Deacon
Deacon sat in the pickup line at Longhorne Academy waiting for Daphne and Jake to come out the doors. He found himself thinking back to the day that him and Rayna had came to the school when her stalker had shown up and tried to give Daphne a note. No matter how hard he tried, everything came back to thoughts about his beautiful wife that was tragically taken from him. His phone buzzed and he looked down to see a text from Jessie asking if burgers from The Pharmacy were okay for dinner. He replied telling her that was fine but in reality all he really wanted was to split a can of spaghetti in his run down apartment by the Nashville airport circa 1989 with the love of his life. As he thought about the irony that he now lived in Belle Meade without his Belle Meade Beauty, tears formed in his eyes but he was drawn from his thoughts by the truck door opening and Daphne saying, "Hey Dad." Jake was more talkative than usual and he told them about a new rap he was working on as Deacon drove them to East Nashville.
Deacon knew that Jessie was much more emotionally invested than he was. To be honest, he wasn't even sure she would have turned his head during the "Teddy years" or the "Luke months" but here he was, trying to get on with his life after losing his best friend, muse, lover, partner and mother of his children. She had started hinting that it was time for him to take off his wedding ring. He wasn't sure that that day would ever come and he didn't expect it to be because a woman had requested it. She had also told him she loved him one night after sex but he pretended he had dozed off to avoid addressing it. He loved one woman and it was not Jessie Caine.
Scarlett and Gunnar has decided to try things again after realizing the tragedy that can come with true love if you wait too long and seemed to have a healthy adult relationship this time. The Last Highways were getting some air time on the radio and there was buzz around them throughout the country music world. Allanah and her ex were back together, Will had started texting Kevin and they were on the mend and even more importantly, Juliette had came to her senses and had came home. Her and Avery were in counseling and it seemed they were on the right track as well. Maddie, although still signed to her parent's beloved Highway 65 Records, was making a name for herself in the pop world. Jessie and Brad were on better terms and his relationship with Jake was the best it had ever been. Daphne had won Nashville's Next Star and had convinced Deacon to let her work on her EP.
Maddie was still dating Jonah Ford and she was accompanying him for some dates in Europe. As they pulled up to Jessie's house, Deacon's phone rang. Upon seeing it was Maddie, he answered and said, "Hey, sweet girl. What's up?" Maddie began telling him about an Irish group that her and Jonah had saw perform the night before. She ended up begging him to fly to Dublin to watch their next performance. It had been years since he had been in Ireland and he would do anything to make his little girl happy even if she was 19 and not so little anymore. He knew Daphne would love to spend time with Scarlett while he was away.
Arrangements were made while they ate their burgers and of course, Scarlett was excited to keep Daphne. Jessie acted a little hurt that he hadn't asked her to keep Daphne but he didn't feel like they were to that level in their relationship. Daphne had loved Scarlett's fairy like persona most of her life and it was an extra bonus that they were now cousins. Deacon would fly from BNA to LaGuardia then on to Dublin the next day, which was on a Tuesday. The Irish group, The Shamrockers, were performing on Wednesday.
Abby
Abby knew she needed to get away for a little while after her mom passed away. She needed to go to Dublin for herself, for her mom and to have time to evaluate her relationship with Buck. She knew Buck was more emotionally involved than she was. She had had the great love story with Tommy and wasn't sure she could have that with anyone else. She still felt upset that someone who claimed to love her, didn't understand the challenges of Alzheimer's and had essentially made her choose between her mother and him. She was with Tommy for 5 years and thought that he would eventually propose. That day never happened and ultimately, they broke up. The day they broke up, she went home, opened a bottle of white wine and cried. She thought she had cried her last tear when she turned on the tv to the 11 o'clock news to hear the breaking story that country singer Rayna Jaymes had passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident involving a Nashville police car. Abby broke down again because Tommy had always joked she looked liked the common man's Rayna. Abby was more rock than country but she had always been told she looked like the beautiful star so it upset her tremendously that she had been taken from her daughters and husband. The pressures of being a first responder were always in the back of her mind and it seemed paralyzing that the singer had been rescued by police and then hit by a truck. Being a 9-1-1 dispatcher and taking care of her ailing mother became Abby's life for the next year.
Then, she met Buck and they began their phone relationship. Eventually, it moved into a physical relationship and she had to admit sex with a much younger guy was satisfying. Her mother continued to get worse and her angered intensified, but Buck was there for all of it. She knew him and Nurse Carla were a godsend. The real question was whether it was just a fling or if she had real feelings for Buck. She hoped she could sort it all out during her visit to Dublin.
Arrangements were made and she would fly from LAX to Dublin on a Tuesday. Buck was amazing even though she could tell it was breaking his heart. Ironically, as she boarded the plane and put in her eye buds, Rayna Jaymes' "Already Gone" came on as she clicked shuffle. She had downloaded Rayna's full catalog on Spotify after her death but hadn't listened to any of the songs in months.
Deacon
Upon landing in Dublin, Deacon was busying himself with getting his luggage and making sure he had a taxi ready to take him to the hotel. When he looked up, he saw her. She was walking past him wearing an oversized sweater, baggy jeans and tennis shoes. She stopped within feet of him and pulled her phone from her purse. Deacon's heart began to race and he was sure he was in a desert oasis as she had to be a mirage. Without even seeing her face, he knew she was the second most beautiful woman he had ever saw in his life. He had only saw one other woman on Earth have hair that beautiful and although it was a little messier and maybe a little more blonde than red, he couldn't help but smile. The woman answered her phone, told the caller that she had safely landed and would call them back soon. She dropped her phone back in her bag and looked around the airport. Deacon could hardly breathe as he saw the woman's face. If you removed the pink framed eyeglasses, switched out the baggy clothes and tennis shoes for designer rhinestone attire and cowboy boots, placed a stunning diamond ring on her finger and added some waves to her hair, this woman was the spitting image of Rayna Jaymes!