Deacon just stared at Rayna for a moment. Why is she here? And how did she get here? He could see her laughing with Vince and he frowned. No matter why she was there or how she got there, she shouldn't be hanging out with Vince. Vince was always looking for a booty call and he didn't think Rayna should be messing around with him. He hurried down the steps then and out to the pool.
In the time it took him to reach the pool, she had moved on. Vince was talking to someone else and Deacon walked up to him, tapping him firmly on the arm. Vince turned. "Where is she?" Deacon asked, knowing he sounded a little curt.
"She who?" Vince asked.
"Rayna. The girl with the red hair."
Vince smiled and waggled his eyebrow. "Oh, yeah, that hot redhead." He leaned towards Deacon, a little conspiratorially. "I heard she was just sixteen," he said, his voice low. "Otherwise, I'd be hitting on her big time." Deacon felt himself get angry and he shoved at Vince. Vince threw his hands up in the air. "Hey, bud, what the hell was that for?"
Deacon scowled at him. "Don't try nothing with her," he said, pointing his hand with the bottle of beer at him.
"It's not like she's your girlfriend or anything," Vince said. Then he raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so maybe you want her to be?"
Deacon got in his face. "Shut up, Vince." He was sort of surprised at how protective he felt. She was just sixteen, though, too young for the likes of someone like Vince. Or anyone else at this party. He still wondered how she had ended up here. He started looking around for her. It wasn't like it was a huge crowd, but somehow she seemed to have disappeared. He walked around and ran into Stewart. "Where's Rayna?" he asked.
Stewart looked surprised. "You know Rayna?"
Deacon nodded. "You know she's a kid, right? What's she doing here?"
"Relax, man, it's cool. She just wanted to meet some other people like us, just trying to make it in the music business."
Deacon scowled. "How'd you meet her?"
Stewart shrugged. "A showcase at Douglas Corners." He narrowed his eyes. "What's the big deal? It's not like she's your girlfriend or anything."
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Deacon said, his voice getting loud, as Stewart started to walk away. "She's young. She don't need to be here."
"Deacon!" came a voice from behind him. He turned to see Rayna standing there. She looked surprised. "I didn't know you knew Stewart and Vince."
He put his hands on his hips and glared at her. "I didn't know you knew them. They ain't the kinda people you should be hanging out with, you know."
She frowned and then she raised her eyebrows. "Why not?" she asked. "I hung out with you. Aren't you like them?"
He took a deep breath and put his hands on his hips. "Ain't this a school night or something?" he asked, ignoring her question.
She rolled her eyes. "It's summer. School's out." She looked around at the people who were gathered around the pool. "You hang out with these people too?"
He shrugged, his anger diminishing and his heart beating harder, the longer he was standing with her. "Sometimes. I see 'em around different places." He thought about something Stewart had said. "You did Douglas Corners?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Watty took me." She smiled proudly. "He said he's gonna get more of those kind of things for me. I was actually surprised you weren't there."
He couldn't remember why he wouldn't have been, now that he thought about it. "I don't know. Maybe working, or something."
She smiled teasingly. "Or a date."
He shook his head. "Probably not." He looked around, then back at her. "You want something to drink?" She started to answer and he shook his head. "Not alcohol."
"Oh, of course not. Is there Diet Coke, do you think?"
"Probably. I'll go get you something."
She smiled at him. "Okay. I'll wait here."
He hesitated just a second, thinking how pretty she looked and how glad he was that he'd run into her, although he still thought she was too young to be hanging out with this crowd. He smiled back. "Okay. Be right back." He headed over to where there was a big tub of drinks and he fished out a Coke, taking it back to her. She took it and looked at it. "Sorry it ain't diet," he said and looked around at the group. "I don't think anyone here drinks diet."
She shrugged. "It's okay." She smiled, a smile that lit up her face and caused her eyes to sparkle. "One regular Coke won't hurt me."
He smiled back, then looked around again. "You know anyone else here besides Stewart and Vince?"
She shrugged. "A couple people." She looked up at him. "And, well, you."
He took a swallow of the beer in his hand and made a face when he realized it was warm. He tossed the bottle in a trash can. "If you wanna walk over here while I get a Coke, I can introduce you to some people," he said.
She looked at him, surprise on her face. "That would be really nice," she said and they walked over to the drink tub.
He noticed she was looking at her watch. "You gotta go?" he asked, feeling kind of disappointed. They had walked around and he'd introduced her to the people he knew and then they had sat in a couple of the lounge chairs and listened to the music. These kind of parties could sometimes get rowdy and he was glad this one had not. People mostly behaved and Vince had found a girl he could hit on, so he'd left Rayna alone.
She shrugged. "Probably. Daddy's not home, but I don't want to raise any red flags." She smiled. "Vernice wouldn't though."
