When the phone rang in the middle of the night, Daphne sat up immediately, her heart racing. Late night calls were rarely good ones, as she well knew, plus she'd had a restless night ever since she'd gone to bed. Part of that was being alone in the house, but she had also visited her mother in the hospital that afternoon and had had a vaguely unsettled feeling ever since.
Rayna had gotten sick right after Christmas and had never really recovered. When it had devolved into pneumonia, she had gone in the hospital. Daphne thought she didn't look good, hadn't for the last several days. She seemed listless and disengaged. She didn't talk much and seemed to sleep a lot. She seemed to be getting weaker instead of better and that had worried Daphne.
So when she picked up the phone and saw that it was her aunt Tandy, she had a bad feeling. "Hello?" she said slowly.
Tandy sighed on the other end. "Sweetie," she said, then stopped for a second. "Sweetie, your mom's gone."
Daphne couldn't catch her breath. She felt an unbelievable anguish rip through her and started to keen as she rocked back and forth. Surprisingly, at first, there were no tears, but soon enough she could feel them start to trail down her cheeks as she leaned forward. "No," she moaned. "No!"
She could hear Tandy crying on the other end of the phone. "I'm so sorry, sweetie," her aunt said softly. "If it helps at all, she went very peacefully."
She hadn't been able to go back to sleep. She'd called Maddie and they had cried together. Afterwards she'd laid on her side in the bed, crying. She hadn't been ready. She wondered if you were ever really ready to lose your mom. Rayna had always been such a huge presence in her life. She was larger than life as an artist, the queen of country music for years. And yet, in spite of the fact that she was famous, to Daphne she was just mom. She was the person who sang her to sleep and listened to her when she was upset and cheered her up by letting her try on some of the outfits she wore on stage.
Daphne sat up in the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest. She looked over at her phone and thought about calling Nick. He adored Rayna and she knew he'd be distraught over the news. But she also knew he would be in the studio at this time of night and he hated being interrupted. She chewed on her lip for a moment and then decided to send a text. Mom died. Short and to the point. She knew he'd call when he saw it later.
She sighed. She thought about the fact that Maddie had Daniel, who would hold her while she cried and bring her tea and take care of her, even though Maddie was so strong. Maddie was the only one who knew her marriage to Nick was failing. Had been for years. It felt like she'd woken up one day and they had grown apart, but she knew it wasn't that simple.
When she'd met him, she had begun to think she'd never get married. Nick Ryder was one of the top producers in the country. Rayna had always had a knack for bringing in producers and talent who were a little outside the box and Nick was certainly that. He wasn't into country music, but Rayna had charmed him into producing an artist whose career had stalled. Not unlike the magic Liam McGuiness had been able to create with Rayna herself, at a similar career crossroads, Nick had helped Will Lexington do the same.
Not only was he a top-notch producer, but he was charismatic and quite the ladies' man. Daphne thought back on how she'd wondered if he could ever focus on one woman. But he'd seemed captivated by her and she certainly felt the same way about him. He treated her like a princess and they had been happy for a while. When their son Michael was born, Nick had been thrilled. But it wasn't long before he chafed at life in Nashville. It wasn't his town and it wasn't his scene.
She had risen quickly up the ranks at Highway 65 and, when Bucky had retired, had taken over as the head of A&R. She loved her work every bit as much as Nick loved his. And somewhere in those heady days, they'd started to drift apart. Nick was spending more time in New York and LA, even while she was jetting around the country following up on her artists. They hadn't really talked about the growing distance. He still came home to Nashville every couple of months, but now that Michael was a teenager, he had started traveling more with his father. That was the point at which Daphne knew they were at a serious crossroads.
The fact that he was across the country while she was in their home grieving her mother alone left her wondering if they'd ever be able to bridge the gap. She'd watched her mother and Deacon together for so many years, and they had really been her role models when it came to marriage. The love they had felt for each other had been deep and rich, highlighting a connection that nothing seemed capable of breaking. They had both been such passionate people, mostly due to their artistic natures. Their connection had seemed almost palpable, whether it was their hands touching or just the way they looked at each other.
She'd wanted the same thing, thought she'd had it, but now she just felt empty. And having to deal with Rayna's death all alone made that distance feel all the greater. She reached for the phone, wondering if she should call anyway, but something seemed to stop her. She felt so lonely all by herself, grieving her mom. She finally called the one person she knew she could call, no matter the time. The voice on the other end of the phone was groggy with sleep. "Hello? Daphne? What's wrong?"
She burst into tears. "Mom died," she sobbed into the phone.
"What?"
"Please come home, Dad," she begged. "I need you."
Daphne took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She sat up and Maddie let her arm fall from around her shoulders. She looked at her sister. "I called Dad," she said. "He's coming home."
Maddie nodded, her face neutral. "Of course," she said.
She sighed. "He would want to be here," she said, a little more mulishly than she'd meant to. "They were married, after all. And had us." She knew that last part tweaked Maddie just a little. After their father had gone to prison, Maddie had pretty much written him off. She had Deacon, after all, and she was working really hard to fix that relationship. She didn't have time anymore for Teddy Conrad.
