"Hey sleepyhead," Deacon sat at the edge of the bedwith coffee in one hand and toast on a plate in the other. "You should get up. The girls are gonna be here in an hour."
"I can't move," Rayna mumbled, her face muffled by the pillow.
"That was some Christmas party you threw last night, that's for sure," he said with a smirk as he set the cup and plate on the nightstand nearby.
She rolled over, feeling like death warmed twice over, and peered up at him. "Why the hell did you let me drink all that champagne."
"I think you can blame that one on Sadie," he said, his eyes laughing at her. "She's the one who got you dancing on the bar."
Rayna's face went pale. "I did not."
"Yeah, darlin. You sure did. You were having so much fun, I didn't want to ruin it."
"Video?"
"I'm sure it exists somewhere. The sight of the two of you singing "Santa Baby" was too good for anyone to resist."
"Oh my god," she sat up too fast, and her head swam. "Next year," she said, wincing. "We're having the party in a church."
Deacon laughed and leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll start the shower. Eat your toast."
She pulled him in by the lapels of his denim shirt and kissed him hard on the mouth. "You take such good care of me."
His blue eyes were solemn. "You took care of me for a lot of years, Rayna. You deserve it."
Rayna pulled him backwards on the bed with her, and they just laid there in silence for awhile, all tangled up in each other's arms.
"Girls, remember? Shower?" he reminded, a hint of humor in his voice.
"Okay," she closed her eyes again. "In a sec."
Neither of them had moved ten minutes later.
It was hard these day for Rayna to tear herself away from this man's arms.
The last few week had been just heaven. Getting ready for Christmas coming in a few weeks, being at home in her H65 office making plans for the new year ahead. Being with him, and finally being off tour and home with the girls. It was a lot of craziness, and a little adjustment on all their parts. But it was good.
She had never felt as content, and as whole as she did now. And loved. She felt so loved.
"Sometimes I think this is all too perfect," she said softly.
"Not possible," he murmured.
"You know….," she sighed. "What if you hit the top of the mountain and there's nowhere else to go. What if you fall? What if this is too good…."
"It's not," Deacon said without hesitation. "You don't fall. You just find a bigger mountain and keep going higher. The clouds, remember? We're shooting for the clouds."
She leaned over and kissed him again, and laid her head against his chest, "You know, I think we could put that in a song. It's probably about time for another number one from us soon."
"Darlin, our whole life is a damn song," he said, his eyes only half-teasing. "I've been singing 'em for years."
"I've got a song for you." She raised her eyebrows suggestively. "It's something about a guy getting into my bed with his boots on."
His laugh, his smile just melted her every time. She'd seen Deacon Claybourne in a hell of a lot of states of his life, but happy was by far her favorite.
"We're down to 45 minutes on those girls, Ray."
"I guess we better hurry up then."
But both of their phones on the nightstand starting ringing at the same time.
"Ugh, Rayna grumbled. "Can we just ignore them?"
"Not when you're a big important label head, and not when I am currently without a tour," he said, handing hers over, and reluctantly climbing off the bed and going into the other room to take his own call.
When he came back a few minutes later, he heard Rayna vehemently saying "No way. I am not going and spilling my guts on some primetime news show. I'd rather keep my family out of the press, thank you. And it's Sunday. I'm not talking about work today. I'll see you at the office tomorrow, Buck."
She tossed the phone among the blankets, looking annoyed, and glanced over at Deacon.
"What was your call about?" She asked. "Better than mine, I hope."
"Uh, yeah," Deacon said slowly. "I guess….There's been a cancellation and they want me to play the Opry next Saturday night."
"That's amazing, Babe," she said with a smile. "You've played there lots of times. So…why do you look like surprised that they asked?"
"Yeah, I've played with you, or with the house band," he said, looking a little stunned. "I've never been asked to be the headliner."
'I'm so proud of you," she took his hand and pulled him down for a hug. "You know the girls and I will be there."
"Thanks, darlin," he was still trying to shake off the surprise. "What was your call about?"
She scowled. "The producers of News 360* want me to be a part of some….hour long prime time special about country music stars."
"Well hey, that's kind of a big deal too, right."
"It would be," she said with a sigh. "But I've had enough of my personal life in the public eye lately to last 20 years." The media from the breakup with Luke had reached a head and was finally dying down, but the big "why?" question was still popping up. Nobody was buying their lame grew-apart story. Especially since Luke had apparently already hit the celebrity dating trail hard.
"Is that what they're asking?" Deacon asked neutrally. "About us?"
