Decades

Back to Work

Stevie rose, reluctantly putting out the candles. She took Lindsey by the hand and pulled him up from his seat on the sofa, "It's time for us to get to work." He groaned and tried to pull her back down beside him for another kiss.

She smiled and shook her head, "Linds, let's not rush things."

"Rush things? Stevie, it's been over fifty years. Can we not agree that we've taken it slow enough?" he tugged at her hand again.

She laughed, bending forward to kiss his forehead, "Let's go to work, Buckingham!" She was afraid that history would repeat itself, as it had again and again. She didn't want to fast forward to the end of this story, to the part where things implode.

Maybe they wouldn't ruin it this time. But, if past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior, she didn't want to speed towards the part where the tears, anger, misunderstandings, and heartbreak waited.

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Lindsey considered what she said about rushing into this. While that was ridiculous, there hadn't been a decade in the previous five that they didn't find themselves together. But he understood what she meant. They had always burned too hot and then became freezing cold. They made mistakes, they expected the other to operate on more information than they actually supplied, and they acted impulsively.

How much trouble could people their age bring on themselves? They were getting to the age when they shouldn't even buy green bananas. And yet, Stevie wanted to take it slow, he supposed. While he could see the wisdom, it wasn't what he wanted. However, he wanted her enough to do it at her pace.

He was still married, though a good provider, he was a disappointment of a husband in the ways that counted. Though separated, he had been trying to reconcile prior to coming here.

He could understand Stevie's reluctance to open herself up fully to him again without any promises or even an explanation of where he stood with Kristin. Stevie had every reason to be cautious. There had been so much damage over the years.

Lindsey's marriage had been fine, he'd thought. "Fine" seemed like such a benign word, a dull way to describe spending more than two decades with a woman. He and Kristin worked well together as parents. She'd given him a beautiful family, and he would always love her for that. She'd tolerated his moods and had withstood being married to a man who was obviously eternally entangled with another woman whom he put on a pedestal.

He was ashamed that he'd allowed her to waste her best years on him, knowing he'd committed to her, but not completely. It was with the contingency that if Stevie were available, he'd always take the chance at being with her again. It was an unspoken part of their marital contract, and it robbed her of the love and security she thought she would have when she married him.

She hadn't been fully aware of how much Stevie Nicks would overshadow their relationship when they began dating. Lindsey had been attracted to her in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. She was around the age that Stevie was when she left him, and maybe subconsciously, he wanted a do-over. But Kristin wasn't Stevie, and the initial infatuation would wear off, and he'd be left wanting as he'd been in each of his other long-term relationships.

Kristin had found out she was pregnant when they were on The Dance tour. Lindsey had finally, after so long, won Stevie back. And not just for a drunken fuck or two. They were planning a future together. She'd stopped using drugs, and they were in love as they were when they were kids.

The drama from the previous years seemed to have settled, and they were making beautiful music together. The sexual tension between them was as strong as ever, and they were enjoying being in a grown-up, romantic relationship. This is all Lindsey had ever wanted.