Maddie narrowed her eyes a bit. "I know that, Daphne," she said. "I expected he'd come." She breathed in. "So when does he get here?"
Daphne relaxed a little. "Tonight. He's driving down from Chicago and he'll stay with Nick and me." She looked down at her hands, clasped tightly together in her lap. "I really need him right now, Maddie." She looked back up at her sister. "I know your relationship with him isn't really good, but he wants to be here for us. He loves you, you know that."
Maddie's face softened slightly. "I do know that," she said. She breathed out. "I'm sorry, Daphne. I know it means a lot to you for him to be here. I understand that." She paused and swallowed. "I guess it just reminds me that my dad is gone."
Daphne reached for her sister's hand as she saw tears well up in Maddie's eyes. "I know," she said, feeling a lump in her throat. "I thought of Deacon as a dad too, so I know." In fact, Deacon had really become her de facto father, once Teddy went to prison. Teddy had not come back to Nashville after he'd been released. He'd ended up in Chicago eventually. By then, Daphne was almost out of high school and she only visited her father a handful of times. They talked periodically, but she'd grown to think of Deacon as her father figure.
When she'd gotten married to Nick Summers, both Teddy and Deacon had walked her down the aisle. If Teddy had objected, he didn't say anything. Daphne remembered a time when it seemed like he was always competing with Deacon, mostly for Maddie, but prison had changed him. It had made him softer, somehow, and he'd told Daphne more than once how grateful he was to Deacon for taking her under his wing.
Deacon had helped her a lot, with her music and with her confidence. He'd been the proud father at her school plays and at graduation. When she had taken over the reins at Highway 65, Deacon was the one she'd wanted to call. But he'd been gone nearly a year by the time that happened, around the same time Rayna had stepped away from any involvement in the label. Teddy was her real father, though, and she loved him still. Even though their relationship wasn't what she'd call close, it was times like these when you needed the people you loved. Nick and Michael were on their way home, but she had laid in bed the night before and not only cried for her mother, but cried for her dad.
Teddy arrived just after she had gotten home after dropping Maddie off. She had wanted to go in and spend some time with Tandy and her nieces, but she knew she needed to see her dad first.
"Tell them I'll see them later," she'd said to Maddie, after Maddie got out of the car. "Maybe tomorrow."
Maddie had bent down and looked back at her sister. She nodded. "I will," she said, biting her lip. She took a deep breath. "Tell him I said hello. And thanks for coming."
She looked at Maddie. "I know he'll want to see you."
Maddie looked away for a moment and then back. "Bring him with you tomorrow," she said. "I think we all need to be together."
Daphne had appreciated that. It had been a long time since Maddie had seen their dad, and Daphne still thought of him as their dad, and she knew it would mean a lot to him for her to include him. She was standing at the front window, looking down at her watch, when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw an unfamiliar car pull into the drive. She caught her breath as she watched the driver's side door open and he got out. He stood for a moment, just looking around. She knew he missed this kind of life, but he'd resigned himself to having less.
She walked to the door and opened it, as he made his way up the walk. He seemed like the man who never aged. Except for the gray in his hair, he still looked youthful, his eyes crinkling as he smiled at her. "Hey, Daphne," he said, setting down his overnight bag.
He took a step forward and she wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. "Thanks for coming, Dad," she murmured into his coat.
He put his arms around her and rubbed her back. "Of course, sweetheart," he said soothingly.
She stepped out of his embrace. "Come on in." He picked up his bag and followed her in. He shrugged out of his coat, which he draped across a chair in the foyer, and set his bag down next to it. She turned to him. "Maddie said to tell you hello."
His face lit up. "She did?"
She nodded. "She'd like for us to come over tomorrow. Nick and Michael will be back tonight, so we can all go to her house tomorrow." She thought she saw a hint of tears in his eyes.
"I think that sounds great," he said, his voice soft. He reached for her hand. "I'm so sorry about your mom, honey. What happened?"
She sighed. "Let's sit down," she said, leading him to the couch. When they were settled, she put her elbow on the back of the couch and leaned on her fist. "She got sick after Christmas. Nothing major, just a bad cold, you know? But she didn't really bounce back like I thought she would. It turned into pneumonia. She'd been in the hospital for two weeks and just never seemed to get better."
Teddy gave her a wry smile. "Well, everything's harder when you get old, sweetie."
She wrinkled her nose. "I guess. Except, well, Mom never seemed old. I just never thought of her that way. I mean, except for a little bit of gray, she still had her same reddish-blonde hair. She even still looked younger than she was." She sighed. "Maddie said Mom was waiting to be with Deacon."
He looked away and then down. "Maybe she was," he said quietly.
She reached for his hand. "I'm sorry, Dad. I shouldn't have said that."
He looked up at her and shook his head. "Daphne, I accepted a very long time ago that Deacon was the man your mother loved. I wanted her to be happy and she was. She deserved that."
She frowned. "But you did too, Dad."
