“No. It’s ironic you’re hell bent on protecting me, but I’m the one who keeps saving your ass.”
He lowered the binoculars and frowned at her. “Thank you for pulling me up the ladder. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“You’re welcome.” She gave him a winning smile before moving off to study the infected on the south side of the building.
Leo rolled his eyes and resumed studying the campus. Apparently, his motives had been completely transparent. Jennifer had never been one for chivalry.
Oh, well. Screw it. He wasn’t going to change or apologize just because he annoyed his ex-girlfriend. Someday, he’d meet a girl who didn’t confuse chivalry with chauvinism.
Leo scanned the narrow street between the classrooms and the football field. Just a few days ago, he’d parked his truck on this very street before going to watch Anton at practice.
There were dead bodies everywhere, some rotting wherever they’d fallen; others had turned into nezhit. Many of both variety were in football uniforms. God. This place had been a slaughterhouse.
“How much longer?” Jennifer asked.
“Eighteen minutes.”
She let out an impatient huff, prowling back and forth across the rooftop. “I hate waiting.” She peered over the edge again, this time on the street side. “There’s twelve of them down there. I should be looking forward to dropping bombs on them, but ... well, you know.”
Leo did know. It didn’t feel good to kill people—teenagers—who had been part of their community. He reminded himself they weren’t really killing them; the Russians had done that the moment they infected them with the nezhit virus.
“I’m just glad we’re not students here anymore,” Jennifer said. “At least I can’t put names to the ones down there.”
That wouldn’t be the case for Anton and Bruce. What would it be like for them? Would it put them in danger? Not that he doubted Anton. His little brother would do what needed to be done.
“Will you please say something?” Jennifer rounded on him, hands on her hips. “The silence is killing me.”
“What was his name?” The words popped out before Leo could stop them.
She stared at him. To give her credit, she didn’t play dumb. She knew exactly what he was asking.
For his part, Leo had done his best to sideline the information that Jennifer had fallen in love with another guy. But now that he found himself faced with waiting, the knowledge kept surfacing. It was like being poked in the side repeatedly with a sharp stick. It might not pierce the skin, but it was still irritating.
“His name was Brad,” Jennifer said at last.
“How did you meet him?”
“At a party.”
“What was he like?”
Jennifer looked away and resumed her pacing. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Leo wasn’t sure at all. “Yeah.”
“He was a lot like you. Serious. Nice. Committed.”
Leo could not have been more shocked if she’d said the guy—Brad—was an alien. “He was like me?” he asked, incredulous.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “Guess I attract a certain type of guy.”
“But you said he broke your heart.” Leo couldn’t imagine himself ever having done that.
“He did. But I broke his first.” Jennifer crossed her arms over her chest and looked out in the night.
This wasn’t making any sense. Leo chewed on the information, trying to decide if he wanted to know more.
Morbid curiosity got the better of him. “So you broke his heart, then he broke yours?”
“Yep.”
“So what, you dumped him and then tried to get back together with him?”
She didn’t answer. She stopped pacing and studied the nezhit massed on the ground beneath the ladder.
Seconds ticked by. Leo began to wonder if she’d heard him. It would probably be better if he dropped the subject entirely. It wasn’t his business anyway. It—
Jennifer turned around and faced him. “I got an abortion.”
He gaped at her, stupefied. “What?”
“Brad got me pregnant. When I told him, he wanted us to get married. I got an abortion without telling him and he dumped me.”
Jennifer didn’t flinch as Leo gawked at her, but he saw what the admission cost her. He’d never thought to see despair and self-loathing in Jennifer Miola’s eyes.
He didn’t know what to say. He knew for a fact that if he’d gotten her pregnant, he’d have proposed to her on the spot. It was easy for him to understand Brad’s reaction.
He tried to imagine what it must have been like for Jennifer. Barely twenty years old. Her entire life plan derailed. Without a doubt, she’d been scared. He could understand her not wanting to be a mother at twenty. Hell, they were the same age. He didn’t feel ready to be a parent, either.
“Do you think I’m a terrible person?” she asked.
“Does it matter what I think?”
She let out a long breath. “It shouldn’t, but for some reason, it does.”
Leo considered his answer. “Do you think you made the right choice?”
“I don’t know.” She hung her head.
Leo remembered what it had been like to stand at a crossroads. Finding those bills on his dad’s desk had changed him. He’d been an asshole to everyone he loved after that.
“We all make choices every day.” Leo crossed the rooftop and put an arm around her shoulders. “All we can do is live with them.”
She shuddered and slipped her arms around him. She didn’t cry, but he felt the sorrow radiating from her. He’d sensed it when she’d first arrived, but he hadn’t understood it until now. It was why she’d made the comment about their being parents if they’d stayed together after high school. Jennifer was wrestling with her own personal demon.
Leo squeezed her tight. He couldn’t fix things for her, but he could be there when she needed someone to lean on.
He wasn’t entirely surprised when she stood on her toes and softly kissed his lips. He pulled back and kissed her on the forehead, tightening his arms around her so she wouldn’t think he was rejecting her.
“I’m here for you,” he said. “As a friend.”
“Thanks.” She sighed and rested her head on
