Ties That Bind

Chapter 32. Same Page

Having been on edge to finally meet his family, Lindsey waited till the morning of the funeral to travel the two hours to Escondido while also insisting that Stevie join him and of course, she couldn't refuse his pleas. The funeral would be taking place at noon so the young couple would head out a few hours in advance, not too knowing of how traffic would be. Fleetwood Mac would also join the funeral out of respect for their bandmate, though they had yet to see their lead guitarist since he did leave from tour.

In getting ready, early that morning, Stevie wore black---though to not seem overly dramatic and too in mourning, she wore her beige boots. It just wasn't her loss and she didn't want to seem as though she knew the man well because she didn't know him enough to be mourning heavily, but she was extremely sad for Lindsey and that made everything different. But on the other hand, Lindsey wore black on black because not only did he not really care of how he looked, he was extremely broken and grief-stricken by the loss of his father that nothing seemed to matter---only the fact that Stevie was there with him.

Stevie handled the drive there while Lindsey sat in the passenger side, taking in the the scenery of the drive blindly because he was more spaced out than anything.

"I appreciate you coming with me," he mentioned out of the steady silence.

Glancing over, she grinned gently. "I would apparently do anything for you," she assured---not too sure what to say.

His lips curled upward as he looked at her profile.

"But you're welcome..."

He kind of swiped her hair off her neck, just so he could see her face more. "You look different," he mentioned.

Bringing her eyes around once more to look at him, she easily brought them back to the road after a second. "I've not done anything different, Lindsey, but you've had a very fuzzy week," she patted his knee.

"No, there's just something different about you. It's not bad---you look great," he shrugged. "I mean, you always do, but you look really, a lot more beautiful than--" he stopped---shaking his head.

Laughing a little, "Thank you... Though, please be wise, and don't finish that sentence."

"I stopped because nothing I was going to say was gonna be good. But you look gorgeous," he simply concluded.

"Thank you," she sighed to herself---the butterflies starting up in her tummy due to his not knowing and her wanting to tell.

Hopefully having done well, she was wearing a mid-length black dress, just an inch or so below the knee---a loose sweater-like top over that---a burgundy scarf---a simple black overcoat to veil everything about her figure.

The nights that he did stay at his place, it was sort of a relief to her because she had yet to tell him anything. The last night, he did spend the night and she didn't sleep very well since she feared he would hold her in a way that he would feel her firm belly and start asking questions.

···

When they arrived to the memorial park, there was a small sea of people in black while more cars were approaching, but Lindsey was one of the first to arrive along with his brothers and mother.

Stevie would chat briefly and greet his family members that were familiar and she was as sweet as she could be to the rest of the people who weren't at all familiar, but Lindsey had kept her at his side enough that nobody bothered to ask who she was so it made it easier, but she was expecting there to be more questions when they got to the reception especially since Ruth was introducing her to random people.

Switching places, Lindsey drove to his aunt's house and he stayed pretty quiet during the drive there.

"Lindsey, I have something to tell you..." Stevie finally sighed---never sure of the right time.