A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers. The song used in this chapter is Monday Morning Church by Alan Jackson.
Chapter 53
Will, Mack, JC, Maddie, Scarlett, Gunnar, Avery, and Juliette all sat around Scarlett and Gunnar's living room.
"We really should try to do our little reunion dinners more often. This is one of those rare times when we are all in the same place at once." Maddie commented.
"The last couple of years we have been pretty tour heavy and we haven't gotten to connect like we used to in the old days." Avery agreed with her.
"Will and I are lucky to be in the same city right now. Our schedules have been absolutely crazy for the last few years." Mack sipped his beer.
"I'm just happy to be in the country right now. I know it took me a month to wash all the sand off of me. I had sand on my damn ball sack." JC downed his beer quickly and opened another one.
"Over the last two years Jase and Ry have spent so much time with June while we were on the road that I'm surprised they even remember what we look like. We had a heavy touring schedule before they started school and it took awhile to phase that out." Gunnar replied.
"My tour schedule is always crazy all the time. My kids are so used to me bein' gone that they don't know how to act when I'm home. And God knows if Avery goes on tour and leaves them with me I have an uprisin' on my hands. They like him better than they like me. Or at least they know he has his act together." Juliette snorted.
"I know that mine like their dada better he's the fun one. I actually make 'em behave. I also make 'em ride on a bus for far longer than they want to." Will nursed his beer.
"Don't feel bad, Will. I know that mine like Gunnar better. He gets into whatever messes they wanna get into with 'em. I'm the adult." Scarlett sipped her wine.
"Speaking of touring schedules, we need to get our tour set up now." Avery addressed Scarlett and Gunnar.
"Good luck with that one. Didn't you get the email? Rayna is handling that for the time being and according to her schedule she has no time at all unless we wanna ambush her at home. Which, I don't like to do unless it's an emergency. Deacon has a lot of guns in that house and I don't trust him not to shoot me. Plus, as scary as he is I got the ass chewing of the lifetime from her the last time she came home and I was sitting on the side patio waiting for her." Gunnar shook his head.
"Why is Rayna handlin' that? Bucky always handles that stuff. He handles it and he keeps us out of her hair." Juliette looked confused.
"You didn't hear?" Mack asked.
"Hear what?" Avery asked.
"Uncle Bucky has cancer. Mom ordered him to take two weeks of mandatory vacation at the very least. I don't think she or Aunt Tandy are gonna let him back into that office until he's in remission or until he's far enough along in his treatments to be getting well. And I don't think he told anyone else. When I went into the office today to talk to mom she had no idea what I was talking about." Maddie answered.
"I would have thought that Rayna and Tandy would have known at least. Rhett knew that's who told me." Mack looked a little confused.
"That means Uncle Buck told Deacon and Rhett and told them not to tell Rayna and Tandy. They got around that by tellin' Mack who everyone knows tells Maddie and Casey everythin'." JC laid out for them.
"That sounds 'bout right, brother. Where is Casey tonight anyway?" Will looked around.
"She's bringing dinner and Daph. They were both in the studio together. They should be here any minute." Maddie replied.
Right on cue Casey and Daphne walked in the front door together.
"Miller, where's the damn food? You were supposed to bring it." JC demanded.
"I ordered it ten minutes ago it'll be here soon. I didn't want to lug food all the way back here. It would have been cold by the time I got here. I used my brain for once." Casey flipped him off.
"You guys, what are we gonna do for Bucky? If this label is a family Rayna and Deacon are without a doubt the sometimes dysfunctional parents, but Bucky is like the kindly uncle that everyone has. He takes care of everythin' for us and we very rarely say thank you. We have to do somethin' to show him that we are behind him." Juliette asked.
"What's goin' on with Bucky? He doesn't really have cancer does he?" Casey was in the loop because she'd talked to Maddie and Mack.
"He does." Maddie confirmed.
"How is he? How is Aunt Tandy? Maddie, should we be with them right now?" Daphne freaked out a little bit.
