"I miss her already." Lindsey let out a sigh as soon as they stepped into the house, where pure silence awaited them.
Kash patted his back as he moved around him to get further into the foyer. "I know, pops." He had picked them up from the airport that morning, and he could tell, almost as soon as Lindsey got into the car that he was bummed out about leaving Stevie... again.
"What if Kash and I went out there and cried... You think she would come home?" Levy had already threatened to pop Crosby in the mouth if he didn't start behaving himself around their mother... And he wasn't joking, either.
Shaking his head, Lindsey led them all through the house and into the kitchen, where Stevie's dog was begging to go out. "She thinks she's doing the right thing." He unlocked the sliding glass door, letting the dog run out into the back yard.
Lindsey knew, deep down that if he really, really thought that Stevie needed to come home, he would pull that card. After all, it might have made her sad to see Lindsey leaving her, but if all three of them left- there was no way she'd be able to stay behind.
"Is she really pregnant?" Kash hadn't seen her in awhile... he was just a little curious.
Creasing a brow, Lindsey took a seat at the kitchen table, waiting for Levy to start coffee. "Well, yeah." He half chuckled as he leaned back in the chair.
"She's so cute, too." Elise assured, pulling the coffee cups out of the cabinet for each of them. "She has this little bump, and oh my goodness- it's just too adorable." She couldn't help but gush.
"Nice." Letting out a soft chuckle, Kash nodded his head.
"Yeah, she is pretty adorable." Lindsey agreed with a faint smile.
He felt bad about his wife's situation, but as he glanced around the room full of kids- he realized that even if Crosby never talked to them again after the baby came, Stevie still had a group of wonderful kids, who would do anything for her.
~
Sitting on the accent chair in the corner of the bedroom, Stevie tried hard to drown out the sound of arguing that was coming from the other side of the door. Crosby and Lucy had been bickering all afternoon and well into the evening... It reminded Stevie a lot of herself and Lindsey, which was pretty scary.
And it was bad- so bad that she couldn't just ignore it, even though she really wanted to.
However, she had to tell herself that it wasn't her place to break up a fight between her son and his wife, she knew that, but she also felt weird just listening.
Of course, she knew that they were fighting about her- it was quite obvious. Lucy had hardly said two words after they dropped Elise and Lindsey off at the airport, and when they got back to the apartment, she went straight to bed.
It was uncomfortable, but she didn't know how to make it right... Like Lindsey had said, there was only so much she could do and then the rest was up to them.
"Mom?" Crosby knocked on the door, which caused her to flinch.
Wrapping her sweater around herself a little more, she sat up in the chair. "Yeah?" She didn't want them to pull her into their argument- she would have hated to have had to be the one to tell them that they were both selfish assholes.
"Hey," he gave her a soft smile once he stepped into the room. He was trying to act like nothing was going on, yet they all knew the walls in that apartment were as thin as a piece of paper.... Stevie heard everything, all the time, even when she really didn't want to. "Would you be willing to switch rooms with us? We're gonna start getting a nursery around, but we want you to still be as comfortable as possible." He might not have always gotten along with her, but he would have been damned if she had to sleep on their old couch, and he told Lucy exactly that.
"Shut the door." She motioned for him to come in a little further, just to have a moment alone.
"Everything alright?" He lingered in the center of the room, shifting all his weight from one foot to the other awkwardly.
"If Lucy has a problem with me, I would like her to come and talk to me about it." She stated, eyes burning right into his. "We will never be allies, if she continues to talk about me behind my back like we're in high school."
~
After all the kids left for the night, Lindsey found himself sitting out on the back patio, having a couple of drinks.
He was bored almost as soon as they headed out the front door. It was too quiet, which is something he had never complained about before.
"Lindsey?" Her voice caused him to jump- it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
Turning in his chair, his eyes immediately fell on Donna, Carol and Becky- the three witches. They were all trailing through the yard, single file like the children of the corn...
Raising a brow, he tried hard not to roll his eyes. "Did you come to put me out of my misery?"
"No, we came because we miss your wife." Becky was carrying a bottle of wine, a deck of cards and a loaf of banana bread.
"So we thought we'd come hang out with you." Carol added as she instantly sat down across from Lindsey at the table.
He chuckled, watching as each of the women took their usual seats around the table. "Well, I'm afraid I couldn't talk her into coming back." He shrugged his shoulders lightly as he brought his glass of whiskey up to his lips to take a sip. "I'll get you some cups." He was about to stand up, but Donna's hand fell on his shoulder to stop him.
"I'll get them." She assured, patting his arm before she headed inside.
Slouching back down, Lindsey dusted his shirt off... just in case.
"Hopefully you don't play as well as Stevie." Carol gave him a soft wink as she began dealing the deck.
