Stevie didn't say a word as she listened to her husband ramble on about their oldest son. He talked for almost half an hour straight- trying his hardest to defend Crosby, but also explaining the situation as best he could.
He didn't want to tell her- he really didn't, but keeping things a secret in a marriage was never the best alternative either... That's the sort of stuff that gets you in trouble, which was the last thing Lindsey needed.
"What'd you tell Kara?" She waited until he was completely finished before she finally spoke up.
Shifting all his weight from one foot to the other, Lindsey let out a soft sigh. "I told her that I needed to check with you before I agreed to anything." He was standing in the middle of their bedroom, watching his wife trail around the room to get ready for the day.
Stevie didn't need to think about it, not for a single second. Her answer was simple and pretty obvious. "We're his parents, Lindsey." Untying her silk robe, she exposed the matching slip she'd been wearing underneath. "Of course he can come stay with us until he gets back on his feet." She shrugged her shoulders as she sat down on the edge of the bed to dig through her nightstand drawer.
"I think it's pretty bad this time, honey." He warned.
"Well," she sighed softly, pursing her lips to one side. "Sometimes life get's difficult and that's okay." Stevie wasn't thrilled to hear that Crosby had reverted back to drinking as a coping mechanism, but she also knew that as his mother, she would do whatever it took to make sure that he made it out okay.
She felt like that was her job, even if he was far too old to depend on his parents for everything.
"Did anyone tell us having kids would be this much work?" Lindsey half smirked, falling flat on his back next to her.
With a soft smile, Stevie's eyes met his. "Someone probably did a couple of hundred years ago." She exaggerated as she leaned down slowly, holding her hair back so it wouldn't fall in his face. "But we used to listen about as well as our children do." She pecked his lips a couple of times before she sat back up.
Chuckling softly, he nodded his head in agreement. "Speaking of our wild children, Evee asked if she could go over to..." he waved his hand in the air. "What's her faces' house." Lindsey couldn't keep up with the names of all of his daughters friends- he just knew them all as trouble, because that's what they were.
"We were supposed to go get pedicures today..." she lingered, biting down on her lower lip lightly.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he let out a deep breath. "Maybe she forgot." He pushed himself up slowly, jaw settling as his eyes scanned over his wife's side profile.
She was trying to mask how let down she had gotten in just that short second. She just wasn't ready for all the growing up teenagers always seemed to do, even though it was incredibly inevitable.
"That's okay. I can go alone." She shrugged again, hoping he wouldn't catch the way her voice had unintentionally cracked. "Or we'll just go later this week." Stevie added as she stood back up to get dressed.
Creasing a brow, he shook her his head lightly. "I'll drive you there and just wait in the car while you go in and get them done?" Lindsey didn't want her to have to go all by herself, but he also didn't really want to go inside either... He was trying his best.
Once she'd gotten to the closet door, she turned back to give him a sweet smile. "That's very sweet of you, baby." Stevie nodded her head softly as she light laugh followed her words.
She knew the very last thing he wanted to do with his day was sit outside in the car while she got her toes done, but his offer still made her heart burst.
"But really, Lindsey...I'm okay." She assured with a soft wink as she slipped into the walk- in closet.
~
"So when does he move in?" Elise wondered, cradling a glass of wine in hand as she sat across the patio table from her mother- in- law.
Stevie let a gentle sigh escape her as she shrugged a shoulder. "I'd assume within the next week... I'm really not sure." She figured that her excuse probably sounded kind of ridiculous, but Elise already knew, better then just about anyone else that Stevie was left in the dark quite a bit. "I don't know why Lindsey get's so anxious about telling me these sort of things." She was almost certain that her husband knew more then he was letting on, but she also knew that if he didn't want her to know, she wouldn't find out.
Lindsey didn't decide to keep things hushed to make Stevie feel like she was being blindsided, or left out of their family, but he did feel the need to protect her more often then not.
She looked at things a little differently and the very last thing he wanted was to have to worry about Stevie feeling like all of their mistakes were somehow her fault... He didn't want her to blame herself, which is exactly what she would have done if she had known everything.
Somethings just seemed better left unmentioned, that was all.
"Maybe he just doesn't want you to worry yourself over things you can't control." Elise creased a brow, watching as Stevie sank down into her chair a little further.
"Fifty years and we still don't have a single clue how marriages are supposed to work." She chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief. "Amazing, isn't it?"
"I think you are amazing, yeah." She took the older woman's words and flipped them around. "You'll come out of this stronger then ever... I can feel it."
~
It was a little after two in the morning when the sound of the house phone ringing pulled the couple from their deep sleep. After the initial shock of such an abrupt awaking, Stevie was the one to answer, only to hear Lauren's mother on the other end, panicking.
"Get up, Lindsey." Stevie shifted her legs under the blankets, kicking him to get his attention.
Creasing a brow, he pushed himself up on his side. "What's wrong?" He mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes as he watched his wife slip out of bed.
Turning on the nightstand lamp, they both winced. "The girls snuck out."