"He's fine. She's a little bit of wreck. I don't think I've ever seen her this rattled. I offered to cancel tonight and have both of us be home with all of them for family time, but they all told me no. Uncle Bucky said that he would be very unhappy if we canceled on Wayward Musicians reunion on account of him. He said that it would give him some peace of mind to know that we are all together and we are staying out of trouble." Maddie reassured her.
"Juliette made a pretty good point a minute ago. We do need to do somethin' for Bucky. He does so much for us to make our lives easy and we take him for granted." Scarlett jumped on Juliette's thought train.
"Actually, this isn't as big a problem as we think it is. This is what I have Glenn for. He's really close to Bucky. He works with him at the label and they have known each other for years." Juliette replied.
"So, we will ask Glenn what he likes? That's your idea?" Avery made a face.
"You know what? I have an idea. Juliette, I'm gonna have to borrow Glenn and Emily for this. It's a big job and I need a good team." Maddie told them.
"I keep tellin' you to get yourself a Glenn and an Emily. Of course, you can borrow them. Just let me in on the plan when you're ready." Juliette answered without hesitation.
"When you have Rayna Jaymes for a mother you don't need a Glenn. She is pretty much my manager. She takes care of everything and I don't ask questions, because I don't want to deal with it myself." Maddie shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't care 'bout anythin' right now I just wanna eat." JC groaned.
"You know those kids are bein' entirely too quiet right now. Someone should probably go upstairs and see what they're up to." Scarlett looked a little concerned.
"I'll go check on 'em. They won't get all bent outta shape if it's Uncle Jimmy checkin' up on 'em. They like me cause I play games with 'em." JC went upstairs to check on the kids.
"He's gonna make such a good dad." Avery observed.
"I know I got one of the good ones." Maddie smiled.
"Ok, I've got the natives occupied with pizza and a movie. We should have at least forty-five minutes of uninterrupted time to get down to business." Deacon walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
"You're good, babe." Rayna smiled up at him.
"He's like the kid whisperer when it comes to them. I can honestly say that I've never seen them really misbehave when he's around. And you're supposed to be the hard ass when it comes to them, Babe." Tandy teased her sister.
"Daddy doesn't have to be a hard ass. He just has to give them a look. He doesn't ever raise his voice to them. He just has to sound stern and that little girl is on the verge of tears. They are more scared of makin' him upset than me. And he's never raised a hand to 'em. I've swatted them on the butt a time or two." Rayna replied.
"You know I can't raise a hand to any of 'em. They just don't know that yet. They generally respect us and the rules." Deacon shrugged his shoulders.
"Deacon, do you have everything down that you're gonna need to do for everyone while I'm gone?" Bucky got down to business.
"Yeah, I've pretty much got it covered. I can wing it if I have to." Deacon assured him.
"I think for the sake of everyone involved we need to push back Maddie and Jimmy's Opry inductions until after the wedding. That's just too much on everyone if we try to do it before." Rayna got that out of the way before they moved on to anything else.
"I totally agree. Thank you for suggestin' it first." Deacon put both his hands on her cheeks and kissed her.
"I was gonna raise that point with you too. You do have a little bit of sense when you want to." Tandy retorted.
"That's a sound idea. There is no way to fit all of that in before their wedding without cutting it close." Bucky gave his opinion.
"That is the most pressin' thing that we really have on our plates right now. The rest of it we can take as it comes. Buck, you're officially on vacation now. And the next part of this talk has nothin' to do with us." Deacon patted him on the back.
"There are just a couple of things of note. Daphne needs a producer for her next album. You've gotta get a single out of Maddie. Juliette is itching to get out on tour, but try to keep her crazy ideas to a minimum. She is gonna come at you out of left field and you need to shut her down. Will, Avery, and Jimmy are the easy ones to deal with, so you shouldn't have any problems out of them. Still from time to time things do come up. The Alabama Boys are out on tour and cutting an album right now just check in with them every so often and make sure that they don't need anything. One last thing Luke came to see me the other day and he wants to make an album. That's really nothing for you to worry about he takes care of everything himself. We give him a place to tour and make albums and he gives us a cut of his take in return." Bucky listed off.
