D is for Doctor (ABCs of Love Sweet Romance Book 4)

by Brenna Jacobs

  He willed himself to forget about how close she was, how warm her skin felt, and just zero in on the actual wound.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked. “Lightheaded at all?”

  She shook her head no.

  “Do you have any allergies? Latex? Iodine?”

  Another head shake.

  “Okay. This will feel cold for a minute.” He swabbed the cut down with iodine. “And you’ll feel a tiny pinch,” he said, before injecting the lidocaine, “but it will only last a second and then you won’t feel much of anything else. Maybe a little tugging here and there.”

  She nodded again, but kept her eyes closed. “Just tell me when it’s over.”

  David chuckled to himself. That she was willing to climb onto her roof to do a little pressure washing but couldn’t stand the sight of needles? Somehow it only made him like her more.

  Chapter 5

  Avery cracked one eyeball, peeking out at David’s face. If she looked at the stitches, at the actual needle going into and out of her flesh, she’d pass out for sure. But she could look at Dave’s face. It was a nice face.

  “Hey, you’re wearing different glasses.”

  David looked up and met her gaze. “Yeah. Do you . . . do you like them? My friend, Lucy, picked them out. Her husband is an optometrist and said something about them better complimenting my bone structure.” His cheeks turned red again. “Sorry. That was a lot of information. I should have just said thank you.”

  “Lucy was right,” Avery said. “They look good. They make you look older. In a good way, you know? More professional.”

  He swallowed and she watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down. “Thank you.”

  She closed her eyes again, sighing as she sank even further into the couch. “How am I doing?”

  “You’re doing great,” David said. “Just a few more and you’ll be all set.”

  “So I’m venturing a guess that you’re not going to let me pay you for this,” Avery said.

  David grunted. “Absolutely not.” He patted her leg gently. “All finished. Just let me wrap it up for you. You’ll need to keep it clean and dry for ten days. Showers are fine after the first 48 hours, just dry it well and cover it afterwards.”

  She opened her eyes and watched as he put some gauze over the cut then wrapped a bandage around her leg to hold it in place. “You’re good at this.”

  David’s eyes lifted, but he didn’t quite smile. “This is probably the easiest part of what I do but thank you.”

  “Sure. But I can see you being very good with patients,” Avery said. “Putting them at ease.”

  “Once I convince them I’m really their doctor and not a first-year med student, I think I do okay.”

  Avery stretched her leg out in front of her, bending it at the knee, then extending it again.

  “How does it feel?” David lowered himself onto the couch beside her.

  She shifted to give him a little more room. She’d been taking her half of the couch out of the middle. “Good. I can’t feel anything, really.”

  “You probably will a little later. You can take some ibuprofen if it starts to feel sore.”

  Avery nodded. “Noted.” With her wound tended to and bandaged up, it was probably time for her to go. Instead, she pulled a throw pillow off of David’s couch, running her fingers over the loose weave of the yarn. “Did you always want to be a doctor growing up?” she asked, looking into the intense blue of his eyes.

  “Always,” he answered, his voice sure. “By the time I was four years old, I could already name every bone in the body, and identify all the body systems by name and function. I was obsessed.”

  “That’s unbelievable,” Avery said. “Your parents must not have known what to do with you.”

  He grinned. “It was definitely a struggle. My father’s also a physician, so he at least had the background to answer my endless questions.”

  “Are you close to your parents?” Avery maybe should have worried the question was too personal. Her friendship with David was still new, and she didn’t want her interest to suggest more. But he was easy to talk to. She sensed she could have asked him just about anything and he probably would have answered.

  “Pretty close,” David said. “I don’t see them very often. My father recently retired, so they’re traveling all the time now, but we talk every Sunday that I’m not at the hospital.”

  A twinge of something shot through Avery’s heart. She liked that David was close to his parents, that they talked on a regular basis. She only had one brother, and she’d never had any cousins growing up. When she dreamed of settling down, she always imagined marrying into a family that was large and welcoming and happy. “And you have the one sister, right?” Avery said. “Is that all?”

  “Three older sisters, actually. Two are married, with two kids a piece, and then the one just older than me is the one that did my house hunting for me. She lives over in Atlanta.”

  “So you’re the baby of the family.”

  David nodded. “Yep. And they never let me forget it.”

  Avery smiled wide. The idea of three older sisters hovering over David, caring about him made her happy. It was probably fun to see them all together.

  It occurred to her that she’d let her mind wander a little too far unchecked. Why was she thinking about David’s big family, relative to her own desire to marry into a big family?

  “If you aren’t going to let me pay you, you’ll have to let me do something else for you.”

  David shook his head. “It’s not that big a deal, Avery. I don’t mind.”

  “I know. But still. I’ll feel bad if I don’t do something.” An idea popped into Avery’s brain and before she could even really think about it long enough to decide if it was a good idea, she blurted it out. “Let me cook dinner for you.”

  He pursed his lips, lines creasing his forehead. But you said you didn’t want to date, she imagined him thinking. And dinner sounds very date-like.

