Say Goodbye

Now I've Finally Found My Way

The Drake Hotel
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, September 15, 2003
(8:00 pm)
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Lindsey had dreamed of Stevie on his wedding night.

Sleeping beside his bride, a woman with whom he'd spent three years and had two children, Lindsey had rolled over on his side of the bed in the bridal suite of the hotel at beach resort and dreamed of Stevie dancing in the sand. She was younger in his dream, looking the way she had when they were still together years before, wearing a simple white dress that flew around her in the wind as she twirled around on the shore, her bare feet making imprints in the wet sand. The song she was dancing to was "Stephanie", and he was his younger self too, complete with long hair and beard, playing the song on the guitar and watching his beautiful Stephanie enjoy the song he'd written for her and told her he'd play one day as she walked down the aisle towards him.

"I should have called it 'Angel In The Sand'," he called out over the music towards her, "because that's exactly what I'm looking at right now." Stevie giggled and ran over to him, almost tripping in the sand, but Lindsey caught her just in time. He set down his guitar and held her, watching her long blonde curls flying every which way in the wind. He tried his best to swipe the hair from her eyes, and as he brought his fingers gently down her cheek, he looked down into her shining brown eyes and said, "Don't worry, angel...I'd never let you fall."

"I know, baby." Stevie smiled as she leaned forward to kiss him...

He'd woken up in bed beside a sleeping blonde woman in a little red nightgown who was turned over on her side, feeling more guilty than he'd ever felt in all his life, and a million miles from home.

Three years later, Lindsey rode the elevator upstairs to Stevie's hotel suite, a mixture of nerves and excitement at the prospect of the surprise she'd told him was in store when he let himself in. He thought back to the tearful, passionate kiss they'd shared not an hour before, when he'd found her in her dressing room among the roses after the taping and she'd flung herself into his arms.

"I love you so much," she'd practically sobbed into his neck, holding him close and covering his face with kisses. "I love you and I'm so proud of you and I can't wait to tell you that every day for the rest of our lives, sweetheart."

Then they were kissing again, Lindsey backing her against the locked door and trapping her there as he just about attacked her mouth with his own. Stevie's fingernails dug only the back of his hair, and as they devoured each other in a battle of desperate lips and tongues and teeth, she lifted one leg with the grace of the ballerina she'd once been and wrapped it around him, urging him closer. They were pressed so tightly together, feeling every inch of each other, that she whimpered right into his mouth before they finally pried their mouths apart, gasping for breath.

"I couldn't have done this without you," Lindsey said, panting with desire, tears springing to his eyes at the emotion of the day. In between words, he had begun assaulting her neck with kisses. "My God, I love you so much...only you get it, angel, only you know what this means to me...I couldn't share this with anyone else, baby, only you..." His mouth returned to hers, and they shared a long, passionate kiss before just standing there against the door and crying into each other, the pent up emotion finally coming to the surface for them both.

Stevie knew he had to hang around after the taping to finalize a few things. She'd eventually told him that she had a surprise of her own for him, that he should let her go on to the hotel without him and then come up to her room when he got back. He stepped out of the elevator on her floor, her keycard in hand, and he let himself in as she'd instructed him, the door locking behind him as he became aware of two things - there were no barking dogs greeting him, and there was music coming from beyond the bedroom door.