"I know, Buck, I've got this covered." Deacon assured him.
"It took me a lot longer than I anticipated today, but I managed to get the temporary placement that I wanted for myself. I actually have him on the way over here right now I want to get a feel for how you two are gonna work out together." Tandy moved on to the next order of business.
"Babe, do I want to ask who this is and what cesspool you found him in?" Rayna arched her eyebrow.
"You are probably better off not asking. You really don't want to know." Tandy admitted.
A knock sounded on the side door.
"Come in, it's unlocked it's always unlocked." Deacon called out.
A tall man in his forties walked in the door. He had dark hair and blue eyes. "Hey, ya'll, sorry I'm late."
"Oh my God, that can't be who I think it is." Rayna turned to look at him a wide smile lit her face. "Little Nicky Wyatt. What are you doin' here?" She jumped up and hugged him.
"The evil redhead also known as your sister called me and told me that you needed some help. I came over as soon as I got out of the belly of the beast." Nick hugged her so tightly it lifted her off her feet. He was Dotty's son. His father had run off before he was born so he had his mother's last name.
"Put me down you overgrown teddy bear." Rayna laughed.
"Don't act like you're not happy to see me. I'm really excited that I'm gonna be workin' with ya." Nick put her back on her feet.
"I'm always happy to see you. You're the little brother that I never had. I'm surprised that you wanna come work with me. You've got that big cushy job over at Wyatt Industries." Rayna placed a wet kiss in the center of his forehead.
"I'm happy to come over there from Wyatt. Uncle Lamar can spare me. Trust me he doesn't want me there anymore than I wanna be there sometimes. I'm more somethin' that my momma forced on him than anythin'. If he thought he could get away with it he'd name Jeff Fordham CEO when he retires. Anyway, I'm yours for as long as you need me." Nick replied.
"I can see havin' you in the office is probably gonna be a bad idea." Deacon observed.
"Freakin' Deacon, it's good to see you, my man." Nick smiled at him.
"Nicky, you're finally lookin' like a grownup. I thought you were gonna look like that little kid I first met for the rest of your life." Deacon patted him on the back.
"This guy right here gave me my first beer and taught me how to sneak back into the house without my momma findin' out that I ever left. My friends thought he was a legend. Him and Vince. Him more so than Vince all my pervy friends thought that my cousin was so hot and that elevated Deacon's status. But Vince had really good weed." Nick laughed.
"I don't want to know, Nick, so I won't ask." Rayna shook her head.
Nick kissed the top of Tandy's head. "There's the woman who taught me everythin' I knew fresh outta business school."
"Someone had to teach you everything so you stayed ahead of daddy's learning curve. You don't know what he wants you to know and he will get in a mood and fire you." Tandy reminded him.
"Bucky, if there's anythin' that I can do for you let me know." Nick patted Bucky's shoulder and he took a seat.
"Thanks, I'll let you know." Bucky responded.
"Before we get down to business I've got just one thing to say to you. Keith." Rayna stared at him hard.
"Keith is harmless. He keeps momma in line as much as anyone can. Most importantly he keeps her happy and he keeps her from drivin'. Whatever else she may or may not use him for is none of my business." Nick put his hands up in a sign of surrender.
"You know how your momma is as well as anyone else does. I just had to make sure." Rayna replied.
"I do know my momma and that's why I did an extensive background check on Keith before I hired him. I've seen this story play out before. An elderly wealthy woman gets cleaned out by a charmin' much younger man. I wager to say I know that man better than his own momma does." Nick reassured her.
"You're good I'll give you that." Rayna nodded her head impressed.
"So, tell me what you need me to do." Nick finally got to business.
"Talk to your other cousin. I don't handle that part of the business. I try and it gives me a damn headache." Rayna pointed at Tandy.
"If you're gonna do this I left you an itemized list in my office of things that absolutely have to be done. You have to pay the electric bill, you have to prepay for studio use just in case one of the artists goes rouge and decides that they are gonna record without telling anyone there's a list of the studios that everyone uses on my desk, and you also have to do payroll. Everything else you take as it comes. When it comes to financing tours you'll coordinate with Deacon." Tandy laid out for him.