He frowned. "Who's Vernice?"
She blushed a little and he was reminded how much he liked that about her. "Our housekeeper." She looked a little embarrassed.
"No need to be embarrassed." She looked at him, but didn't contradict him, so he was pretty sure she was afraid he'd think she was bragging. "You want me to walk you to your car? It's kinda dark out."
She bit her lip. "Actually I was gonna get a cab or something."
He shook his head, frowning. "Nah, you can't do that. This ain't really a place you wanna get a cab from." He breathed in. "I could take you home." He thought she might turn him down, probably would turn him down, but then she surprised him.
"You wouldn't mind? You don't want to stay?"
"I don't need to. And no, I don't mind." He gave her a quick smile. "Let's go."
####
She was surprised to see Deacon, but then decided that she wasn't after all. She figured he probably did run in these circles, with other up and coming and wanna-be artists. He was probably the same age as the rest of them and seemed to have known many of them when they had both been at the Exit/In. She hadn't seen him since that last encounter at Robert's and she felt both excited and nervous when she saw him talking to Stewart Osborne.
She had decided to just be friendly, hoping he didn't hold a grudge or anything. He was nice to her, though, almost like he was looking out for her. As they walked around so he could get something to drink, she had searched the crowd for the person she'd come with. She had met Autumn Chase at the Douglas Corners showcase and they had instantly connected, even though Autumn was a couple years older. Eighteen seemed so much older than sixteen and she had tried hard not to be too childish, but the two of them had spent a lot of time giggling together.
Autumn was chatting up Vince, her hand on Vince's arm and her hips tilted towards him in a provocative way. She felt her cheeks get a little warm. She knew Autumn wanted to get into Vince's pants, because she'd told her so, and it had both intrigued and scared her a little bit to even think about doing that with a man. She had looked back at Deacon as he reached into the tub to pull out a drink. She noticed his strong, muscular arm and the way his jeans hugged his butt in a very attractive way as he leaned forward. When he turned back to her, she hoped she wasn't blushing too much. She couldn't help but think again that he was very handsome and she felt her heartbeat speed up.
They sat and listened to music for a while. Then she turned to him. "Are you going to play anything?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I didn't bring my guitar. Just wanted to hang out." He nodded at her. "Are you?"
"Oh, no, no, no. I just wanted to get out of the house. It's kind of lonely in that house all day. Daddy's gone a lot and my sister – Tandy – she's gone to her boyfriend's family's beach house this week."
"What about your friends from school?"
She shrugged. "I don't have a lot of friends at school."
He frowned. "How come?"
She shrugged again. "They think I'm a dork. Because I like country music. And, I guess, because I'm sort of a good girl." She lowered her voice on the last part. "They think I'm weird, or something."
He kept frowning. "That ain't nice. Nothing wrong with being a nice girl." Then he winked at her. "Or liking country music." He smiled. "So, Kris Kristofferson or Johnny Cash?"
"What?"
He grinned then. "The outlaw game. You never heard of that?"
She shook her head and laughed. "No, I haven't."
"You know what outlaw country music is, right?" She wasn't sure, so she shook her head a little hesitantly. "Well, it's that country music that's outside of Nashville, mostly, kind of country with a rock 'n roll sound to it. Kind of an outlaw thing." He smiled again and his eyes twinkled just a bit. "So. Kristofferson or Cash?"
She grinned. This was fun. "Cash, for sure."
"Merle Haggard or Waylon Jennings?"
She thought for a second. "Merle, I guess. What about you?"
"Well, Cash for the first and Merle too." He looked off to the side, then back at her. "One more. Jessi Colter or Emmylou Harris."
She crossed her hands over her heart. "Ooh, that's a hard one. I don't know if I can pick."
He gave her a sly smile. "You got to."
She breathed in. "Mm, Jessi, I guess. No! Emmylou. Oh, wait. Jessi. Oh, this is hard. I love them both." She sighed. "I think I just love a good country love story." She smiled at him. "My favorites are Jessi and Waylon, and Johnny and June. I just love the woman who loves that hard livin' man, you know? Loves him in spite of everything." She reached out and touched his arm briefly. "You know the song Waylon does – 'Amanda' – that says everything." She sang softly, her eyes closed. "Amanda, light of my life. Fate should have made you a gentleman's wife." She opened her eyes. "You know that one, right?"
He nodded, a strange look on his face. Then it was gone and he sang back to her. "Jessi liked the Cadillacs and diamonds on her hands / Waymore had a reputation as a ladies man / Late one night her light of love finally gave a sign / Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line." He smiled.
She laughed and clapped her hands. "Even more perfect!" She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. "You ever think one day you might be like Waylon or Merle or even Johnny?"
