For fuck's sake, was there nothing sacred in his life. Not anymore. After playing professionally for seven years, he'd suddenly shown skill he didn't even know he had. He was interviewed, talked about, and photographed.
"Well, I was calling to tell you that I'm here for a while." He'd given up some money for the much talked about no trade clause. He didn't want to leave the city. He didn't Mandy would leave and he wasn't letting her go again. "Near you."
Later he decided that to be a mistake, because Mandy unloaded all her recent thoughts onto him. "I don't want to be nearby, Kip. I want to be with you. I know you've been thinking about it. I haven't been able to talk to you about this stuff because of hockey. Stupid freaking hockey is coming between us again. And you know what, I've waited twelve years for you to come back and I'm tired of waiting. Maybe it's just too much time."
She stopped to blow her nose in the background and he was prepared to wait. He wanted to listen to all the stuffed he'd practically forced her to keep in. She didn't carry on, she cried silently. He shouldn't be here while they had this conversation, he should be beside her. "Tell me the rest," he prompted, softly. More sniffles. "I'll wait."
He was silent as he got out of his truck and went into the house. He was taking off his shoes when she spoke again. "I've just been so damned afraid that I was going to lose you again. I'm tired of waiting for things to be perfect before we move forward." She blew out a deep breath of air.
"What do you mean perfect?"
"I let go of a lot of my expectations. With Colton and his dad and you and everything. I had this vision of how I wanted my life to be and it was perfect and I wanted you to conform to that. And, I think that's why we let go in the first place, why I let go."
"We," he said softly. "I was as much at fault."
"We wanted things to be the way we'd dreamed. And that wasn't going to happen. And we were stupid kids, what did we know about life?" Mandy sniffled into the phone, obviously crying now.
"Right, that's what I'm saying." He was frustrated with her grudge. She'd been holding these things in for months now and he'd just been letting her put off the inevitable discussion. He'd needed to focus on hockey, which had been the wrong choice and now he was facing a bleak future once more.