"Nicky, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I would understand if you wanted to stay where you are now. I can find someone else." Rayna tried to give him an out.
"I want to do this. I'm excited to do this. I get out from under Uncle Lamar's watchful eye for a little while. It's hard bein' the heir apparent to the throne. He doesn't wanna give it to me and I don't really want it. I need somethin' that's lower stress and less buttoned down for a little while. I'll actually be home at reasonable hour and I'll be able to see the kid I still have at home and maybe I'll be able to link up with the one that is at Vanderbilt. Plus, my street cred might go up in the younger one's eyes if I'm workin' at a record label." Nick replied.
"That doesn't make you as cool as you think it does. Mine just shrug their shoulders and go 'bout their business." Deacon advised him.
"Mine will be impressed with anythin' that gets me home." Nick retorted.
"Daddy's riding you that hard?" Tandy asked him.
"I'm not you. I won't bury the bodies for him and I talk back. That bein' said he's on me big time to step up and be a Wyatt in his words. He won't let me in where I want to be in the most. He won't put me in charge of the baseball team. He said that Jeff has that covered. Like I said though if he thought he could get away with puttin' Jeff in charge of everythin' he would. And he's tryin' to weasel his way into that position." Nick explained.
"I have a trump card to keep that from happening. That's the last thing you have to worry about." Rayna assured him.
"I will go back to work there before I let that happen. You said it best, Nick, I know where all the bodies are buried because I wielded the shovel. That's also why I don't work for him anymore. I haven't broken any major laws since I left." Tandy added.
"Nicky, can you start tomorrow? I don't wanna rush you, but I really need the help." Rayna leveled with him.
"I'll be in at let's say ten." Nick replied.
"I say you'll still probably beat us into the office. It takes us that long to get everyone outta the house." Deacon laughed.
"I'm in." Nick shook hands with him.
"In hind sight this might not have been my best idea." Tandy rolled her eyes.
"Putting Deacon with any of our old crew is never a good idea. I don't even like the fact that he has Max in his band. They get into more trouble than they're worth. Bucky, how many times have they left Max somewhere?" Rayna asked.
"They've had to turn the bus around and get him more times than I can count. Two or three times we've had to put him on a plane to get him to the next tour stop." Bucky recalled.
"I get on the bus and go directly to my bedroom 'cause I don't sleep for shit alone in a hotel room. Once I go back to my sleepin' quarters I don't know what goes on for roughly three hours. The only reason I sleep so well on the bus is because it reminds me of home. It's impossible to get the smell of my wife's perfume outta anythin'. It's like a security blanket for me." Deacon said a little more than he meant to.
"You are a creepy stalker when it comes to my sister. It's a good thing that you're married to her or I would be checking outside in the bushes for you." Tandy gave him a look of disgust.
"I kinda was stalkin' her just before we got married. That's a whole other story that we ain't gonna get into right now." Deacon admitted.
"It wasn't really stalking it was very sweet. He sent me all kinds of flowers and packages. And then I found out I was pregnant with the boys." Rayna covered for him.
"You both have a problem when it comes to each other." Nick just looked at them.
"We know." Rayna and Deacon answered in unison.
Rhett walked into the music room and sat his beer on a coaster on top of the piano and sat down. He put his fingers on the keys and started to play. "You left your bible on the dresser, so I put it in the drawer cause I can't seem to talk to God without yellin' anymore. And when I sit at your piano I can almost hear those hymns. The keys are just collectin' dust, but I can't close the lid."
He'd written this song about his mother. He sometimes liked to come into the music room after dinner and clear his head. "You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church. It used to be so full of faith and now it only hurts. And I can hear the devil whisper things are only gettin' worse. You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church."
His eyes clouded with tears as he sang. Being around Paul all day had stirred up some feelings in him. "The preacher came by Sunday said he missed me at the service he told me Jesus loved me but I'm not sure I deserve it. Cause the faithful man that you loved is nowhere to be found since he took all that he believed and laid it in the ground."
