Everleigh didn't come home until late that night, and when she did finally arrive, she didn't say a single word to her mother, who had stayed up, waiting for her.
In fact, she didn't say much of anything for a couple of days following the argument that she had overheard. She didn't know how to interpret it- she felt like she was learning lot about the people that raised her in just a short matter of time.
It was unsettling, truly.
So the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to talk about it, especially with Stevie, who felt like the sky was falling down around them.
It wasn't getting much easier, not for anyone.
"Then what happened?" Lindsey was standing in the kitchen, leaning back against the counter with his hands on the marble top.
Slouching down in her seat a little further, the blonde pursed her lips to one side. "I was mean..." she admitted, half heartedly. "I said some hurtful things." Stevie's eyes fell to the hardwood floor, a little embarrassed, but mostly sad.
"Well, was it all true?" He wondered, eyes still glued on his wife from across the room.
She had called him early that morning, asking if he'd come over just to hang out for awhile... she missed him more than she had truly realized, and he felt the same way about her.
Being married for that long wasn't easy, but being apart for a couple of weeks was way harder.
Glancing up, she let out a soft sigh. "Yeah, but that doesn't make it right." She was sitting at the table, chair turned all the way around to face him as she cradled her cup of coffee in hand. "I shouldn't have said any of that... I know better." Stevie felt awful- worse than awful, actually... she was just so upset over it all.
"Sometimes the truth hurts." He shrugged a shoulder lightly, but when he realized that she didn't even crack a grin, he let out a sigh.
"It was still wrong..." she blinked a couple of times, shaking her head in disbelief. "And Ev was so upset with me." She added, which nearly destroyed her.
She could live with a lot of things, but she couldn't live with the fact that her daughter was mad at her.
That was a different kind of hurt, really.
"Oh, Steph." He frowned lightly, pushing himself away from the counter to trail towards her. "Come on," His hands met her shoulders from behind, softly rubbing them as he kissed the top of her head. "Go easier on yourself." Lindsey pressed his lips to her cheek as his hands slid down her arms.
Tilting her head to the side, she closed her eyes softly. "I need you." She whispered, biting down on the inside of her lip. "I need you..." she repeated as the tears began to stream down her rosy red cheeks.
He slipped around her, bending down to be at her level. "I'm here, Stevie." His voice was low as he brought his hand up to her face to wipe away some of the tears. "I'm right here..." he added, holding her chin in his hand as he brought her eyes to his.
"I want our life back..." she mumbled, hardly even understandable with how worked up she'd gotten herself.
He stared at her for a long moment, heart sinking as he watched her lip start to tremble. "Hey..." Lindsey carefully helped her stand up, slipping an arm around her waist immediately. "We're going to be just fine, baby." He assured for what felt like the one hundredth time since this all started. "We've been working on fixing ourselves..." he was being soft and very sympathetic towards her... He knew what she needed to hear in moments like that.
Nodding lightly, her head fell on his chest, feeling as his hand got lost in her hair.
They were just there... They were just in that same predicament, where she was begging him to come back home, but his answer hadn't changed. He wasn't ready, and he didn't think she was either.
"Because then, after we figure all of this out, we can go back to that place." He assured, leaving another little kiss on her ear. "We still have a lot of years of happiness left with one another." He believed that more than he believed anything else in the whole world.
He couldn't count on many things in life, other than his marriage... she was still everything to him- the moon and the stars, even after all their years together.
"When are you going to come home?" She whispered, running her nails up and down his arm slowly.
With his chin resting on her head, his gaze traveled towards the window as he thought about it for a long second. "When we've actually worked this out."
~~~
Lindsey didn't take matters into his own hands very often, especially having not even consulted his wife first, but this felt different. This felt like one of those situations that just needed someone to come in, tell the truth and answer any questions after.
So, that was his plan.
He hung out at home almost the entire day- watching a movie, going for a walk, and talking... all the things that made her feel so much better by the end of the evening that she fell asleep on the couch before eight.
She was exhausted- he could tell by the look in her eyes. She hadn't been sleeping well, or at all.
Once he knew that she was really out- her breathing changed and she'd gotten incredibly quiet, he slowly slipped off the couch. "I love you..." he whispered, gently wrapping the throw blanket around her a little more.
He left her there, sound asleep as he headed up the stairs and towards their bedroom at the end of the hallway.
Their bed was unmade- throw pillows scattered out on the floor and an empty glass of wine on her nightstand... Something that wasn't totally common for her at the time.
Creasing a brow, he decided to make the bed before he did anything else... He wanted her to at least come up to sleep in an environment that wasn't so chaotic.
And then he reached under the bed, pulling out the only thing that was ever under there- a small pink box with a ribbon wrapped around it. "Okay..." he said to himself as a sigh escaped him.
He wasn't sure if it was the wisest idea, but he still combed through the couple of baby shoes, hair bows, old birthday candles and at the bottom, tucked under a couple of pictures was the envelope....
