"Baby, I—"

When Deacon walks into the kitchen, it's not Rayna he finds there but her sister, sitting on a stool, a cup of coffee in hand.

"Well, hello," she says.

Deacon is about to speak when he seems to recall he is... naked. Fully naked. He holds a finger up as to indicate he'll be back, and he runs to where he came from.

"I didn't find it, Tandy, it must—" Rayna begins as she appears from the living room a second later. She stops once she notices her sister's smirk. "What?" she asks.

"You need to buy your boyfriend some clothes. Looks like he can't afford those."

"Did he—"

"Yep."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes."

Rayna winces. "I should have warned him you were coming over, but I didn't want to wake him."

"I can confirm he's well awake now, he ran off like a startled rabbit." She pauses. "Does he wear clothes around here sometimes?"

Rayna smiles. "Sometimes."

"You know, you and I haven't really talked about him yet."

"We will, just not... now."

"We could do it now, I doubt he'll be coming back any time soon."

Much to Tandy's amusement, though, Deacon chooses this moment to show up. He gives Rayna a quick kiss and focuses on looking anywhere but at her sister. When Bucky barges in the kitchen not long after, holding a copy of the Tennessean, Deacon makes a mental note to remember everyone seems to waltz in here as they please.

"Great news, Ray. You got fantastic press from last night's performance." Bucky lets the newspaper drop on the counter and sits on the stool next to Tandy's.

"Coffee, Buck?" Rayna asks.

"Yes, please. I got three requests for exclusive interviews already, and it's only 9am. Rayna Jaymes, you're officially back."

"Well, you'll tell them I'll be happy to do all the interviews they want, but in two months."

At that, both Tandy and Bucky freeze and look at her. "What do you mean?" Bucky asks.

"Deacon can't just leave like that, so we talked about it last night, we're going back until the end of the summer. This will give us time to decide what we want to do and how we want to do it. And then, we'll likely come back here." There isn't the slightest hesitation when she adds, "Together."

In sync, Tandy and Buck turn to Deacon. Somehow, he feels more exposed now than when he'd walked in the kitchen naked a moment ago.

"Rayna, can I talk to you for a sec?" Bucky asks.

"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of Deacon."

"Alright." He pauses, clearing his throat. "Deacon, you sound like a nice guy, and a great guitar player, by the way, but how long have you two known each other?"

"Long enough for me to know this is what I want. Listen," Rayna says, and this time, she addresses both Bucky and her sister, "I know you two have my best interests at heart, and I love you for that, but I've never been so sure about anything in my life."

—

She moves her things from the guest house to Deacon's cabin on the day they get back. There's no point in keeping her room there, even though she's going to miss Beth. The two have become friends, and she promises her to drop by all the time.

The cabin isn't exactly meant to be lived in by more than one person, but neither of them care. It reminds Rayna of the tiny appartment she used to share with Adria after her dad had kicked her out. They'd stayed there for about a year until her career had taken off and they'd both been able to afford their own place. It had been another year after that before Rayna and her father had started talking again. It makes her livid now to think she was the one who'd taken the first step toward reconciliation.

It's the height of the season, and Deacon is gone almost every other week. Rayna finds herself alone at the cabin too often for her liking.

When he comes back, the first time, she has gone for a dip in the lake, and so she swims back to the dock as he walks down the path to join her. He squats down to help her get out of the water, but as soon as she's on the dock, she knocks him backwards, and he ends up lying on his back with her straddling him. She bends down to kiss him.

"If you look like this when I get back, how do you expect me to ever leave again?" he moans against her lips.

She pulls back and smirks. "This is part one of my plan to keep you here."

He chuckles. "What's part two?"

His scruff is a few days longer than usual, and she runs her fingers through it before she kisses him again. "I'll show you."

—

This has to be the most depressing movie she's ever seen. She can't believe he watches it on every one of his birthdays.

As the credits roll on the screen and they get up from the couch to bring the empty glasses and popcorn bowl back to the kitchen, he explains it's sort of a ritual. "I'm sure it will grow on you," he adds, and she grins. She isn't convinced she'll ever enjoy the movie, but she loves there is no doubt in his mind they will watch it together again.

"Still, we need to do something fun," she insists.

"I don't see the point of celebrating birthdays, there's no accomplishment in being born."

At that, she stops what she's doing and throws her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him. "I want to." She kisses him. "Because, if you ask me, you being born sounds like the best of reasons to celebrate."

—

That evening, she succeeds in dragging him to The Landslide. She holds the door for him and lets him go first so she can block his way out in case he'll be tempted to flee.

"Oh, no, no, no. No way," he grumbles the second he realizes what she's been up to. She grins and pushes him further inside the bar where all his friends are waiting.

It's Beth who helped her put this together. Rayna has met some of Deacon's friends already, but she doesn't know all of them, so she let Beth deal with the invitations.

