Rayna's phone rang. She knew it would be him. Him as in Deacon.
"Hey Ray, well here I am out of rehab. I'm ready to start over. I'm becoming a new man." Deacon said confidently over the phone.
"Great, I'm really happy for you." She said in a scared tone. She couldn't tell him about Teddy over the phone. "Do you wanna maybe meet up and get some coffee?"
"Yeah sure Ray. That sounds great. Starbucks in 30?" Deacon asked happily.
"See you then." Rayna said and hung up the phone. Rayna, what in the hell have you gotten yourself into? Rayna thought closing her eyes. She was about to tell Deacon that she was done fighting for him and that she had met a new man.
Starbucks
Deacon sat in the chair holding his coffee in one hand and Rayna's in the other waiting for her to arrive.
"Rayna!" Deacon said hugging Rayna as she wore a fake smile.
She was happy to see him but not happy about telling him about what had happened while he had been in rehab.
"How you been? Fill me in on the latest. I've really missed you." Deacon said grabbing Rayna's hand.
"I've been good. A lot has happened since you got in rehab."
"Like what?"
"Well um..." Rayna said looking at the ground while Deacon was waiting to hear what she was going to say. "I um met a man named Teddy, he's a really nice guy."
"Great. I should meet him some time." Deacon said.
Rayna was stairing at him hoping he would realize what was going on so she wouldn't have to say anything.
Deacon was looking at her and then his smile turned into an angry look. "Oh no." Deacon said looking angry.
"Deacon, he's a really good guy." Rayna said scared.
"I don't care what the hell he is!" Deacon said raising his voice. "You are really saying this to me when I have a whole new chapter of my life coming up where I'm going to be sober and hoping to be with you."
"Deacon why don't you understand-"
"Why don't I understand? You really expected me to understand and react like oh cool so happy for you Rayna and your new boyfriend!"
"I just don't know anymore"
"Ray, you know what you want but your too damn stubborn to admit it. You don't want him."
"1st of all you don't know him and 2nd of all I do too want him."
"Well Rayna don't be callin' me up at 2am telling me you miss me because I'm not going through another damn relationship with you." Deacon said storming out of Starbucks leaving Rayna with tears in her eyes. Is this what I want? Do I really want Teddy? Rayna thought to herself.
Two weeks later
"Deacon! What the hell were you doing on that stage you were acting like I was the devil." Rayna said waiting for Deacon to answer but he was just looking at his shores
"Deacon! Talk to me!" She said raising her voice.
"There's nothing to talk about." Deacon said not making eye-contact with her.
"Actually there is a lot to talk about."
"Like what?"
"Um maybe why you left Starbucks two weeks ago."
"What? Did you really just ask me that? Maybe because the woman I loved just said that she was seeing someone else after I apologized for screwing up."
"Deacon, it isn't easy for me either."
"Rayna, what do you want?"
"What do you mean what do I want?"
"What do you want? Do you wanna be with the man that loves you more than anything in the world or be with a man that your gonna regret being with 10 years from now?"
"All my friends say your not good for me-"
"Damn it Rayna! Did I just ask what your friends thought? Because they don't know a thing about us! I asked what you wanted! You gotta stop listening to your friends and start listening to your heart."
Rayna remained speechless.
"Well alright then. Next time don't be telling me you wanna talk and then not even speak." Deacon said storming out of her dressing room.
The next day
"Hello?" Rayna said as she picked up her phone.
"Hey it's me."
"Hey Teddy whatcha doing?"
"On a plane." Teddy said sounding excited.
"To where?"
"To the next Rayna Jaymes show!"
"I'm going to have to call you back." Rayna said feeling dizzy.
Teddy wasn't the country music type and had never listened to Rayna's music nor did he know about Deacon and his long history with his girlfriend, Rayna.
Oh no, Teddy and Deacon meeting each other. Rayna thought to herself. She was going to need to clear things up with Deacon tonight before having Deacon meet him.
30 minutes later
Rayna stood infront of Deacon's hotel room going over what she was going to say until she heard his guitar strumming and his singing, he was writing.
