After he plated the omelet, leaning back against the kitchen counter, Steve pulled off the apron he donned to shield his black suit and tie and took his harp out of his pocket, getting a little choo-choo train going while the coffee brewed. It crossed his mind he was on his way to a funeral –maybe he ought to be playing something more subdued– but the shower still had him on cloud nine and wanting to spoil his wife.
Armed with a tray holding two cups of coffee, the omelet plate, two forks, and the yellow rose he bought from the florist two doors down, Steve backed his way into the bedroom through the partially open door.
"Soup's on, Sweetness…"
Seeing Kayla perched on the edge of the bed, wearing her black dress and readers and more focused on whatever document she had on her lap than on the fact he'd entered the room, Steve set the tray on the dresser, then quietly crept up behind her on the bed.
"Boo!"
When he blew in her hair — startling her enough to get her swearing and the papers flying out of her hand — turning around and taking her glasses off, Kayla started hitting at him, getting him laughing and dodging her.
"Hey, okay! Okay, uncle!" Steve protested until she finally let up, and he got up to get their breakfast.
"Can't believe after all this time I can still get you with that old gag."
"Get me what?" Kayla asked, reaching for some coffee after Steve set the tray down. "Scared of you?"
"What would you call you just jumping a foot away from me, Sweetness?"
"I'd call it my being distracted and you startling me out of it."
"You're just swapping words out now, baby. Still saying the same thing, though."
"Me being startled by you isn't the same as being scared of you, Steve. Which is something I've never been, by the way," she said as Steve sat back down on the bed, then took the coffee mug from her and set it on the tray.
"What the-"
"More eggs and less coffee, baby."
"Steve!"
"Look, when you don't eat, you don't think right, and right now, what you're saying? I can tell you're not thinking right," he scoffed, divvying up the omelet with his fork before Kayla put her hand on his wrist.
"Sweetness-"
"I am thinking just fine, Steve," she said gently but firmly.
"I've been scared for you for just about half my life, and I admit you know how to scare me. Better than anyone. But I've never been scared of you."
Hearing some agitation creeping into her voice, Steve sighed, wishing he'd held his tongue.
"Sweetness-"
"I mean, I can't believe after all this time that you'd-"
"Baby, let's just change the subject-"
"No, I want to know what brought this on," Kayla said stubbornly, only to get a stubborn look back.
"I'll eat if you talk," she offered as Steve shrugged but spoke after a beat, prompting her to cut into her half of the omelet.
"I mean, we're off to bury the Big Greek, baby. You're sitting here, reading his love letters to your mama-"
"How'd-"
Following his eye to the envelope on the rug, Kayla swallowed hard.
"You had me saying out loud the other day that we got together because Kiriakis sent me after you. You're seeing things all romantic, being respectful. You're being my Sweetness," Steve smiled before his face went serious again.
"And I'll pay my respects, too, baby. I'll be at that church for Maggie and Dimples and your mama and because Beauregard can't be. But…"
"What?"
"I can't go waxing romantical about a bad fucking dude who hired a dude who was even worse than him."
"Steve-"
"Victor could've hired anyone to follow you around, Kayla. But his finding out I did such a good job of it," he scoffed, shaking his head.
"The operative word being job, Steve," Kayla said as he rolled his eyes, reaching for the yellow rose.
"The first time you got one of these from me, baby-"
"Shh, shh, shh. Stop now, just stop."
Taking the rose from him, Kayla set it on the tray, then reached for and squeezed his hand.
"I can't say you weren't good at what you did, that I wasn't completely rattled and scared off by the phone call and the break-in. But like you told me yourself after everything came out, you didn't know me!"
"I knew how much I freaked you out, Sweetness," Steve said roughly.
"Well, if you know that, I guess it's only fair you know this, too," Kayla said as he looked at her curiously.
"Know what, baby?"
"That what freaked me out the most when it came to you was how hard and fast and fully and completely I fell for you, Steve. That I'd never been that attracted to or that wildly drawn to anyone else. Before or since."
Lightly laughing, Steve reached over with his hand not twined with Kayla's to hold her face.
"You think I didn't pick up what you were putting down back then, baby? I knew how you felt about me. Even if you didn't say it, those pretty eyes of yours…"
When her hand moved to cover the back of his, his smile went softer, sadder.
"I just wanted to keep seeing that look from you, Sweetness. I didn't want you to know that I'd-"
"I know," Kayla said, swallowing back a lump in her throat to do so.
"Ringing in the new year with you, carrying that secret around."
"Til that rock got thrown through the window," she recalled before she bit her lip and bowed her head.
"Kayla?" Steve asked as she took a breath, then met his gaze again.
"If it hadn't, though, Steve. If I hadn't read the file they messengered me that night, would you have told me?"
