Unfriending the Dr: A Small Town Friends to Lovers Romance

Then again, she hadn’t told me he’d called. Or that he would be visiting while Titus and I were camping.

The truth was, I didn’t know anymore. I knew Persephone as my best friend, not as the woman I loved.

Gavin’s low whistle brought me back to the present. To the Bel Air and his bill. “That’s tough, Ryan. I’m sorry to hear that. I really thought you two had a good shot at making it.”

I laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re a rockstar and a romantic.”

Gavin shrugged. “What can I say? I am a complicated man.”

“Complicated is overrated,” I assured him. “Falling in love with your best friend is complicated.” It was too complicated and I should have known better. A small part of me probably did know better, but a bigger, hungrier, more desperate part of me wanted Persephone, consequences be damned.

“That’s what you say now, but I can see how much you miss her. Own that shit and get her back. Whatever you did, apologize, get her flowers and apologize again.”

“Just like that?” The problem was that I had nothing to apologize for. Nothing at all.

“Yeah. Women just want us to acknowledge that we were wrong and be sorry about it. Flowers or chocolate or something else they enjoy always helps.” Gavin flashed a knowing smile and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. “Do it fast though, before some sexy rock star moves in on your girl.”

I barked out a laugh and shook my head. “I don’t need to have your car in my shop to tinker with it,” I reminded him with a smile.

“Good point.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket, another reminder that this wasn’t the best and brightest Monday I had ever lived through. It was the reminder that Titus’ bus would arrive two blocks away in less than five minutes. “Gotta get going. Time to pick up Titus.” Just because things were a little strained between me and his mother, didn’t mean I would shirk my responsibilities.

“I’ll walk with you. I could use some of this Oregon fresh air you people are always going on about. It’s the air here part of some type of pyramid scheme?”

I laughed. “No but the salty air does seem to put a little pep in the steps of our older citizens. Oliver was a cranky SOB when he first got to town, now he’s like everyone’s favorite uncle.”

“Hmph.” Gavin stopped at the corner and inhaled deeply before he let it out slowly. “It’s all right, I guess. If you’ve sucked in one air, you’ve sucked in them all. But I’ll pretend it’s giving me good juju, for the sake of the townsfolk.”

“Of course.” I rolled my eyes. “It has nothing to do with the fact that everyone in town is fawning all over you?”

“Not everyone,” he growled and crossed the street with a whistle that said he didn’t want to talk about that one person who wasn’t fawning all over him.

I made it to the bus stop just as the bus pulled away, and I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of Persephone standing there with her arms folded, violet eyes shooting daggers at me from twenty feet away. “I’m not late,” I assured her and double checked the time just to be sure. Nope. Two minutes early. “Hey, Titus.”

“Hey Ryan!” He jumped up and down, waving as though he might not be seen.

“How was school?”

Titus rolled his eyes with a dramatic sigh. “Everyone wanted to know about the camping trip and what happened. The older boys wanted to see my bug bite,” he admitted proudly.

“Cool. Feeling all right?” I was engaging in small talk with a kid, just to avoid looking at my best friend. If I could put off whatever conversation we had to have, I would.

Leave it to Gavin, to point out the elephant in the room directly. “Persy, my love. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

She smiled at Gavin’s charming greeting before shooting another glare my way. “I figured it was the only way I’d get this guy to talk to me.” She aimed a thumb in my direction.

“Good idea. How about I take the tyke so you two can hash out your issues?”

Persy perked up at the idea, but she was overcome by a moment of skepticism because Gavin was a seemingly carefree celebrity after all. “What do you know about taking care of kids?”

Gavin shrugged and flashed the grin that made women of the world lose their collective shit. “Don’t give them drugs or alcohol. No electric sockets or soft cheese. Right?”

She let out a loud laugh that told me her Monday was nowhere near as terrible as mine. “The soft cheese is for pregnant women, otherwise you’ve got it. And hold his hand when crossing the street.”

Gavin looked at Titus and shrugged. “You all right with holding my hand, kid?” Titus said nothing and Gavin laughed. “It’s only a couple blocks to the diner so that’s two, maybe three hand holds.”