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

A Beating Heart

Pacific Palisades, California
Sunday, November 27, 2022
(9:00 pm)
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"Amber Robin Buckingham!"

Billy Joel's "A Matter Of Trust" was playing as Stevie barreled across the party towards her daughter and husband. Amber looked at her mother and then past her towards Jane, whose face looked apologetic and stricken. Stevie pulled her daughter into her arms and hugged her, swaying her back and forth and already crying as Lindsey looked at the women of his family with sheer confusion.

"Amber, I'm sorry..." Jane was frantically waving her hands, trying to tell her wife the cat was out of the bag.

"My baby is having a baby!" Stevie was smiling and crying at the same time, rocking her daughter in her arms as she had when she was an infant in Arizona and they'd sit together in the rocking chair, Stevie singing her "Crystal" after feeding her and watching her fall asleep cozy and full at her breast.

"I'm so sorry," Jane said. "It was a total misunderstanding!"

"It's okay," Amber said as she was finally released from Stevie's embrace. She looked from Stevie to Lindsey and said, "Seventeen weeks. IVF took. And we just found out yesterday...it's a girl."

"My baby girl is having a baby girl!" Stevie hugged her again, and used one hand to pull Jane into the hug. "Two mommies and a baby girl! I can't believe it!" She was smiling again, tears streaming down her face and beginning to attract attention from other people in the room.

"Lindsey!" Stevie looked up at her husband, who stood frozen at the fireplace. "Are you listening to this?"

Lindsey looked at his daughter, watched her smile at him, and immediately joined in the hug. The four of them were jumping around together and taking turns kissing cheeks and shaking each other by the shoulders, and when they finally pulled apart, he retrieved his beer from the mantle and held it in the air to announce, "Our baby is having a baby!"

The shouts and whistles and claps from everyone practically drowned out the music, and the party dissolved into hugs and kisses and chatter and well-wishes from everyone. Christine McVie called Amber Mommy, Mick Fleetwood picked her up and whirled her around, and Amber's Uncle Christopher playfully slapped Jane on the back and yelled, "Good job!" The entire group laughed, and clapped when Jane and Amber shared a sweet kiss in the moment.

Stevie had not stopped crying.

"Mom..." Amber pulled her mother aside, bringing her around to the other side of the fireplace. "Listen, I kept it a secret because it's high risk, you know...it's not personal."

"I know that, honey...I get it." Stevie was using the sleeve of her classic Stevie Nicks black blouse to dry tears.

"And Mom..." Amber giggled as Stevie touched her belly, rubbing her future granddaughter affectionately and giggling herself, looking into the blue eyes that were like looking into Lindsey's.

"Are you about to surprise me more? I swear to God, kid, I'm a wreck...a happy wreck, but a wreck."

"One more surprise," Amber said. "Jane and I were hoping it was a girl because we had the perfect name picked out from the beginning." She took her mother's hand. "We're naming her Stephanie Robin Buckingham Ryan."

Stevie was silent for a moment. Amber could see her lower lip quivering and she knew she had made the right choice.

"Mom?" Amber felt her own tears start to well up in her eyes.

"You know, Robin would have loved you to pieces, right?" Stevie watched her daughter nod, tears in both of their eyes. "She would have thought you were the coolest, bravest, most awesome chick in the world, kid. She's been gone forty years, and the day I named you, I was filling out the paperwork...and I could hear her telling me how beautiful you were and how you were going to grow up to be so special."

"Not as special as the Stephanie we're naming the baby after," said Amber.

"I love you, Amber Robin Buckingham. You know I love you, right? And that I think you are the most beautiful, perfect, amazing thing I ever made?"

"I love you too, Stephanie," Amber said, laughing through her tears. They hugged again, sharing a few tears and finally a laugh as they pulled away and began wiping smeared eyeliner together.

Stevie bent down to the baby bump she couldn't believe she'd not seen all night and said, "And I love you, Stephanie Robin." She looked up at her daughter and said, "Come on, kid. Let's sing along to Billy Joel and enjoy the good times. It's Anniversary Week!"

Amber smiled. "I know, Mom."

Hand in hand, they rejoined the party, and Amber touched her belly, wondering how her mother would survive the emotion of the night when her father surprised her with a renewal of their wedding vows, the secret they'd actually managed to keep.

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