Some of this was inspired by a video my daughter found online called "Riding in the Backseat" by the Stellas. We LOVE that song, and that video, if you haven't seen it, go look it up on youtube. If you have kids, bet you will be teary-eyed by the time you're done

The Tuesday night shuffle.

"Hurry," Deacon kept saying. "C'mon we don't wanna be late or Teddy will never let me hear the end of it."

Picking Maddie up from soccer practice at the field by her school didn't pose too much of a problem because he had done that before. Finding this studio downtown for the ballet lesson was another, and of course they got lost, but Daphne scooted through the doors with 3 minutes to spare.

Whew now he could breathe again.

"What are we supposed to do now?" He asked Maddie.

Maddie shrugged. "Mom usually stands around and talks with the other moms. When it's Dad's turn he drops Daphne off and comes back."

Deacon looked around at the throng of women standing around staring at them and whispering behind their hands, no doubt wondering what Deacon Claybourne was doing with Rayna Jaymes and the Mayor Conrad's daughters, and ready to start a whole new round of rumors and fuel for the tabloids. He got recognized all the time and it hardly bothered him, but suddenly it was different now, having the girls with him. He didn't know how Rayna dealt with it, the press always in her face. He was starting to understand a lot more lately why she'd freaked out so badly about Maddie and her video.

"Well we're not leaving and coming back. I hardly found my way the first time."

They ended up taking a walk through the neighborhood. Picked up some sandwiches from a street vendor, went into a vintage music store so Maddie could pick out a few albums she wanted. She had recently found an old record player in Rayna's basement, and he got a kick out of hearing her play those old vinyls. Sure as hell was better than all the digital download crap that seemed to be the thing with kids these days.

He always cherished these times alone with her, knowing how damn fast she was growing up.

"You know, I get my learner's permit in a few months," Maddie said as they walked. "In the fall."

Deacon stopped dead in his tracks. "Really?"

"Yup. Maybe you and mom can take me out driving."

That was a terrifying thought. Both having a kid on the road and Rayna teaching that kid to drive. She'd always been the epitome of a distracted driver, trying to take business calls and put on her lipstick and steer all at the same time.

"You better let me take care of that," he said with a smirk. "Your mom has a driver for a reason. And she would be the first to admit that."

Maddie laughed. "She's so funny, isn't she? I love her so much."

He slung his arm around her shoulders as they walked. "Me too."

In the backseat of his truck on the way back to Teddy's he noticed in the rearview mirror that the girls were restlessly jabbing at each other.

"You ask him," Maddie whispered, jostling her younger sister with an elbow.

"No, you ask him," Daphne said, not as good at whispering, and elbowing Maddie right back. "He's YOUR dad."

"How about you both just ask me whatever it is and quit pokin' at each other," Deacon said, amused.

Maddie looked uncomfortable.

"Are you and Mom going to get married?" Daphne blurted out.

Well that wasn't the question he'd been expecting, and it threw him off guard completely. He and Rayna had talked about having the "seeing each other" conversation with the girls at the end of the month when she got her next break on the tour, but it hadn't been done yet. And he and Rayna hadn't even gotten back to that "other conversation" themselves yet, the one that started with wedding plans. It lingered there always in the back of his mind.

He knew Rayna was leery about how it was all going to come off to the press, her breaking it off with Wheeler and then suddenly showing up engaged to someone else. He knew that was the biggest reason she wasn't wearing that ring. He hated that she even had to worry about it. He just wanted it on her finger, so they could officially call themselves a family once and for all. But still patiently he waited.

"Uh…why would you….think that?"

"We know you're dating."

Deacon scrambled for the right words, wishing she was here. Because Ray always knew the right thing to say, and this was the absolute last conversation he wanted to screw up. "How did you guys…"

"Paperwork." Maddie said, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"The other night at the house you said you were there for paperwork."

"Yup."

"You didn't have any papers with you. "

Damn, they were good at paying attention. He tucked that little piece of information away in his mind. Note to self: kids don't miss a damn thing. He'd best remember that in the future.

"And besides," Maddie added. "I heard Mom and Aunt Tandy talking. Did you ask her?"

"Ask her what?"

The girls both looked at him exasperatedly.

He would never understand how womens' minds worked, no matter how old they were. Were you just supposed to guess what they were thinking every time?

"To marry you." Maddie said pointedly.

"How would you feel about that?" Deacon said cautiously. "If I did?"

"Are you kidding? It would be the best thing ever," his daughter said without hesitation.

"Yep." Daphne said echoed. "Best thing ever."

He hid a smile. "I'll keep that in mind."

He wished more than anything Rayna could be listening to that conversation right now, and it made him miss her so bad his chest hurt.

Wished she could be there listening to them talk about dresses and flowers and cakes.

