Fireflies (Double Love Series Part 2)

Will We Survive The Flight

Dorset, United Kingdom
Friday, December 30, 2022
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"I've been walkin' Central Park...singin' after dark...People think I'm craaaaaaaazaaaaaay...."

Taking a drive through the English countryside had been Lindsey's idea. The Rolling Stones playlist on the car stereo the entire drive was all Stevie's. She'd been playing their music in chronological order, but somewhere around "Let's Spend The Night Together" Lindsey had heard her shout, "Wait!" He honestly thought it was some kind of emergency before he realized she just wanted to scroll down the list on his phone to "Miss You" from 1978.

"Stumblin' on my feet..." Lindsey sang back to her in reply in his best Mick Jagger impersonation. "...shufflin' through the street...Asking people, 'What's the matter with you, boy?!'" He watched Stevie dissolve into giggles before returning his eyes to the open road and joining her in the part of the song that was just, "Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh..." The sun had made a rare appearance that afternoon and they had a basket full of food and wine in the backseat of the Jaguar they'd rented for the holiday week to live it up, and the most beautiful girl in the world was still smiling over the song and had latched onto his arm to rest her head at his shoulder with a contented sigh. Lindsey Buckingham had no problems today and was the luckiest man alive.

The idea for a picnic had come about that morning, lying in bed with coffee and croissants and the BBC showing nothing but coverage of the Royal Family after the death of Queen Elizabeth which they were not paying attention to, because Stevie had begun to feed Lindsey bits of croissant with her fingers and he had licked the butter off of them, and breakfast in bed was abandoned for one more round of making love before heading downstairs to the others.

"Because we rented the darn thing and it's sitting out there getting rained on."

That was Lindsey's response when Stevie had asked why he wanted to go for a drive alone today. They were lying in bed in pajamas again for the cold, and Stevie was playing with his fingers and thinking of Christine's tears over John on Christmas morning. She wasn't allowing herself to go there, to consider what a mess she'd be if positions were reversed...still not quite over the car accident he'd had in August on his way home to her in the middle of the night.

"So let's do it, then," she relented, kissing his fingers and thinking of the lyrics to "Love Is" again. "We can take food and sing out like assholes in the car and do, like, a whole thing...like years ago in San Francisco in the Fritz van!" She knew he remembered their singalongs up and down the Peninsula throughout the late 1960s on their way to gigs, Javier and Bob and Bryan wanting to kill them as they sat together up front wailing along to Blood, Sweat & Tears singing, "You've made me so very happy...I'm so glad you came into my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife...!" Sally, his girlfriend, who occasionally accompanied Fritz to a show when she was free, was not too thrilled about it either...for a whole other reason.

They stopped at a cozy spot with a single farmhouse visible in the distance. Lindsey watched as Stevie laid out a Burberry cashmere blanket, laughing to himself about the girl who once upon a time used to yell at him for spending money on bringing a pizza home for dinner instead of choosing something from the kitchen cupboard. A proper picnic basket held two wine glasses, Lindsey's extravagance of 1961 Lefitte Rothschild, and a charcuterie board prepared by Janet, the housekeeper/chef. When Stevie had single-handedly unpacked it all, she noticed him staring at her and placed her hands on her hips. "What?"

"You." He smiled. "This could be 1972 and two grilled cheese sandwiches on a mattress in front of Sanford And Son," he said. "You haven't changed in fifty years."

"Well the menu has." She smiled back at him. "I loved taking care of you then, and I love it now...just with a lot more money to do it!" She laughed over the absurdity of the evidence of their wealth on the grass before them as he pulled her into his arms. Even in a black North Face down jacket, she was still so tiny.