Always For You (Always Love Book 1) Read Free Page A

scoop until we talk.”
    “First of all, can we discuss how you talk when you come back from being up north? Since when do you call your friends ‘bitches’?”
    Ali laughed. “Sorry. I need to stop talking Yankee when I hit the Mason-Dixon, huh? But stop trying to divert me, Reenie. I need to know what’s going on with you and one Mr. Smith Harrington.”
    My face grew warm, and I dropped the marker I was using. “Nothing. What do you mean?” I bent over to retrieve the pen.
    “I mean, when we left for New York after Christmas, you were living here, working at the clinic, clinging to the status quo. Then about a month ago, I hear from your mom that you’re taking over Dr. Yancey’s practice, buying a house, and the guy who made your heart go pitty-pat all through college is moving down here. Moving in with you.” She dropped two books into the box and threw up her hands. “What the fu—uhh, I mean, heck? Tell me what happened.”
    I reached for a pile of notebooks and slid them into the box I was packing. “First of all, Mom’s not here, so you don’t have to worry about her yelling at you for your language. Second, Smith isn’t moving in with me. He’s going to rent the upstairs part of my house. Mrs. Walker converted it to a duplex a few years back.”
    “But how did Smith end up being your renter? I didn’t even know you were still in touch with him.”
    I’d forgotten that Ali would probably remember Smith—and that she was one of a very select group of people who’d known about the huge crush I’d had on him. We’d still been friends early in my college years; our estrangement hadn’t happened until the summer before my junior year. Crap.
    “Yeah, we did. Keep in touch, I mean. Nothing big, just emails, social media, that kind of thing.” I worked hard to keep my voice casual. No way did I want Ali making a huge deal out of this. “He was looking around for a new practice, and I knew I didn’t want to try to run Dr. Yancey’s on my own. I’ve got some good ideas for expanding it, but I can’t do that without a partner. So it worked out well.”
    “Mmmmmhmmmmm.” Ali finished her box and began taping it. “And is Mr. Smith Harrington married?”
    I didn’t look up. “Um, no.”
    “And is he currently involved in a relationship?”
    “Not that I’m aware of.”
    “And are you planning to jump his bones?”
    “I don’t—God, Ali. Seriously? Are you fifteen?”
    “Nope. Just morbidly curious.”
    “Well, stop. That whole thing with Smith—that was a long time ago. And keep your mouth shut when he gets here, because he never knew about any of that craziness. Thank God. I’d have been mortified.”
    “Okay, I feel like I just walked into the second act of a play. What’re you talking about?” Meghan looked from her sister-in-law to me. “I thought Smith was just an acquaintance from college. Did you guys date?”
    “No.” I filled that one word with as much emphasis as possible. “We did not. We were very good friends. We still are. And that’s all we’ll ever be.”
    Ali nodded, her face poker straight. “That’s right. They were very good friends. Smith was the very good friend Reenie wanted to screw silly.”
    I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. “Ali. You’re making me regret telling you all my deep-darks way back when.”
    “Too late. And tell me it’s not serendipity, him deciding to move down here. You’ll be in the same town, in the same house , working together . . . sounds like the perfect set-up to me. Time to make some of those sexual fantasies come true.”
    “When did you get such a dirty mind?” I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest.
    “Blame your brother. We’ve been making up for lost time, and he’s very creative. Just the other night, we—”
    I clapped my hands over my ears. “La, la, la, la—I don’t need to hear the disgusting details of your sex life with my little brother.”
    Meghan came over to sit next to me