He shook his head with a wry smile. "It would be like a dream come true, you know? I don't know if I'm that good though."
She smiled at him. "I bet you could do it. If you really wanted to and put your mind to it. You have a great voice and you play a mean guitar. Plus you write your own songs. You've got the whole package!"
He blushed a little, which nearly made her swoon. She was so glad she'd run into him at the party and that they seemed to fall back into their old rhythm. "I don't know about all that, but you" – he pointed at her – "you definitely got what it takes."
"Except for still not being able to play the guitar." She rolled her eyes.
He smiled a little shyly. "Maybe I could help you with that again sometime," he said.
"I would love that," she said softly. For a minute it felt like everything around them sort of faded into the darkness and she had that flash of something that seemed to feel like magic. Then someone yelled out something and it sort of broke the moment. She felt a little dazed as she looked around and realized how dark it was. She looked down at her watch and saw that it was almost ten.
"You gotta go?" he asked and, when she looked up, she thought she saw disappointment in his eyes.
####
As they headed for the truck, he felt like there was a vise around his chest, and he could hardly draw breath. The idea of being in his truck with her, alone, was intoxicating. He'd been afraid being around her would feel awkward, after the way things had ended the last time he'd seen her, but he'd been encouraged. It had felt like they had reconnected or, maybe more accurately, just fallen back into their more comfortable rhythm, back to being the people they were when they'd first met.
They were silent on the walk. He struggled to even know what to say. When they got to his truck, he opened the passenger door for her. "Sorry it's not nothing great," he said, feeling a little embarrassed by his old truck.
She smiled at him. "I've always wanted to ride in a pick-up truck," she said. She put her foot on the edge of the floor board and pushed herself up and into the seat. She smiled back at him. "It's fine."
He finally felt like he could breathe a little and he waited until she was all settled, then shut the door. He hustled around to the driver's side and got in, putting his key in the ignition and starting it up. He looked over at her. "You might have to remind me how to get where you live," he said. "I only been the one time."
"Do you know how to get to West End?" she asked. He nodded. "Then it's easy. Just get there first."
She had mostly just looked out the window as he'd headed out of East Nashville and then headed towards downtown on Woodland. As they passed some of the old stone bungalows that were typical of the area, she pointed and then looked at him. "I would love to live in one of those someday," she said. "I've always thought they were so cute."
That surprised him. "But you got that big house," he said. "You don't like that?"
She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. "I mean, it's a beautiful house, but it's so big. It's always just felt like too much. And since my mom's been gone, well, it's just sort of empty." She smiled at him sadly. "I just want to live someplace cozy, where there's laughing and music and love and family, and we're close to each other." She sighed.
He glanced over at her and thought she looked a little sad. "You miss your mom?"
She nodded. "I do." She breathed in, then out. "She was the one who really got me interested in music. In country music. Daddy hates it, but she loved it and she shared it with me. She and Tandy and I used to go out to this place on the river, some land she owned, and just sit in the sun and sing together. Enjoy the peace and quiet and a place that was not all fancy. I miss that too."
He thought that her life had been so different from his, in every single way. Growing up in Natchez had been hard and all he'd ever wanted to do was to escape it, and escape the pain and fear. He'd left Mississippi when his mom died, but he couldn't really say that he missed her much. She had tried, but had really never been able to protect him and Beverly from their father. He breathed in, trying to rid himself of those memories. "Sounds like a good place," he said.
She smiled at him. "It was. So pretty. Kind of wild, since nothing had ever been built there."
"You been out there lately?"
She shook her head. "No, not since before she died. I guess it belongs to Daddy now, but I don't know if he was ever that interested in it." They were crossing over the river then and she turned back to look out the window. "I love crossing the river and coming into downtown with the lights at night," she said.
He'd never really much thought about it, but he tried to see it through her eyes. It surprised him some, because she was born into privilege and wealth and yet she seemed enchanted by simple things, like the bungalows in East Nashville and driving over a river bridge. "You do that much?" he asked.
She looked back at him. "Not really. We never came over here much. But sometimes Mom would bring us over here, during the summer, for lunch, at one of the little restaurants around. She always said there was good music played at little hole in the wall places on the east side of the river."
He nodded. "That's true. There is. But then the bigger places, where you get seen, are over here."
"I wonder why that is?"
He shrugged. "Maybe people here have more money to spend to go see people. And tourists'll go downtown." They had turned onto Broadway by then, which he knew eventually became West End.
She was quiet for a few minutes, just watching as they drove past the businesses, mostly closed for the evening, along the road. Then she turned back to him. "How long do you think it takes to know if you're gonna make it or not?" she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "You mean, like an artist?" She nodded. "I don't know. I guess it depends."
"On what?"