"Your listening to your friends and not listening to yourself, why? And Your getting me begging for you to not go to him and come back to me now you leavin me cryin." He sang. "No, no that sounded like crap." He said to himself.
He continued strumming and heard a knock. He got up and opened the door.
"Hey can I come in?" She said politely.
"I don't think that's a good-. Sure."
"Thank you."
"You want some pizza or anything?"
"No I'm fine."
"I know your 'I'm hungry' look." Deacon smirked.
Rayna smiled, "pizza sounds good."
Rayna watched Deacon as he cut the pizza slice and took the olives off.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Taking the olives off. You hate olives."
"Last time I saw olives on my pizza was when we went to that restaraunt like 6 years ago. How'd you remember?"
"Well you can't forget a loud scream." He smiled.
"It wasn't that loud." Rayna smirked.
"I heard you when I was in the bathroom." They both laughed.
"Here's one pizza with no olives Miss Jaymes." Deacon handed her a piece of pizza.
"Thank you Mr. Claybourne." She smiled at him.
Rayna liked how they were communicating, he was acting as if they had never fought yesterday. She wanted to keep it that way but she did have to tell him about Teddy coming.
"Hey Deacon, Teddy is coming to my show tomorrow and flying in sometime tonight."
Deacon looked at her unsure of what to say.
"Why do you like him?" Deacon blurted out.
"Because he's nice and stable and-"
"I could be nice and stable." Deacon interrupted.
"Deacon, it's just-" Rayna started to talk but Deacon interrupted again but instead with a kiss. After a couple of seconds she broke away. "Deacon we need to talk-" "Rayna! I'm done talking." He kissed her again. They were quickly interrupted by Rayna's phone. Rayna was actually glad that her phone rang because if there had not been an interruption they probably wouldn't have stopped kissing.
"Hello?" Rayna said as she was so surprised with the situation.
"I'm in the lobby of the hotel. Where are you?" Teddy said urgently
"Um I am in my uh hotel room. I will be there in one second."
She quickly hung up the phone.
"Well I am guessing that was your boyfriend." Deacon glanced at her for a moment.
"Um yeah, it was. Well I guess I will see you tomorrow." She said as he nodded.
"Thanks...for the pizza, it was good." She said as she closed the door to his hotel room. 'Thanks for the pizza, it was good.' I sound like an idiot. She thought as she walked down the hallway into the elevator.
"Lobby," she whispered to herself as she clicked the button, "close door." As the door was closing she saw a familiar looking hand go in between the doors. And there he was again.
"Don't do this Ray," Deacon said looking at her.
"Do what? Go down the elevator to see my boyfriend?" Rayna said as the elevator dinged for the lobby. But right before the door was about to open Deacon kicked the close door button with his cowboy boot as he kept his eyes on hers. He punched the penthouse button and said,
"yep, I don't want you with the wrong guy." He said leaning in kissing her as they went up to the penthouse.
"Deacon, not now. I can't." Rayna said looking at him.
"Why not?"
"Because I have a boyfriend."
"Alright." He said smiling.
Why was he smiling? Why is he fine with me saying no? She thought to herself.
"I'm a bit surprised that you responded smiling." She said as the elevator dinged for the penthouse and while he pushed the lobby button for her.
"It's because your answer." He said as she stood confused. "You didn't say 'because I don't want to'. You said 'because I have a boyfriend', which means that if you didn't have a boyfriend you would be up there with me. So that means that one day I will have you, I will get you back." Deacon said watching the elevator numbers go down.
What Deacon said was confusing but true. If she didn't have a boyfriend she would be making out with him right now. Even though she said all the things about how she didn't want him because she was afraid of him losing his sobriety again was a load of crap and she knew it.
"Bye Deac," She said walking out of the elevator into the lobby.
"Hey Teddy!" She said smiling as he picked her up and hugged her.
"Hey um I heard something and I wanted to talk to you about it." Teddy said with a serious face. "I heard about this guy...uh Deacon is his name I believe and there were rumors that y'all are dating."
"Well I dated him for a while and stopped dating him before I even met you." She said uneasily.
"Well isn't it good that you met me?" Teddy said smiling.
"Yep, sure is," she said faking a smiling as they walked into the elevator with the man she didn't love.