Chapter 4:

"Hey y'all!"

"Juliette!" The girls screamed in unison causing Rayna to flinch and put her hands to her ears. They had been standing in the lobby, post family breakfast, when Juliette came in from what appeared to be a run. "You were awesome last night; I just love your new song so much." Maddie said smiling, stars in her eyes.

"Aw thank you sweetheart but that was mostly your dad, he's the best." Now it was Juliette's turn to look at Deacon with stars in her eyes. This whole thing was making Rayna nauseous. "Where you off to this morning?"

"Mom's taking us on a girl's spa day," Daphne provided.

"Y'all just have the best momma," Juliette said sweetly giving Rayna one of her fake interview smiles. "Well I guess that means you have a free day Deacon, sounds like we have time to finish that other song we were working on."

"Yeah, we can do that," Deacon added nonchalantly.

"I've been thinking about it for days," she swooned. "I've got all kinds of things I want to try out on you," she finished a little too suggestively.

"We really should get going. Deacon, can I just speak to you a minute, over there," Rayna said as she pulled his arm, leading him to an alcove in the corner of the lobby. "That girls got about five hundred miles worth of nerve."

"It's just a song Ray."

"Yeah well, I know where that leads," she said her eyes wide. "You and I used to write songs together."

A slow grin spread across Deacon's face, "Oh, I remember…," At his words an instant blush raced across Rayna's face. "…but sometimes Ray, a song is just a song. You girls have fun today." He said tapping her on the arm like an old drinking buddy before walking away.

She couldn't believe how cavalier he was being. She knew that neither of them had been monks in the past seven years, but they had always been discreet. She had a few boyfriends but nothing that ever progressed past casual date nights and under the radar getaways. She of course had to be more careful as her life was deemed more newsworthy by the press. She always thought it unfair that Deacon could go about his life as he pleased and still get to keep playing music. She also hated that even if it wasn't in the news, the Nashville rumor mill made sure she was up to date on all the women coming and going through Deacon Claybourne's life. Her own sister seemed to take great delight in letting her know when Deacon had been seen around town with a new woman on his arm. She tried very hard to remind herself that his love life was none of her business, as long as it didn't interfere with the girls, but Juliette Barnes was more than she could take. Not only was she smug, disrespectful and dramatic but she was young enough to be his daughter.

She shook the thought from her head as she gathered up the girls. It was going to take more than a hot stone message to get Deacon and Juliette writing songs, off her mind.

Lately, her days seemed to be following a pattern of relaxing mornings followed by disastrous show times. It started with the mic debacle a few days ago, then one of her background singers got laryngitis, then her new steel guitar player decided to leave the band for reasons Rayna still wasn't clear on. There were issues on stage with the band, missed cues and bad notes, so she really wasn't shocked when another shoe dropped. It was twenty minutes before she was to go on stage when a frantic Bucky barreled into her dressing room to let her know that John, her lead guitar player, was sick and in so much pain he didn't think he could play tonight. Normally, she would just move some things around and have her back-up guitar player move in and play lead, but her backup guitar player was also her steel guitar player, who quit the band at the beginning of the week.

Now they had fifteen minutes to come up with a solution. Juliette's closing song began to blare as Rayna made her way to the stage. John was standing off to the side, pale as a ghost, holding his right side. "Sorry Rayna, I don't know what happened, it just came on all the sudden." They were waiting on the tour medic, but it was already clear he was in no shape to be on stage tonight.

"Bucky?" Rayna asked frazzled.

"I don't know Ray, where we going to get someone in ten minutes who can play your set? How are your guitar skills these days?"

Deacon was coming off stage when he noticed the commotion and made his way over to see what was happening. He caught the tail end of what Bucky was saying to Rayna. "Her guitar skills are non-existent; she can barely hold the damn think let alone play it." Deacon said looking over at John concerned.

"Not the time Deacon," Bucky warned.

"What going on?" he asked more seriously.

"Five minutes!" The stagehand yelled out and Rayna's band not knowing what else to do began to take the stage.

"I don't have a guitar player! What the hell are we going to do?" Rayna was panicking, something she hadn't done in years. There was a time when missing her guitar player had become a semi-regular event but that hadn't been the case in over fourteen years.

"Jay, I'm gonna need my guitars back on stage," Deacon yelled to the stagehand that was carrying his acoustic.

Rayna just looked at him stunned. Bucky thanked him profusely and John gave him a nod of thanks as well, but Rayna just stood there like he told her the sky was falling. "Ray, let's go," Deacon shouted finally breaking her out of her daze.

"Deacon you can't…"

"Sure I can," he answered smiling.

"But…"

"Get on the god damn stage Rayna!" he shouted one last time before climbing up on stage and starting the opening lick to her first song.

