Lindsey thought she was going to explode from anger towards him, but he witnessed no such thing, she was calm and collected. And very beautiful. She always had been in his eyes, but she wasn't that girl anymore, she was a woman now. Her figure was flawless, her hair only longer, her full lips just as tempting and those brown eyes still as innocent.
"Mom, could you give us a little privacy?" Stevie handed Amber over to her mother.
"Absolutely, sweetheart." Barbara nodded and left the room with the little girl, who kept her eyes on Lindsey the whole time until she couldn't see him any more.
"She's precious, Stevie..." He said after a moment of uncomfortable silence.
"And you didn't want her."
"I didn't think the time was right."
"And is it now?"
"I've moved back here."
"That doesn't really concern me."
"Don't be like that, Stevie."
"What did you have in mind coming here? Please, out with it and you can leave and I can go get ready for tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow?"
"I work at a school. Not that it's any of your business." She added, crossing her legs.
"I do care about you."
"Do you now..."
"You teach?"
"Yes, what else can I do? That's what I've been trained for. But of course, it's nowhere as exciting as your rock star career!"
"Stevie, I admit it that I was stupid and naive. I'm sorry things went the wrong way."
"So, you came here for your back up plan?" She shot him a look of disbelief. "You do realize that if not my mother, you wouldn't be sitting here and you would have never ever met Amber?"
"How can you be so cruel?"
"I'm being cruel!" That was enough for her to raise her voice at him. "Lindsey, you left me, one month pregnant with your baby! You ran away, you coward!"
"I am a coward, you're right." Up to the last minute he hoped they would manage to have a conversation and not an argument.
"Yes, you are. And this is so convenient for you, right? Amber will be turning three in August, she doesn't wake up every hour during the night, she's got her teeth, she's walking, she's being a little kid now and not a baby, so all the hard work is done and you're here to enjoy the ride?"
"No, Stevie, you're mistaken. I came back because like I told you then, I'm nothing without you and I trully understood that once I was on my own in another city, trying something that was too hard for me alone, and I needed you. I failed, simple as that. And it made me realize how wrong I was not to choose you."
"You needed me? What about what I needed? Lindsey, I was six months pregnant when I turned eighteen. I was a child myself, I couldn't take care of myself let alone a small innocent baby. I would stay up late into the night and think that maybe what I'm doing is wrong? Maybe I'm not fit to be a mother just yet, maybe bringing our baby into the world would only mean that a piece of you would always be with me? Maybe I was being selfish? My parents never once suggested abortion, but whenever I wasn't feeling too good, when I was tired or when I spent hours hugging the toilet, I didn't go to them, I didn't want to seem weak, I didn't want them to think I couldn't do it. Lindsey, I had nobody. Being pregnant with Amber has been the absolute hardest thing I've ever done and you're sitting here, telling me you needed me!"
"There's no excuse for what I've done, I understand." He shrugged, not being able to find anything else to say to her. "I'm just... I'm sorry."
"I don't need your apologies, Lindsey. I needed you and you weren't there."
"I want to make it up to you, Steves."
"You don't get to call me that and how exactly would that go? What, you're going to get me pregnant again and stick around for this one?"
"If you don't want me..."
"If? You things there's an IF?"
Lindsey took a few deep breaths and tried again. "You don't want me. But please, I'm begging you to let me be a part of Amber's life. She's my daughter as much as she's yours, whether you like it or not."
"Don't you think you lost the right to call yourself her father when you left me standing alone and terrified of what's to come?"
"But I want to change that, Stevie. I want to prove to you that I'm a different man and I can take care of a child."
"I feel like it's too little, too late."
"Stevie, please."
"You didn't listen to me when I asked you the same."
"Can't you at least give me a chance?"
She was silent, having a debate with herself. Of course she wanted Amber to have a father, but she was hurt too badly by Lindsey's actions in the past, but maybe that's why it's called the past? What if he honestly changed?
"You can visit again tomorrow, by then I will have had some time to think."
"You don't know how much this means to me." He reached for her hand and she didn't recoil from his touch.
She still loved him.
