Cheaper Than Free: An Anniversary Story (The Dance A/U Sequel)

What Does Money Not Buy

Pacific Palisades, California
Sunday, November 27, 2022
(10:00 am)
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"You know, your daughter gave me shit on the phone last night about how technically it's not our anniversary for four more days."

Stevie was leaning over one of the pink heart-shaped dog bowls in the kitchen, pouring into it from a bottle of Fiji water for Lily and Luna, who were waiting to lap it up after breakfast in the now-empty other bowls She held down the sash of her gray knit bathrobe to see clearly what she was doing through her glasses.

Lindsey chuckled, pouring two cups of coffee. "Well, your daughter gave me shit for insisting she call John to wish him a happy birthday yesterday," he said. "She said - and I quote - 'Dad, seriously, I mean, can't I just DM him?'" John McVie's birthday, often lost in the shuffle of Thanksgiving weekend and their anniversary and Amber's birthday, had been the day before, and Amber, twenty-five years old and a member of Gen Z, couldn't understand why seventy-seven-year-old Uncle John didn't have social media.

"You can tell her Uncle John, like Mom, thinks that all that social media stuff is a bunch of hooey," Stevie replied.

"Oh...I don't think she'll have a problem understanding that," Lindsey said with an eye roll that made Stevie giggle again as he handed her one of the coffee mugs.

Lindsey stood back against the counter, drinking his coffee and watching his wife go about the business of the morning. She let the dogs out onto the terrace to do their business on the pink wee wee pads she left outside for them, and brought her coffee mug up to her lips with one hand by opening the Los Angeles Times flat onto the table with the other. She grimaced as she turned pages, and she could feel his eyes on her. She turned around to face him, and smiled sweetly at him. "What, baby?"

"Nothing...I just love you," he said. He pushed himself from the counter, setting his coffee aside on it, and crossed to where she stood at the table. He took her coffee from her and placed it on the table, and she gave a small whine of protest over that before he wrapped her in his arms. "Have I told you lately how incredibly happy I am that this...this right here...is how I get to spend my mornings? Watching you and the dogs and the coffee and the paper and knowing that you are my wife, that this is our home...it's my dream come true, you know." He caressed her cheek. "Happy anniversary week, my sweet girl." He kissed her lips softly.

It had become tradition in the Buckingham household since 1998, the year of their first anniversary and Amber's first birthday, for the celebration of the creation of their little family to begin on Thanksgiving weekend - the end of the tour in 1997 just before Amber was born - and continue through December 1, just in time for the Christmas and New Years celebrations. Everyone closest to them over the years had joked that November and December at Stevie and Lindsey's house left you with "a hangover, five extra pounds and an empty wallet," but it had also made for a quarter of a century of photographs and videos and memories and stories that neither of them ever took for granted, considering the long and winding rode that had gotten them to the place where they'd been since The Dance.

This year, after spending 2020 and 2021 without the big dinners and parties because of the pandemic, they were finally hosting another of their epic parties, Stevie having gone out of her way - with online assistance from Karen, of course - to plan a party themed in silver, for their "silver" anniversary. The party was tonight, Karen was coming over at noon to start greeting caterers and various other people who'd be hired by Stevie, and as she stood in the kitchen and waited for Lily and Luna to want back inside and shared a few nuzzles and kisses with her husband, Stevie knew their alone time was limited.

"I am so happy I married you, Mrs. Buckingham," she heard Lindsey whispering into her tangled mess of long blonde curls, still not touched up after a night's sleep and their early-morning lovemaking. "Honestly...where would I be right now? If it weren't for you...and for Amber...I'd be lost, angel."

"You'd be fine," she teased, opting for humor so she wouldn't cry at his sweet words. "You'd be one of those rock stars - you know the kind - the ones who marry the hot models and then the safe, mousy brunette later in life to keep you honest."

"In other words, I'd be Mick Fleetwood," Lindsey said, and Stevie collapsed against him in her raucous, throaty peels of laughter.

"I love you, you mean old man," she said when she could finally speak past her laughter. She kissed him just once before she heard the familiar scratching at the side screen door and said, "I'm going to go let our younger daughters inside...you, please, text our human daughter and make sure she knows what time to be here tonight...I have big plans for my baby girl and she's going to be so gosh darn embarrassed and roll her eyes so much that'll be my present!"

They were both still laughing as Stevie let the dogs in, and after she locked the screen door she picked up her coffee and disappeared upstairs, a mass of golden curls and her bathrobe flying behind her like one of her famous capes, calling back, "Great coffee today, Mr. Buckingham! You pass your twenty-five-year inspection...I think I'll keep you on board another year!"

Lindsey, chuckling, shook his head and called back to her up the staircase, "As if you have a choice in the matter, Miss Silver Springs! You can't escape me!"

He heard her little giggle just before the sound of the bathroom door closing upstairs, and he was still smiling.

Lindsey had a big surprise in store for Stevie at the party tonight, a surprise he and Amber and Karen had been working on all week, telling everyone who'd been invited to the big party tonight.

The look on his wife's beautiful face when she realized what was happening tonight was going to be all the gift he needed.

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