When the crowd saw Deacon and Rayna on stage together, they went crazy. Rayna didn't think it was possible for them to get any louder but when they lead into 'Bitter Memory' the only hit on her new album, you would have thought Elvis was resurrected and singing 'Hound Dog'. When they took their first pause in the set, it took Rayna longer than normal to get them quitted down. She was smiling ear to ear, enjoying herself more than she had in a long time.

"Alright y'all quiet down now. I hope you're all having a good night," They cheered loudly letting her know just how good of a night it was. "Well, as you all might have read, we have been having a real tough two weeks, but I think tonight we are turning a corner. 'YEAH' the screamed back at her. As you have noticed by now, I have a special guest with me tonight, Mr. Deacon Claybourne!" The cheers went up again and Rayna and Deacon looked at each other laughing. "Well, we are real glad Deacon can help us out tonight, but I do want you to send some good thoughts to our guitar player John who isn't feeling real well. Y'all aren't going to believe this but up until about ten minutes ago Deacon was on his way to a post-show cheeseburger with our girls but as he has done so often in my life, he rescued me from a disaster, so I want you all to make him feel real special." The crowd continued to go crazy as Deacon walked up to the mic in front of him eyeing Rayna.

"Let's just play these folks some music Rayna."

"Alright then," she said smiling as the band started the next song.

The best part for Rayan was seeing their girls in front of the stage. Bucky had apparently snuck them from backstage to the front to get a better look at their mom and dad. They were acting just as crazy as the crowd and when Deacon realized they were there as well, he really started to ham it up.

They hadn't performed on stage together in over half a decade and truthfully, his bedtime sing along last week was the first time they had performed together off stage as well. It was funny how easily they slipped back into their routine, even though they had never performed these particular songs together, there was an ease between them. There were still a few small missed cues and hiccups but that was expected, and Rayna was having so much fun she didn't even mind. On the contrary, they were making her laugh.

They performed two encores for the hell of it and though Deacon should have been bone tired, he felt like someone just put a new battery in him. He led Rayna off the stage with his hand on the small of her back, like he had done a million times, but this time they were greeted by their very excited daughters. The girls launched themselves at their parents and Deacon and Rayna looked at each other above their heads.

"That was… oh my god that was…," Maddie started but couldn't quite get it out.

"The most awesome thing ever!" Daphne finished.

"Like… oh my god." Maddie continued.

"Like, oh my god," Rayna mimicked to Deacon making him laugh again.

"So, we did good then?" Deacon asked as the family made their way to Rayna's dressing room. Rayna and Deacon shaking hands with people as they went.

"Well, I think you missed some cues dad," Daphne said as they got to the dressing room.

"I think I did," Deacon said then turning to Rayna with a smile "Sorry bout that".

"Are you kidding me? That was the most fun I think I ever had up on stage!" she said enthusiastically.

"That was amazing!" Bucky said coming through the door. "Deacon, I don't know what we would have done without you," the men shook hands smiling.

"Well I think I owed you a few," Deacon said a little more soberly but throwing a wink to keep the moment light. The truth was he owed Bucky more than he few. He had lost count how many times he showed up plastered to a gig or worse didn't show up at all. Eventually Bucky had a backup guitarist ready to go but early on it was Bucky trying to salvage the show. He had never asked Rayna to replace him, and Deacon knew he should have but Bucky had a soft spot for Deacon, despite how much trouble he caused the man over the years.

"Well good news, bad news," Bucky said directing his words at Rayna.

"No Bucky don't bring me down," she begged playfully.

He laughed but he was hoping the bad news would be easy remedied. "Good news is John is okay, he had to have an emergency appendectomy, but everything went well."

"Thank God, we taking care of everything for him?"

"Course Ray. Bad news is that he will be out for about four weeks. I hate to ask this…," He didn't really hate asking and he actually meant to put them both on the spot. They were on a high from the show but if they had too much time to think about it, Bucky knew that they would both come up with two dozen reasons why Deacon filling in for the next four weeks would be a bad idea. He also knew it was risky asking in front of the girls, and he had never used them like this before, but Rayna needed this tour to do well.

Deacon rolled his eyes and laughed. "Like I said Bucky, I owe you more than one, I'm your man for the next four weeks and then we'll call it even?" he stuck out his hand and Bucky shook it.

"Then I will let you get to it, there are about a hundred people that can't wait to talk you both. When their ready, Alice said she will take the girls up to the suite so you can both work the after party.

"Thanks Buck," Rayna said giving him a hug.

"Great show," he said again before heading out.

It took twenty minutes before Deacon and Rayna could convince the girls it was way past their bedtime and under no circumstances were they staying up to attend the after party. Once they did, Deacon said he was going to head to his dressing room to shower and change, sweat still dripping down his neck.

"You sure you're okay with this Deacon? The next four weeks?" she asked clarifying.

"Yeah Ray. I'm sure," he added smiling ear to ear.