  “Just something casual,” Avery said, hoping her enthusiasm would be enough to convince him. “Lowcountry style. When’s your next night off?”

  “Um, Tuesday, I think?”

  She nodded. “Tuesday works. Come over at eight?” She scooted forward on the couch. It was time to go, before she started asking David how many kids he hoped to have, or whether he was a dog or a cat person. David shot to his feet, offering her both of his hands. Avery gladly accepted his help, using him for balance as she maneuvered onto her one good leg. She took a tentative step forward, feeling a slight tugging where the stitches were, but no pain.

  “You okay?” he asked. “Why don’t you let me walk you home?”

  She shook her head. “I’m good. It actually doesn’t hurt at all.”

  David’s expression said he didn’t believe her. “I’d feel better if you let me at least see you to your front door. It’s dark outside. I don’t want you to hobble into a hole, or something.”

  “Yeah, that stretch of grass between my house and yours is pretty treacherous,” Avery joked.

  David rolled his eyes. “Listen, you-who-fell-off-your-roof, better safe than sorry.”

  Avery liked it when he teased her. It meant he’d completely forgotten to be nervous around her. “Fine. You can walk me home, Dr. Daniels. As long as you agree to dinner on Tuesday night.”

  “Right. Dinner. Eight o’clock,” he said, as he led her through the kitchen to his back door. There was a hint of confusion in his voice, like he still wasn’t sure why she’d asked him to dinner. That he wore it so openly rather than try and play it cool, like he’d expected the invitation, was so completely endearing, Avery almost wanted to hug him.

  They walked in silence to Avery’s back door, David only having to steady her once when she’d slipped on a patch of wet grass. “Thanks for walking me home,” she said. “And thank you for taking care of me. For everything.”

  He nodded. “No problem.”

  She opened the door to go
inside, but David called her back. “Avery, wait.”

  She turned to face him.

  “This is just a friend dinner, right?”

  The way he stood there, so open and honest and adorable with his new glasses and slightly mussed up hair—maybe it could be a date. Maybe she even wanted it to be. But then Tucker flashed into her mind. He’d been texting her a lot lately. Flirting a lot. She had to see if there was something to it.

  “Just a friend dinner,” she agreed.

  He nodded, though she didn’t miss the flash of disappointment that flitted across his face. “Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”

  Chapter 6

  David paced back and forth in his kitchen, his eyes glued to the glowing green numbers on the front of his microwave. 7:48. How had it been 7:48 for twenty straight minutes? He couldn’t show up early. If he’d learned anything from the one serious relationship he’d ever been a part of, it was that showing up early to someone’s home was not the same thing as showing up early to a restaurant or a business meeting.

  Needing a change of scenery, he pushed open his back door and stepped onto his back porch, then immediately darted back inside. Avery was outside in her yard. With a guy.

  David moved to his living room window, and peeked through his blinds, his body angled so that even if Avery looked directly at his house, she wouldn’t notice him spying. The thought made him cringe and he turned away.

  Was he really spying? Would he stoop so low?

  Just one more look, a short one, and then he’d turn away. The man had his arms around Avery’s waist, his head just inches from her ear. She smiled and laughed, clearly amused by whatever he had said, then moved like she wanted to push him away. He caught her arms, tugging her even closer in a move that looked a little too controlling to David, but Avery didn’t resist. When the man leaned in to kiss her, she really didn’t resist. There was an obvious familiarity to the way they moved together; this wasn’t their first kiss. The man had to be the old boyfriend Avery had mentioned.

  Jealousy flared in David’s gut and he tried and failed to stamp it out. What was the point? He was in an entirely different league than the guy that held Avery in his arms. They fit together. Looked good together. Had the same sun-bleached hair and tan skin that made them look like beach native Charlestonians. David’s gaze dropped to the man’s pressed khaki shorts and deck shoes. Yep. Definitely a local.

  David sighed and moved away from the window. Back in the kitchen, the clock finally read eight o’clock. He hesitated. Better to be late and avoid the old boyfriend? Or be right on time and risk an awkward confrontation?

  The clock flipped over to 8:01.

  David tensed. He was never late for anything.

  With a final exasperated sigh, he pushed out the back door, closing it firmly behind him. He’d deal with the old boyfriend. He wasn’t going to disrespect Avery by being late.

  The grass in his back yard felt spongy and damp under his flip flops, something he’d learned was typical in the Lowcountry. In some places, the ground was always wet. Living at sea level was such a different experience than living in Chicago.

  Avery was no longer in her backyard, so David angled toward the front of her house, intending to knock on her front door like a normal house guest. For a brief moment, he hoped the boyfriend would already be gone but when he reached the side of Avery’s driveway, he saw them there, standing together, leaning into the side of the man’s car.

  Avery’s back was to him, but the boyfriend saw him right away. For a split second, his gaze narrowed, but then he pasted on a practiced smile. “You must be David,” the guy said. He shifted away from Avery and extended his hand. “Tucker King. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Avery turned to face him. “David,” she said with a smile. “Is it eight o’clock already?”

