Rayna took the hot mug from Deacon's hands and sunk back into his brown leather couch.
"Thank you," She muttered quietly, almost in a whisper. She'd barely spoken since Steven had told them both of Joey Katz's intention to spill their secret, with the exception of telling Tandy to take the girls for pancakes and she'd join them at home later.
She didn't want them to sense anything was wrong, so she'd put on her best face and said she had to stay and do some unexpected interviews.
It hurt her how easily they bought her bullshit.
Deacon began to sit down next to her on the couch, but thought better of it and went across the room to the chair instead.
He knew her inside and out; she was his favorite book to read, so he knew she didn't want to talk. He could tell that if he'd let her, she would sink further and further into his couch until she'd finally reached some sort of oblivion where none of this was happening.
But, he also knew how badly the elephant in the room could crush them. More so than them, he knew how badly it could crush their daughter.
"What are you gonna do, Ray?"
She broke her focus from the coffee mug in her hand and looked at him, her face puffy from tears and her eyes smeared with non-waterproof mascara. She was still every bit as stunning to him.
"I thought this would be a 'we.'" Her voice was monotone. No anger; no hurt. Just nothing.
He gripped his own mug and searched delicately for his words. He didn't want to get in the way here. If it were up to him, he'd go to the guy's house and beat him senseless. He wanted to ask the guy if he even thought about the fact that a young girl's life, reputation, and feelings were at stake.
Somehow, though, this felt to him like an area he should stay clear of unless otherwise asked.
"Rayna, you know I'm only going to get as involved as I'm invited to get. That's all I've been doing."
She rolled her eyes and put her mug on the end table, not once taking a sip.
"Don't do that, Deacon."
"Do what?"
"Try to act like you're not in this."
He gripped his mug a little tighter.
"Well, things have been getting better, but I'm still not real sure where I stand, Ray. This could be something real big for her and for you and Teddy, and I—"
"Oh, like you give two shits about Teddy!"
Her eyes were cutting him. He partly knew it was displaced anger and resentment, but the other side of him was working to get defensive.
"I'm not saying that—"
"This will destroy her, Deacon. And us. All of us, Teddy included."
He didn't notice his leg bouncing, a nervous tick he'd always had.
"So again, Ray… what happens now?"
She shook her head, a fresh set of tears beginning to spill.
"I don't know. I just don't know."
He didn't think about it, not even for a second. It was instinct. The sight of her so vulnerable and broken; the tears falling down her face… all of it together called him to stand up and rush to her.
He held her close to him while she sobbed. When he woke up that morning he certainly didn't foresee holding Rayna on his couch, but now that he was, he couldn't think about it. All he could think about was Maddie.
"I think," she sniffled, breaking away just enough to look at him. "I think we have to come clean."
He sighed.
"You really think that's the best plan?"
"What else do we do? Joey Katz is vicious. Something like this he'll sit on forever. And you know, and I know, that the longer these things fester, the worse they get. It's gonna happen, Deacon, and I think it'd be better if we stand up there and tell everyone before he makes us out to be deer in headlights with some horrible magazine cover."
He could come up with at least fifty questions, but figured he should start with the most obvious.
"What's Teddy gonna say?"
"I'd like to think he'll agree it's the best thing for Maddie, but who knows? I'll handle him. I just really need your help with her right now."
He repeated those words in his head over and over. She was asking him for help with Maddie. She was seemingly entrusting him to bring something to the table, as he'd said he wanted to do. If the situation didn't have them in such dire straits, he might have smiled.
"Do you really think this guy is so horrible?"
"Deacon! He photo-shopped my wedding pictures to enhance my baby bump so he could sell it as a shotgun wedding."
"But you were pregnant and it was a shotgun wedding,"
She scoffed, hitting him on the arm.
"Well, it was, Ray."
She sat up on the edge of the couch, running her fingers through her tangled hair.