"You realize I've spent almost six years here, and I had managed to keep my birthday a secret all this time?" Deacon complains.

"I find that even more depressing than your movie."

As the evening wears on, Deacon seems to forget he isn't supposed to be having a good time. There's music, and there's a cake shaped in the form of a guitar, and there are pictures of him Rayna borrowed from albums she found at the cabin.

There are all kind of stories about Deacon his friends are all too happy to share with Rayna.

Much later in the night, when most people have cleared out, he's sitting in a booth and she's sitting on his lap. "Thank you, baby," he purrs before he jokes, "Don't do it again."

She promises herself she'll find a new way to celebrate Deacon's birthday every year.

—

She needs a drink.

She won't bring alcohol to the cabin, so she tells Deacon she's going for a walk, but instead she goes to The Landslide.

She knows she's been insufferable all day, and Deacon didn't deserve the way she's been treating him. He's been nothing but understanding, trying to figure out what was going on with her all of a sudden, and oddly it only made things worse.

Landon, the bar owner, is surprised to see her sit down at the counter without Deacon around. She orders one shot, then another, and because she rarely drinks anything other than champagne or wine, it doesn't take too long before she starts getting tipsy.

She's at a point where she has stopped counting her shots when a woman approaches her. "Oh my God, it's really you, isn't it?" the woman asks as she hands her a pen and a napkin for an autograph. Rayna can tell she's a tourist because locals know her by now and don't bother her. She puts her best Rayna Jaymes smile on and scribbles a signature on the napkin while the woman explains how she wouldn't ask, but it will be her sister's birthday soon, and she's the biggest fan ever. Rayna assures her she's happy to do it before the woman walks back to her table, looking over the moon.

Landon, having observed the scene from the other side of the counter, wonders aloud if she ever gets tired of people feeling entitled to come talk to her whenever they want. Rayna shrugs. "I guess I'm used to it," she says before she knocks down her drink and pushes her glass forward for a refill.

Instead of pouring her another shot, Landon walks around the counter and sits down next to her. "Alright. What's going on with you?"

She hesitates. She appreciates Landon, but she doesn't know him well enough to be spilling her guts to him. Whiskey, though, seems to decide she does. "Tomorrow... is kind of a dark day for me. It's the anniversary of my mom's death."

"Oh." He sounds genuinely sympathetic. "I'm sorry."

She stares down at her empty glass before she starts spinning it around. "It's just... it's been thirteen years, and this morning, I realized... I've now lived more years without her than with her."

—

She wakes up alone, with the worst hangover.

Everything about the previous evening is a little bit... hazy. One thing she remembers, though, is Landon calling Deacon, and she feels ashamed he had to drive to the bar to come pick her up. She knows she should get up and apologize, but instead, she draws the covers over her head and lingers in bed.

Around ten, Deacon knocks on the bedroom's door to check on her and to inform her he has to leave for a few hours. She wants to ask where he's going, but considering the way she's been acting these past 24 hours, she recognizes he doesn't owe her an explanation.

Sometime after noon, she finally decides to get out of bed. She takes a shower and gets dressed while trying to think about what she could eat that won't make her want to throw up. She can't come up with anything, and so she chooses to skip lunch. She goes outside instead to sit on the porch swing.

While in Nashville, she usually spends the day with Tandy. They visit their mom's grave, and they go to places Virginia used to love as a way to remember her.

Today, she misses her sister.

She regrets having pushed Deacon away. She should have told him, she's not sure why she didn't. She's determined to apologize as soon as he'll come back and to make it up to him, no matter what it'll take.

When the sky goes from a bright blue to a menacing shade of grey in a matter of minutes, she reckons it would be a good idea to get back in the cabin. She has learned by now how fast the weather can change around here. Before she has time to get up and head inside, Deacon's truck pulls up on the gravel path. The rain has started coming down already, and so she has to look twice to be sure she's not hallucinating.

Sitting on the passenger seat, next to Deacon, is... her sister.

Tandy gets out of the truck and sprints to the cabin to avoid getting drenched. Rayna pulls her in a hug as soon as she steps on the porch. "What are you doing here?"

"Deacon called yesterday to ask me if I knew what was going on with you. We decided I should probably visit, so I booked a flight this morning."

Rayna looks at Deacon who is running to the cabin now, Tandy's suitcase in hand. "Can you wait for me inside?" she asks her sister. Tandy smiles and nods before she disappears in the cabin.

Rayna grabs Deacon's lapel, then, and pulls him into a kiss. It's her trying to tell him how sorry she is, and how grateful she is, and how much she loves him, but no kiss can possibly convey all that. When they pull back, her voice falters. "Deacon," she whispers.

She buries her head in his neck and they stay like that for a long minute. "I know, baby. It's okay."

—

TBC