Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 4: The Dance

All I Want Is To See You Smile

Santa Monica, California
Memorial Day
Monday, May 26, 1997
(9;00 am)
********************

"Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday, my beautiful Stephanie...Happy Birthday to you..."

Lindsey had been awake for an hour. He'd been to the bathroom, been downstairs to feed Sara Belladonna and let her out to do her business in the yard, refilled her water bowls, made coffee. Sara had come down and requested a bowl of Lucky Charms and he'd prepared it, and with his parting words a warning not to spill the colorfully-dyed milk from the bowl or her apple juice while she ate her breakfast on the couch in front of Dexter's Laboratory, he'd gone back upstairs to lie down beside his beautiful wife and watch her sleeping on the morning of her forty-ninth birthday.

Stevie was asleep on her side in bed, one leg sticking out of the covers and crooked over a rumpled edge of comforter, pale pink-painted toenails vibrant against the dark floral pattern of the duvet. She wore The Rolling Stones t-shirt that had once been Lindsey's, which they had been stealing from each other for almost thirty years now, because she was the birthday girl and that was the rule, she'd said last night, wrapped in a fluffy white towel at the bathroom sink and brushing her teeth and begging Lindsey to put down the camcorder because she was "going to be forty-nine tomorrow and they were too old to turn into Pamela and Tommy." He had relented to both - stopping the tape and digging the t-shirt out of his dresser drawer, and they'd gone to sleep with the dog at their feet and Ralph Kramden doing The Hucklebuck on The Honeymooners, Lindsey's had over hers on their unborn baby as he held her from behind and whispered, "Happy Birthday Eve, my beautiful Stephanie."

He leaned in and began to kiss her awake, starting with her forehead, then her nose, then her cheek, and by the time he got to her shoulder, she was beginning to stir.

"It's your birthday, sweet girl," he whispered into her neck in between kisses. "Time to wake up and enjoy your special day."

"Mmmm...too early..." Stevie murmured into the pillows, turning over towards him, but Lindsey kept up his campaign to get her to wake up, knowing she'd be upset with herself if she got up any later, as she had to save some time for morning sickness before she got ready for the day. Lindsey had been through three pregnancies with his wife since 1977, and it was always the same. This was their fourth baby, and by now, they had it down to a science.

"I'm going to sing to you and annoy you just enough to get you up, Stephanie," he warned, a soft teasing tone in his voice, wrapping her in his arms and continuing to kiss along her neck. He began to carry out his plan, choosing a song that was a decade old but he had sung to her when she was pregnant with Sara and it was all over the radio, and he'd wanted to remind her that she was still beautiful as her body grew to accommodate the baby.

"Ballerina girl..." he began to sing in almost a whisper, and Stevie couldn't help but giggle. "...you are so lovely...With you standing there,I'm so aware of how much I care for you..." Lindsey was punctuating the lyrics with soft, tiny kisses to her face. "You are more than now...You are for always...I can see in you my dreams come true...Don't you ever go away..."

Lindsey heard a soft, contented sigh escape his wife as she settled into his embrace. His hand went instinctively over the baby bump that didn't exist yet, and underneath The Rolling Stones t-shirt she wore, he was stroking her skin with soft, delicate fingers. He continued to sing to her, quieter now, "You make me feel like there's nothing I can't do...and when I hold you, I only want to say I love you..." He kissed the top of her head, and he felt her draping her arm across his chest. He kissed her fingers before holding her hand in his.