It's Not Easy

Are you staying?

It's been three weeks since I last saw my wife. We talk on the phone, although not every day. She seems to be awfully busy all the time. I talked to Stevie before bed last night, I didn't ask her if I could, I told her I'm coming to see her and she sounded absolutely fine with it, which made me feel better about this whole situation. I wanted to take Sara, Alex and Layla with me, but I doubt I would have managed that, so I called and my brother kindly agreed to look after them for a couple of days. 

I meet with Karen at the airport, we drive to the hotel Stevie's staying at to drop off my things and then she's taking me to see Stevie herself. She's already at the arena, it's soundcheck time, which means it's more than likely I will have to get through seeing Henley too. 

Karen walks me down the hallway and shows me the door, where I'll find Stevie, while she hurries to get somewhere quiet to answer her phone. I stop, debating whether I should knock or not. It's my wife that I'm about to see, but then again, I wouldn't want to walk in on anything...

I enter the room and I feel sick instantly, seeing as Don Henley is very comfortably sitting on the couch in Stevie's dressing room. I search for her eyes and she smiles widely, rushing over to me and gives me a big hug. I can't stop myself from tangling my fingers in her hair, drawing her lips to mine and kissing her like I haven't kissed her for years.

She steps back, looking slightly embarrassed I'd say. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Linds." She gives me one more brief kiss. From the corner of my eye I see the person that shouldn't be here annoyed by our public display of affection. Stevie looks at me, telling me with her eyes to do something I much rather wouldn't.

"It's been a while, Don." I take a step in his direction and we shake hands.

"Yeah, it really has." He says, standing up. I watch him walk over to Stevie, his hands settling on her sides in a little too familiar way and leans to kiss her on the cheek. "I'll see you later." She gives him a nod and he leaves us alone.

"How was the flight?" Stevie has my hand in hers and is taking me to sit on the couch.

"It was alright I suppose, lonely. It hit me that It's been forever since I last was on a plane without you."

"Oh poor you, nobody to fondle under the blanket."

I must say she looks a lot happier now than when she left home. I have too many questions, but I don't want to ruin the moment. "I wasn't going to fondle myself, you know..."

Her laugh sounds so good to me right now, her eyes shining, that smile never leaving her face. I'm telling myself she's like this because she missed performing and also we're finally together after three very long weeks. I try to push the man she almost had a baby with out of my mind, but it's proving to be a lot harder. 

"If you don't fall asleep too early, I'll do that for you tonight." She giggles like a naughty school girl.

"I wouldn't miss it."

"Well..."

"No." I point my finger at her. "Let's not go there, okay? I was stupid and I said I'm sorry about a hundred times."

"Just teasing you." 

"How's the tour going?"

"So good!" Her enthusiasm hits me right in my gut. "It's a lot of fun, I definitely missed doing this. I wouldn't exchanged our kids for this of course, but I do love performing."

"You're pretty good at that." 

"Pretty good?"

"Incredible."

"That's more like it." We share an unexpected kiss. I will do my best to stay up long enough tonight. "How are my babies? God, I missed them so much!"

"They missed you too, trust me. Instead of good morning, dad, I'm getting, where's mom, dad?"

"Oh, my sweethearts. It killed me to miss Sara's birthday. Was she angry with me?"

"No. She was upset you weren't there of course, but she's a smart kid, she understands. Layla is definitely taking it the worst, she's been sleeping in our bed with me the whole time."

"No..."

"Yeah. You have no idea how many times we've watched the Say You Will DVD. She gets so excited seeing you."

"This just got really hard."  

"I'm sorry, I should have stopped at they miss you too."

"Are you staying for the show or going back to wait at the hotel?"

"Does Henley hang around for your set?"

"Lindsey..."

"I will, of course I'll stay." I bring her hand to my lips to show that I'm just kidding. Not really, but...

"Good. It's hair and make up time for me in a few though." I also just realized, Stevie was completely make up free around Don, which tells me she's very comfortable around the man.

"It's no problem, I'll just sit here quietly."

She smiles and gives me a kiss. "I'm glad to have you here."

"Happy to be here."

~

I stood in dark corner, from where I could see the stage and everything that was happening around me, but not necessarily everyone could spot me, I didn't want to be bothered. The whole show went fine, I didn't care much for Don's set and Stevie was fantastic as usual. The very last song was sung by both of them, Leather and Lace of course. It hurt me watching the scene unfold, I hated when she went behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, then when they held each other after it ended. But what hurt me the most was what happened after they disappeared backstage, obviously oblivious to me standing a few steps aside. 

We ordered room service when we returned to Stevie's hotel room. She eats, but I can't, thinking about what I witnessed earlier. She looks up at me after swallowing a mouthful. "You're not going to eat?" I shake my head. "Why?"

"I saw you and Don kiss."