Page 16 of Love JD

“I got it,” I rushed to concede. “You dash in and rescue my bare ass. I get it.”

His lips pressed together, twitching. “Right.” He bent to one knee and ripped off Velcro straps on my brace.

“Why are you here, anyway?” I asked.

“Tristan called,” he replied with a glance up at me. “He called to thank me for helping, and I told him your boyfriend didn’t cancel his tickets.”

“Oh, no,” I groaned, hitting my head against the shower wall. “He’s going to kill me.”

Zev eased the boot away from my foot, and it throbbed with every banging pulse through my veins. “If you were my sister, I’d kick your ass.”

“Thank God I’m not your sister.”

Zev looked up again, something loaded and humorous shimmering in his eyes. “Thank God.”

My pulse leaped, but I tried to play it off by looking down at my foot. It looked horrendous. Purple and blue blotted the swollen tissue, and it had puffed up to more than twice its original size. Zev and I exchanged grimaces. I swallowed against a wave of nausea. “Gross.”

“Well,” he said with some resignation, “that’s way worse than I thought.”

“Me too,” I admitted, feeling squeamish.

Zev stood and reluctantly backed away to the door. “Seriously, you so much as drop a shampoo bottle—”

“I got this,” I reiterated. I waved him away. “Bye.”

He closed the door slowly, his suspicious expression pinched with worry. When the door clicked shut, I let out a relieved breath. Okay. Damage assessment.

My ankle? Fucked up.

The rest of my body? Shredded and sliced along the back of my thighs, my right arm and down my back. I only knew that because of how badly it burned when the water washed over my skin. And the fact that the water turned pink.

My pride? Demolished.

This was the second most idiotic thing that had ever happened to me, and Zev Brady had been there to witness them both. Maybe he was bad luck, on second thought.

Or good luck, another voice piped up quietly. You’d probably be dead if he hadn’t been there under the tree.

I dispelled that thought immediately. If I let myself get giddy over a guy, I knew what would happen. The mere memory of when I had given into my feelings for Robert made me want to curl in on myself like a centipede. Okay, so Zev had been there for two of the three most humiliating moments in my life.

I finished my shower, barely managing to keep myself upright while my ankle screamed for ice, and as soon as I had a towel wrapped around my body, Zev opened the door. I gasped, clutching the towel to my breasts and glaring. “Christ, what if I’d been naked?”

He looked immensely amused by that reaction. “You have something under there you don’t want the world to see? A birth mark that looks like Donald Trump?”

“You are not funny,” I glowered.

Zev looked very much like he thought he was hilarious. He held up my Christmas elf nightdress. “I found this.”

“Oh my God.” I leaned forward, intending to snatch it from him, but he caught my wrist and steadied me before I could fall.

“Easy, Kid. You ever seen your brother in his gear? He’ll assassinate me in my sleep if I let you get another bruise.” He wrapped his strong arm around my back again and lifted me out of the tub.

“What gear?” I asked, suddenly curious.

“You don’t know?” he asked with lifted eyebrows.

I shook my head. “He doesn’t tell me anything.”

Zev seemed to consider that as he slowly helped me to limp across the bathroom floor. I watched him, wondering if he was about to give up my enigmatic brother’s secrets. Finally, he said with some caution, “Let’s just say that he isn’t only an engineer.”

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