"If you got the right sound, the right people behind you. Luck too. Right place at the right time." He sighed. "Unfortunately, it ain't all talent."
She nodded. "That's true." She smiled a little. "Do you think you're outlaw country?"
He smiled and shrugged. "I don't know, but I do know there'd be worse things than being that."
"Would you go out on the road with Merle or Waylon?"
"If they asked? Hell, yeah, I would." He glanced over at her. "Sorry."
She shook her head and smiled. "It's okay. Not like I haven't heard that, and worse, before. My daddy has a temper."
He thought she probably didn't know the half of a father's temper, but said nothing. He noticed they had started to see a mix of residential and businesses. He saw the tower for the Belle Meade Theater and knew they must be close. He glanced over at her and noticed she seemed a little tense, her hands clenched together tightly in her lap. "We close?" he asked.
She looked over at him. "Yeah. The next light, turn left." He did and she guided him through the darkened streets of Belle Meade, the only lights coming from the windows of the large, expensive houses along the way. Then they had come up on the large hedge that hid her house from the street. "Right there," she said, pointing to an almost hidden driveway on the left. He turned and drove slowly up to the front of the house.
The lights outside the front door were lit and there was a light on to the left of the front door. He pulled up and stopped the truck, turning it off. He turned to look at her, but she just sat there. "You think anybody's waiting up for you?" he asked.
"I don't know. Maybe Vernice. Sometimes she'll stay up until we get home, just in case we want anything." She looked at him. "You want to come in?"
He hesitated, then shook his head. "Nah. I gotta work in the morning." She nodded, but still didn't move to get out. He watched her breathe in and out, her chest rising and falling. She looked so pretty that night. She had on jeans and a pretty top that accentuated her full breasts. Her hair barely brushed her shoulders, framing her face, with its creamy skin and sprinkling of freckles across her nose.
He couldn't have said why he slid over and kissed her, when he thought about it later, but it was as though he'd felt drawn to her. She didn't resist. In fact, she moved into his arms as easily as if she'd done it before. He pressed his lips against hers, feeling the soft fullness. He tugged on her bottom lip and she opened her mouth to his. He slid his tongue in her mouth, finding her own, feeling a curling warmth in the pit of his stomach that rose up to his chest. He put his arms around her, pulling her close, not wanting to let her go.
When he finally pulled his lips from hers, he still held her close against him. Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked up at him, her lips still slightly parted. He waited, his heart feeling like it had stopped beating, hoping she didn't push him away.
####
She sat back, trying to catch her breath. She looked at him and felt a shiver of excitement rush through her body. She put her hand on his chest, as though she was trying to keep him away. "If you're gonna kiss me like that, you need to break up with Samantha Beeswax," she said.
A sly smile came over his face. "Samantha Beeswax?" he asked, a soft chuckle in his voice.
She could feel herself get red. "Beasley. I'm sorry." She breathed in. "But you can't do that again if you're with her."
He leaned in and kissed her again, letting his lips linger. She felt her mouth open again, as though she had no control over it, and the taste of him was intoxicating. She'd never kissed a boy quite like this before but she liked it. She liked it a lot.
He pulled a strand of her hair and twirled it around his finger. "I'm done with her," he said, his voice husky like warm caramel against her lips.
She sat back again and looked at him with surprise. "You are?" He nodded. She bit her lip. "So…what does this mean?"
He breathed in and ran the back of his fingers over her cheek. "It means I…like you." She thought she heard just the slightest hesitation before he said 'like' and wondered if that was really what he wanted to say. "And I'd like to see you more. Again."
She felt like she couldn't breathe. "You would?" she squeaked out.
He smiled. "I would."
"Me too." He leaned in and kissed her again and she could have sworn fireworks were going off in her head. When he pulled his lips from hers, she looked up at him. "When?"
He laughed softly. "How 'bout our regular guitar time?"
She nodded. "I'd like that." She finally felt like she could breathe again and suddenly realized they were still sitting in his truck outside her house. "Um, I guess I need to go in." She smiled. "Thanks for bringing me home." She reached up and ran her thumb over his cheek, feeling the light stubble on his face. "I can't wait until Thursday."
He looked at her for a long moment, then reached out and pulled her into his arms again, kissing her long and hard. She felt giddy and hot and dizzy and happy, all at the same time. When he finally let her go and she opened the car door, she was almost afraid she would faint. But she stepped out of the truck and turned back. "Good night, Deacon," she said.
He smiled. "Good night, Rayna."
She closed the door, then turned and ran towards the steps, turning back when she got to the top, watching his truck drive back down the driveway. She stood on the porch until long after the red tail lights were gone and she couldn't hear his truck any longer. She put her hand over her heart, closed her eyes, and smiled. She'd never felt so happy in her life.