In Your Corner
Chapter 9
"Juliette will you take this ring, will you take all the love it brings…..I'm dead set on being with you until the end of time, so take this ring and…..good lord, I just need this song to rhyme!"
Avery threw down his guitar in frustration. On the drive home from his parents he was so sure he had the perfect plan to ask for Juliette's hand in marriage. He was a brilliant songwriter and producer, right? He was just going to whip up a love song for his future bride, simple as that.
But, as he was discovering, it wasn't exactly easy to craft a song as proposal bait.
Days of spark-less songs turned to weeks, and he decided that it was time to seek professional help.
"Mr. Barkley, you in here?" A distinct southern drawl echoed through the hotel room.
"Yep, I'm set up here." Avery replied, standing up to great Deacon as he took his legendary guitar out of the case, "Thanks for coming over, Deacon, I'm just so stuck, I think having someone's input will be good you know."
"Totally." Deacon laughed, "Believe me, we've all been there. And I know your usual writing partner can't really help you out on this one, so I'm happy to be of service."
The men sat down and started haphazardly strumming.
"So what do you want to say to her?"
"I want to ask her to marry me." Avery bluntly replied, blinking like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What do you really want to say?"
Avery leaned back into the couch, groaning. "That's the thing, when you write you're supposed to draw on your personal experiences, but there's just so much to say, I don't know what to do!"
"Well dig deep, my friend, this is a big deal." Deacon laughed, trying to lighten the mood. But when he saw Avery's eyes grow wide he knew he said something wrong.
"Well I mean, not a huge deal but...Avery, are you worried that Juliette is gonna say no?"
The younger guitarist shook his head, "No, it's not that. I'm worried that whatever I do won't be perfect enough for her. She is perfect to me, and she's had such a shitty family life thus far, I want to give her a perfect life and the perfect family and this is the first thing that needs to be perfect-"
"Alright, a few too many 'perfects' in there for me, my friend." Deacon smiled.
"If I can't even get this right how am I supposed to be her husband-"
"Listen here, Avery, now you know how much I love music, but once you try to make it a problem-fixer, something that does too much….you lose the magic."
Avery nodded in acceptance for what Deacon said. The elder guitarist patted his friend on the back, "But you just showed yourself there, and I think you got your song."
Juliette threw her papers down in understanding, "So, show tonight at 8, you do your set, we do "Wrong Song" and then I do a set. Sounds great."
A few seconds passed that allowed Rayna and Juliette to gather their belongings and head out of the arena back to the hotel.
"So, do you think Avery is going to propose soon?" Rayna replied out of the blue.
Juliette almost spilled her coffee, "Excuse me?"
"I mean you two have been going strong for a while now, you know, haven't you talked about it?"
"I think he may be ready to ask me to go steady real soon!" Juliette fired back at Rayna's nagging, fixing her hair haphazardly.
The exec rolled her eyes, "Sorry for being curious!"
"I don't know." She replied honestly, "Truth is, we haven't talked about it at all. But I think he's been hinting at it the last few weeks. I have no idea what to do."
"Juliette, are you scared about getting married to Avery?"
The younger singer shook her head, "No, it's not that. I'm scared that I won't be a good enough wife to him. He is perfect to me, and he's been through so much with his family thus far, I want to be able to be the perfect family he deserves and knowing it's going to happen soon is making me so anxious."
"Girl." Rayna drawled out with a smile, "Since when has Juliette Barnes ever been anxious about anything?"
Juliette managed to crack a smile under her reserved facade, "Is that a bitchy way of telling me to just be myself?"
Rayna was already headed out the door and chuckled, "See you on the stage tonight!"
And it may as well have been a three foot room.
Because the only one in my view was you.
The funny thing about that night
Is that I already had someone at my side. But….
All the noise and all the faces just went away when you turned around and
Your smile made me feel like I'd lost my footing on solid ground and
I should have known it then
But everything got better when
Our shoulders met.
Good thing I don't care much about numbers cause
There ain't enough to count our flaws
Some say one plus one equals two but
It adds up to infinity when I'm with you
I smile when you're near and I still refuse.
To take my hand off that bruise cause
It's a memory that nature kept
No pictures, no words, no names….except
All the noise and all the faces just went away when you turned around and
Your smile made me feel like I'd lost my footing on solid ground and
I should have known it then
But everything got better when
Our shoulders met.
And with the final strum Avery smiled at Deacon, "It's perfect, man."
"Well it sure is, I think you nailed it."
"God, I hope she loves it." Avery exhaled, putting his guitar on the couch gently.
Deacon stood up, "No doubt in my mind, the message is clear; because of you, my life got better. It's a beautiful tune."
"Thanks again, Deacon." Avery smiled, "I was in such a rut."
"Love will do that to you, huh?" He smiled and headed towards the door, "I better get back to my room and get ready for the show tonight, I'll see you on stage, brother."
As soon as Deacon went to leave, the hotel room door opened as if by magic.
Juliette, who had just returned from her pre-show meeting with Rayna, had appeared. With two sets of eyes on her, she looked both confused and ambushed, "Well, hey there."
"Well if it isn't the boss herself, I'll be ready for the show I promise you that." Deacon confessed with a smile, "Just doing some writing with your ball and chain."
She softened, "I trust you, you know that. It's him I don't trust." Juliette nodded her head over towards Avery, "You stealing my guitarist, huh?"
Deacon shuffled through the door jokingly, "I'll let the power couple sort this out, see y'all later."
