Chapter 1 || A New Beginning
They had all gone out to dinner to Deacon's favorite diner. They often went for breakfast whenever their mom was at work and it was up to Deacon to feed them, but tonight they were there celebrating the fact that they were all available in the evening for once. He had only been living with them for three days and it had been a huge adjustment for Daphne, but the more she saw her mom happy with the man she had known her entire life the more she knew that change was the best thing for them.
She and Deacon were sitting opposite her mom and Maddie. Her older sister and mom were arguing while the others sat silently looking over the menu only sharing glances when the other two would take a short thirty seconds to breathe before one would pick up the argument all over again.
"Any idea what they're fightin' over this time?" Deacon asked in a whisper and Daphne shrugged. They only fought over two things these days Colt and her impending music career. Tonight she could care less about what the topic was about. She wasn't feeling the best and while she knew it wasn't as major as what he was going through, she still didn't want to speak up about it.
"Can we order?" She finally spoke up breaking the bickering up across the table with her tired but annoyed voice. "Seriously, you two are exhausting." The eleven year old felt whiny and quickly ducked her head towards the menu as the three of them.
"You okay, Daph?" Rayna asked noticing how pale Daphne looked. Looking over at Deacon she watched as her partner slowly raised his hand to her cheeks and forehead. She smiled softly at the gesture knowing how much Deacon loved her girls.
"You're burnin' up darlin'." He said softly and Rayna's heart sank hating when any of her loved ones was sick. "Why don't we get you home." He suggested and Daphne quickly shook her head.
"I'm fine. I'm just hungry and tired. Let's just order, please." Daphne requested and Rayna just nodded motioning for the waitress so that they could get their order in.
They sat in mostly silence as they waited for their food to arrive, Rayna and Deacon made light conversation with each other while the girls sort of relaxed in their presence. The longer they sat the worse Daphne felt, she was tired and restless and the longer she sat the more she wanted to lay her head down. Before she could say anything, Deacon was nudging her arm before gesturing for her to lean into him and before she even thought about it her body was moving towards his and her head resting at his shoulder.
Deacon's heart about burst and if he had read her correctly by the look in her eyes, Rayna's did too. It had been a weird transition from going from band mates to enemies to lovers and everything in between over the years. He had been in the girl's lives since he got out of rehab and found Rayna married to Teddy and Maddie in her arms. Years later he knew that Maddie was his own flesh and blood and he loved Daphne as if she was too. It hadn't been easy though, nothing was easy with a past like his and Rayna's and a cancer diagnosis he had never wanted the girls to hurt over. Yet knowing that Daphne trusted him enough to rest against him? It meant the world to him.
He let her slowly eat her soup like that while he ate his dinner until he felt her go slack against him. Looking down with a smile he saw her sleeping peacefully, not a care in the world for the rest of the diner and finally giving in to the exhaustion that had been written all over her face. Carefully he brushed his lips over her head just enough for her to know he was there for her but unknowingly of the photo that was being taken across the table.
And that was the first photo to be added to Maddie's collection of Daphne and Deacon sleeping.
Hello! This is basically word vomit because the inspiration randomly hit me but I'm excited to develop little stories like this over the next x many chapters. Hope you enjoy!