Ugh.
Shut.
Up.
Ten seconds of Juliette Barnes were already more than Rayna could take. She switched the TV off, and in an uncharacteristic fit of anger, threw the remote on the floor of her Opry dressing room.
This was unlike her. Rayna Jaymes was not one to get easily discouraged. Hell, she wouldn't have made it this far folding up like a tent when things got bad. This time, however, her usual optimism had taken a hit.
Her last record was a stiff. Her tour wasn't selling. And now... now her label, the label she'd built, the label she'd stayed loyal to while every other label was trying to woo her away, that label wanted her to open for a little ingenue who wouldn't have made it as one of her backup singers. She had the most powerful manager, the best producer, she'd been with this record company for 20 years, and this was the best idea they could come up with?
She'd politely kicked all these gentlemen out of the room a moment ago. She needed some time alone to digest the news. She pulled off her heels and sat down on the grey velvet sofa, trying to ignore the sure-to-come headache.
This was the moment her husband chose to appear in the doorway. One look at him and she knew Bucky had already brought him up to date.
"I'm not opening for Juliette Barnes, Deacon."
He snorted at that as he closed the door behind him and went to sit next to her. His hand landed on her thigh. "I know, baby."
Rayna let her head fall on his shoulder. "The way everybody talks about this business now just makes me feel old." It didn't seem that long ago she was the future of country music.
"Maddie will soon turn thirteen, Ray, we are old."
"Shut up," she feigned to be offended, slapping his arm. "What should I do?" she sighed.
"I don't know." Money wasn't the problem, so canceling the tour didn't sound like the worst option. At this point in Rayna's career, they both could have stopped working and still have maintained a comfortable lifestyle. Of course, it wasn't what they wanted. And Deacon knew how much Rayna hated the idea of failing. "I don't know, but what I know is that you can leave whenever you want and come back anytime you want. You're not some overnight sensation." He paused for a second, then smirked. "Though you are sensational overnight."
She chuckled at that. "Cheesy, babe." She knew he was trying to make light of the situation to not let her wallow in self-pity, and she was grateful to him for that.
"Alright," she said, getting up from the couch in one move. She extended her hand to him, and he took it. "Scarlett is with the girls for another two hours. Let's get out of here and forget about this for now."
"Where do you want to go?"
"Let's see where the night leads us."
—
"So?" Deacon asked, with a not-so-subtle glance at the car's clock.
Rayna who was sitting in the passenger seat didn't bat an eye. "Not yet."
They'd left the house in advance and parked 20 minutes ago, but as it was, they were now going to run a good ten minutes late. It killed Rayna to have to do this, so there was no way she was going to give her dad the satisfaction to see her show up on time. Lamar Wyatt Day. What was the city thinking? The man already had an ego the size of his fortune, this was not going to help.
"Does that mean we'll have to celebrate now? Buy him a cake and everything?" Deacon mocked.
"Happy Lamar Wyatt Day!" Rayna singsonged. "It's just like Christmas."
They both jumped at the knock on the car's window. Standing outside, hands on hips, was Tandy. From the inside of the car, her voice sounded muffled. "What are you two doing? Everyone is waiting on you."
Rayna suddenly regretted having granted her sister access to that localization app on her phone.
"Busted," Deacon snarked. "We better get out."
He'd learned not to mess with Tandy. At his wedding, she'd told him that if he ever hurt Rayna, she would come after him with the force of a hurricane. He'd believed her.
Once they were out of the car, Rayna reached out to readjust Deacon's tie. It occured to Deacon the only times in his life he had to wear a tie, it somehow always had to do with Lamar.
They all started walking towards the city hall's entrance, and Tandy appeared to calm down. "Thank you for coming, sis. Dad won't say it, but it means a lot to him."
"Oh, you know I don't do it for him. I do it for you."
"Well, then it means a lot to me. Still, I'm sorry I had to ask. I tried to talk him out of it, but you know how it is with him."
"Yeah, it's a funny thing about Daddy. He's always there when he needs you."
—
Rayna looked around the restaurant and spotted her niece waving at her. Scarlett was sitting at a table in the back, and Rayna hurried her way.
"Sorry, I'm late. Bucky wouldn't let me leave."
They had what they called their girls' lunch once a week. Scarlett often dropped by the house to spend time with the whole family, of course, but this, this was their thing.
It had been eight months since Scarlett had moved to Nashville with Avery. She would have followed him anywhere, yet she was damn happy anywhere ended up being Nashville. This town was her second home. Through her childhood, she'd spent weeks, sometimes months, living with her uncle, aunt and little cousins during her mom's bad spells.
"It's ok. I just got here."
"How are you, sweetheart?" Rayna asked once she'd taken her jacket off and she'd sat down.
"Good. Great, actually."
"Anything new going on?"
It could have been an innocent question, but judging by the way Rayna was staring at her, Scarlett soon suspected there was more to it. And then, it clicked. "Watty told you I sang at the Bluebird, didn't he?"
Rayna smiled. "Yes, he did."
"I asked him not to!" Scarlett complained.
"Why?"
"Because I knew you and Uncle Deacon would make a big deal out of it. It was just one song. It was an old poem, and Gunnar put it to music for me."
"Maybe, but that one song was so good, Watty wants to cut a demo for you two."
"What? No, that's crazy! I can't do that."
"Why not?"
Scarlett was well aware of what Rayna and Deacon thought of her talent, they reminded her often enough. Until now, they'd also always respected her wish not to pursue a musical path.
"Music is Avery's thing. I want my life with him, and I don't want to do anything that's gonna mess that up."
