I Think I'm in Trouble {Reimagined}

CXIX.

As the next couple weeks swooped in, Jeffrey's birthday, November 15th, would have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

Just as Lindsey had predicted, the arrival of that day certainly had her down, the days leading to his birthday were causing dread for the day to come. But the guitarist had control over that situation. In fact, the day of her son's birthday, Wednesday morning, he distracted Stevie with what she believed to be impromptu plans for that same weekend, so it kept her on her toes.

It was nearly two full days of her scrambling around the house, just enough to keep her occupied rather than running herself into the ground with all of her thoughts and emotions surrounding what would have been her son's 27th birthday. By Thursday night, she was excited to be taking off that Friday morning with him.

By even just that point in time, everybody was getting back into yet another routine; Robert had moved in full time with Kristen, Grace and Nicholas were going out regularly, Damon and Shannon were comfortable while Stevie and Lindsey were simply just coexisting around everybody and their daily routine. Although upon the fall semester ending for Shannon since she had accelerated classes---she was finally able to babysit again for her mom and Lindsey.

Especially that time around since the guitarist had previously asked her to for the sake of their weekend.

"Steph, are you ready?" Lindsey rolled her suitcase into the entry way as he opened the front door, glancing at his watch.

"Wait, wait, wait---" she yelled, coming down the stairs with her daughters on her trail as she rummaged through her purse.

Shannon was toting Lily as she listened to all of her mother's lengthy instructions about anything and everything having to do with the baby.

"I'm trying to talk here, just hold on," she gestured with her hand, turning back to continue her conversation with her oldest daughter.

"To what, darling?" he smirked in response, leaning on the chair in the entry way.

"Your horses, I'm tryna give Shannon some tips on getting Lily to eat and sleep regularly."

"I wanna get going..." he mentioned, lifting his brow. "It's not rocket science."

"Yeah, mom, seriously---I know what to do. She's with her big sister, she's fine," Shannon assured. "I know this is your first-ish time being away from her, but chill out."

"I'm telling you, you really need to keep her on schedule, otherwise she will keep you up all night and sleep all day. I don't wanna come back home to a jacked up schedule," she pleaded. "Especially not since family will be here this coming week."

"Mom, I got it..." she whined. "Just go already."

Stevie rolled her eyes.

"Steph, it's only a couple of days... Not even," he shrugged. "We'll be back Sunday night."

It had certainly been a while since she packed to go anywhere, naturally it felt like she was going to be gone for months at a time, but she had kept reminding herself it was only the weekend. And of course when that still didn't register, Lindsey was also a constant reminder.

"Everything's grand. I know to call my dad if I really can't get ahold of you nor if you can't make it here in time if one of these emergencies you think might happen... Damon's gonna get Nick from Grace's after work, we're all gonna be here. Door stays open if Grace comes over. The baby's schedule is on the fridge---sha-la-la, sha-la-la," she rolled her eyes. "Just enjoy your weekend---forget you even have kids."

She sighed, finally finding a bit of content once Shannon restated some of the instructions she kept reminding her of.

"Believe me, I listen to you when you talk," she explained, bouncing her sister on her hip.