  David glanced at his watch. “Three past, actually.” David returned Tucker’s handshake. “David Daniels,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

  Tucker draped an arm across Avery’s shoulders. “Avery told me how you took care of her leg the other day. That was really great of you.”

  Tucker’s words sounded sincere enough, but he still rubbed David the wrong way. There was a territorial vibe to the way he pulled Avery close to him, and a look in his eye that clearly said mine, mine, mine.

  “I wish I could stay and join ya’ll for dinner,” Tucker said, “but I’ve got a business meeting I need to get to. Another time, though. I’d love to get to know you better, David.” Tucker’s Southern accent made his words sound lilting and smooth. David couldn’t decide if it made them more convincing or not. They seemed to work on Avery, though. She moved toward him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll call you later.”

  Tucker whispered something in her ear, too low for David to hear, and Avery blushed, shoving Tucker playfully. “Get out of here,” she said. “I mean it.”

  Tucker grinned cockily before looking at David one last time, his eyebrows raised as if to challenge him. David didn’t so much as flinch, though it took all his willpower not to do so. He wasn’t delusional enough to think he could ever compete with someone like Tucker. But he had enough pride to hold his ground, even if he felt like dying on the inside.

  Avery gave Tucker a final wave goodbye as he pulled out of the driveway then finally turned her full attention on David. She took a deep breath and smiled wide. “Ready? I bought us some oysters.”

  David tensed. Oysters? When MUSC had invited him out to Charleston to offer him the attending position in the ER, they’d taken him to dinner at a raw bar downtown. He’d watched as everyone else had slurped down the oysters; David had come close, but it only took one person at the table saying something about salty sea snot for him to abandon the cause. “If I don’t eat the oysters, I still get the job, right?” he’d asked. Everyone had laughed, assuring him his job was safe, which was all he needed to know to stay oyster-free.

  But for Avery?

  “Come on,” Avery said, motioning toward her backyard. “They’re on ice on the back porch. Harvested fresh this afternoon.”

  David silently hoped there was also a deep fryer on the back porch. Enough breading and sizzling fat, and he could choke anything down.

  “Did you harvest them?” he asked as he followed Avery around the side of her house.

  “Nah, it’s too hot. After the end of May, the island closes the public shellfish grounds because the water is too warm. Too much risk of bacteria.”

  “You say that like someone who has harvested them before.”

  She looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Ask me in February and I’ll take you with me.” She pulled open the door to her screened in back porch, holding it open with her hip while David filed in behind her.

  “Have you ever had oysters before?” She led him to a table pushed up against the back of the house and opened a large cooler that sat on top. David peered in and saw dozens of large, bumpy shells resting on a cold bed of ice. He swallowed. “Nope. But not because I haven’t had the opportunity.”

  Avery laughed. “That’s what everybody says until they’ve had oysters with me. You dress them the right way? I promise it’s an experience you won’t want to forget.”

  He looked at her, at the evening sun on her hair and the freckles on her cheeks and the excitement in her eyes and thought he’d probably eat anything if she asked him to. She was mesmerizing. Stunning. Captivating in a way no woman had ever captivated him before. He cleared his throat. “So, Tucker.”

  Avery stilled. “What about him?”

  Good question. David had brought him up, but why? What did he really want to know about the guy? “How are things going between you too?”

  “Good, I guess,” Avery said. “Stay here—I need to get all the fixings from the kitchen.” She left the door into the kitchen open, the cool air pouring out and over David. He’d almost forgotten how warm it was until he felt the contrast. Avery appeared moments later carrying a large tray full of le
mons and cocktail sauce, crackers, olive oil and what looked like minced garlic. She set it down on the table beside the cooler. “I’m sorry if things got weird with him, there at the end before he left. I saw him giving you that . . .” She wiggled her hands in front of her face. “That look.”

  David cleared his throat, suddenly wishing he’d never brought Tucker up. “It definitely felt a little like he was claiming his territory.”

  “Which is dumb,” Avery said, not missing a beat. “I’m not territory to be claimed.”

  “I agree with you,” David said. He swallowed the next part of his comment. If she thought Tucker was dumb, why was she dating him?

  “So why am I dating him?” she asked, guessing his thoughts.

  David let out a breath. “I didn’t say that.”

  “No, but you thought it. I could practically hear the words buzzing around in your brain.”

  “I’ll think quieter next time,” David said with a grin. “But truly—it’s none of my business. You don’t really owe me an answer.”

  “Except, I like you, Dave. And I don’t want you to think I’m an idiot.” She lifted a few oysters out of the cooler, placing them on the countertop, and picked up a knife with a rounded wooden handle and a short, pointed blade. “Here. You take this one.” She picked up another knife, slightly smaller, then reached for an oyster. She paused, knife poised over the shell and looked David right in the eyes. “Tucker and I were really good together for close to two years. Our break-up wasn’t great, but we’ve both grown and changed over the past year, so I think we’re going to give it another go. The whole situation is still so new. I think he just felt a little weird about you and me having dinner together.”

  David held her gaze. “Okay.”

  Avery’s shoulders fell. “You don’t believe me.”