Baby Remind Me

“What?” she gasped, spinning around to look at me.

“I’ll quit. I’ll retire, then we’ll have all the time in the world babe. I never meant to put hockey before you, you know how I get. Damn you should’ve told me or just said something rather than getting mad at me, I never even knew I was doing it until today. I don’t want to throw away everything we’ve ever had Ashley, it’s all too damn good and too important to me to just throw away,” the tears were falling from my eyes now too, and I dug into my pocket before pulling out her wedding ring. I’d been carrying it around all week, and every time I’d put my hand in my pocket I’d got mad at myself, wanting to throw it, or hide it or leave it behind. But every single time I went to leave the apartment I’d go find it and slip it back into my pocket again, just because it was hers.

“Please baby, please come back. I can’t do it without you,” I whispered, the same words that had come out of my mouth one depressing night when I’d been in Sudbury. I hadn’t been able to handle the stress and pressure of being captain coupled with the separation anxiety from her being so far away and my family being far away and losing my grandpa all in one go. I’d had a break-down, and just two weeks later she’d been on my doorstep ready to face the world with me.

“Oh Marc,” she ran into my arms, and I nearly collapsed from relief.

“Baby I love you. God, I love you so much,” I told her, my voice cracking as I pressed kisses to the top of her head, her forehead, her cheeks, everywhere I could.

“Marc I love you too, it’s just so hard sometimes,” she hiccupped, and I nodded, rubbing her back.

“I’ll retire and we’ll have it easy baby, we’ll have all the time in the world for each other and to have a family,” I promised her, but she shook her head, silencing me with a quick kiss.
“I can’t ask you to do that Marc, it’s your life, you love it,”

“Not as much as I love you, Ash. And I should have never asked you to give up school, you don’t know how much of an ass I feel like. You gave that up for me, I can more than give up hockey for you,” her eyes welled up again, and she held me close.

“Don’t quit it. I was probably just being stupid,”

“No you weren’t. You had every right to be pissed at me babe, I was being a total dick,” I insisted, making her giggle.

“But I was being a bitch about it too. You were right, I had no right to just attack you like that Marc. And I know you wouldn’t cheat. I’m just always so scared that you’ll realize how much better you can do,” she quietly admitted.

“Well we’re in the same boat; I’ve been scared of you realizing you can do better since day one,” I chuckled, pushing some of her soft golden hair off of her face, letting my palm cup her cheek.

“Can we go home?” she asked, and I nodded.

“Just one thing,” I said, and then got down on one knee in front of her, holding out her ring.

“Ashley, even though we’re already married,” she giggled at the obvious statement, making me smile. “As stupid and bull-headed as I am will you still have me?”

A nod and one of the most breathtaking kisses of my life were my response, and I slipped the ring back to it’s rightful place on her finger.

“Now we can go home,” I allowed, and she laced her fingers with mine as I shouldered her bag and we began to leave the airport.

“So does this count as us being re-married Marc?” she teasingly asked, and I shrugged and nodded.

“Well, we can do things the way we did the first time,” I grinned, referring to our treatment of the house and everything else, her eyes sparkling as she knew what I was referring to.
“I don’t know that was quite a while ago,” she bit her lip, teasing me.

“What? Don’t remember how it all works?” I teased right back, making her laugh before she pulled me in for a kiss. It made my heart miss beats and my vision swim as it took my breath away and left me almost dizzy with desire.

“Remind me.”