I turn my back on him to face Gemma. “Hey.” I can’t think of anything else to say except to remark on what a cool and overcast day it is, but I’ve never been the type of person to make small talk about weather.
“Hey,” Thad echoes. Worse than just eavesdropping, he’s joining the conversation. “Kinda cloudy today, huh?”
I look away and accidentally make eye contact with Kai’s glare. Man, that guy holds a grudge. Or is he mad about something else now? Something Gemma told him? She’s the one who needed time to “process.” He should be glaring at her for ending our relationship. He should be glaring at her for even starting it. She got the cops called on him in the first place last year. I almost wish we’d never been called.
Almost.
Gemma glances up at the sky in question, as if she hadn’t noticed the clouds until now. “Is it?”
I can’t help huffing a laugh at the irony of her not noticing the clouds.
She frowns at me, her light eyes searching mine as though she wants to reconnect. “What?”
I want to hide behind my shield of anger, but it’s hard to be angry with someone who’s so likeable. “It’s kind of funny that you didn’t notice the clouds when your head is always in them.”
Her bottom lip juts into the sweetest of pouts, though I’m not sure why this would hurt her. First of all, she knows it to be true. Second, I used to say stuff like this to her all the time, yet it never deterred her from pursuing me.
I pinch my eyes shut. Because honestly, it was a cruel thing to say, and I’d said it for that very reason. It’s what I do.
“Let’s get started.” Lieutenant Rodriguez calls us to attention. “Barker’s going to be demonstrating CPR for us today. Barker?”
Thad jogs to the center of our circle.
I glance at Gemma to see if she’s watching him, but her gaze locks with mine. In spite of the joke I’d just shared at her expense, there’s no anger reflected in her light eyes. There’s no shield up to protect her from me. She’s just as open and transparent as ever.
And I don’t get it. I tried to teach her self-defense.
My heart rams at the wall I’ve built around it. Maybe I was wrong about her. She’s not like Amber. She’s not stuck on image.
When class is over, I’ll tell her I’m sorry. She needs me to take my finger off the trigger. It’s not about fighting for her. It’s about raising my hands in surrender.
“Can I get a volunteer?” Thad’s words cut through the heavy silence between us.
Gemma’s still looking at me, but her eyes narrow into defiance. I didn’t wave my white flag soon enough, and now she’s going to destroy me. “I will,” she offers.
Thad’s gaze flicks my way. He gives a little shrug in place of the apology he owes me for ganging up on me with my ex. “Sure, Gemma.”
She tosses her hair and sashays to join Thad.
When she moves, I’m now in Kai’s and Charlie’s lines of sight. Kai shoves his hands in his pocket and lifts his eyebrows as though he’d seen this coming all along. Charlie shakes his head as if he can sadly relate, though with how competitive the guy is, I doubt it. He has to be simply offering pity.
I don’t need their judgments. I turn away, only to be faced with the image of Gemma kneeling on a mat across the creepy plastic dummy from Thad.
He shows her how to interlace her fingers and lock her arms when pressing the heel of her hand into the dummy’s sternum. “Now if you’re doing CPR on your own, you give rescue breaths after every thirty compressions, but if there are two of you, you can work as a team.”
Her gaze lifts to mine. Though the two of us are opposites, that’s what made us a good team.
“After every fifteen compressions, I’m going to blow two breaths. Ready, Gemma?”
She’s got her arms locked into position, but she’s still looking at me. Her chest rises and falls as if someone’s doing rescue breathing on her, and this little itch in my palms makes me think she’s not going to answer him.
But then she lifts her chin. “I’ve been ready,” she says, and I know she’s referring to the conversation we had before kissing.
Message received. She’s leaving me behind.
That’s it. I turn and walk away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
