Deacon woke up the next morning to find Rayna watching him sleep.

"You been awake for long?" he asked as he rolled on his side.

She shook her head. "I have to tell you-I've dreamed about having you right here."

He smiled and leaned over to kiss her but she laughed and pulled away. "No, I mean I LITERALLY dreamed about having you here."

Deacon pulled her close, his chin resting on her soft shoulder, his legs wrapping around hers. "You going to tell me more or leave it to my imagination."

"I should leave it to your imagination," Rayna answered. "It's not a very flattering story for me."

Deacon leaned forward and nipped at her shoulder. "Now you have to tell me."

Rayna rolled on her side so she was facing him. "It was after that night at the Bluebird."

Deacon shook his head, looking confused. "Which one? I mean, there's been a few of them over the years."

"That night we sang No One Will Ever Love You," Rayna replied.

Deacon rolled on his back and laughed. "No wonder you were so pissed at me. That song, you had a sex dream and then I egged poor Teddy on at that fundraiser."

"You've always had his number," Rayna replied. "You realize that, don't you? Any man who has ever tried to be in my life, you just stand over there on the side with that little smirk of yours."

"You mean this one?" Deacon answered as he slid closer to her again, his fingers running across her skin, teasing her, a slight smile on his face.

"You're evil, Deacon Claybourne! And like it or not, you're gonna have to get out of this bed and start making your way back to your truck before those girls wake up-I'm thinking we should probably at least pretend to ease into all of this for their sake."

The smile drifted from Deacon's face and he nodded. "Time for me to get a shower first?"

"Sure," Rayna replied. "You can use Luke or Teddy's soap-I just left it all in the shower just in case they came back or I had some other guy show up needing a manly scent."

"That's real sweet of you, babe," he started and then cracked up again.

"What now?" Rayna asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"I'm just trying to imagine this dream...and what happened afterward? How did you wake up? Did I meet your needs before…"

Rayna slapped him on the arm. "Stop it, Deacon. It's mean."

"I can't believe you're being this cruel to me," he replied. "I mean, it could be a dying man's wish to hear all about the sex dream you had about me and now you're just teasing me."

Rayna looked at him, shaking her head. "Now you're definitely not playing fair." Her face grew serious, but Deacon slid his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Babe, we might have a lot of stuff to cry about as things go along, so let's not worry about that stuff now. And in the meantime, we probably only have time for one shower, so I hope the shower in that bathroom is bigger than the one at my house and we can both fit."

Rayna laughed, her face relaxing again. "Not only is that shower bigger than the one at your house, but the bathroom back there is bigger than that crappy first apartment we rented."

Deacon got out of bed and held out his hand. "Okay, now that I do need to see, Luke Wheeler's aftershave and all."

"You want to stay for breakfast?" Rayna asked quietly as they walked down the steps.

"Doesn't that kind of give away what we were doing?" Deacon replied. "Like you said, I don't want to make the girls feel uncomfortable."

"Nah, just leave for a little bit and then drive back up like you were coming to visit," Rayna suggested.

"At seven in the morning?" Deacon teased her. "Nobody's gonna buy that."

"Go get donuts. The girls' excitement over the sugar will cover any oddities in your behavior," Rayna replied.

"I'm not totally sure I can make it to my truck...I'm still thinking about that shower and what happened in there." Deacon paused at the bottom of the staircase and cocked his head at her.

Rayna laughed. "So, you liked that?"

Deacon slid his arm around her waist and pressed her up against the wall in the front hall. "I liked that part where you let me wash your hair...I mean, it's a pretty spectacular head of hair."

"I liked that part where I washed your back," Rayna replied as she raked her hands across his back. She pulled him close and kissed him deeply. "I could get used to having you around like this."

"Me too," Deacon replied. "But if I'm gonna get my hands on those donuts, I better get going."

"You have some place else to be today?" Rayna asked, sliding her hands down lower, across his back and down past his waist. She felt his back stiffen slightly.

"Uh, yeah...I do got somewhere to be today," Deacon responded, pulling back from her.

Rayna looked at him, a confused look crossing her face. His demeanor changed so quickly. "What's going on, Deacon?"

Deacon looked down at the floor and then back up at her. "I have an MRI this morning. Actually, I should probably just go and get ready for that. I guess I just wasn't thinking about the time and such."

"Can I go with you?" Rayna asked, as she took Deacon's hand in hers. "I want to be there for you, babe."

Deacon shook his head. "Not this time, Ray. Let me...just let me do this on my own."

"You know we're in this together, right?" Rayna said as she slid closer to him. She ran her hand down the edge of his face. "So, please, tell me how to do that for you."

Deacon nodded. "I will and today, what I need you to do is take the girls to school, spend some time with them and then come have lunch with me and I'll tell you what the doctor said."

"Okay," Rayna replied. "But I get to pick the place for lunch, right?"

"Hmmm…" Deacon answered as he slid her back against the wall again.

"Okay, you can pick, as long as we can have burgers," Rayna responded.

Deacon leaned in and kissed her again. "So, burgers...meet me at the Pharmacy at 1 o'clock?"

"Seems fitting," Rayna answered.

"Mom!"

They both turned their heads at the sound of Daphne's voice upstairs.

"Okay, I'm going," Deacon said and he headed toward the kitchen to leave.

"Love you," Rayna called after him. He turned and smiled at her, then headed out the door.

"Mom?"

Rayna turned back at the sound of Daphne's voice as the door shut.

"Was someone here?" Daphne asked at the sound of Deacon starting his truck.

"Yeah," Rayna replied. "Deacon just dropped by to give me some...some stuff he had that I needed."

Daphne shot her a look of disbelief. "At seven in the morning?"

Rayna headed toward the counter and started to make coffee. "I needed it right away, for a meeting...with Bucky."

"Uh, okay," Daphne said. "Hey, did you get more cereal? We only had Cheerios yesterday-that's why Deacon took us out for breakfast. Cheerios are unacceptable."

Rayna turned back to her youngest and smiled. "Okay, no Cheerios for you-how about I make eggs?"

"With cheese?"

"Of course," Rayna responded. Eggs with cheese...at least that seemed like it was enough of a distraction to get Daphne's mind off Deacon's "appearance" that morning. She looked over at the clock. Less than six hours until she would see him again. Time couldn't move fast enough.