"I've got to start calling people. I have to call Bucky and have him call the publicist, I have to call Tandy and fill her in on the details, I have to call Teddy—"
"Rayna, do you think this guy really has a source? I mean, who's he really got that he can talk to about it?"
"Well, we know. Daddy and Tandy know. Coleman knows. Teddy knows. I'm sure he told Peggy before she passed, so God knows who knows now. Maddie told Juliette." Her answer was dry. She sighed, playing with her finger nails.
Deacon raised his eyes to her sharply.
"Juliette knows?"
Rayna nodded.
"Yeah, but Peggy knowing scares me more. She leaked the divorce. Who'd you tell?"
He covered his face, chuckling at the misfortune of the whole thing.
"Just Scarlett and my sister. And Megan. I told Megan."
"Can you trust her?"
He sighed.
"I think so, Ray."
She nodded, placing her hand firmly on his knee and looking him in the eye.
"Well, I trust you."
He pulled his truck into the driveway, throwing the gear into park and turning to look at her.
She'd excused herself to the bathroom after making her phone calls and washed her face and put her unkempt hair in a bun. It was tenfold better, but he thought she was a beautiful mess before.
"Want me to come in? Help you talk to her?"
She smiled weakly, shaking her head.
"No, you don't have to. I have Tandy here, so…"
He sighed. She'd called Teddy and told him the scenario, which he obviously flipped out about. At the end of the conversation, though, he'd acknowledged that it was better to come outright and say the truth than let a magazine churn a rumor they couldn't deny. Unfortunately, he was at some southern mayoral convention in Florida and couldn't get a flight until the morning.
"You sure, Ray? I know Teddy can't be here and I don't want you to have to deal with this by yourself. I don't want her to have to, either."
"You really want to?"
He looked down at the dash for a few seconds before bringing his eyes back to hers with more certainty than he'd had when he first posed the question.
"Yeah. I do."
"Come on."
Deacon knocked softly on the open door, standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Can I come in?"
She smiled and took out her ear buds, sitting straight up on the bed.
"Hi!"
He entered the room cautiously and took in his surroundings, noting to himself that he had never been surrounded by so much pale pink in his life. Not even Scarlett's nursery had this much pink.
Somehow, in spite of all the pink, the room was very grown up. The bedding was undoubtedly very luxurious, the furniture was mature, and there were pictures everywhere of Maddie and her friends. Then there was the guitar case poking out of the closet, while an obviously old guitar sat on a stand in the corner. He wasn't really sure was a teenage girl's room was supposed to look like, but for Maddie, this seemed like perfection.
"Wow. So this is your room?"
She smiled, wrapping her ear buds around her iPod and setting on the nightstand.
"Yes. What are you doing here?"
He looked around some more, fidgeting and placing his hands in his pockets.
"Um, well, your mama needed to talk to you and I'm just here for—"
"Hey guys," Rayna interrupted, cheery as ever, holding three mugs of hot chocolate in one hand and a can of Reddi-Whip in the other. "I brought hot chocolate!"
Deacon watched, utterly amazed. This could not possibly be the same broken woman who cried herself dry on his couch and who sat in near silence in his truck the whole way over here, could it? He figured she was doing it so Maddie didn't get stressed out, but it was still amazing to him. He'd often watched his own mother do the same thing after his father had beaten her silly. Not that this was in any way the same scenario, but any woman's ability to leave their baggage at the door for the sake of their children intrigued him.
He and Maddie both graciously took their mugs, and all three piled the whipped cream sky high. Rayna sat on the bed while Deacon propped himself up against the dresser.
"So… can I guess what you want to tell me?"
Maddie smiled innocently, and Rayna returned it with a weaker smile. She didn't want to break her heart.
"You're signing me and Daphne to your label?"
Rayna let out a small chuckle, shaking her head. "No."
"Yeah," Deacon spoke up. "Slow down there, kiddo."
