Page 85 of Love JD

“Not a very good one,” he teased softly, leaning down to kiss one of my wet cheeks. His beard tickled my skin, and I closed my eyes in relief.

“I just wanted to make sure you really were… okay.”

“You mean, alive?” he corrected, his lips still curving gently. “Why do you think I left that boardroom and ran to you? I understand your fears, but I’m fine.” He dropped a look from my head to my toes. I was still wearing the fluffy white and pink loungewear shorts set I’d put on two days before, and it was probably looking worse for the wear at this point. “But we need to get you home.”

Someone cleared their throat behind us, and Zev swiveled with barely leashed patience to find the nurse standing there with the clipboard. She looked pissed. “The AMA forms, sir.”

“You should go back in there.” I sniffed, wiping tears off my cheeks and making a shooing gesture. “You have a concussion, right?”

“He does,” the nurse confirmed, bending around Zev to give me a wide-eyed “join my team please” look. “He should stay for observation.”

With a scowl, Zev released me, swiped the clipboard from the nurse, and signed it on the desk with a swift, practiced stroke. “Happy?”

“Zev,” I whispered, tilting my eyebrows with worry.

“I’m fine. Really. I’ve had worse injuries playing hockey in high school.” Zev propelled me through the waiting room toward the front doors.

My sense of reality frizzled at the edges. This felt like a fever dream, like the dream that felt too good to be real and I knew I’d wake up any second and realize my reality was not quite so fortunate. I let Zev lead me back out of the double doors, and the cool night wrapped around us, heavy with moisture and punctuated by the shush of tires on asphalt as stray cars passed by. He guided me off to the side where the bright lights over the entrance faded away and the building jutted out to create a shadowed alcove.

He swept me back into a hug, leaning against the stucco wall of the hospital. “I’m changing your nickname from fainting goat to crazy goat. What the hell, Isla?” But despite his words, he tucked me against his body, shifting his sling so he could nestle me closer.

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I’m so confused.”

“Why are you confused?” he asked, his voice rich and low and filling my chest with warmth.

I pressed my forehead against his chest, hardly able to find the courage to be honest. “Because I love you,” I whispered. “And you deserve better than that.”

“Isla Willow Valehart,” he admonished.

I lifted my head in surprise. “How do you know my full name?”

“I’m creepy and looked it up,” he grinned lopsidedly. The road rash on his face folded with the gesture, and he winced.

I lifted a hand to hover it over the injury. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t met me.”

“All of what?” he asked, mildly incredulous. “Catching a pretty girl when she fell from a tree? Eating Italian with her in her shitty apartment? Or, do you mean the part where I got to steal her first kiss?” He traced my bottom lip with his thumb. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have learned what it felt like to hand my heart over to someone else—someone impetuous and feisty, someone who feels deeply for everyone and everything around her but doesn’t know how to give herself the same treatment. I wouldn’t have walked hand in hand with her under cherry blossoms or slept with the most beautiful creature on God’s earth.”

Those stupid, traitorous tears started again, and I blinked them back. “Um.”

Zev bent down to whisper a kiss against my temple. “Which of those things are you going to steal from me, Isla?”

I swallowed hard, too overwhelmed to speak.

“You can’t have those memories,” he finished, kissing my cheekbone so lightly, it felt like a butterfly had landed on my skin. “Those are my memories with the woman I love. I won’t give them up for anything.”

I clutched his shirt, and my legs went weak. Didn’t I feel the same? Wasn’t the reason I’d been in abject despair for three days the fact that I didn’t want to lose the same things he’d listed? I didn’t want to give up lazy afternoon DIY garden projects or heart-pounding make-out sessions on a kitchen island. I wanted to visit that tea shop he’d told me about and watch his garden grow. I wanted to hand Zev my heart just as confidently as he’d given his over to me.

“Will you please stop crying?” he asked, his voice husky. He swiped away my tears, pulling his head back to give me a soul-searching look. “You’re breaking my heart.”

I released a laugh that carried away the rest of my tears and smiled hesitantly. “I’m sorry. I really have been going crazy these last few days.”

“I know. I should have come back to you sooner. I knew something wasn’t right.” He caressed my face idly, cupping my cheek with his warm palm. “You are not a burden. You are wanted, and you are loved. I want you. I love you. That isn’t going to change no matter how many times you fall on your face or have a bad day.”

My heart burst like he’d dropped a Mentos in a two-liter soda. “I think trying to imagine a life without you almost broke me.”

“Then don’t imagine that. I would do anything to have you in my life.” He kissed my forehead. “You are perfect, Isla. There isn’t any part of you—broken or cracked or chipping away—that I wouldn’t get on my knees and beg for.”

I lifted on tiptoes, and tugging on his shirt to bring his lips down to mine, I kissed him softly. I tried to stay mindful of his injuries, but Zev never wanted things in half measures. He opened the kiss, hot and needy and full of all the longing that had fractured my core over the last few days. So, I kissed him back, leaning against his solid frame and knowing without a doubt that I loved this man and I’d do anything to show him just how much.

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