Broken Promises

Part 27

Lindsey spent several more minutes on the phone with Tom, he then tossed it back on the nightstand with a loud thud. Sighing heavily, he sat hunched over, head in his hands. He turned to look at Stevie and found her back facing him. He could tell she had curled up into a ball, trying to mask the fact she was crying.

"Don't." Lindsey said, pressing his body close to hers, it was the last thing she expected him to do. "I don't want you to shed another tear because of that piece of shit."

Sniffling, Stevie slowly rolled onto her back and he wiped her tears, hanging heavily on her eyelashes, with his thumb. She was surprised at the way he was reacting. She thought, Lindsey would have left by now, certainly not try and console her. 

"You don't deserve that. You don't deserve the whole world knowing that." Stevie whispered, shaking her head slightly. 

"Well... it is what it is." Lindsey shrugged. "And we're going to deal with it. Clearly, the story didn't just leak by itself. I'm sure, Don made it happen and I'm going to pay him a visit."

"No, Lindsey, don't do that. This is exactly what he wants." Stevie said. "He wants a reaction from you, he wants you to do something stupid just to prove a point."

"First of all, you need to calm down." He brought a hand up to her face. "I don't want you to stress about it, understood?"

"Lindsey-"

"Second of all, this is now my problem, too. I didn't do anything, when I found out about... about the whole thing at first, but I'm not going to just sit and wait to see what happens next. I'm not going to let him slander your name. No matter what happened, you're still my wife and you're still the mother of my children. It's easy for him to terrorize and manipulate a woman, who's made a mistake. Whether you like it or not, Don is going to hear from me." Lindsey didn't receive a response as she just stared up at him with her beautiful brown yet sad eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because I don't know what I've done to deserve you." Stevie shook her head, her voice now just a whisper again. "I don't. You could have just... just taken the easy way out, filed for divorce and you would have been done with me." 

"I'm sorry to say, but that's not going to happen." A small smile crossed Lindsey's face. "Stevie, I love you. Yes, you hurt me, but I've never had any intentions to just be done with you. I needed some time. I needed to just think, to be away for a while. If I wanted to divorce you, I wouldn't have dragged this out, I would have done it already." He brushed his thumb over her cheek and she turned her head slightly to press a kiss to his palm. "I hope that some day we can just put this behind us and forget about it, because we have a beautiful future to look forward to." His hand disappeared under the covers to rest on her belly. "Things are about to get really crazy." He smiled wider. "I couldn't possibly stay away. I wouldn't want to come over once a week to see my child. I want to be here, I want to be with you." Getting into a more comfortable position, he lay his head on her shoulder and wrapped his arm around her firmly. "I wasn't just thinking about what you did and how it's going to affect us as a couple. I've spent over twenty years being a musician first. I've missed out on a lot. I know it won't make up for being away while Adam and Ella were growing up, but... while I absolutely love what I do, I think... I think, I'm ready to take a break. I'm ready to- to just be a husband and a father." Seeing her hand go up, Lindsey tilted his chin up. He gently pulled Stevie's hand away from hiding her face and he hoisted himself up on his elbow. "Baby, please, stop crying." He leaned in to kiss her. 

"D-do you mean that?" Stevie struggled to ask. "Would you seriously do that?"

"I wouldn't." Lindsey shook his head. "I will."