He texted her. I'm gonna call you. Don't say anything. Just listen.

##################

Rayna was sitting in the makeup chair, getting her glam on for the night's show when her text message alert went off. She glanced down at her phone, mystified when she read the message.

"Can you give me a few minutes alone?" She waved off the hair and makeup people. "I need to make a call."

They obliged, leaving her alone in the room as she waited impatiently.

Her phone rang a few minutes later.

Deacon had the speakerphone on.

She could hear Maddie and Daphne giggling in the background and going on and on about getting their hair done, and all the famous celebrities that would be invited to something, and then they started arguing about what color dresses they wanted. Apparently Maddie wanted purple, and Daphne wanted yellow.

Deacon turned off the speakerphone and put it back to his ear.

"I miss them. What in the world are they doing?" Rayna asked with a laugh. "Planning their first CMA win?"

"Uh, I guess they're planning a wedding," he said, unable to keep the smile out of his voice. "Ours. See somehow they got this crazy idea in their heads that I wanted to marry you…"

1600 miles away in a backstage room in Tucson, Rayna couldn't hold back the tears that rolled down her face.

"That doesn't sound so crazy at all," she said softly. His low laughter on the other end of the phone made her miss him something awful. "Guess we're officially not a secret anymore huh?"

"Nope. They're way ahead of us. So much for all that talk about being discreet and them adjusting to the idea."

She laughed. "Stop worrying so much. They love you. You know that. How did the Tuesday shuffle go?"

"It went good. We managed," he said, feeling pretty damn proud of himself. "I got this."

"I never doubted for a second. I gotta go, though. Hug them for me, okay? And tell them I'll call tomorrow."

"Yup."

"Hey, I love you."

"Love you too, darlin."

He hung up the phone and glanced in the rearview mirror.

"Oooo, turn it up," Daphne said excitedly as one of their favorite songs came on the radio.

It wasn't anyone Deacon knew, it wasn't even his kind of music, but he obliged and cranked it up anyway.

Pretty soon they were singing out loud, heads bobbing, arms waving, backseat dancing. They were happy. Two beautiful, sweet, girls who had been put through the wringer more than once over the last two years, and still they came out of it singing. They were tough. Just like their mama. He could see so much of her in both of them, their pretty eyes, their lovely smiles.

Funny how you could look in a rearview mirror and see the rest of your life ahead.

He'd have made that drive last forever if Rayna was on the seat next to him.

Deacon turned up the radio another notch and settled for a few extra right turns instead. Just to hear them sing a little longer.

######################

3 months later….

It had been a busy summer. Rayna had only a little time at home, and then two months of finishing up the tour with Maddie and Daphne along for the ride keeping her on her toes, and Deacon meeting up with them whenever he could between his own shows and busy schedule. Crazy busy, but fun. Rayna loved having the girls with her, exploring new places in all the fabulous cities the tour hit. And she definitely felt more on top of her game knowing they were here.

But the girls were spending the month before school started with Teddy now. That was the arrangement she'd gotten him to agree to in exchange for letting them come on the tour. So she had zeroed everything off the calendar for the next 30 days, and told Bucky he better not come looking for her unless someone was dead or kidnapped. Business and press engagements and all that be damned. Tandy could take care of it. Her sister owed her.

Deacon had done the same.

So they were going to the cabin for a month. It was the first time Rayna had been there since Maddie's whole video scandal. It was the first time they'd been there "together" in 16 years. That gave them an awful lot of time to remember how they'd fallen in love with each other in the first place. Writing, playing, loving just being together. She couldn't wait. This beat touring and press engagements any day.

"Ready?" Deacon asked as he threw his duffle bag in the back of the truck next to several grocery bags, an amp and no less than three guitar cases.

"Yup." Rayna said, making sure the front door was locked, and double checking her purse for her keys and phone. "Let's hit the road, Babe."

He looked at the array of suitcases on her front steps. Five suitcases and two smaller carry on bags, to be exact. "You're not really takin' all this, are you?"

"It's a month," Rayna protested. "I might need all this stuff. You're only bringing one bag? For a month?"

In his last few months of spending so much time with the girls and her on tour, he had learned in a hurry there was an awful lot of stuff women "might" need and 90 percent of the time it never came out of the suitcase.

He just shook his head with a smile and sighed, and started loading her stuff into the back of the truck.

"Be careful!" Rayna said. "That one has all my shoes in it."

He knew before they even left the city limits, her high heeled sandals would be on the floor of the truck and her bare feet would be on his dashboard, and she'd hardly put on another pair of shoes for the next month. But he put the bag in anyway.

She was leaning against the truck, sunglasses on, fingers flying over the screen of her phone, as she waited for him.

