I Think I'm in Trouble {Reimagined}

LXI.

Lindsey's house phone began ringing, grabbing him from his simple chores before taking a rest like he had told Stevie he would do. Although, it was hard to rest when his mind, too, was flowing around the situation with Shannon.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me..."

"What's up, Kristen?" he wondered, continuing his task with the phone between his shoulder and ear.

"Well, to be honest I was at Stevie's to talk to Jeffrey when Shannon nearly busted down the door, mentioning she had been at your house."

"Are you calling to be nosey, or are you calling because you care about all of our feelings?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Because realistically, it doesn't involve you."

"It's beginning to. She came through the door as I was going to tell Jeffrey something. Clearly, he and Shannon don't know who you are and he and I... are hanging out more. I haven't told him that you and I were seeing one another and if this whole thing with Shannon blows out of proportion, I don't want him to think I kept it from him when I did only because you pretended not to know me in the hospital."

"Look, Shannon just found out everything about Stevie and I. He doesn't know me to be around Stevie, but he knows she's pregnant and everything else, that she'd been having an affair. But Robert told him that him and his mom had been separated since he had been gone, to make it look not like an affair."

"Is that true?"

"Well, kind of. When she got out of rehab, that's when she said things felt different and like they weren't working in their marriage, but she thought it was just her, being newly sober, so she never brought it up."

"That makes sense, mhmm."

"Then Jeffrey left for deployment and that's when they actually started spending more time apart and it's then when I came into the picture. We did start talking more, it had been years and we were talking very clear headed because we were both sober and we were getting along like best friends again. Then it became more."

"Right."

"I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but it's truth."

"I'd rather the truth than a lie... It's clear you guys love one another."

"Yeah, everything was going fine till our last fight and when I met Shannon. In that moment, we lied because we just didn't know what to do. When you showed up to the hospital, I didn't know what to do and that was only because Stevie was under a lot of stress," he shifted to the next lie.

"That's made a little of a mess for me..."

"If you'd like, I can talk to Jeffrey. I'll clear it up so that it's all out in the open and so he knows what's going on..."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it."

"I'll head over there in a bit..."

"Okay, thank you. It means a lot to me."

"I shouldn't ask, but is there a reason?" he had to wonder. "I know you're hanging out more, but that can't be the only reason."

"Well..." she sighed. "I already told Jeffrey. But Lindsey, if I tell you, please, keep it a secret. You can't tell anybody, especially not Stevie..."

"It sounds pretty serious... What's going on?"

"I'm pregnant."

"How?" he said utterly shocked to say the least.

"Really? That's your response?"

"Well, I mean..." he sighed.

"It's Jeffrey's baby. That's why you can't tell Stevie..."