I'm back. Sorry for the delay, but uni exams, holidays and dealing with THAT season 3 ending...well l needed time to sort out the direction l want this story to take. Hope you enjoy the latest chapters. Hoping l can juggle working and studying as well as writing on a regular basis.

"Hey ya stranger?" Rayna's face broke out in a beaming smile as she heard the familiar voice on the other end of the phone.

"What's new in the world of the newest music mogul? From what I've heard, she isn't someone I would want to mess with."

Laughingly Rayna quickly responded to the light hearted teasing. "Well I learnt from the best…and here was Daddy think I didn't have a head for business. How the hell did you hear about Edgehill all the way in California?"

"What you think just because I'm no longer forced to live and breathe country music, that I don't keep track of my sister? Besides after the whole wedding thing I was worried"

"I'm fine… I'm good… I miss you."

"So?"

"So, what?"

"So, how's the weather?"

"Ha!"

"Come on. I've seen the articles and THAT song that Luke just released. That's got to be hard to hear"

Rolling her eyes at her sister, she was never one to beat around the bush. Taking a breath for strength, Rayna pauses collecting her thoughts. "I really don't know what Luke is thinking. I honestly had thought we had moved on. He certainly has given the appearance he has. He is a daily feature in the gossip pages here. Then he had to go release that song on the heels of 'If I drink this beer'. That song was bad enough, now 'Can't help my heart' makes me out to be the heartless one." Unable to sit still anymore, Rayna begins to pace around the office. "I did what was the right thing… for both of us."

"I know you did babe and I think Luke knows it too"

"I hurt him Tandy."

"Yeah you did. BUT if you married him, you would have hurt him much worse."

"I know." Rayna says in a soft voice

"Oh come on now. You know if you had married Luke it would ended in one of two ways. You would have either been miserable because you had been forced to eliminate Deacon completely out of your life, or you would have ended up in exactly the same situation as you did with Teddy. And we both know that Luke wouldn't have tolerated Deacon in your life for long. You did the right thing, for yourself and for Luke. There is nothing wrong with choosing happiness for yourself."

"I know. I know I did the right thing but I hurt him Tandy. I hurt him so bad. I didn't realise just how much until he released those song."

"Give it time. He loved you."

"I know and I did love him but ….he..."

"Wasn't Deacon?"

"Yeah, he wasn't Deacon."

"Speaking of which, how is Deacon?" Rayna could practically hear Tandy's eyebrows speaking as she pictured them raised in enquiry. "According to everything I've read you two are in the thrones of a sordid affair, thrusting your relationship in the face of Luke's heartbreak."

"Oh god Tandy! Where are you getting your information from? Me and Deacon? Where do I even start? The man is driving me crazy."

"Well according to the rumours, you two are going at it like rabbits only coming up for air to get lunch." Rayna could hear Tandy rustling paper." They even have photos of you both at lunch last week…. You both certainly look loved up. It says here you both couldn't keep your hands off each other."

"Oh Tandy" Rayna starts laughing disbelievingly at what her sister was telling her, "That couldn't be further from the truth."

"WHAT? Rayna are you telling me that after everything you two have put each other through, you aren't together. WHAT THE HELL is wrong with you both? God you both should be banned from inflicting your special brand of pain on anyone else. What is going on with you Rayna? You broke off your wedding because you are in love with him, who does that and still isn't with the man she loves?"

Rayna pulls the phone away from her ear and stares at it in shock. She had never heard Tandy be so vocal about her love life, especially when it concerned Deacon. She was usually the one who was the advocate against her being with him. Shaking her head, she interrupts Tandy before she can go any further.

"No Tandy, we are together we are just taking it slow."

"Taking it slow? What are you, in High school? Rayna, this is the man you have wanted in…god knows forever, why are you dragging your feet?"

"I'm not. I am all in but Deacon has got it stuck in his mind that he wants to 'WOO' me."

"Ummm sorry?" Tandy's confusion was highlighted in the tone of her voice.

"Woo me."

"Hmmm yeah, I'm still confused. Woo you? Why? I'm sorry but does that man not know that he has finally won. He has got the girl. That he has always had the girl and that he will always have the girl. I don't understand, does he think there is some doubt in your mind?"

"Oh I have made it perfectly clear that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind."

"Wooo finally we have gotten to the juicy part of the conversation." Tandy teasingly fires back at Rayna.

"Ha, hardly! Deacon has been the perfect gentleman. He opens doors for me, takes me out to lunch, he will either be there for breakfast with the girls or he will pick them up from school but at no stage does he allow his control to slip. He is driving me crazy."

Tandy could no longer control her laughter at hearing how frustrated Rayna was with Deacon's behaviour.

"I know I told him I wanted to keep our relationship private but it's like it use to be between us when I was with Teddy. All I wanted was to keep us out of the public eye. I don't want a repeat of the Ruke experience. With me calling the wedding off, if the press got a whiff of us… well I just didn't want to live that type of life again."

"Oh come on, I don't believe that. Have you seen these photos? Deacon is looking at you like you are the best birthday present he has ever got and you…you look like you are mentally undressing him"

Spluttering at Tandy's description, Rayna frantically cast her mind back trying to work out when the press had got photo of them together. "What photos are you talking about?"

"Country People have photos of you two plastered all over their website. Hasn't Bucky told you about them? I don't think you will be able to deny your relationship to the press for much longer." Rayna could hear Tandy clicking away on the keyboard as she waited for the page to load. "Wooha! Geez guys, get a room"

"WHAT!" Rayna shrieked, silently pleading that the press hadn't got photos of them last week their local park. Breathing a sigh of relief as she flicked through the photos they had of them, Rayna realised that she had no idea that the camera's lens had been on them. "Tandy you tease, you had me worried. These are nothing. These could have been taken at anytime in the last 15 years."

"Oh Rayna, who are you kidding. Look closely at the photos. It is written all over both your face and the body language. See check out the photo of you guys saying good bye after lunch. That is not a look you share if you are 'just friends'. No wonder the press is salivating at this news."

Peering more closely at the photos viewing them from an outsider's point of view, Rayna drew in a sharp gasp. "Oh wow." Feeling a faint blush colouring her cheeks, Rayna's eyes grew wider as she continued looking at the photos.

"You say Deacon' been a gentleman, but from the look of it his mind is a fair distance from that point. No wonder you are frustrated."

Muttering more to herself than responding to Tandy "you have no idea"

"Woo do tell."

Smiling at Tandy's eagerness to hear all the sordid details, Rayna had a sudden pang at the geographical distance between them. It was times like this that she missed their girls nights sitting out by the pool drinking wine and complaining about their lives. "Come on, San Fran is pretty tame compared to your love life." Rolling her eyes at her sister, Rayna thinks back over Deacon's wooing attempts of the last month.