Amused, he took it out of her hand, and stuck it in her purse.

"We're locking that in the truck for a month, remember? You promised."

He pulled her in by the waist for a kiss.

"Oh I remember," she murmured, smiling against his mouth as her arms went around his neck. "If we start this now, we're never gonna get there. I seemed to remember how good we used to be at turning that hour long drive into a four hour one. All those dead end roads and park n ride lots…you were a terrible influence."

"Oh, we'll get there," he said between kisses. "Eventually. Might have to make a few stops, but we'll get there. I'm not in a hurry. Just glad you're here. With me."

"Me too."

"And you really didn't need all those bags, you know."

Rayna put her hands on her hips. "Oh, and why not? You callin' me a diva?"

"Nope. Cuz we both know you're not gonna spend much time wearing clothes anyway,"

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh really? You think so."

"Yep."

And she kissed him this time, so long and thoroughly that he considered digging through her purse for the keys and unlocking the front door before they gave the neighbors any more of a show.

Abruptly, she backed away from him and opened the door to get into the truck. "Alright, let's go."

"Shame on you," he said. "It's a long drive, and now you got me all bothered."

"You love it," she said with a laugh.

He did, and she knew he did.

###################################

"You know this is where it happened," she said as they sat on the porch later that evening watching the sun set over the lake, him on the top step, her on the second step between his knees. "Maddie, I mean. Here at the cabin. I know it hurts you that you don't remember…."

"I know. I figured it out…later." Deacon wrapped his arms around her from behind and buried his face in the waves of her hair. "Can't dwell on it, though. You happy?"

"Yeah," she said without hesitation. "Happiest I've ever been."

"Me too." He murmured.

She had wanted to ask him something for awhile.

When she'd called the day after that disastrous concert when Maddie's paternity had come out to ask if Megan had seen him, she had no idea they'd broken up. Her only concern was Maddie and the stupid tabloids. "Did he say anything about going to the cabin?"

"The cabin? What cabin?

All those months and Megan hadn't even known he had a cabin.

"All those years….all the women you dated…."

Funny how he could always read her thoughts before she even could turn them into words.

"No. I never brought anyone else up here," he said. "Didn't seem right. Nobody else ever belonged here except us."

She nodded at that realization. No wonder he'd gotten so upset when she showed up with Luke.

He'd bought the cabin when she got her first CMA nomination. They'd christened practically every inch of the place before it had one piece of furniture. Except for that Eternity sign. That had been the first thing to go into the cabin. She'd bought it at a yard sale one day on the way up. It was "their" place, supposed to be their dream to fix it up, have a place to escape from the city and the business and the craziness. A place to escape with the family they were gonna have some day.

Only she'd gotten the family, and he'd gotten this cabin with nobody to put in it but himself.

"You know, I only brought Luke with me that day because I was scared. Not of you, but of…if you were okay." She said tentatively.

"I know. It's alright, Ray. I'd like to bring the girls sometime soon though, if you think that would be okay. Could be fun. Fishing and canoeing and stuff. I think they'd like it up here."

"Could be," she said with a teasing smile. "You always seemed to be talking about canoeing and we never get around to it." She stood up and tugged him gently by the hand and they fell onto the porch swing together with her across his lap, mouths finding each other, kisses slow and sweet as honey. There was no need to hurry. They had the rest of their lives.

She had marveled from the very first day they were back together how easy it was to melt back into his arms like she had never left. It felt like coming home.

He smiled against her mouth. "That's cuz you're a distraction."

"Bet I can find other ways to distract you."

"Right out here on this front porch? In front of god and the squirrels?"

"Yep." She laughed breathlessly as she leaned over him and unbuttoned the top three buttons of her sleeveless blouse.

Deacon's hand reached out and caught the chain that was always present hanging from her neck. Two tiny charms were there, one with a D and one with an M. Near her heart always. And now something else was there too that hadn't been before today. His ring.

His fingers traced the silver band that had survived so much.

"I could get you a better one," he said softly. "You know if you wanted something…better."

She shook her head. "I'd rather have a ring that means something any day than some giant diamond weighing down my hand."

The meaning behind that wasn't lost on him. I'd rather have you.

He wished he could find the right words to say all the crazy emotions going through his head and his heart at that moment.

But she didn't need words. She knew, just by the look in his eyes. He had always worn his heart in his eyes for her. And she had never been able to hide anything from him either. He knew her better than she knew herself sometimes.

Rayna reached up behind her neck and undid the clasp, and it dropped into his hands.

"I told you I wanted to wait for the right moment," she whispered. "I can't think of a better place than this, can you? This is where our family started."

His eyes burned as he unthreaded it from the chain, found her hand and slid it onto her finger.

