Destiny Rules

Chapter 31

Kristen watched as Lindsey circled Stevie like a sad puppy backstage. He brought her and Lily cookies, eagerly awaiting Stevie's reaction, like she was going to give him some gold star sticker, Kristen thought bitterly as she watched on. She tried to ignore the obvious feelings her husband still had when around his ex. It was pathetic of him, and she felt embarrassed - hoping nobody else noticed quite to the extent she did. She knew chances of that were slim. As Stevie seemingly ignored Lindsey, he went back to her AGAIN and brought her a cup of tea. Kristen had enough.

"Lindsey?" She called, "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"What's up?" He asked heading towards her.

"Not here," she seethed, "Out there."

Begrudgingly, he followed her, not sure what this was about, but something told him he wasn't going to enjoy it.

"I didn't bring the kids here to come watch you wait on Stevie hand and foot," she snapped under her breath once they were alone.

"Jesus, Kit, she's going through a breakup, I'm just trying to help."

"She was dumped - big freaking deal! She isn't a cancer patient, Lindsey, she doesn't need you coddling her like she's made of porcelain"

He rolled his eyes, "What is this really about?"

"You're in LA for one show. I'm here with the kids and you should be paying attention to US, not her."

He sighed, "I AM!"

"Lindsey, I'm not going to compete with her now that she's single. Get that out of your little head."

"What?!" He shrieked, "What the hell does that even mean?" He wasn't even going to get into the fact that there was no competition....

"Try to be less obvious, okay? You're embarrassing us all," she snapped.

Before he could say anything, Stevie was walking past them down the hall - in the world's worst timing. She looked to them both hesitantly before Kristen stormed off. Trying to act like she didn't notice, Stevie kept walking back to her private dressing room. Lindsey had two choices: he could run after his wife and grovel to her for forgiveness, or he could follow Stevie and make sure she was okay. Well, he always had been a risk-taker.

"Stevie," he called, following her into her dressing room.

Once he stepped inside, he found Lori, Sharon, Mary, and Karen all sitting around staring back at him. He swallowed uneasily, situating himself in the doorway awkwardly.

"What's wrong?" Stevie asked, turning around to look at him.

"I uh..." suddenly he realized he had no excuse for following her in there. And now he had the eyes of five women to explain that to. "Wanted to see if you were cool with your audio pack during soundcheck?"

She looked at him like he had 3 heads, her eyebrow raising as he scrambled to come up with something, "Are you the new soundcheck guy?" She asked, half teasing, half sarcastic.

"I just...I think I had problems with mine, so I wanted to see if it was just me."

"Just you," she stared at him with question.

"Oh okay...well I should go see about that then. Okay, see you out there," he nodded to the group of women before disappearing behind the door.

"Well that was awkward," Lori grinned looking to Stevie.

Stevie gave her a look, eyeing Lily, who was playing on the floor, to let Lori know to zip it.

"Why was it awkward, mommy?" Lily asked curiously.