He missed his mother more than he had in awhile. "You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church. It used to be so full of faith and now it only hurts. And I can hear the devil whisper things are only gettin' worse. You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church."
"I still believe in heaven and I'm sure you made it there. But as for me without your love, I don't have a prayer. You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church. It used to be so full of faith and now it only hurts. And I can hear the devil whisper things are only gettin' worse. You left my heart as empty as a Monday mornin' church. You left your bible on the dresser so I put it in the drawer." He rested his fingers on the keys and cleared his throat.
"That sounded pretty damn good, boy." Paul leaned up against the doorjamb.
"I didn't know you were there or even that you were still here." Rhett looked over at him.
"I helped Sadie with the dishes. Wy is a little pistol and I had to corral him for a little while. I heard you playin' in here and I had to stop and listen. If the baseball playin' thing doesn't work out for ya you would make one hell of a songwriter." Paul commented.
"Not much else to do in Natchez and know my momma loved music. I mean you know where you met her. She never gave me your name, but she told me where she met ya." Rhett replied.
"I met her in Maggie's. I was playin' a set and she caught my eye from across the room. There was no reason for a pretty young thing like her to be interested in me. I was two times her age. There was just somethin' that drew us together. I don't know if it was fate or if we were just supposed to get together long enough to bring you into this world. Or maybe she was just supposed to show me the man that I could be. The man I am today is the man she saw in me. The man I was back then wasn't fit to be in your life. I know that you may never forgive me for not bein' there, but I'm givin' you the chance to get to know the other half of yourself now and I don't think you'll forgive yourself if you don't take the opportunity before it's gone." Paul got deep on him.
"I don't know where to start." Rhett admitted.
"One of her favorite movies was Gone with the Wind. That's where your first name came from. Your middle name came from your great-grandfather. He was Deacon Timothy." Paul gave him a little tidbit of information.
"I didn't know that. I also didn't realize that there were that many men named Deacon in our family." Rhett observed.
"My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, me, your brother, and your nephew. It's just kinda a thing in this family I guess." Paul shrugged his shoulders.
"And my son." Rhett added.
"What are you talkin' 'bout?" Paul asked him.
"You give me all kinda shit 'bout Lamar and how he's not my father. I know who my father is. I said earlier that I forgot your name is Deacon. That was a lie. Wy's name is Deacon Wyatt Claybourne. I know who my father is I know whose blood runs through my veins. The only reason he goes by Wyatt is I'm not sure how many more nicknames we could have come up with for Deacon." Rhett ran his fingers over the keys on the piano.
"I don't think I ever realized that." Paul walked into the room and rested his hand on top of the piano. "This was your momma's, wasn't it?"
"I never told you. And yeah it was hers. I learned to play on this piano. I teach the kids how to play on it." Rhett answered him.
"When she sat down at that piano and played those hymns it was enough to make me feel the hellfire and brimstone. It was almost enough to give me pause when I went to go on my next bender. It was almost like when I would sit and listen to my momma play." Paul replied.
"What was she like? My grandma I mean." Rhett asked.
"She was an angel on earth. She would have loved you. I think she may have been the sweetest person I've ever known. I don't know how I came from her. I've got a mean streak in me when I want to and Bev does too. I'm not real sure where you and your brother came from." Paul ran his hand through his hair.
"Really? That happens to be what I think 'bout June. Seems to me that you've been lucky enough to be surrounded by some really incredible women. Women that you didn't exactly deserve." Rhett commented.
"You won't get any arguments from me there. I've had a lot of things in my life that I didn't deserve." Paul didn't see a point in putting up any argument.
"If it makes you feel any better I'm not sure that I deserved my momma either. I ran a little wild as a teenager. I gave her more sleepless nights than I should have." Rhett stood up and went over to the bookshelf and picked up a picture of his mother.
"She was one hell of a woman. It takes one to tame a Claybourne man. We are wild and reckless." Paul observed.
"You think that's a design flaw?" Rhett half grinned.
"I think it just makes us better." Paul smiled back at him. A look of understanding passed between the two of them and the ice that had been there since the moment they met stared to thaw a little bit.
A/N: Here's the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Until next time please review.
