Why Should It Matter?

23. Giving Thanks

"Do I have to?" Leelee questioned, looking back at Stevie as they approached the few steps of the house.

"Yes---we discussed this enough for you to understand it is the right thing to do. You may have your own reasons not to apologize in your head, but your mom can't see that. She can see that you lied and that's all, so you need to at least apologize for that," the older blonde trailed behind her, kind of urging and wanting to hear that the girl would apologize as she asked. She took the step up, however, to ring the doorbell.

"I have a key," Leelee mentioned.

"Right, but I don't. It's more polite this way especially since your mother doesn't really like me," she added, taking the step back so she was behind the teenager.

When the door opened, Kristen had confusion written in her face as she made eye contact with her child. "What's going on?" she asked, shifting her weight to lean against the doorframe.

To see Stevie and her daughter without Lindsey---she really didn't know what to expect at all.

"I just wanted to apologize for lying to you," Leelee mentioned first. "Dad never asked me to, I just did because I thought it was the right thing to do on his behalf, but I know it was wrong and I get why..." she finished, kind of avoiding eye contact.

"Well, I appreciate the apology," she opened her arms, relieved to hear that from the girl. "We can talk about this later, okay?"

Leelee nodded.

Kristen then kissed the side of her daughter's head and let the teen run off to her bedroom.

Stevie then kind of waved and made her way back to where Karen was waiting.

"Stevie?" Kristen called for her.

Turning back around, "Yeah?" she let off a silent sigh because she didn't want to really chat if they were going to argue.

"What was that about?" she asked, meeting her outside.

Stevie kind of shrugged. "Leelee wanted to talk to me so we met up for dinner. Weeks ago Lindsey told me the trouble you guys had with getting her to apologize... Since this is how things are falling and it's circling me, I figured I would get it out in the open for you guys. I didn't mean to get in the way if I did, but she was wrong and she needed to understand why."

"No, you didn't get in the way, in fact, I appreciate it. It's been a weird month and a half of her not speaking to me," Kristen added.

Stevie gave a short nod of understanding.

"Where's Lindsey? I'd like to tell him thanks," she added.

"He doesn't know I'm in town yet. Got here this morning and I wanted to talk to Leelee first---if he's not here, where would he be?" she questioned.

"Oh, he got his new condo," Kristen added, making contact with the woman again. "Thank you for talking to her..." she added.

"It was the least I could do," she assured. "I owe you a lot as does Lindsey, but... figured I start simple."

The other blonde kind of nodded.

"I'll see you," she waved before fully turning to finally leave. She got into the car and enclosed herself immediately. "Just drive away," she mentioned as she put her seat belt on.

"What was with you and her?" Karen asked. "You guys didn't look like you wanted to kill each other."

"On the contrary, she thanked me for getting Leelee to apologize," she pulled her phone out so she could text Lindsey. Had to delay my flight ~ finally on my way home now, she responded to one of his earlier in the day messages. "I explained why I did it..."