Page 67 of Love JD

“Not lichen?” he asked in mock surprise. He stood, studying his handiwork.

“You can’t grow lichen in a garden,” I drawled.

He gave me a grin like he knew that but he liked teasing me. “Oh.”

“Spider plants help with air purity. Actually, you should put those in your house. It’ll purify the air for you.”

Zev went to a wheelbarrow nearby that had plastic bags of soil and mulch in stacks. “You and air purity,” he grunted as he lifted one on his shoulder.

“It’s only the thing that keeps us alive,” I pointed out. “I’m not sure you can over-obsess about keeping living things alive.”

He let the bag fall heavily to the ground, and then pulled a utility knife from his back pocket to split it open. His muscles flexed and rippled while he worked, and I went glossy-eyed while I admired him being all manly and shit. Zev glanced back at me as he poured rich soil into the garden. “Is that why you like lichen?”

“And cytoplankton,” I nodded. “I fell in love with it when I went to Finland with my dad once. Did you know that those little organisms are what account for more than half of our oxygen on the planet? And we’re poisoning the oceans with runoff like we don’t need to worry about killing our actual air supply.”

Zev’s gaze found me, suddenly surprised. Like I’d given him a revelation. “Is that true?”

“Of course it is,” I said, sitting up a little. “Our food source, our oxygen, the melting icebergs—our survival is tied to the water. If we fuck it up, then our grandchildren are going to suffer. Possibly even our children.”

His eyes unfocused as he seemed to think about something. “I didn’t think about it that way,” he murmured.

My brows drifted together. “I didn’t know it was on your mind at all.”

He blinked, and then his chest lifted and fell with a sigh. “Truth be told, I’m working on a merger for GreenTech and Earth Care Global right now. I found out GreenTech is dumping runoff in the local water sources… If Earth Care finds out, they’ll cancel the deal.”

I sat up all the way, alarm ringing through me. I crossed my legs, taking care not to get grass stains on my new sneakers. “Zev, you have to say something. What if GreenTech keeps doing it?”

“They probably will,” he admitted, still crouched in front of the garden. He smoothed some of the dirt he’d poured into it. “Unless they don’t make this deal. Then they’ll go under.”

“How is that even something you’re hesitating about?” I asked angrily. “You know they’re doing this, and you were just going to look the other way?”

He dusted dirt off his fingers and gave me a weary smile. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t have.”

I leaned my elbow on my knee and my cheek on my palm. “There’s more to it, huh?”

“A bit,” he admitted, standing and moving over to the bags of soil again. “But it doesn’t matter in the end. Like you said—nothing is worth screwing over our future.”

I watched him while he emptied more bags of soil into the garden, his blue eyes darkened in thought. Curiosity about his dilemma tugged at my mind, but I got the feeling that I needed to let him work through whatever it was on his own. I stood, intending to help Zev manipulate the soil around the garden bed evenly, but a sharp pain stabbed my temples, and my vision tumbled like I’d rolled down a long set of stairs.

I didn’t lose consciousness completely, but I felt my body fall heavily to the ground, and then Zev was there, lifting me off the grass and into his arms. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t get upset or overreact. He simply held me while my head finished spinning, righting itself like a gyroscope settling. I blinked up at him, and the short, dark hair on his beard came into focus as he tilted his chin down to peer at me. “You okay?” he asked.

“I think so,” I mumbled, blushing for the dozenth time since last night. If he was across the yard from me, I could keep my composure, but when Zev touched me, it reminded me that I’d totally had sex with him. And showered. And slept with him. And had sex again, like it was all no big deal when, in fact, it felt earth-shattering.

“Anything hurt?”

I took stock. There were probably bruises on my knees from falling to them so hard, but otherwise, all good. “Nope.”

He eased me up until we both stood, and he kept his strong hands, rough and smudged with dirt, on my forearms. I liked that he smelled like soil. Zev was meant to be outdoors, I realized. Rugged, earthy, dependable Zev with wide palms that were meant to do things and experience things.

And then there was me. The fainting goat who had no business being anywhere but a safe room with padded corners and a nurse somewhere close by. If I stayed with him, I would become the thing that slowed him down and inevitably kept him from experiencing things, traveling, being as active as he was now. It had been stupid in the extreme for me to think for a second that he would want to be with me for more than a short time. I stepped away, wiping some of the dirt off my forearms as an excuse to break contact. “Thanks,” I muttered.

“I put sports drinks in the fridge,” he said, pointing to the house and ducking his head to catch my gaze. “Isla? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I smiled tightly. “Thanks. I’ll go eat something, too. I’ll be back.” I hurried away, mentally kicking myself for allowing a full night and morning of daydreaming to burrow into my heart so deeply that I hurt myself. I’d let myself imagine, for a little bit, that staying with Zev was a possibility. That maybe if he wanted to, if we enjoyed each other, then after I had graduated…

I shook my head and opened the sliding glass door a little more forcefully than I had intended. That’s immaturity for you, I thought with caustic fury at my own idiocy. One guy takes your virginity, and you think he might want to be with you forever. Isla, you’re pathetic.

“Uh, what did I do?” Zev asked, following me. Of course he followed me. He cared, and no matter what facade he put out that looked like apathy, I knew the real Zev. The real Zev was compassionate, patient, and talented.

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