Rayna had always restrained from speaking her mind on Scarlett and Avery's relationship. She remembered how everyone once had an opinion on her relationship with Deacon.
"Alright, but forget Avery, forget your uncle and I. Let me ask you just one thing, did you enjoy it?"
Scarlett couldn't help her smile. "I did." She'd enjoyed writing with Gunnar, she'd enjoyed being on stage performing with him, and that's why she tried not to think too much about it. She'd seen how hurt Avery had looked when he'd learned about it, and the last thing she wanted was to hurt him.
"Then, maybe, you should at least consider it. I don't pretend to know what's best for you, but just... think about it, okay?"
"I will."
—
Furious was not strong enough of a word.
Rayna was livid.
She'd learned by now not to put anything past her dad, but this... this was a new low. After months of promising Coleman he would support his campaign for mayor, her dad had changed his mind a few days before the annoucement and had decided to put all his money and ressources behind a new candidate Rayna had never even heard of. Cole was like a brother to her and Tandy. On top of that, he was Deacon's sponsor, and Rayna and Deacon agreed he was the one who had probably saved both Deacon's life and their marriage back then.
And Lamar hadn't even bothered to tell her himself. He'd sent Tandy instead. Rayna loved her sister, but part of why they'd always maintained such a great relationship was because they avoided talking about Tandy's job in the family business. Her sister had broken that unwritten rule that morning. Rayna assumed their dad hadn't given her a choice.
Tandy had strategically chosen to stop by when Deacon and the girls were out of the house. When they came back, Tandy was already gone, but they found Rayna sitting at the kitchen's table. That look on her face could only mean one thing.
"Girls, can you go upstairs?" Deacon ordered, while dropping his keys in the designated bowl. He waited for Maddie and Daphne to be out of hearing range before he asked, "What did Lamar do now?"
"He decided to stop supporting Cole."
"Wait, what? Why?"
"Because of some disagreement they had over a baseball stadium, or something. I'm not sure. But that's not even the worst part."
Deacon sat down next to Rayna. "I'm afraid to ask."
"Tandy mentioned my troubles with the album and the tour, so he thought we might be tempted to accept this." Rayna handed Deacon the piece of paper lying on the table in front of them.
"He sent us... a check? I guess that's because he needs something in exchange?"
"He wants me to sing at the announcement of this new guy he's supporting."
"Of course he does."
Rayna wasn't sure what she should feel the most offended about. That, after all these years, her own father still didn't seem to know her at all, or that he thought she could be so easily bought.
"I need to go see Cole, reassure him about where my loyalty stands. You're coming with me?"
"Sounds like a good idea."
—
Deacon loved driving Maddie and Daphne to school. His daughters had spent so much of their childhood on the road with him and Rayna, it was nice to have some normalcy when they were home. That's why he usually didn't even mind getting stuck in traffic with them. This morning, though, he had to meet Rayna, Bucky and Watty at Soundcheck in 20 minutes, and at this pace, he was never going to be there on time.
"Y'all are gonna be graduated from high school by the time we get through this traffic," he complained.
"Not if we never get to school," Maddie quipped back.
This made Deacon smile. His daughters had definitely inherited the snark gene from their mom.
"Come on, people!" he shouted.
"No one can hear you, Dad," Daphne scolded him from the back seat.
A group of loud teens ran past them on the sidewalk, and Deacon tried to look beyond the honking cars to see what the commotion was all about. "What is going on up there?"
"It's Juliette Barnes. Brianna just tweeted it. She's shooting a video," Maddie informed him.
His daughters unfastened their seatbelts. Deacon locked the doors just in time. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Dad, come on! She's, like, the most famous singer in the world."
It was a topic on which his wife and daughter appeared to have a divergence of opinions. He remembered his last conversation about Juliette Barnes with Rayna, and he was certain the words 'adolescent crap' and 'feral cats' had been used.
"No one gets out of this car."
He'd never even meet Juliette Barnes, and yet she was really messing up his life these days.
—
Deacon was 15 minutes late when he finally got to Soundcheck. He'd texted Rayna a moment before not to wait for him.
"Sorry, I'm late. Traffic," he apologized before kissing his wife and sitting in the folding chair next to hers. "What did I miss?" he asked, stealing a slice of pineapple from Rayna's fruits plate.
"Well, since your wife here told Marshall Evans to kiss her ass for suggesting she tour with Juliette Barnes," Bucky started, which made Deacon smirk, "it pretty much guarantees there will be no further support for the record. But there's another option." He looked over at Watty.
"I'm thinking you should get back to what made you want to do this in the first place," Watty explained. "You and Rayna should go out on the road together, just the two of you, like you used to. If you can't afford a big tour, then this is a great solution. Instead of half-filled arenas, you book smaller venues. Now you have a sold-out tour that actually makes money. And you get to do something intimate, personal, music you care about again."
"It would be... perfect." To say Deacon was on board with the idea was an understatement.
"I'm glad at least one of you think so," Watty remarked.
Deacon turned to Rayna. "You don't agree?" he asked, surprised.
"I just... I don't know."
"Baby, we've been wanting to do this kind of tour again for years."
"I know. I just thought that when we would do it, it would be because we chose to, not because my career is sinking."
"Your career is not sinking."
"It does look a lot like it. Listen, I just need to think about it."
"As you manager," Bucky chimed in, "I have to tell you it's your best option."
Rayna took a deep breath before she got up. She motioned toward the exit door. "I need some air."
Deacon watched her walk away. He knew it was best not to follow her.
—
TBC