Say You Love Me (Double Love Trilogy Conclusion)

Chain, Keep Us Together

Penn Castle
Dorset, United Kingdom
Valentine's Day ❤️
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
(10:00 am)
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The special wedding day brunch for only the five members of Fleetwood Mac as a part of the double-wedding festivities had been all Stevie's idea. She'd thought it up late one night at home in Santa Monica shortly after New Years, watching a marathon of Food Network shows about brunch menus for friends and family while Lindsey and Lily slept soundly beside her. She'd turned over at some point in the blue glow of the television light and begun to lightly drag her index finger along his arm, then his face, asking him in a whisper if he was awake - knowing he was not - in an effort to wake him, so she could tell him her idea.

"Liiiiiiiindsey..." She was whispering close to his ear, trying to be delicate about waking him up because she just couldn't wait until morning to let him in on it, and she could not see from her angle, his back to her as he slept, that he had, in fact, woken up to her touch, and was smiling. He could hear the Food Network playing in the bedroom, and somehow he knew she had woken him up for something silly she needed to tell him before she forgot it the next morning. He couldn't believe anyone could manage to do something so annoying but turn it into something so damn cute. "Sweetheart...are you awake?"

"I am now," he teased in a hoarse, sleepy voice. He turned over to face her in bed, slightly jostling the sleeping little Chinese crested dog at his shins. "What is it, Stevie? Nightmare or awesome idea?" He knew what it was; he just liked to have his fun. He began to play ever so lightly with her bangs at the side of her face, finally tracing a soft line with his finger along her eyebrow and to her temple.

"The second one." Her eyes fluttered closed to the touch of his fingers, reminded once again on "Love Is". When she opened them again, she said, "Let's host a brunch...like maybe on the day of the wedding, or the day before...I don't know...but only for The Mac. Like us five fireflies and that's all - not even kids and brothers or anyone. Just, like, a brunch that's the old people's version of the chain keeping us together...What do you think?"

"I think..." He kissed the tip of the little tulip nose he'd loved for over fifty years. "...it sounds like a great idea...especially if there's some eggs Benedict involved...or...and hear me out..." He smiled and said, "blueberry pancakes."

"Well OBVIOUSLY there'd be blueberry pancakes, sweetheart! They're, like, our LOVE LANGUAGE at this point!" She giggled, but then she began to have memories flooding her mind of the blueberry pancakes he'd made for her over the decades - for her birthdays, when she stayed with him the weekend they'd made "Twisted", the day she'd put Sulamith down and spent the better part of the morning sobbing in his arms before he'd gotten her to eat something - and she couldn't help but smile.

"I think so, angel, but...can we talk more about this when I'm actually awake?" He couldn't help but kiss her nose again, then her lips, wondering how a seventy-four-year-old woman in the middle of the night still managed to be so adorable.

"You got it." She kissed him then, and then scooted over the last few inches until she was pressed against him and he'd wrapped her up in his arms and the covers all at once. She exhaled against him, then said in a near whisper, "I'm sorry, Linds...I just...it's our wedding, you know? I get these ideas about how to make it special - and for Chris and John too because who saw THAT coming - and I just want it to be as awesome as possible...I mean...it's us, baby. It's us."

"It is," Lindsey whispered into the fluffy blonde hair that was tickling his chin as she curled up against him. "I'll do brunch, dinner, karaoke, bowling match...whatever activity your heart desires, baby girl...whatever you think will make it special."