty okay just the way you are.”

  David smiled and Avery’s stomach tightened, some involuntary reflex that both thrilled and frustrated her at the same time. “Pretty okay, huh?” David said.

  “Can I try something?” Avery stopped, turning David to face her. “Just for a minute.”

  David raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. The look in your eye makes me think I should maybe say no.”

  She bit her lip. “Just trust me.”

  The look on his face said he did trust her. He nodded slightly, permission to move forward with whatever it was she had planned. Slowly, Avery reached up and gently slid David’s glasses from his face. She folded the glasses and hooked them over the collar of her shirt then reached for David’s hair, running her fingers through the front, lifting it at the roots and mussing it just enough for him to look a little more casual. Finally, she unbuttoned the top button of his collared shirt. “There,” she said, her voice soft. “Now you look like you’re dressed for the beach.” Her hands lingered on his chest for a beat longer than necessary, long enough that she could feel the pounding of his heart through his shirt.

  David cleared his throat. “Dressed for the beach but too blind to actually see it.”

  Avery’s eyes widened. “That bad, huh?”

  “Definitely that bad.”

  “Fine. You can have the glasses back. But first, give me your phone.”

  David pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked the screen then handed it over. Avery turned so she and David faced the same direction, then leaned in before holding up the phone and snapping a photo of the two of them together. She returned the phone, then returned the glasses.

  David put the glasses on before pulling up the photo. He studied it closely, Avery leaning over his arm to look too. “I hardly look like myself,” he said.

  “You look exactly like yourself,” Avery said. “Just a slightly more relaxed version. Will you text it to me?”

  David nodded, and quickly sent her the photo. “Remember a few weeks back, when I told you my friends tried to make me over?” he asked, his tone a little sheepish. “They told me I didn’t need to button my shirts all the way up, not unless I’m wearing a tie. I guess old habits are hard to break.”

  Avery suddenly worried she’d done a bad thing in changing the way David looked. He definitely looked more relaxed, but it was more important that he feel relaxed. And that meant he ought to be able to dress however he wanted. She wasn’t shallow enough to care more about how he looked than how he felt.

  “You know what? I think I messed up,” Avery said, willing to own her mistake. “You should wear your shirts however you’re most comfortable.”

  David laughed softly and shook his head. “That’s just it. This is more comfortable. I like it. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but social anxiety messes with your head in weird ways. Dressing the same way, like I always have, feels safer. If I make a change, then I’m creating something new to worry about. Do I look okay? Am I pulling it off? Do people think I’m trying too hard? Logically, I know people don’t think about me near as much as my anxiety tells me they do. But it’s hard to always realize that in the moment.”

  “That actually makes a lot of sense,” Avery said. “My brother dealt with some pretty intense anxiety growing up. That doesn’t sound all that different from the things he used to tell me.” Memories of the conversations she used to have with Shawn filled her mind. He’d always turned to her for reassurance, which she’d willingly given. He’d always said she’d kept him grounded.

  “If it matters,” Avery said, stopping in her tracks. An extra big wave washed up over her feet before she could continue, threatening to soak her shorts. She danced out of the waves, dragging David with her. “If it matters,” she said, trying again, “I think you can pull this off. You do look okay, great even, and you definitely don’t look like you’re trying too hard.” She smiled up at him. “You shouldn’t worry.”<
br />
  He smiled in a way that warmed her all the way to her center. “Thanks, Avery.”

  When they reached the lighthouse, they turned back the way they had come and returned to Avery’s house to finish dinner. The longer they talked, the less Avery worried about whether or not she actually liked David. Whether or not she should like David. There was something about him that calmed her, that made her feel steady and sure of herself.

  She’d been surprised when she met him to learn that he worked in an ER, but the more she got to know him, the easier it was to imagine how good he was at his job. He had a certain deliberateness that she admired. He was the kind of man she couldn’t imagine angry—the kind that measured his words before speaking them, that thought about consequences, that cared about respect. When he forgot to be nervous, she found him utterly charming. And he did forget. And that made Avery happy.

