“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.”
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 doesn’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 a 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.
“Order an x-ray just so we can be sure,” David told the nurse. He entered the exam area and paused. It was the same guy. And the look on Tucker’s face told David he wasn’t thrilled to discover who his doctor was. The fiancée was nowhere to be found.
Tucker’s displeasure quickly morphed into what came across as practiced charm. “David, right?” Tucker said, his smile wide. “What are the odds?”
David glanced up from the chart and offered Tucker a tight smile. “Let’s stick to Dr. Daniels while we’re at the hospital.”
“Of course. Sorry about that.” Tucker looked at the door, his expression cagey. He was likely hoping the fiancée he didn’t know David knew about wasn’t going to show up and blow his cover.
David’s jaw clenched. The conversation he’d just had with Lucy about Avery and Tucker filled his mind. He’d told Lucy he wasn’t up for trying to woo Avery away from Tucker, but he took it all back. He’d do anything to get her away from the creep.
He dropped the chart onto the foot of the bed where Tucker lay, his arm propped up on a pile of pillows. “How’d you hurt yourself?”
“Golfing,” Tucker said. “It’s a stupid story, but I stepped backward into a hole and fell backwards, catching myself with this arm.” He held up the injured arm. “I heard a pop, and it started to swell, so here I am.”
David sighed. He didn’t have to like the guy. He didn’t even have to be nice to him. But he did have to be a good doctor. He moved to the side of the bed and silently examined Tucker’s wrist. It was swollen and slightly purple, but David didn’t think it was broken. He tested the mobility of the wrist, noting when Tucker flinched.
“It hurts like hell, man. Can I get something for the pain?”
David nodded. “You haven’t taken anything yet?”
Tucker shook his head.
“I’ll send the nurse in with something that will help. The good news is I don’t think it’s broken. We’re going to send you up for an x-ray just to make sure.”
“That’s good news,” Tucker said. “I thought I’d be leaving here in a cast.”
“I could be wrong,” David said. “Let’s wait for the x-ray before we make any plans.”
Before David could make it out of the exam room, a woman with long brown hair pushed into the room, heading straight for Tucker. “How are you, baby? Still in pain?” She looked over her shoulder at David. “Have you given him anything for the pain?”
“We’re working on it,” David said, his tone flat.
“Sorry,” she said. “Where are my manners?” Her Southern accent was almost as thick as the scent of her perfume. “I’m Jessica, Tucker’s fiancée.”
“Dr. Daniels.” David shook Jessica’s hand, then looked at Tucker, his eyebrows raised.
Tucker’s eyes were strained, and he shook his head just slightly. David folded his arms across his chest, not breaking eye contact. He wasn’t about to give the guy a free pass.
“Hey, Jessica, sweetie?” Tucker said. “Can you give me a minute alone with the doctor?”
Jessica’s brow furrowed in concern. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. I just need to ask him a few questions. Will you go call my Mom for me? Tell here they’re going to do an x-ray and then we’ll know more.”
She nodded, hesitant, but clearly willing to do as he asked. “Okay. I’ll be back in a few.”
Tucker watched her leave, then looked back at David. “I know how this must look.”
David didn’t answer.
Tucker shifted and ran his good hand across his closely cropped hair. “Look, man to man, all right? Avery and I, we were good together. Really good. But she isn’t quite marriage material. I’ve got to think about my future and Jessica is the kind of wife that—” His words cut off, like he
suddenly thought better about finishing his sentence. “Avery and I are just having some fun. Messing around while I still can. It doesn’t mean anything.”
David scoffed. “Does she know it doesn’t mean anything?”
Tucker’s jaw tensed. He studied David for several long seconds before narrowing his gaze. “Dr. Daniels, I need you to not make this a problem for me,” he said, his tone firm.
David wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated. If anything gave him fortitude, it was his sense of truth and justice and Tucker’s actions dropped him firmly on the wrong side of truth. David wouldn’t stand for it. “I’m pretty sure this is a problem you made all on your own.”
Tucker shifted and leaned forward. “I know you’re new around here. You haven’t lived in Charleston long enough to know just how important my family is, so you’ll have to take my word for it. You don’t want to mess with me. You tell Avery about Jessica, it won’t take me five minutes to get you fired from the hospital and stripped of your license to practice in South Carolina.”
David’s jaw twitched. Tucker couldn’t really do that. Could he?
“When was the last time you took a look at the list of donors for the hospital?” Tucker asked. “You know the new wing they just added to the children’s hospital? Look it up and see how much money Francis King donated. I’m pretty sure there’s a plaque in the main lobby honoring him for the millions he contributed to the cause. Francis King is my grandfather. You know Gerald Stevenson?” Tucker moved his leg and winced but didn’t take his eyes off of David.
David hated to give Tucker an inch in the argument, but he did know Gerald Stevenson. He was one of the hospital board members who had interviewed and hired David.
“He plays golf with my father and me every Sunday afternoon. He’s known me since I was a kid. You think he’d take your word over mine?”
As if on cue, a voice spoke on the other side of the curtain. “Knock, knock,” the deep voice said. The curtain slid to the side and Dr. Stevenson himself entered the small exam area.
“I was just leaving a board meeting when your father called and told me I might find you here.” He reached out to shake Tucker’s hand. “What did you do to yourself, son?”
D is for Doctor (ABCs of Love Sweet Romance Book 4) Page 7
