Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 4: The Dance

I Would Be Your Only Dream

Hartford, Connecticut
Wednesday, September 17, 1997
(10:00 am)
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"'The way I see it,' he said, 'you just can't win it...Everybody's in it for their own gain; can't please them all. There's always somebody calling you down.' I do my best and I do good business...There's a lot of people asking for my time; they're trying to get ahead...they're trying to be a good friend of mine..."

Stevie was having a great time in the hotel room jacuzzi tub, soaking in the hot bubbly water and singing along to "Free Man In Paris" by Joni Mitchell, her Court And Spark CD playing in the bathroom. Stevie was six months pregnant now and her belly poked out of the bath water just a bit, and she had steadily been teaching her unborn baby girl what good music was, singing to her in the bath or the shower, or when doing various errands around the house - or, much to the chagrin of whoever was driving, in the car riding along the Pacific Coast Highway.

"Stevie?" She heard Lindsey's voice coming from beyond the bathroom door, and then she heard the door slam shut to the suite. "Where's my sweet girl?"

"I'm in the tub with Joni and our baby girl," she called out over the music and through the door. She went on singing, "I deal in dreamers and telephone screamers...Lately I wonder what I do it for..." She stopped when Lindsey opened the door to the bathroom and stood in the doorway, smiling down at his naked wife surrounded by bubbles.

"She's got to hear Court And Spark in its entirety a few times before she's born so it's deeply implanted in her little soul," Stevie explained, her hand over the baby. "So far her favorite seems to be 'Help Me'...I can tell because she moves a lot more with that one."

"So you're telling me our baby girl 'loves her lovin'?" Lindsey teased, borrowing a lyric from the song.

"Not like she loves her freedom," Stevie teased right back, using the next lyric of Joni Mitchell's "Help Me". They both laughed, and Stevie said, "She's moving right now, sweetheart...want to feel?" She watched Lindsey's face light up as he knelt at the side of the tub. She took his hand in her wet hand and placed it over the baby, and together they felt the fluttering waves of her moving inside, under Stevie's wet skin. Their eyes met and they both smiled, not needing to say a word. "Free Man In Paris" bled seamlessly into "People's Parties" on the CD, and Lindsey leaned down to kiss his wife softly on the lips. This was the fifth time in twenty-six years together that Stevie had been carrying Lindsey's child - although they almost never spoke of the first time she'd been pregnant, and the baby they'd lost whom they'd conceived in Aspen but would never get to know. In some ways, he thought, Stevie was even more beautiful when she was pregnant; the glow that everyone always talked about during pregnancy was very real and evident throughout her entire being. He brought his hand, now wet, up to her cheek, and he kissed her again.

"My sweet girl," he whispered inches away from her lips. "Have I told you enough today that I love you?"

"Yes, but feel free to tell me as many times as you want, baby," she whispered back before she melted into another, longer kiss. She gave out a soft little sigh when their lips parted, and their foreheads met and they began to nuzzle. "How long do we have before soundcheck?" she asked just as Lindsey placed a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose.

"We're totally free until three," Lindsey said. He kissed her lips again. "Why do you ask, Mrs. Buckingham? Any ideas about how we should spend our free time?"

"Really just the one," she said with a little giggle that made his heart skip a beat as it always did. They had not been intimate in awhile; Stevie had been exhausted upon going to bed for the night for the past few weeks from trying to get the house, the kids and the luggage prepared for tour while six months pregnant. The baby was very active at night and she often woke up to a kick in the ribs, or else she shifted to press on her bladder and Stevie was woken up to pee several times a night. Lindsey had taken to holding in bed from behind, which was their usual routine when she was pregnant once her belly grew and she couldn't contort herself properly to sleep with her head on his chest, and he had to admit, he missed the intimacy, the feeling of sleeping with her arm draped across his stomach and her chest rising and falling against his side as she breathed in the darkness. He kissed her again, allowing his hand to travel slowly over her body until he cupped her face in his hand, gently teasing his tongue against her lower lip. Stevie let out a low, almost imperceptible moan that made him instantly ready for more.