  ***

  “I’m not sure I understand what the problem is,” Melba said, her arms tucked securely around Jasper’s middle. “It sounds like you like him and he likes you. Isn’t that the point?”

  Avery pulled Cheerwine out of the refrigerator Melba kept plugged in on her screened in back porch. She didn’t need to ask. She’d been pulling Cheerwine out of Melba’s fridge since she was old enough to hold the bottle by herself. Her certainty that the rounded vintage fridge with the worn silver handle would always be stocked with the tall glass bottles full of the South’s favorite soda was as unyielding and permanent as her certainty that the moon influenced the tides, and that shrimp and grits was unequivocally the best seafood dish of all time. “But I don’t like him.” Avery dropped back into her rocking chair and used the hem of her shirt to twist off the top of her soda. “I mean, I do like him. As a friend. But this thing with Tucker…”

  Melba scoffed. “Tucker can take his fancy deck shoes and go back to the yacht club where he belongs.”

  “Be nice, Mel. I loved him,” Avery said. “Maybe still love him.”

  Melba stared out toward the water, her jaw set in a firm line. “And I love bourbon,” she finally said. “The way it smells, tastes, the way it warms me from the inside out. But it almost killed me so I gave it up thirty years ago and I haven’t looked back since.”

  Avery rolled her eyes. She’d known Melba since she was three years old. The woman had a right to speak her mind without filtering, without worrying about hurting Avery’s feelings. But comparing Tucker to alcoholism? That was pushing it. “Fine, I get it. We can love things that are bad for us. But what makes you so sure Tucker is bad for me? He’s a nice guy, Melba. He was good to me.”

  “Maybe he was good to you.” Melba watched as Jasper jumped off her lap and walked to his water bowl in the corner. “But I don’t think he sees you. Not in the ways that matter. And that’s a shame because you’re something special, Avery. Inside and out.”

  “What makes you so sure David is any better than Tucker? What if he doesn’t see me either?”

  Melba shot her a knowing look and shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve been around a long time, sugar. I’ve got good instincts. Plus, I see the way you light up when you talk about him. Your words might be telling me one thing, but your eyes are saying something else altogether.”

  Chapter 8

  David was halfway through his shift before he had a minute to talk to Lucy. He found her reviewing a patient’s chart, flanked by a new batch of medical students. He wasn’t old. Not even close to old. But he still felt like the med students looked younger and younger every year. Lucy looked up and they made eye contact, David motioning with his head for her to follow him. A few minutes later, she excused herself and crossed to where he leaned against the nurse’s station.

  “Gastroenteritis,” David said.

  Lucy shook her head.

  “Kidney stones.”

  Lucy scoffed. “The patient’s only fifteen.”

  “Appendicitis!” David said with a snap of his fingers.

  “Bingo. He’ll be in surgery within the hour.”

  “Three guesses,” David said. “I think that officially puts me in the lead.”

  “No way,” Lucy fired back. “You get a penalty because I told you the patient’s age. That means we’re still tied.”

  The game was simple. Guess a diagnosis for the other doctor’s patients, without seeing a chart, or examining the patient. The rules made it mostly about luck and not about skill which is exactly the way they wanted it.

  David pulled out his phone and tapped until the photo Avery had taken of the two of them on the beach filled the screen. He turned the phone to face Lucy.

  Lucy leaned in, studying the photo with her eyes scrunched up. “That’s you!” she finally said with a gasp. “I hardly recognized you. You look great!”

  “Thanks,” David said. He adjusted his glasses. Maybe he’d ask John about trying the contacts he’d mentioned.

  “And Avery, she’s . . . Wow,” Lucy said, drawing the word out long and slow.

  “Wow? Wow what? What does wow mean?”

  “Wow means wow. She’s beautiful.”

  David’s shoulders fell. If he was reading Lucy’s tone right, what she wasn’t saying, but definitely thinking, was so beautiful, she’ll never want to date you. “I know, I know. She’s too beautiful for me.”

  “Hey, woah, that is not what I said. Do you really think that? That she’s too good for you?”

