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“I know,” I tell her. “And I know you guys are looking out for me, know that I would be doing the same for you if this was happening between you and Blane”—I turn to Sara—“or between you and Mike.”
“Yeah,” Mandy snaps. “I know you would. Which means that we’re stopping you from making a giant mistake.”
A giant mistake in getting back with him, in trying to make things work.
Stupid, giving in to the crap he put me through like a weak ass bitch.
Only…
It’s not that simple.
“Mandy,” Sara begins.
“No.” Mandy shoves off the bench. “This is bullshit. He’s spent the last year putting you through hell. He’s dating a girl who’s a good two decades younger than you, and bringing her around your kid?—”
“Tiff is his nanny.”
“—and making you feel like you’re not good enough. Not woman enough.” She throws up her hands. “That’s bullshit. You’re fucking amazing and that he doesn’t see that, has to find his validation in someone else?—”
“Tiffany isn’t his girlfriend,” I say a little louder. “She’s his nanny.”
Mandy freezes, drops her hands to her sides. “What?” she whispers.
“I saw what I wanted to see,” I say softly. “But the truth is that it’s not a girlfriend, not hockey, not me wanting to wait to have more kids or traveling all the time or even coming out of retirement that tore us apart.”
Mandy comes back to the table across from me, demeanor softening.
Sara reaches out, takes my hand, and I feel my eyes sting. “So, what did, honey?”
I inhale, release it slowly. “The truth is that…I don’t know all that tore us apart.”
Mandy scowls. “Honey, I?—”
“But I know enough, and I know what I want,” I tell them. “And…I know there’s something he’s holding back, something that will make it all make sense. Something that pulled him away from me because…” I inhale. “He loves me. I know he does.”
Sara’s fingers convulse. “Of course he does,” she murmurs. “He would be an idiot not to.”
Mandy’s eyes slide closed, shoulders rising and falling on a breath. Then she opens them, and finally I see the rage on my behalf turn into something else—the slightest bit of amusement. “Why are men such idiots?”
Sara giggles, fingers tightening again. “Because they do things like cheese rolling and ice football.”
My mouth hitches up.
Mandy softens further, moving next to me, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “And soccer with bowling balls like that TikTok you sent me?”
“Exactly,” Sara says.
I laugh.
Mandy squeezes me. “That’s better, honey.” A beat. “In fact,” she says. “All of this sounds better.”
“I don’t know everything that’s going on with him,” I admit with a sigh. “But…I know it’s something. And I know it has to be something big, something he’s almost ready to tell me.”
“Yeah?” Sara asks.
“He was going to tell me,” I say then bite my lip. “I just…” A wince. “We keep getting distracted.”
Mandy snorts.
