Broken

Chapter 92

Makenna was seated on the padded section of the floor where she focused on strategically wrapping her hand when her phone lit up with a message. Her gaze shifted from what she was doing to her phone in front of her as she continued wrapping her hand. She finished the task and picked up her phone to read the message. Smiling to herself as she read the message, she locked her phone and placed it on top of her bag which was on the floor.

Makenna got up and headed towards the freestanding punching bag not minding that she was there for Thea. She was glad that at least one of them was having fun. Makenna started off with light punches, grateful that she was actually here.

Lately, she'd been clearing her schedule to train Thea three times a week. Right after an hour of study with Vanessa, she found herself heading to the gym. It had been her perfect excuse for not being in the room in case Hee and Lexi were there to, yet again, invite her to another party.

Those two had been hanging out a lot lately without the boys. Makenna found it comforting to know that Hee and Lexi weren't going back to being around Kent, especially. He was the bad apple in the group and Hee was better off without him.

But she knew she was fooling herself into thinking that running into Hee and Lexi was her problem. No, it wasn't. She knew that now because she'd spent all of yesterday wondering why she needed the excuse. The ocean wind hadn't been able to distract her long enough to think about something else. She had never felt so internally conflicted since she tried to implement going to the beach on Sundays. It was like her entire body was against what seemed to be becoming her new normal. It was unsettling to have your body and mind at war.

Not to mention what had gone down on Saturday with that pervert that thought himself human.

"I hope it's not my face you're imagining."

Makenna stopped for a moment and realized she was out of breath. She shifted her gaze from the punching bag to Atlas who stood a distance away at her side. Her gaze ran down the length of him, not in a I think you're sexy kind of way, more a where did you appear from kind of way.

"No." She said breathlessly, "But I was getting there."

Atlas smirked and drew closer to her,
"I'm sure you were."

Makenna went back to punching the bag but she was so aware of him moving closer to her.

"Thea seems to be running a bit late."

"Your sister won't be coming in today."

"Oh?"

Makenna scoffed,
"Shocking that she didn't tell you."

Atlas sighed,
"I'm her brother. Not her father."

"Then you've had me fooled for a while."

Atlas opened his mouth but closed it and sighed. He wasn't here to argue with her...again. Nor was he here to talk about his relationship with Thea.

"Do you need someone?" He asked,

"No, I don't."

"To spar with." He added quickly, feeling out of sorts,

Makenna stopped and gave him her full attention.

"Sean has a new group of trainees today."

Makenna wanted to call him out for not being part of that group seeing as he forgot to mention that he had experience. But saying that would only reveal that she had been watching him all this while.

"So, you're offering because you need someone to spar with, not because I might."

"No." Atlas kept his gaze on her face wanting to gauge her reaction, "It just seems to be the right excuse."

There.
It was a little tilt of her brow almost unnoticeable which he had only caught because he had been looking for it.

There...again.
Makenna thought as she tried to think of anything else other than what he'd insinuated. It was harder said than done but she wasn't about to dwell on his words or the meaning behind them.

"Fine." She made her way to the ring, "Who am I to stop you if you want to embarrass yourself."

Atlas smiled as he followed.

Soon, they had developed a rhythm and were going at each other in the ring. Of course, Makenna had seen him go and knew he was good but she made the joke to take the growing tension on what he'd said. Or didn't say.

"You didn't mention you were trained." Makenna said between jab, cross, and block.

"I didn't think it mattered."

"Well, it did, seeing as you got me to agree to train Thea when you could have clearly done that."

"I can't train her." Atlas stopped which made Makenna stop as well. He took a deep breath and exhaled, "I was injured a few months ago. I...I had to stop."

Makenna kept her gaze fixed on his.

"Sean is taking it slow on me for now." He said, "And I'm glad you're not."

"If I had known, I wouldn't have..."

"No." He took a step closer staring right at her, "Don't."

They stood there as their eyes bore into each other's gaze. It dawned on Makenna what he needed in that moment. Coming back might have been hard for him and she bet Sean was making him feel like an invalid. Sean was probably being careful not to worsen his injury, whatever it was.

But she knew the need of wanting to jump back into a routine like nothing ever happened.

It was then that Makenna realized how close they were standing. Having him so close made her notice that he was actually really tall because she had to tilt her head backwards to look him in the eyes.

Oh, the nerves.
It felt like her insides were tingling and then the feeling rose to her chest and settled there heavily. It was almost like the feeling she got when she was nervous about something and she instantly hated it.

"It's your funeral." She hated how her voice sounded almost breathless.

"Death by your hands," He looked at her with those gorgeous blue eyes that had gotten darker with the lighting, "Nothing could be more gratifying."

There! Again.
Everything inside Makenna screamed. But she wasn't sure if it was from the nervous discomfort or the sweet unfamiliarity of it.