Sweet Girl (Love Is..., Part 2)

Epilogue: Come Down Here For A Minute, Sweet Girl

Maui, Hawaii
Saturday, June 30, 2018
(5:00 pm)
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"Prepare to be completely knocked out! I mean, like, you're going to love what you see!"

"I have for nearly fifty years, angel. Let's see it!"

Lindsey was reclining against the pillows in bed, almost missing the sight of a little white dog at his feet. Lily was with Karen while Stevie and Lindsey's honeymoon in Hawaii, in a quiet two-story bungalow on the beach, took them away from reality for a week. Rehearsals for the 2018-2019 Fleetwood Mac tour began when they returned to California, as did Buckingham family dinners every Friday night with all three children...and Stevie at the other end of the table, occasionally locking eyes with Lindsey for a moment amid the chatter of the kids and both of them saying without a word that they had done it, they were living the dream they'd shared almost fifty years ago, planning out their lives in a tiny apartment with a mattress on the floor surrounded by some lace and paper flowers.

"I mean it, Mr. Buckingham...you have never seen a bride on her wedding night look like this before!"

Stevie was in the bathroom, pulling on a white silk robe and checking her hair in the mirror. She looked at her reflection and shrugged, thinking that for seventy, she could be doing a lot worse.

"Well then get your cute little behind in here, Mrs. Buckingham, so I can see what I've won!" He had been calling her Mrs. Buckingham all day, and it sounded natural and beautiful and right.

Stevie appeared in the light of the bathroom doorway, and as her hair and her eyes - and the white silk robe with little gemstones on the back that spelled out Mrs. for the occasion - caught the light, he suddenly realized again why he'd been calling her angel since 1970, the first night he'd gotten the courage to take her in his arms. She left the doorway and did a perfect Stevie Nicks twirl, and landed against the foot of the bed. She was holding the sash of her robe in her fingers, giving him a sideways grin as she asked, "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready for decades," he said, sitting up more in bed. He returned her grin with a devilish gleam in his eyes and said simply, "Gimme."

He watched in awe as she slowly undid her bathrobe and let it drop to the floor, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry when she revealed herself to be wearing nothing but the old Rolling Stones t-shirt, threadbare and worn but perfect, just as she'd looked when he'd put it on her at the Plaza Hotel the night they'd reunited, the night he'd put it on her to protect her in Arizona when her mother died, the first time she'd stolen it from him in Keith Olsen's basement in 1971. He had to force back tears.

"I could have put on some slinky white thing," she said, "but somehow, this seemed to be the only thing I wanted to wear tonight." She did another twirl, and her hair moved with her like angel wings. "Is it husband approved, baby?"

Lindsey let one eye closed and bit at his thumbnail, pretending to give her a long once-over. She giggled, standing completely at ease, knowing that he loved what he saw...because he loved her, wholly and completely.

"So what's the verdict, husband?" She moved closer towards him, lingering at the foot of the bed.

"The verdict...I say, you are the most beautiful bride on her wedding night in the history of brides on their wedding nights, and if you don't come over here soon I'm going to have no choice but to come over there and tackle you and tear that thing off of you." He watched her smile and shyly drop her eyes to her lap. "We wouldn't want to do that and mess with a piece of history, now would we, Mrs. Buckingham?" She looked back at him and shook her head. "Good girl...now...are you going to get over here so I can finally make love to my wife?"

That was all Stevie needed to hear. She crawled over to him where he lay back against the pillows and swung one leg over him until she sat on his lap. Her hands clasped at the back of his neck and she looked down into his eyes. "We did it, sweetheart. Look at us...we're here."

"That we are, Mrs. Buckingham." He moved a strand of her hair out of the way, staring up at her. "Come down here for a minute...let me taste my sweet girl."

Stevie leaned in and her mouth found his. Stevie held back tears thinking of the long-ago lyric she'd written when he'd said those words to her, a million years ago in a rented house in the Hollywood Hills when recording "Twisted" together had turned into so much more. They kissed for a long, sweet, perfect minute, ending in a little breathy sigh from Stevie as she pressed her forehead to his that was the most erotic and yet precious thing he'd ever heard. She could feel his desire for her increase beneath her.

"How does it feel to kiss a married woman?" she teased in a whisper that fell warm against his face.

"Like kissing my sweet girl only better...because now..." He began to trace his finger along her collarbone, feeling a shiver run through her and resisting the urge to flip her over right then and there. "Now those kisses are all mine...and not just the kisses..." His finger dipped lower, joined by more, cupping one breast softly in his hand, kneading. "You're all mine...my beautiful Stephanie...." He kissed her again, harder this time, and she moaned directly into his mouth at his words.

"Say that again, baby," she panted when he released her from the kiss. Without even thinking she'd slowly begun to grind herself against him. "Tell me whose I am...I want to hear it again."

"Mine..." he breathed, his arms around her, fingers tangled in her hair as he tipped forward and lowered her onto the bed until her head was at the other end. He was on top of her now, holding her close as she wrapped her legs around him, arching up towards him. "You, my beautiful Stephanie...my sweet girl..." He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "You're all mine." His mouth landed on her neck as he thrust himself into her and she cried out, and it didn't take long before they were locked together in passion, moving in sync and clinging desperately to each other, the romantic teasing of just a few minutes earlier out the window. Something about saying out loud that she was his - finally - made the moment suddenly intense, and they were off and running in a way neither of them had expected.

"Lindsey...oh God...I am yours, baby..." She was panting, her nails digging into his shoulders. "Baby...take me...all of me, baby, please..." She was lifting herself up into him, and he continued to pull her into him with both hands, until finally, with a symphony of cries and groans from both of them, they finished together, bewildered at how quickly a romantic moment had turned into something else.

When they finally began to catch their breath, Lindsey rolled over and they lay together on their backs, Stevie still in the t-shirt, and they couldn't help but begin to laugh. Stevie rolled over into his side and said, "My God...how do we still do that?"

"I know!" He was struggling to slow his breathing, his hand on his chest. "Jesus...I am almost sixty-nine years old and you turn me into a horny teenager!"

"I remember that horny teenager..." she said before starting to leave sweet, gentle kisses on his neck. "He used to stare at me in his garage with a guitar in his hand...and I'd pretend not to notice and try not to stare back." She nestled into the crook of his arm, and he draped his other arm around her. "I loved him, you know...I love you."

"He loved you too," he said, and he turned to kiss her temple. "Only took me fifty years...but I got you." They both laughed, and pulled each other closer.

"We're married, sweetheart...we did it." She could hardly believe it as she said it. "It's amazing...I've been waiting so long for this...I love you."

Lindsey shifted until he lay facing her, holding her close and looking into her eyes, seeing in them the same love and light he'd seen in his garage fifty years before. Just before he kissed her, he tucked her hair behind her ear and let his hand stroke her cheek on its way down, and he echoed words she'd written long ago, tucked her in a house in the Hollywood Hills after a weekend spent in his arms.

"I've waited all my life for you, sweet girl."

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