Page 19 of Good Directions

Cary nods. “Yup. Standard practice when it rains. Keeps the rot out.”

Nodding again, he taps his phone and raises it to his ear, turning to go. His voice starts to fade into the distance as he walks out of the lab, leaving me with Anton and my racing thoughts. Thoughts all about how they need to stop this practice. Now.

“You need to stop that.”

“No.”

He doesn’t even blink. His answer is out so fast I’m not entirely sure he even hears my words.

“Sulfur dries out the soil. It screws with your pH levels.”

“I am aware of how it works.”

“So stop using it!”

“Again, no.” Turning to face me, he crosses his arms against his chest. Those tan, muscular arms strain against the cotton of his T-shirt, almost like they are just as frustrated as I am in this moment. “Are you always this bossy?”

What did he just say?!

Oh, he did not.

I stomp my foot, planting my hands on my hips. I don’t care if he is the Hayes, he does not get to call me that.

“You’re risking damage to your soil and drying it out even faster by adding sulfur to the environment. It’s irresponsible.”

Anton reels back, balking. “This is the problem with you lab rats. All data and facts, but no actual knowledge.”

His comeback stings. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t. It’s also not the first time I’ve heard this. My lack of in-the-field experience is exactly what brought me here, because my boss told me it would be what held me back from getting the promotion. That it was my biggest weakness. Apparently it’s also my most obvious one.

Anton takes a couple of large steps, closing the gap between us. My pulse kicks up, moving faster the closer he gets. My brain says move, but my legs defy its order, planting themselves in place, letting him get close enough to touch.

“You don’t want to be using sulfur,” I try again, my voice holding on and not betraying my fraying insides.

“I don’t want my peaches to rot even more,” Anton tosses back. “Especially when I’m only getting a fraction of what I’m supposed to. And if you actually took the time to learn anything about how this actually works, you’d know that we don’t spray regularly. Only when it rains, again, to keep the fruit from rotting. And we continually measure the pH to make sure we’re not oversaturating. Check the numbers Cary gave you. They’re all in there.”

Anton smirks. It’s the shit-eating grin of a man who knows he’s right and that there isn’t anything that anyone can do about it. Annoyance boils up in me. Because based on what I’ve looked at so far today, he is right. I’m sure that as I keep reading, I’ll find more of the same too. Damn it.

“I don’t like you,” I mutter. It’s not the most mature thing I could say. Hell, it will probably also get me uninvited from working with Hayes this summer. But I can’t hold back.

He’s managed to push every one of my buttons in the last five minutes. And he’s still too damn good-looking for his own good.

“I’m not for everyone.” He winks, lifting a single shoulder so casually it almost seems subconscious, as he moves around me. “But some girls do.”

And now he’s really on my shit list.