I took a careful breath. "You really think that's what's happening here?"
"Isn't it?"
"No."
Kieran shook his head. "You don't know that."
The words shouldn't have frustrated me. I knew he was hurting. But I needed him to know that he didn't get to decide how our story ended. Because somewhere along the way, he'd started treating his fear like it was a fact.
"Kieran, look at me."
Slowly, he lifted his head.
I held his gaze. "You've already decided what happens next."
Confusion flickered across his face. "What?"
"You've decided hockey is eventually going to matter more."
His forehead furrowed.
"You've decided one day I'm going to wake up and realize you're getting in the way. You've decided that sooner or later I'm going to choose something else."
The color drained from his face.
"You're making decisions for me." I stood, unable to sit another second while he talked about us like we were already over.
His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "I wasn't?—"
"You decided what I value. You decided what kind of man I am."
The hurt in his eyes nearly undid me, but he needed to hear this.
"Do you know what I heard?"
His expression crumpled slightly. "What?"
"I heard a kid who got his heart broken. I heard somebody who spent years believing he finally belonged somewhere and then had that taken away."
Kieran looked down. I waited until he looked back up.
"And I heard somebody who's been expecting it to happen again ever since."
The silence stretched between us.
"Kier, I understand why you're scared." My voice softened. "Honestly, after hearing all of that, I don't know how you couldn't be."
His eyes filled again. I hated that. Hated that he'd been carrying this alone. Hated that he'd spent the entire day convincing himself he was protecting himself when all he'd really been doing was hurting.
"But you're wrong about this." The words came quietly, but they were true.
Kieran swallowed. "You can't know that."
"No." I couldn't. Nobody could. Not completely. Not when it came to the future. But this wasn't really about certainty. It was about trust.
I took step forward. Close enough now that I could see the tear tracks on his face. Close enough that if he wanted to reach for me, he could. "Kieran, I'm not Janelle."
His eyes closed briefly. The wound was still raw. I could see it. But I kept going.