  “She isn’t too good for me.” David meant his words. He was happy with the man that he’d become over the years. He loved his job. He had healthy relationships with his family. He believed he would make a good husband for someone eventually. But he was also a realist. And in his world, women that looked like Avery didn’t often date men that looked like him. “She is too beautiful for someone like me.”

  Lucy scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. Look at the two of you. You look like a happy couple. No one would ever look at this picture and think you don’t belong together.”

  “And yet,” David said, “I’m still firmly in the friend zone.” Even as he said the words, David wondered if they were true. When he thought about that moment on the beach, when she’d touched his hair and looked so intensely into his eyes—there was something there. She had to feel it, too.

  “She’s still dating the other guy, huh?”

  David nodded. “I met him. I guess they have a lot of history together. Avery seems pretty optimistic.”

  “Your tone is telling me you weren’t impressed with the guy.”

  “Who am I to judge? I’m terrible and awkward when I meet new people. If she likes him . . . I don’t know. I probably ought to give him another chance.”

  Lucy reached up and cupped David’s cheek. “You’re too good, David.”

  “I just hate that I can’t stop thinking about her, even though I know she’s dating someone else. It’s exhausting. She takes up so much space in my brain, and for what? I don’t have a chance with her.”

  “I don’t know that I’d give up that easily,” Lucy said. “She’s only dating the guy. They aren’t engaged. And the relationship already failed once, which doesn’t bode well for their second attempt. Maybe you just need to wait it out and see what happens.”

  “That feels sad,” David said. “And pathetic.”

  “Then you could always make a move. Try and woo her away from the guy.”

  David scoffed. “That feels irrational and fatalistic.”

  Lucy tapped her lip. “Listen, Dr. Pessimism, I’m trying to help you here. What if you just—wait. I know exactly what you need to do. You need to make it easier to stop thinking about Avery by thinking about someone else. You’ve got the new wardrobe, the new glasses. It’s time, David. You need to go on more dates.”

  David frowned. He didn’t like the idea of dating anyone that wasn’t Avery. Even if he did, he didn’t know anyone. And the thought of going out socially, among strangers, to try and meet someone felt like the world’s worst sort of punishment. “Like who? I don’t know anyone who doe
sn’t work at the hospital. Besides Avery.”

  “What about Haley, the triage nurse? She’s super smart, really funny once you get to know her, and she’s got that gorgeous long hair. I think she’d be good for you.”

  Daniel wasn’t sure he’d ever even spoken to Haley the triage nurse. He definitely hadn’t noticed her hair. “I got nothing,” he said to Lucy.

  She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You don’t even know who she is?”

  “What do you want me to say? I don’t think about dating when I’m working.” That was mostly true. But he’d also been consumed with thoughts of Avery since the first moment he’d met her. There wasn’t a lot of room in his brain for noticing anyone else.

  A nurse peeked her head around the corner. Not Haley. David at least knew that much. “Dr. Daniels?” the nurse said. “New patient in Exam Two. Potential—”

  “Wait! Don’t say it,” Lucy said. “It’s a . . . herniated disc.”

  The nurse shook her head.

  “A kid that swallowed a marble?” Lucy tried again.

  “Nope,” the nurse said.

  “Dang. I’m off my game today.”

  “I’ll never not be winning, Lu. You should probably just give up.” David followed the nurse to Exam Two.

  “Just think about what I said, okay?” Lucy called out after him. “We could double date if you want.”

  The nurse shot David a questioning look at the mention of a date and David felt his cheeks warm. He cleared his throat. “The patient?” he asked expectantly.

  “Right,” the nurse said. “Possible sprain or fracture to the left wrist.” She handed David the patient’s chart. “And just a heads up, his fiancée is a little hysterical. She’s convinced his entire arm is broken and I guess their wedding is in a few months? She’s terrified a cast will ruin all their wedding photos.”

  “Got it.” David quickly scanned the patient’s information, his eyes catching on the name at the top of the chart. Tucker King. It wasn’t all that common of a name, but this patient had a fiancée. It couldn’t be Avery’s Tucker.