"I prefer borrowing." Avery replied with a cocky smile once they were alone.
Juliette promptly fell on the couch where Avery had re-taken his seat and cuddled into his side, "I love being back on tour but I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."
Gently kissing her forehead, he couldn't help but grin, "You see way too much of me so I'll take that as a compliment."
"Mhmm," she relished in his touch, "So what were you and Deacon up to?"
Avery chuckled internally. If anyone could switch gears that quickly to get to the bottom of something, it was Juliette Barnes.
"Just writing like he said. We work really well together."
"Oh I don't doubt that." Juliette assured him, "You two are great. But why do you or him need to write when you're in the band of one of the world's greatest pop country artist?"
"Well…." Avery drawled out, "First of all, he's not in your band, he's just visiting. And second, it was nothing, just passing time before the show. He had some things he wanted to-"
"So you weren't writing a song for me?" She inquired, looking straight at her boyfriend, who instantly flinched.
"What?"
"I don't know, we normally write together so…."
"Damn it!" Avery groaned. Anytime he tried to hide something from Juliette she found out anyway.
"Wait so you did write a song for me." Juliette smiled, sitting up in front of him like a dog.
"Yes, fine." Avery replied, annoyed.
"Ah, that's so sweet, Avery." She patted his chest, Rayna's words from earlier echoing in her mind.
"Don't think too much into it, okay, it's almost our two year anniversary and-"
"Oh that's it?" She pried, biting her lip.
He bit his lip back. This girl was going to be the death of him, "Yep, that's it."
"Whatever you say, babe," she kissed him quickly and walked away into their room to get ready. "Hope it's got a good ring to it!"
Avery collapsed on the couch with a grunt. He should have known this wasn't going to be easy. The song was great, no doubt about it. He could still sing it and make her cry and move her to say 'yes' like Plan A was supposed to be executed. But like he confided in Deacon earlier, she deserved to be blown away in what was going to be chapter one in the rest of their lives together.
Four weeks later, Juliette's tour returned to Nashville for a small performance at the Ryman with Rayna.
"The air is just fresher here." Juliette exclaimed, walking hand-in-hand with her boyfriend into the back of the auditorium.
"Well, it certainly feels like home." Avery answered, bringing their joined hands up to his mouth to press a quick kiss to hers.
"I just love doing the show here every year."
"They've certainly been iconic." Avery laughed, remembering her "suck it Jeff Fordham" moment two years ago.
"Now that I think about it, that was the best day of my life."
Avery shrugged, able to agree with the career-defining moment, "I was so proud watching you up there, babe. To anyone else your career would've been over, but "Don't Put Dirt-"
"Wait, what?"
"Two years ago, when you sang "Don't Put Dirt on my Grave" at the Opry…" he frowned looking at her.
"I was talking about three years ago." Juliette replied.
It took Avery an instant to remember, and a smile magically appeared on his face. Juliette, watching her boyfriend's face light up at the mention of that day, smiled back.
"The day we first met." He whispered.
"And I thought you were the romantic one."
"Shut up and come here." He laughed, hugging his girl tight and kissing her.
Avery was in shock that she actually remembered. Unbenownst to Juliette, he did too of course. But he didn't want to reveal his hand too soon, he didn't want to reveal that today while three years ago was the best day of his life….it would soon be replaced by today.
Ten minutes after show time, Juliette strutted down the concourse feeling powerful and confident. Amongst the hustle and bustle of post-show backstage, she saw Avery walking towards her. Unlike three years ago, they caught each other's eyes from far away. Unlike three years ago, they smiled at each other like a couple furiously in love. But quite similar to three years ago, Avery walked right into Juliette's left shoulder.
"Nice one." Juliette laughed, noticing a black item fall onto the ground. Thinking it was a stack of guitar picks, she picked it up. The instant her fingers touched the fallen thing, her heart dropped. It was a velvet box.
"Avery…." She drawled out, turning around to get an explanation from her boyfriend, but in her shock, she didn't see him right away. Her head cocked down and tears immediately filled her eyes. Everyone who had filled the concourse moments ago had vanished except one man with long, black hair, down on one knee in front of her.
"Hey, Jules." He greeted her nonchalantly like they were just meeting for coffee.
"You're….you're not going to ask me to help find your house keys again are you?" She exhaled while hysterically crying. She could not believe this was happening.
"Nah, not this time." He smiled back.
"Okay." she prepared herself.
"Juliette, this is a proposal." He started off, "And a proposal is a formal plan put forward for consideration."
"Thanks, yoda." She rolled her tear-filled eyes jokingly.
"Hey, bear with me here." He laughed, "Anyway, I could stand-well, kneel here and tell you how much I love you, how happy you make me, but you already know that. What you don't know is that I plan on becoming your husband, and spending every single day for the rest of my life right by your side, no matter what, what do you say?"
Juliette shook her head up and down, unable to get the words out immediately. It was perfect, he was perfect.
"I say yes." She muttered once he had risen from his post.
"Yes?" He was crying now.
"Yes."
Avery engulfed her in a hug, pressing kiss after kiss on her face, "I love you, babe."
"I love you too." She said as she watched the man of her dreams slide a gorgeous ring down her finger.
A/N: Hey guys! I feel like this story has basically been about Javery's road to proposal, so I hope you enjoyed the payoff. It was certainly a pleasure to write after eight chapters (and knowing the current state of Javery on TV). This may be the end, I don't really know where to take it, but I've been known to resurrect stories so who knows. Thanks a lot everyone -Bettakappa