"I don't know, baby," Steve said after a beat. "You'd earned the right to know what I was about and hear it all from me. But telling you after all that time, knowing all it was gonna do was hurt the both of us, change things for us-"
His voice trailing off when Kayla started staring into her half-empty coffee cup, Steve frowned.
"Sweetness?"
When she still didn't hear him, frown deepening, he reached over and touched her shoulder. Startling her again, only this time, instead of hitting at him, Kayla stammered out an apology.
"Baby, what are you apologizing for-"
"Nothing, just. Here I was rushing us out the door before, and now I'm asking all these questions, holding us up."
"Kayla…"
"No, c'mon. We should really get going."
When she got to her feet and moved to grab the tray, Steve stood up and gently took her by the shoulders.
"What? I'll just clear this and-"
"Baby, leave the tray. What happened just now?" he asked as she bit her lip.
"Sweetness-"
"I'm fine, Steve. Really."
Seeing from the look in his eye that he was unconvinced, Kayla sighed and ran her hand through her hair in frustration.
"I just…if I'd known this memorial was going to dredge all this up for the both of us, I'd have just sent a condolence card instead," she scoffed, sniffing back tears as Steve's hand moved to thumb one off her cheek.
"Baby…"
"I mean, all this time, I thought you'd moved past this part of our history because I had. But clearly-"
"I have, Kayla," Steve cut in. "I have moved past it," he said firmly, taking hold of her face and looking her square in the eye.
"I know I'm sounding the opposite, all tortured and torn up over that part of my past, but that's just 'cause it's all top of mind right now."
"You're sure about that?"
"I'm sure, Sweetness," he assured as Kayla sniffled, pulling him into a hug.
"You know I need you to be. Right?"
Rubbing her back, Steve frowned at her words.
"Need me to...what are you trying to say, baby?"
Pulling back slightly, Kayla looked up, looking Steve square in the eye.
"The fact that we worked through everything back then. What you did, how I felt, how you felt about yourself for making me feel that way-"
"In other words, our twisted origin story?" he scoffed but regretted his words as soon as he heard them.
"Baby, I-"
"Don't apologize. You're not wrong. As starts go, ours wasn't exactly normal. But, the fact we worked through everything then proved that we could get through anything, Steve."
"Sweetness."
"At least it proved it to me. I thought the same thing, though, went for- "
"Shh, hey." Reaching for her hands, he brought them to his lips to kiss.
"You thought right, Kayla."
"You're sure?"
"Am I sure? Of course, I'm sure, baby," Steve said, pulling Kayla into a hug as she wrapped her arms around him tight, pressing her lips to his shoulder.
"You've always been the smart one, Sweetness," he said as she rolled her eyes.
"Not smart enough to leave ten minutes ago to try and beat the traffic, though."
Reluctantly stepping away from her husband, Kayla ducked into the bathroom again for one last mirror check.
"We'll just leave in another ten, baby," Steve suggested. Eyeing, then picking up the envelope and letter off the rug, he set the former on the desk before skimming the contents of the latter.
"We sneak in late, grab a pew in the back; it'll just make it easier for us to sneak out."
"Sneak out and do what?" Kayla asked. "Wait in our car to join the funeral procession?"
"We've done more in the Bluesmobile than wait, Sweetness," Steve smirked as Kayla walked out of the bathroom, looking at him in disbelief.
"If you're suggesting that we…in the parking lot of a church…"
"I was just stating a fact, baby!" Steve laughed, setting the letter on the desk before grabbing Kayla's sweater.
Helping her into it, trying to help the process of them getting out the door along, he grabbed the breakfast tray before they made their way to the front.
"You're the one whose mind went right to-"
"Yeah, well, it didn't get there by itself. And there's no way I'd even consider-"
"So hang on, you were fine parking outside your family's pub but not-"
"A funeral attendant comes over and puts a flag on your car, Steve!" Kayla interjected as Steve laughed, setting the tray and dishes in the kitchen sink.
"We'd just be asking to get caught. In front of half of Salem who no doubt is already at this thing and-"
"Okay, take it easy, Sweetness," Steve said. "You start taking my half-teasing you that serious, we're gonna have some problems," he said as Kayla rolled her eyes, then put on her shoes only to swear and slip them back off.
"Like you making me so crazy I forget my purse?"
"Like that, baby," Steve laughed as Kayla cut back over to the bedroom, grabbing her purse off the back of the desk chair and the letter off the desk. Folding it back into the opened envelope, she tucked it into her bag, then looked over her shoulder before opening the desk drawer.
Retrieving another envelope, this one unopened, staring down at it, swallowing hard, Kayla folded it into the purse as well, doing her best to ignore the shaking in her hands as she did so.
"Sweetness?"
"Be right there," Kayla said, sniffing back tears before slamming the desk drawer shut.
