Stevie, Clancy and Carrie spent all afternoon together. They went to the park, got pedicures, did some shopping and Stevie even took them all out to dinner, after sorting out an arrangement to have Karen get the older two kids from school.
It was something they didn't do often... or ever and they'd all had a really good time together, especially Clancy. She really loved spending time with her mother- she thought Stevie hung the moon, even on her off days.
"Will you read me a bedtime story?" With her teddy bear in one hand and holding her mothers with the other, Clancy led the way down the hall.
It was almost eight in the evening and chaos had already ensued through the home. Lola and Crew both had a couple of friends over, which also only happened once in a blue moon. But since Stevie had been better than usual the last couple of weeks, Lindsey promised the kids that she wouldn't embarrass them.... If was kind of wrong, but the last thing either of the older two wanted was one of their friends seeing their mom passed out on the kitchen floor.
"Of course, honey." The blonde assured with a gentle smile as they trailed into the bedroom at the end of the hall. "Pick out a book, okay?" Stevie motioned towards the bookshelves, letting go of Clancy's hand to take a seat in the accent chair in the corner of the room.
"Can we read about Cinderella?" She wondered, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to reach it off the top shelf.
Nodding her head, Stevie held out her arms for her baby. "That's one of my favorites." She assured as she helped her into her lap.
"Me, too." The little blonde's head met her mother's chest as she watched Stevie flip through the pages.
She was a good storyteller- she always had been. She would use the silly voices, make funny faces and she never, ever skipped pages, no matter how tired she was.
Clancy thought she was just the absolute best mom in the entire world, even though she was nothing like her friends mothers. She didn't go to PTA meetings, or bake cookies, or stay at home all day with her kids, but she was still so special.
"The end..." she whispered, kissing the side of Clancy's head softly.
"That was a good one." They had gotten so caught up in reading, neither of them had realized that Lindsey was standing in the doorway the entire time, watching.
With a soft laugh, Stevie's eyes met his as she closed the book and set it on the stand. "Why don't you go tell daddy goodnight?" Her voice was soft as she stared over at her husband intently.
He was already in his pajamas, having spent the entire evening in the living room, sitting on the sofa, watching tv, while a bunch of teenagers caused havoc... Someone had to be there to make sure they didn't burn the house down.
"Goodnight, daddy." Clancy held out her arms as she hurried through the room to get to him.
"Goodnight, baby." Picking her up, he gave a quick kiss on the head.
With a toothless grin as she held out her arms wide. "I love you this big, daddy." She gestured, which caused both of her parents to chuckle in return.
"Well, I love you way more than you can even imagine." He shrugged a shoulder as he watched another big smiled spread across her sweet face.
"That's not fair." She mumbled as her two feet hit the carpet floor yet again.
Laughing softly, Stevie pushed herself off the chair to trail towards the door as well. "Goodnight, sweet girl." Wiggling her fingers to wave, she stood in the doorway for a moment. "We love you, Clancy." She repeated as she felt Lindsey slip a hand around her waist.
Crawling into bed, Clancy waved back. "I love you to the moon, mommy." She whispered as her head hit the pillow.
Biting down on her lower lip, Stevie's heart sank down into the pit of her stomach.
There were moments- moments just like that where she really wished that life was different. She would have done anything to have one more day of total normalcy, with all four of her babies... She wanted that more than she wanted anything in the entire world.
"Are you alright?" Lindsey's voice was gentle as he led Stevie out of the room, flicking off the light before they stepped into the hall.
Pulling herself back into reality, she nodded her head quickly. "I'm good, honey." She took his hand in hers, tangling their fingers together. "I'm just kind of tired, that's all." She assured as her eyes scanned over his handsome face.
She was thankful for him... So thankful that he had stuck by her and still had faith that she could be the wife and the mother she had been before they lost their child.
She was more in love with him in that moment than she had been in a very, very long time.
"Can we..." letting her index finger trail down his chest, she broke eye contact. "Will you sleep with me again tonight?" It felt odd asking her husband if they could share a bed, but she also wasn't sure how comfortable he was quite yet.
Things were changing so fast for them and she wasn't sure if he was as ready to get back to their old life as much as she was.
"I was worried you weren't gonna ask." He assured as a soft grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Good..." she whispered as her eyes traveled back up to those blue storms and her heart started pounding.
She didn't know why he made her so nervous... the good kind of nervous, though. The butterflies in the pit of her stomach and rosy red cheeks soft of nervous.
"I'll tell Carrie that we're okay and then-"
"I already let her go for the night." Lindsey recounted.
"Oh... Thank you, sweetie." She rubbed his arm lightly, before she turned on her heel to head across the hall to the master bedroom. "I'm actually kind of worried about her." Stevie pushed open the door, immediately pulling her earrings out to ready herself for bed.
"Worried about who?" Creasing a brow, Lindsey watched her slip her shawl off her shoulders.
With a small smile, she took a seat at the vanity. "Carrie..." she lingered.
"I'm sure she's fine." He mumbled as he stood not too far behind her, leaning back into the bed and staring at her through the mirror. "Why are you worried?" He rephrased, trying not to seem as heartless as it had sounded.
With a soft shrug, she pulled her hair up into a claw clip. "She told me that she'd been dating a married man for awhile and he recently ended their.... their affair." She wasn't sure how to talk about it- it just seemed so wrong.
It took a second and then, Lindsey's whole body just went limp it seemed... He couldn't believe, out of all the people in the world she could talk to about their relationship, Carrie decided to talk to his wife about it.
"She just seems so heartbroken and I would really like to do something nice for her." Stevie knew it was kind of unethical for Carrie to be seeing a married man, but she still felt bad.
Love is never easy and it wasn't Stevie's place to judge another woman... so she thought in that moment.
"But we don't have to talk about that right now." He was so thankful when those words left her mouth, because he didn't know how to respond.
He felt sick... absolutely sick. He had done the wrong thing and he knew that from the start, but to hear her talk about it and be so unaware was awful.
It was the ultimate betrayal.
