Stevie tossed and turned for three whole nights... She couldn't believe that house already had offers. Sure it was right on the coast and had always been beautiful to her, but it was old and creaky, and had ancient floors and the original appliances.... She couldn't believe someone already wanted it when it was still hers.
It still meant the world to her and she wasn't sure she was actually ready to give it to someone who was surely going to rip the old bathroom wallpaper off, redo the hardwood floor, throw away that old china cabinet that she'd picked out thirty years prior and redo the old bedroom.
And suddenly, most of the night as she laid there next to her fiancé, she tried to remember if she'd forgotten anything that she really needed. She had mentioned before that they could sell it as it was- all the furniture, all knickknacks, all the stuff that they had spent forever filling it with and whatever the new owners didn't want, Stevie told the realtor that she'd hire a cleaning crew to come in and take care of the rest... Suddenly she was really regretting that.
"Hello?" Lindsey answered the phone on the first ring, almost certain something was wrong if she was calling at that hour.
"Hi, Linds." She let out a sigh, tip toeing down the hallway of her home as she spoke in a whisper. "Were you sleeping?" Stevie knew that was a silly question- he ran on a pretty normal sleep schedule, unlike her.
He pushed himself up on the leather couch, letting out a soft laugh. "No, I was awake." He was lying to make her feel better and she knew that. "Everything okay?" He glanced over at the clock on the wall, creasing a brow when he realized that it was three in the morning.
She bit down on her lower lip, grabbing a blanket out of the basket and taking a seat in the sunroom. "Do you remember when we got the sidewalk poured and we put our hands in the concrete?" She wondered, having been driving herself mad over it.
"I remember, yeah." He let out a soft chuckle, still not exactly sure what had her in such a tailspin in the middle of the night.
"I took so many pictures of that afternoon, and I put all those polaroids in that little macaroni box that Becks made." She recalled, voice shifting as she began speaking a little quicker. "And I can't remember, for the life of me, where I put that box." She added, obviously a little frantic. "There was so many pictures in that box..." she added, shaking her head lightly as she stared off into space.
She could feel the tears- her nose had started to tingle and her eyes were beginning to burn a little. It was emotional for her.
He grew quiet for a moment, trying to recall what she was talking about. "You took the box home a couple of summers ago, Steph." He wasn't sure how he remembered, but he did. "Did you check in your closet?" He asked, knowing that she kept a lot of stuff stashed in there.
"I already did." She shrugged, feeling nearly sick to her stomach at the thought of not knowing where it could be. "It's driving me-"
"Did you look in the piano bench?" He didn't mean to cut her off, but he remembered that she used to keep important things in there, even though he thought it was crazy.
She gasped lightly, pushing herself up and letting the blanket hit the floor as she trailed into the other room. "You're right." She bent down, carefully pulling open the top half of the bench to reveal a ton of sheet music, books, magazines and even random candle sticks.
But right on top, tucked away safely to preserve all the old macaroni pieces, was the box... It had old glitter falling off and beads hanging on by a thread, but it was so special.
"You find it?" He could tell by how quiet she'd gotten that she'd found something important.
Nodding her head, she sank down to the floor to open it. "I found it..." she assured, carefully popping the lock and looking down into a time capsule. "They're here." She was so relieved- so much so, she had to pull the stack of pictures out to look through them.
"I'm glad, baby." He let off the softest smile as he listened to her rummage through it. "Are you going to sleep better now?" Lindsey had always been worried about her sleep patterns, but when she was up like that, he really grew concerned.
With tears in her eyes, she stared down at the picture of them the summer they had bought it. They were so young, so excited and full of life... Just two kids that had just gotten their first big chunk of money from the band and decided to buy a house with it.
"I'll be able to fall asleep now." She whispered, voice cracking lightly. "Thank you, Lindsey." She added as her tears fell on the old picture in her hand.
"You know that you can call me anytime and-"
"No," she cut off his words, not meaning that. "Thank you for all these memories..." Stevie was truly heartbroken. "Thank you for the house, the summers, the love..." she was bawling by then, still cradling her phone, even though her hands had started to shake.
He nodded, feeling the exact same way. "You are the one..." Lindsey whispered as his eyes stayed focused on the clock ticking... time was always ticking. "You made that house a home and everything was so special because you were there." He told her, hoping she knew how honest he was being.
She didn't have anything to say to that. Instead she just sank down, spilling out the box to look through it as she continued to cry over the dream she was giving up on.
"Are you tired?" He asked, even though it seemed incredibly random in the moment.
"No." She mumbled, not even thinking twice about it.
He cracked a soft grin, running his hand from his forehead to his chin. "What do you say I pick you up and we drive the coast?" Lindsey asked, knowing already that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep and neither would she.
"Right now?" She raised a brow, looking around her dark home.
"It's not Hawaii, but..." He lingered for a moment, listening to her crack a soft giggle.
"Turn the headlights off when you pull in." She reminded him, only because George was still asleep upstairs and waking him would ruin their plans.
"I'll see you soon, baby."