"Well, you can't get something if you don't ask."
Rayna grinned, putting her hand atop Maddie's.
"Actually, sweetheart, I wanted to let you know that I spoke with an old friend from the newspaper today and he told me that there are some people in the tabloids who might want to start a rumor about you… and us," She watched, tortured, as the confusion spread across Maddie's face. "But I want to tell you now, before I say anything else, that I love you so much and I am not going to let anybody hurt your feelings, or you. Okay?"
Maddie nodded slowly, looking up at Deacon. He caught her gaze and could tell she was asking him to say anything to her. For the first time, it seemed, he knew exactly what to say.
"I'm not either."
She looked back at her mother.
"I don't understand. What kind of rumor?"
"Well, honey, you know these people get paid a lot of money to say horrible things and leak private things, right?" Maddie nodded.
"I don't know how, but it looks like they've found out that Deacon's your father. They want to release it," she searched Maddie's face for any kind of emotion. It was blank. "How do you feel about that?"
"Well, he is."
Rayna sighed.
"I know, honey, but this kind of thing…" She trailed off, searching for the right words. She turned her neck, looking to Deacon for support when she lost what she was looking for.
He cleared his throat, setting his mug down on the dresser and putting his hands back in his pockets as he spoke.
"This is the kind of thing that could really upset a lot of people, Maddie. It could hurt a lot of people, too, if they're able to release it the way they want to release it. Yeah, sure, the truth would be in there, but they'd probably butter it up with all kinds of juicy lies, too."
Rayna nodded.
"That's right. Remember when they wrote about mine and your dad's divorce? All the lies they printed and we talked about why they would say those things?"
"Yes," Maddie answered, looking down at her hands. "So what would they say about me?"
"I don't know, honey. I really don't know, but I was talking to Deacon and your dad and we think the best thing to do would be to tell everyone now, on our own terms… that way it might be a little easier for you. It's still going to be a big change and a lot of adjustment, for all of us, but we'll all be there for you."
Maddie looked up sadly. "So dad knows about this?"
"Yeah, baby. And he loves you so much and just wants to protect you and your sister. We all do," She looked at Deacon once more. "Right?"
"That's right," he answered. He'd been so unsure lately, but he wasn't about this. He'd never been more sure of anything in his life.
Deacon opened the door to his truck, turning around to face Rayna.
The conversation had gone fairly well, he thought, given the circumstances. Maddie seemed oddly comfortable with the world knowing the truth. She said she wasn't embarrassed by it and she just wanted the tabloids to not lie about anything. Rayna and Deacon had both assured her they'd tell the whole truth so that there would be nothing hurtful that could come out.
Deacon grinned a little when he remembered that at the end of the conversation, all Maddie seemed to care about was Daphne's feelings.
"She'll be okay, Ray. I think I'm a hell of a lot more scared than she is."
Rayna grinned. "You and me both. I really don't know where she gets her strength from."
"Oh, come on," He grabbed her hand gingerly. "Everyone knows that's from you."
"I don't feel real strong most days, lately." She looked at her feet.
"Hey," He said, lifting her chin up to look him in the eye. "We'll both get there."
She smiled and leaned up, without thinking, kissing him softly on the cheek. His cheeks grew hot, as did hers.
"I'll call you tomorrow. I'm meeting with Bucky and the publicist. Will you come?"
He nodded as she started to back away.
"Whatever you need, Ray."
They said their goodbyes and he began to shut the truck door, when she suddenly turned back around.
"Deacon!"
He opened the door back up, just as he had turned the ignition.
"Yeah?"
"You said earlier you only told Scarlett and your sister. You didn't tell your mom?"
He rubbed his forehead and looked down at the steering wheel, nothing but the dashboard illuminating his face.
"She didn't need to know, Ray,"
Rayna looked at him quizzically, saying nothing.
"I couldn't tell her that she had a grandchild I wasn't sure she'd ever get to see."