Say You Will Part 2: The Tour

Prologue: We Said We'd Never Come Home

Columbus, Ohio
Sunday, May 4, 2003
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"You'll never believe in a million years who I got a letter from!"

That was the way Stevie greeted Lindsey when he knocked on her hotel room door at six-thirty that evening to pick her up for a Fleetwood Mac tour kick-off dinner at the hotel restaurant that everyone had agreed to on the plane when people had started to complain that they were hungry. They had landed in Ohio at five, and everyone had agreed to retreat to their separate quarters and get settled in, and then meet downstairs for dinner at seven. It was six-thirty, and Lindsey couldn't take the hanging around and waiting so he came over to Stevie's room to pass the time, hopefully with at least a good make-out session before dinner.

She kissed him once they were in the room, and he immediately began to back her into the bed, their mouths attached, the letter she was referring to still in her hand, but she stopped him with a hand to his chest and said, "Seriously, baby, you're never going to guess, like, ever!"

"Is it from the doctor's office telling you I'm in danger of dying if I don't get to have a quickie with the love of my life before we go down to dinner?"

Stevie burst into laughter, holding up the letter, stationery that was ecru embossed paper. "This letter is from Georgieanne LaPiere!" The look of shock on Stevie's face when she mentioned the name told Lindsey he should know who Georgieanne LaPiere was. He didn't.

"Do I know this person?" He gave a curious expression.

"Georgieanne LaPiere!" When Lindsey said nothing, Stevie shook her head in disbelief and said, "Cher's sister."

"Oh," Lindsey said. "Oh!" It suddenly and obviously rang a bell. "The woman who..."

"The woman I caught red-handed in bed with Don when I came to surprise him in Denver because he said he missed me while I was away...that's her!"

"What the hell could she possibly have to write to you about after all this time...and after that?" Lindsey remembered the incident well, as well as he remembered Stevie on the Rumors tour, drunk and high and crying at his hotel room door, which he closed on sound-asleep Carol Ann about two minutes into talking to Stevie to go to her room because she said no one else would understand. He hadn't left her room until the next morning. He remembered her taking her Merlin the Magician pendant, a gift from Don Henley, and tossing it across the room, he remembered her holding out a gold straw to him to invite him to do lines with her off the coffee table in the room that was black lacquer, and he remembered grabbing handfuls of wavy blonde hair from the back of her head as she lay completely flat against the bed, him on top of her with his whole weight, whispering in her ear that she deserved so much better and he saying back, "I know. I had it once." He'd never been sure if the sniffly tone in her voice had been because of cocaine, tears or both.

Stevie sat cross-legged on the bed and looked at the stationery she held in her hand. "According to this, she's sober now, and she's on Step Nine...you know, of twelve...and she's making amends. This letter is to apologize for Don." She started to giggle into the letter as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Her giggles were infectious, because Lindsey began to smile.

"What's so funny, Stevie?" He sat down beside her on the bed.

"As hurt as I was that Don cheated on me with her - and many others - at least I got a few good ones in myself...including you, pal!" She nudged his arm with her elbow and continued laughing, falling back on the bed against the pillows and ending in a sigh. Her hair fanned out over the pillows, which Lindsey had always said looked like rays of sunshine streaming out around her face when he saw it. He lay down beside her on his side, using his elbow to prop himself up, and began to draw light, almost not-there shapes along her face with his fingertips. He grazed her eyebrows, her nose and then her lips before landing on them with a kiss, and his kiss was slow, tantalizing and deliberately gentle - he wanted her to want more, and she did. She whimpered in protest when his lips left hers and they opened their eyes, just inches away from each other on the bed.