"I love you, Ray. More than anything in the whole world," he whispered. "You know that, right? We're gonna get it right this time. You and me and those girls of ours."

"I think we already got it right, Babe," she said with a smile as she laid her head against his chest. "Now we're just getting it perfect."

##################################

29.5 days later

Rayna dropped her bag on the floor by the front door and checked her phone for the 15th time since they'd hit the Nashville city limits and Deacon had let her have it back.

"Tandy picked Maddie and Daphne up from Teddy's for me. She say they're on the way," she said, anxious for the girls to get home. "Should be here in a little while."

She couldn't wait to tell them.

"Sounds great. I miss em." Deacon said as he collapsed on her couch with his feet up.

He looked at home. In her home. She loved that.

"Me too. Like crazy. But it was nice, wasn't it?" she said with a smile. "Us getting to spend all that time alone?"

"Sure was. Your nose is sunburned," he said.

Rayna winced. "Yeah, well, that's not the only part of me that's sunburned."

"Well darlin' jumping out of the canoe to go skinny dipping was your idea as I recall, not mine."

"We should probably just get rid of that canoe. It never seems to make it very far."

Laughing, Deacon pulled her down on his lap on the sofa and kissed her like crazy.

Neither one of them heard the front door open.

And then Deacon heard Tandy's voice. "Ahem."

They both looked up to find Tandy standing in the kitchen archway with Maddie and Daphne staring open-mouthed.

Tandy clapped her hands over Daphne's eyes.

"Jeez, you guys," Maddie said with all the disgust of a teenager who never wants to see her parents with their tongues in each other's mouths. Sure she was happy they were together, but it was still….gross.

"Well," Tandy said, unable to hide a laugh. "I think I'll just leave y'all to your family time, and we can talk business tomorrow? Have a great night. All of you." She gave a wave and was out the door.

Daphne didn't even care, she practically flew across the room and crash landed herself on the couch in between them. "I missed you guys so much, I have so many things to tell you-."

Rayna hugged her tightly. "Missed both of you, sweet girl. I want to hear all about your trip to the Bahamas with Daddy. But we have some things to tell you too."

Maddie couldn't resist, and she zeroed in for some hugs of her own from both of her parents, dropping the teenage attitude for once. "The islands were so beautiful. We got to take hula lessons and go to a luau."

Daphne, being the sharp little tack that she was, picked up her mom's hand. "Did you get a new ring? It's pretty."

Deacon met Rayna's eyes over their heads. I guess it's now or never.

"I gave it to her," he said.

Maddie's eyes got huge as she remembered the conversation they'd had a long time ago in her dad's truck. "Are you guys getting married?"

"Yes," Rayna said, unable to keep the smile off of her face. "As long as it's okay with the two of you. What would you think about that?"

"Are you kidding?" Daphne rolled her eyes. "We told Deacon it was okay a long time ago. We've been waiting forever!"

She looked over at him in surprise. "You asked them? You never told me that. I just assumed…."

"Course I did," he replied. "You're a package deal, right?"

She reached over and took his hand, and his fingers squeezed hers in return.

"If you guys are going to start making out again, I'm leaving." Maddie announced.

They both laughed.

"You better get used to it," Deacon said to his daughter. "Because that's what people do when they love each other."

Maddie rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help grinning from ear to ear.

And Rayna couldn't get the silly grin off of her face either.

She thought about the way the proposal from Luke had been, so crazy, in front of all those people, no discussing anyone else's reaction first. And Deacon's words in this very kitchen, which came back to her often, and left her with a lingering smile. You and me, Ray. That's how it's supposed to be. Maddie, and Daphne, and you and me. Him asking the girls for their approval was just one more confirmation that she'd made the right decision.

Not that there had ever been any doubt.

###############

Maddie was the first one awake the next morning, always an early riser, while her mom and Daphne would stay in bed until someone dragged them out by force if they could. She walked downstairs humming softly to herself, and the first thing she noticed was Deacon's boots and her mom's bare feet hanging off the end of the couch.

She tiptoed around the corner, and found them asleep on the couch together. Her mom's eyes were closed and a blissful smile was on her face, her head on Deacon's shoulder as he slept too. They looked so cute and peaceful like that, all tangled up together. Papers from a night of writing songs were scattered all over, a delivery box with a half eaten pizza was on the coffee table, and Deacon's favorite guitar was leaning nearby.

This was how it should be. All the time. Her dad's words from the night before would stay with her forever. That's what people do when they love each other.

Maddie snapped a pic with her phone. Just so she could look at it whenever she wanted and remember what real love was supposed to look like. Just in case she ever had a doubt, even though she didn't think she would. And then she went into the kitchen to make her mom and dad some coffee, humming the little tune she'd been working on for a few days now.

You put the stars back in my eyes….