"I'm not sure," Rayna admitted. "But I did them about 10 years ago and I'm guessing it's some kind of update show. There's a few other artists on it too, I think maybe only like 10 minutes on my part. I'm sure it'll be mostly questions about what happened with Luke."
"I see," he got real quiet. "Maybe it would be a good thing to set the record straight and end all the talk."
"Maybe," she murmured. "I'll think about it, I guess."
But now he looked more bothered about it than she did, tracing the ring on her hand with his thumb. They hadn't made any plans yet. She was cautious, and he didn't want to push her. He was mostly happy just figuring it all out together.
"What's up, Babe?"
Deacon shook his head slowly. "I don't want cameras following us all over either, but…It's been a few months now. I wanna be able to walk down the street and hold your hand. Or put my arm around you, or take you out to dinner and not worry about whose watching. And besides, I think not saying anything is just leading to more speculation."
"You're probably right," she admitted.
"Not to mention," he added. "After that party last night, I'm pretty sure the cat is out of the bag anyway. You got me under the mistletoe about five times. And besides I want you to wear that ring every day and not have to worry about taking it off when the press is around."
Rayna smiled, and squeezed his hand. "I want that to, I'm just…I don't want to start that whole cycle all over, you know? The girls lives are finally getting back to normal, there's finally not people hanging out of the trees in my front yard with cameras…."
He sighed. "I know. I just don't like feeling like we're some big dirty little secret."
"That's not what we are," she said softly. "You know that."
But she could tell what he was thinking.
The last time they'd been together, before the accident, it had been a secret. They hadn't lasted long enough to make it public. To this day, really the only people who knew they'd ever been back together two years ago were Bucky and Coleman.
"Hey," she said firmly. "We're not. You know that, right? Say you know that, Deacon."
"I know that," he conceded. "I know it's different this time."
She looked relieved. "Well, good. We'll figure out out. A good….moment or something."
But his eyes were still a little bit guarded. "Anyway, I got something I wanted to do today. With you and the girls. You up for it?" he said tentatively. "Like a….family thing."
"That sounds real nice," Rayna said with a smile. "What are we doing?"
"Oh you'll see. You're gonna love it, Ray. I can't wait."
#############################################
A few hours later, Rayna sat in the passenger seat of Deacon's truck, mystified, still having no idea what they were up to.
The girls were in the backseat, leaning against each other bundled up in thick parkas, gloves, and hats like they'd been instructed.
"Dad, I'm sweating bullets with all this stuff on," Maddie complained. "Are we almost there?"
"Where are we going anyway? Daphne asked. "To the cabin?"
"Nope," he said confidently. "Here we are."
Rayna looked at him like he'd gone crazy. "We're in the middle of nowhere, Deacon. Did I miss something? Are we lost?"
"Are we building an igloo?" Daphne asked happily. "Oh, I always wanted to do that!"
Rayna hid a smile. She could not lie, Daphne's excitement for everything was the sweetest thing ever. "Um…..Deacon? Are we building an igloo? Going for a…cold stroll in the woods? What exactly is happening here?"
"Rayna," he said impatiently. "Do you always gotta know everything before it happens?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "As a matter of fact, I do."
He leaned over and smacked a kiss on her mouth. "Live a little, Babe. And don't worry. We can huddle together for warmth."
"Stop," Maddie yelled from the backseat. "If you guys are gonna do that all afternoon, I'm staying in the truck."
"Well I think it's cute," Daphne said indignantly. "It just means they love each other, Maddie. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Of course," Maddie said. "But that's what rooms with closed doors are for. With locks."
Rayna rolled her eyes, and shot Deacon a laughing look. That poor daughter of theirs was going to hold that incident over their heads for the rest of her life.
He grinned.
Maddie still did not look impressed as they all piled out of his truck at the end of a snow covered service road.
"Seriously Deacon, what are we doing here? Isn't this trespassing?"
"We're chopping down a Christmas tree." He said without hesitation as he grabbed the axe out of the back of the truck. "And no it's not trespassing. It's Juliette's land. She said she doesn't care if we want to chop down 20 trees. And I happened to know there's a perfect bunch of pine trees not too far off this road."
Maddie's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding? Is that safe? You're not gonna make Mom do it, are you? She'd probably take her own foot off."
Rayna shot her daughter a look. "Excuse me?"
Daphne's face was instant glee, jumping up and down clapping. "Oh, this is even better than building an igloo!" The other two, not so much enthusiasm.
Rayna bit her bottom lip and hid a smile. "Uh….I mean this is great, but isn't this what the big lot in front of the Kroger is for?"
