"I didn't mean to just rush right into anything..." Stevie's voice was just above a whisper, suddenly feeling awfully bad for giving him the cold shoulder all week.
She could have been easier- more understanding, but it's not hard to jump to conclusions in times like that and to assume that he had gone back home to his wife wasn't totally that far fetched... After all, she was still married, herself, so she couldn't really be mad if he were as well.
Lindsey's lips turned up into a grin as he slowly started to sink back into the couch. "I don't feel like anything was rushed at all." He admitted, even though it was awfully quick...
They had only known each other a couple of weeks and there they were, admitting all these feelings and saying the L word like they'd been together forever... It was fast, but to say it was rushed would make it seem sloppy and it really didn't feel that way, not to either of them.
"I think we're moving at the exact pace we need to." He shrugged a shoulder lightly, raising a brow at his own choice of wording.
Lindsey wasn't much into fate and destiny, but he did believe that people are placed in your path at the exact time that they're supposed to show up your life... And yes, maybe the circumstances weren't totally ideal with them- she was married and he had hardly gotten over the loss of the most important woman in his life.
It was definitely a very confusing time, but everything happens for a reason.
Stevie nodded softly, shifting all her weight from one foot to the other as she leaned back into the kitchen counter. "What does this mean for us then?" She wondered in a soft tone as she began to twist the cord of the landline in between two of her fingers. "What comes next...?" She clarified, not sure she even wanted to know, honestly.
What if that was it? What if he wanted nothing beyond a winter fling...?
He paused for a moment, taking a second to think before he replied. "I still have a week booked there," he reminded her, biting down on the inside of his cheek. "If you still want to try and make this work, I'll get a flight back to you." Lindsey wasn't going to push her, not when he had been the one to leave in the first place.
He was being honest when he said that their instant connection was overwhelming for him. He had only ever dated one woman- the one he married, so to realize that he could love someone else that much really stunned him. And he didn't leave because he didn't want to see where their relationship would go- he left because there was this underlying fear of attachment...
He had spent his whole life loving someone and in the blink of an eye, without much of a warning, she was gone... He didn't want to ever feel that feeling again, but he realized, while he was back home with his family, that it wasn't fair to live like that.
He didn't want to be so afraid of loss that he let new possibilities slip away... And that's what Stevie felt like to him- she felt like the future.
"Well, I don't want you to feel like you have to come back out here..." she lingered, tears still blurring her vision. "I can always fly out West and we can-"
"I'm the one that left..." he cut off her light rambling, not wanting her to feel like she had to accommodate him. "It's only right that I come back to fix things." He added in the most sincerer tone of voice.
He wanted to make it right with her and for them.
She paused for a moment, bringing her free hand up to her face to dab away the tears that had stained her cheeks. "I've really missed you." Stevie admitted, even though she thought it was crazy... She had gone forty- seven years without him, but it really didn't seem like it.
He let out a soft chuckle, which caused her to smirk lightly. "I've really missed you."
~~~
For the first time all week, Stevie slept well.
After they got off the phone, she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. There was no tension and all the worry she had felt before was gone... for the most part.
So that night, Stevie made herself a cup of tea, listened to a vinyl spin on the turntable and before she even made it through the third song on side B, she was headed for bed.
And there was no staring up at the ceiling, or watching the fan move in slow circles, or tossing and turning. Instead, the second her head hit the pillow, she was out and everything that had happened in the week leading up to that moment felt like just a bump in the road.
However, like all good things usually do, her good night of rest came to an end when the sound of someone's knuckles meeting the door caused her to jolt.
At first, when she jumped up to get out of bed, she thought it was a wake up call from the front desk- one of them coming up to tell her that she was late again, but the clock on her night stand told her that it was just shortly after three.
"Hold on..." she mumbled, holding out one hand to guide herself through the dark living room as she worked on getting her glasses to her face with the other.
"Opening the door for strangers at this hour?" Those deep blue eyes met hers immediately, a soft smirk on his handsome face as he held a bouquet of roses in one hand and a duffel bag in the other.
And instantly, just like before, there was this spark that was lit... It took nothing more than a look and he was dropping his bag to the floor to wrap her in his arms.
"God, I missed you." She repeated in a low tone as both of her hands met his cheeks to cradle his face.
Nodding his head softly, he slowly began to push her further into the suite. "I don't plan on going anywhere."
