Buckingham Nicks A/U Series: The Nightbird

And The Blankets That I Love

Santa Monica, California
New Years Day
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
(11:00 am)
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"Lindsey? Is there still coffee?"

The tired, scratchy voice of his wife, coupled with the scuffling of her slippers as she made her way through the hallway to the kitchen, made Lindsey smile as he set down his phone. He'd been scrolling through Instagram as he drank his coffee at the kitchen table, liking comments on a few videos his team had encouraged him to post to advertise his latest solo album, Lindsey Buckingham, and a few Happy New Year messages from friends and fans. Stevie appeared in the doorway of the kitchen in the makeshift pajamas she'd worn to bed the night before - gray drawstring pants from Target, a t-shirt bearing the cover photo of Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes album, and a long gray knit Ralph Lauren cardigan as a bathrobe. Lindsey couldn't help but grin at the silly, almost childlike way she scratched through her disheveled blonde hair, yawning quietly.

You are almost seventy-one years old, Stevie. How the hell are you still so adorable?

"I just made some," Lindsey said instead, answering her question about the coffee. "Do you want me to do it?" He made an attempt to rise from his seat to make her a cup of coffee, but Stevie waved him away with a smile.

"No, no, it's cool," she said. "You go back to your...contraption there." She winked playfully at him on her way to the coffee pot; Stevie never missed an opportunity to tease him about using social media on an iPhone.

"You're missing out, I tell ya," Lindsey teased back, waving his phone in the air as if it were a blue ribbon or a trophy. "You could be scrolling through videos of cute puppies and kittens and remodeled kitchens and old Eighties trends...you know, all the videos and pictures I show you at night while you're pretending you're not falling asleep."

Stevie giggled, pouring half-and-half into a cup of coffee, at the accuracy of his statement. She said, "Thanks all the same, but I'll stick to you and Julia and Karen keeping me filled in on all the hot gossip about kitchen cabinet trends and who Ariana Grande is dating these days."

"Well, suit yourself, Mrs. Buckingham." Lindsey leaned upward to kiss her before she sat down at the table beside him and began toying with the L.A. Times she found lying there beside a small stack of mail and Lindsey's laptop.

It was Ariana Grande's new album, Thank U Next, that Stevie and their granddaughter had been dancing to the night before at the small New Years Eve gathering they'd had that included the kids and their grandkids, John and Christine, and Karen. Little dogs had run wild and finally tired themselves out in the living room as Stephanie, their teenaged granddaughter, as well as her Aunt Amber, had introduced Stevie to the song "7 Rings" and caused Stevie to walk around all night saying, "I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it." The party has broken up shortly after Ryan Seacrest's New Years Rockin' Eve show - which Stevie had lamented to Christine over champagne was once Dick Clark's New Years Eve show - had played on the giant TV mounted over the living room fireplace and helped them all count down the seconds till midnight. About an hour later, Stevie and Lindsey were upstairs in bed, the annual New Years marathon of The Honeymooners on the bedroom TV as it did every year as was their tradition, while they rang in the new year with another one of their traditional New Years Eve activities for nearly fifty years - making love before going to sleep. Lindsey, having drank the last of his coffee, set his mug down as he leaned over the table and wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder, kissing her temple. Stevie bent herself inward towards him with a tiny giggle of surprise.

"What was that for, Linds?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Just thinking about last night, the new year and all..." He exhaled audibly and then added, "You were incredible last night, sweet girl." He winked playfully at her, and Stevie understood that he was not referring to her dancing, the meal she had prepared, or anything else about the Buckingham/McVie family New Years Eve gathering that had occurred the night before - but about their celebration afterwards, in the bedroom. Stevie, just as shy and coy about sex at seventy years old as she'd been at twenty, looked down at her lap with a sheepish expression.