A/N: Several reviewers of 'If Something Should Happen' asked for a story about Deacon and Haley, so this is the start of that. I'd love to know if you like the idea or not and, if you do, what you'd like to see. I know this won't be for everybody, but if you're open to it, we'll see how it goes. Future chapters depend on interest. Special thanks to Rachel Wilder for the encouragement.


Though nostalgia is fine
I respectfully decline
to spend my future living in the past

- No, Thank You by Don Henley

All the way home he berated himself. Kept pounding on the steering wheel. Damn! He couldn't stop playing it over and over again in his head. He thought what he had planned was on point. Maddie and Daphne had approved. He had made reservations for the second show at The Listening Room, dinner and a songwriters round. The perfect first date for songwriters, was what he thought. And it was. He had picked her up at her cozy little East Nashville bungalow. They had gone to the Frothy Monkey first for coffee and then walked to the venue. They had talked about songwriting and their careers, nothing particularly personal. And then he had taken her home. And, after walking her up to her front porch, he had shaken her hand.

He hit the steering wheel again. So lame. He could hear Daphne's voice telling him that. Not that he would tell his daughter about his date, but she would roll her eyes and be so disappointed, he knew. Of course, most of his first dates had been only dates. And most of them had ended in bed. He'd only had two serious girlfriends since he'd met Rayna, and neither of those relationships had ended well. He figured this little experiment was over, which was really too bad, because he liked Haley. She seemed like someone he could enjoy being with.


The next morning, he was drinking coffee when Daphne came downstairs. She went to the fridge and got out some yogurt and then sat down at the counter. "How was the date, Dad?" she asked.

He frowned. "I don't think it went as well as you were hoping," he said, knowing he sounded cranky.

"What did you do?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Why do you assume I did something?"

She smirked. "Because Haley seems perfectly lovely and normal and not like someone who'd screw up a date. So that's why." Then she shrugged. "And because it's been a while since you've been on a date."

He frowned. "Well, it looks like it'll be longer before I do it again." Just then his phone buzzed with a text. He looked over and his eyes widened in surprise. It was from Haley. Enjoyed our first date. Hope it won't be the last.

Daphne leaned towards him. "Is that from her?" she asked.

He picked up the phone and stuck it in his pocket, then frowned at her. "I don't have to tell you everything."

She sat back and smiled. "I bet she had a better time than you thought, huh?"

He rolled his eyes at her and turned back to the coffee maker. "Maybe," he said, not looking at her at all. Then he smiled to himself.


He took her out for a second time a week later. He made reservations at a quiet restaurant so they would have a chance to talk. She asked him to pick her up early, so he did.

He and Rayna had never really dated, in the strict sense of the word. He had kissed her the first time when he was still dating someone else and then the time they spent together was always after he gave her a guitar lesson or they wrote together or performed at the same open mic. Six months after he met her, her father kicked her out of the house, and she moved in with him.

As he had reminded himself, all his other first dates or one dates had usually ended up in bed. He didn't like to think that about himself, that he'd only been after sex, but the reality was that sex helped him forget, at least in the moment, that he didn't have Rayna.

But now Rayna really was gone and he wasn't just waiting for her anymore and, besides, it was time, as his daughters had told him and as he'd known himself. He had finally decided he was ready to try this relationship thing again. He really believed, deep in his heart, that it was what Rayna would want for him, not to wallow in it, not to live his life following a ghost. And he was lonely. He'd finally admitted that to himself and that was when he'd finally let himself be open to the idea of someone else.

So he stood on her porch, his heart pounding, thinking he sucked at this and that maybe he should just turn around and leave. But then he realized that would be impolite, to stand her up. And then he wondered why she had asked him to come early. Thirty minutes really wasn't enough time for sex. Or maybe it was. Seemed like that first time with Stacy, that was supposed to be lunch, turned into a quickie…pretty quick. He felt embarrassed when he thought about that, assuming it was all about sex. And then he considered that Maddie and Daphne would be embarrassed that he was just standing on this porch, acting like an idiot. So he reached out and knocked.

Haley opened the door, a smile on her face. "Hey, Deacon," she said. "Come on in." It made him a little nervous, but he did as she asked. He didn't want her to know he really wasn't good at dating.

He smiled back and walked in. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Kiss her? Hug her? The moment went on too long and so he did nothing, which he thought probably wasn't right either. He turned to look at her. "How's it going?" he asked and then he wanted a big hole to open up that he could just drop into.

She laughed. "Good. And you?"

He nodded. "Good."

She gestured towards a club chair in her living room. "Have a seat," she said. "Would you like some tea?"

He headed for the chair. "Yeah, tea would be great," he said, as he sat down. At least that felt like the right answer.

When she came back with the tea, she perched on the couch and set her glass on the coffee table. She leaned forward a little. "So, I'm guessing when we went out before that it was your first date since Rayna died," she said.

He swallowed hard. "How'd you know?" he asked, and then he shook his head. "I know. When I shook your hand."

She laughed. "Actually that part was fine. First dates are always so awkward anyway, it's hard to know what the right thing is to do at the end. But no, the reason I asked is that it just seemed like it might have been. A couple times when I looked at you I could see how conflicted you were." He felt bad then, that he'd been a bad date. She shook her head. "It's okay. It's always kind of hard to put yourself out there in the beginning, when a relationship ends. No matter how that happens."

He nodded then. "It is hard."

She looked down at her hands for a minute, then back up at him. "You know, I've lived in Nashville a long time and I certainly wasn't blind to what went on in this town. Everyone knew you and Rayna were meant to be together. And I know it had to have been devastating to lose her. And hard to get back out there." She smiled. "I enjoy your company and we can take things as slow as you like. I just wanted you to know that."

He sat forward in his chair and breathed out, rubbing his hands over his face. Then he looked up at her. "So it wasn't the worst first date you ever had?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Nope. What it was, was a perfectly awkward first date. Emphasis on perfect." She smiled. "I wouldn't have accepted a second date with you, or solicited one, in fact, if it had been the worst." She sat back then. "So, we've got a few minutes until we need to leave, so why don't you tell me all about your girls."


The second date definitely went better than the first. He told her about Maddie and Daphne, their music, the things they liked and didn't like. He told her about their Christmas trip to Florida, leaving out the reason why, and about the making of their duet album. She then talked to him about what she was working on and with whom, what songs had been selected by which artists, and about her path to songwriting. After her initial reference to Rayna, he had stayed away from that, as had she. Even though he had felt ready to step out into the dating world, he wasn't really ready to talk about Rayna.

He found out she was forty-five. They decided that, at fifty-three, their age difference was not significant. She told him about growing up in West Texas and her family – parents plus two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister. He gave her a very high level overview of his own family, focusing mostly on Scarlett. They compared notes about coming to Nashville – him when he was seventeen and her when she was thirty.

When he dropped her off this time, he hugged her at the door, and they made plans for the following weekend.