Deacon gave her a completely disgusted look. "Rayna. We are not buying an overpriced dried out tree from some guy in a parking lot. Now come on, let's go."
20 minutes later, as they were slogging through a foot of snow to find the perfect tree. Daphne was excited as Rayna had ever seen her, running ahead to point out deer and birds, and every tree she thought was "theirs."
Rayna, personally, was trying to be optimistic even though she was half frozen. She kicked herself for being such a diva and choosing the "pretty" boots over the sensible, up to her knees, super weather resistant ones Deacon had suggested. She burrowed her face farther into her coat and the scarf around her neck, and tucked her gloves hands into her pockets. The fact that she still had a champagne headache lingering didn't help much either.
Up ahead Daphne was yelling. "Mom, we found it! This is the perfect one!"
She ran back to her mom and sister and pointed to the tree. "Deacon says it's the right size, not too big and not too small. What do you think?"
"It looks great," Rayna agreed. "I think you picked the best one in the whole forest."
"Mom, I love him," Maddie said with utter seriousness, next to her. "But this is nuts. I can't feel my toes. Can't we just go back to the truck and let those two do it since they're so gung-ho about it."
"No," Rayna said firmly. "He really wants to do this with us, Maddie. Let's try to have fun, okay?"
Maddie continued to grumble. "This is like something out of a bad 80s christmas movie. I don't know why I can't just have a normal family."
Deacon was standing next to that tree waiting for their approval, and he looked so damn happy, it almost brought tears to Rayna's eyes as the reality of how important this was to him hit home. She turned to her attitude-laden teenage daughter.
"Do you see that smile on your dad's face?" she said somberly.
Maddie instantly looked guilty.
"Deacon never got to do this, Maddie. With you. With us. With anyone."
"Well, I'm sure when he was a kid-."
"No," Rayna said quietly. "He didn't."
Maddie's scowl faded as she watched her dad messing around with Daphne, throwing snowballs at each other. She didn't know anything about what his life had been like when he was a kid, because he didn't like to talk about it, and her mom didn't think she was old enough to know. But she knew it hadn't been too good.
"Now I know you're cold, and I know this whole thing is just….well, it's a little crazy," Rayna admitted with a smile. "But it means a lot to him. More than you know."
"I'm sorry, Mom." Maddie said with utmost sincerity. "I'll stop complaining."
"Thank you."
Rayna watched with a full heart as Maddie scooped up a handful of snow and ran ahead to aim it in her sister's direction.
"Hey, come and play in the snow with us, Mom!" Daphne yelled, flopping down on her back and making a snow angel.
"No, no, I'm good right here," Rayna said with a smile, holding up her cell phone to take pictures. "I'd rather just watch you guys."
Deacon picked up a snowball.
"Come on, Rayna, put that damn phone away."
"I'm just taking a few pics," she protested.
"You are not. You're looking at your messages. Not allowed. How the hell do you even get reception out here?"
"Mom," Daphne giggled. "You better listen, he's gonna get you."
Maddie was also stifling a giggle.
"Just a sec," Rayna said, looking down at her phone. "I just have to-."
An instant later she felt a snowball splatter against her back.
Slowly she turned, zipped the phone back in her pocket, and faced them, her hands on her hips.
"He did it!" The girls pointed.
He raised his eyebrows. "Traitors."
"Oh, you're in for it now," Rayna said firmly. "Girls against boys!"
"Hey that's not fair, there's only one boy!"
"I know. Get him, ladies!"
They called it a truce after all three of them tackled him and dumped handfuls of icy snow down his neck.
Later on, after the snowball throwing was over, after they'd chopped down the tree and dragged it out of the woods, after they were on the way home with the girls passed out asleep in the backseat, the sun going down behind them, on the road home again, Rayna sat in the passenger seat and just watched him. Thinking.
He reached over and squeezed her hand. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
"It was a good day," she said, squeezing his hand back. "Something the girls will always remember."
"It was, wasn't it?" He said, unable to keep the grin off his face he'd pretty much been wearing all day. This was what he'd always wanted. This was what family was supposed to be about. "Is that it? All you're thinking about?"
"I love you, that's all," she said simply.
"Love you too, Ray. But you've know that for a long time."
She was thinking that once he'd said to her in the middle of one of those darker times, I don't do happy. Me and happy just don't get along much at all.
He'd been so wrong, she thought now, watching him with that smile, that light in his eyes that never seemed to go away lately.
Deacon Claybourne did happy pretty damn well after all.