He squeezed her hand. "It wasn't going to be with your mother, Daphne."
"I guess." She didn't know why she was feeling so nostalgic all of a sudden. Her parents had divorced so long ago and she'd truly felt part of the family that was her mom, Maddie, and Deacon. But her dad had been alone for so many years and that bothered her. "Was she the love of your life?" she asked then.
He looked surprised at her question. He laughed a little and his eyes crinkled again. "That's a complicated question, Daph," he said.
She peered at him. "You always loved her. Didn't you?" she asked.
He rubbed his face and smiled crookedly. "Rayna Jaymes was a fascinating woman," he said finally, looking off into the distance. "She dazzled me. I almost couldn't believe she was dating someone like me." He looked back at her. "I mean, she was already a star. She'd won awards and she had songs on the radio and people knew her everywhere we went. I was just a businessman, not part of her world at all. But she wanted normal, she said. She wanted the white picket fence and a normal life, with a family she could come home to. I wanted to give her that."
"You did, Dad."
He shrugged and looked a little resigned. "She was always waiting, Daphne. Waiting for Deacon. I finally understood that." He held up his hand when she started to interrupt. "Oh, I know she loved me at one time. Not the way she loved Deacon, but we had a good marriage for most of the time we were married. We had you and Maddie" – he smiled at her – "and she had that family she wanted. The place to come home to, the white picket fence. I don't regret any of it."
Daphne reached in and hugged her father. "I'm glad you're here, Dad."
Teddy reached up and rubbed at his eyes. "I wanted to honor your mother. I did love her, Daphne, very much. She was everything to me back then."
Daphne felt tears track down her face. "She loved you too, Dad. She told me that many times. She always cared about you." He didn't say anything, just reached over and pulled her into his arms. It almost felt like she was a little girl again as he held her while she cried, making soothing sounds in her ear.
Nick was sitting in bed late that night, the covers pulled up over his lap, when Daphne came in and sat on her side of the bed. He was engrossed in something he was reading. She felt a tug on her heart. His head was bent down and he had on his reading glasses, something that made him even sexier these days. He didn't even look up when she came into the room and she sighed quietly. She picked up the lotion that sat on her nightstand and began to apply it to her arms. She suddenly felt tears press against the back of her eyes as it reminded her of all the times her mother had told her to make sure she moisturized daily. She had inherited Rayna's tendency to dry skin and she felt her heart squeeze with grief again. She breathed in slowly, willing herself to be calm.
She could feel Nick's eyes on her, but she waited. "How are you, love?" he asked finally, his voice compassionate. When he and Michael had arrived earlier that evening he'd been sweet and comforting. If it hadn't been as loving as she'd hoped for, she at least had felt cared about. She'd wondered if her father had noticed that Nick had spent most of the evening talking to him instead of her.
She turned slightly and looked at him. His glasses were perched halfway down his nose and he looked over them at her, sadness in his own eyes. She shrugged. "It feels surreal," she said. She sighed. "I still can't believe she's actually gone."
He looked at her for a moment and then put his papers on the nightstand beside him. He reached out towards her. "Come here," he said. She hesitated only a second and then scrambled onto the bed and under the covers next to him. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his side. "She was a great lady, your mother," he said. "She was always the great Rayna Jaymes."
Daphne nodded. "She was. But mostly she was just Mom."
Nick ran his hand up and down her arm. After a moment he said, "What do you remember most about her?"
She smiled. "She was fun," she said. "I mean, she was a mom and she did all the mom stuff, like scold us when we were bad or hug us when we were sad or celebrate with us when something great happened, but what I remember most was the fun." She looked at him. "Maddie and I went out on the road with her whenever we could. And she always made it fun. She'd let us dress up in her clothes and we'd sing with her on the bus or in her dressing room." She thought back to when Rayna had let them do her sound check in New York. "When I was nine, she surprised Maddie and me and let us do sound check. It was the most thrilling moment of my life right then. All the crew came to listen, even Juliette Barnes's crew, and it was so exciting. And getting to sing at the Opry and the Ryman. Not everyone gets to do that kind of thing and Mom always made it so special."
Nick kept rubbing her arm and she couldn't help but think it was more like something he'd do to a friend, instead of his wife. He turned towards her and said, "Those are great memories, Dee. She was a pretty down-to-earth lady, so it's not surprising things would have been pretty normal. But you and Maddie stayed home with your dad a lot, right?"
Daphne nodded. "We did. That was really the thing that was different about our lives, compared to our friends. But you know what? She was always there for recitals and shows and soccer games. She always worked her schedule around us." She leaned her head on Nick's shoulder. "I talked to her every day. I went to see her once a week. I'm going to miss that."
Nick leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "We should get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day." He then moved his arm and turned onto his side, after turning off his bedside lamp, and sliding down under the covers. Daphne sat where she was for a moment, a lump in her throat and tears pressing against the back of her eyes. Finally she moved back to her side of the bed and turned off her own light. She lay on her back, looking up towards the dark ceiling and felt the tears slide down the side of her face.
