I've broken the story up into a couple of chapters for ease of reading. It suddenly turned into an epic, I've tried to ensure that it flows smoothly *fingers crossed*
Rayna looked up as Deacon re-entered the room, watching as he concentrated on his phone. Smothering a smile as he cursed, she shuffled to the edge of the couch as he sat down and picked his guitar up. Deacon looked up at Rayna with a sheepish grin, "sorry still don't know how to completely use this thing. But um, this is what l recorded last week on the road." Rayna closed her eyes as she let the sound of him playing the guitar wash over her. Smiling as she opened her eyes, she nodded at him.
"Hmm, ye l think that will work." She bumped him with her shoulder, "I still can't believe you recorded that on your phone, Mr 'who needs technology when I have a perfectly good pen and paper.'"
Nudging her back, Deacon smirked at her as he got comfortable on the couch. "Why don't you put that mouth to good use and just sing your lyrics!" Barking out a laugh, Rayna focused on the paper in front of her as she waited for Deacon to play the introduction.
If Candy was honest with herself, Deacon was the reason why she leaped at this assignment. She really didn't like country music and she definitely didn't like Nashville. The locals were so protective of the talent that chose to make it home. It made it difficult to get useful information out of them. She still couldn't understand why Deacon was still in this hick of a town. She knew that he was immensely talented, so many people within the industry over the years had told her so. Ever since that night together, she had followed his career. She thought that he was wasting his talent by staying here but when she questioned people why they thought he had never crossed over to main stream music, they all pretty much told her the same thing. They told her that he stayed for one reason only, and that reason was the Queen of country.
Narrowing her eyes, she cast her memory back over the interview she had conducted with Rayna. There was no doubt that Rayna knew how to play the game when it came to dealing with the media. She was very accommodating with Candy's questions, giving the illusion of answering honesty but Candy also noticed that she very smoothly directed the questions away from areas she didn't want to answer. It was this that triggered Candy's senses. She knew Rayna was hiding something. She suspected it had something to do with the real reason why she called the wedding of the year off. She also had a sneaky feeling Deacon played a part in that decision. But so far all her attempts to talk to Deacon had failed. The reporter in her wanted to get to the bottom of what Rayna was hiding, but she also wanted to get closer to Deacon, though for less than professional reasons.
Based on everything people had told her, Rayna and Deacon had a complicated relationship that stretched back to when they first started out. Deacon had always been by her side on the stage even during the years she was married to the Mayor. From all appearances the music business was the end of their association. Sure there were interviews out there where Rayna credits Deacon for her success, but neither of them generally mentioned the other in the media. There was no denying that they had chemistry on the stage, but they were also rarely photographed socialising outside of professional appearances. Their relationship frustrated Candy. She couldn't figure out exactly the details behind it or how intertwined it was. Did they have more than a working relationship or was it purely about the music? Mentioning this to people, when they would actually talk to her about it, Candy discovered that they would just smile, raise their eyebrows and just tell her wait to you seem them together off stage.
The Rolling Stones article last year was a break from tradition for Rayna, when she had finally opened up about their relationship. She had admitted that they had had a romantic relationship early in her career and that it was one of the most significant relationship of her life. She had also stated that once she had married Teddy, she and Deacon had a purely working relationship and even that had ceased recently. Rayna during the article had called Deacon out and basically told the world that while she had moved on from that young love, she had no idea why Deacon hadn't. Shortly after the article came out Rayna was announcing that she and Luke had called the wedding off. She stated that there was no third party involved but that didn't stop the video of Luke and Deacon fighting from going viral. Even now it was rare that they were seen alone together. There have been a rush of recent photos in the tabloid magazines hinting at something but to Candy they looked like a business lunch between old friends.
Now that Candy had finally hunted Deacon down, she knew that she would have to dig deeper to unravel the mystery Rayna was hiding. She scrolled through her contact list as she walked towards Deacon's house. Placing a call to the research division of the magazine she hoped they could get her the phone number she needed. After being on hold for a couple of minutes they patched her through. Drumming her fingers against her leg she waited for the phone to be answered, hoping she would be able to talk them into giving her an interview. Luke Wheeler hadn't given an interview to anyone since the wedding was cancelled. He certainly had been photographed and appeared in a lot of magazines since then, normally showing him falling out of a nightclub or having young starlets hanging off him. But he had remained tight lipped about the reason behind the break up. The media in Nashville had respected both his and Rayna's request for privacy, but Candy was determined to get answers.
Speaking to his manager she outlined why she wanted to interview him, stressing that she was looking at the country music scene of Nashville and how various artists had shaped the way country music was currently viewed by the mainstream industry. Bending the truth slightly, she exaggerated how much she thought Luke had contributed to this shaping of country music. She knew if she told them straight out that she wanted to know why they had broken up, she wouldn't get the interview. Deciding that approaching him from a purely musical angle would at least get them interested in talking to her. She hoped that mentioning that she had already interviewed other artists, including Rayna would persuade them to agree to see her. She headed towards Deacon's house while she waited for Luke's manager to call her back with an answer.
Her phone rang as she stood outside Deacon's house. It was Luke's manager returning her call. As she listened to him confirm that Luke would be available to speak to her later on in the week, a massive smile broke out on her face. The series of articles she was planning, including the one exposing the truth about the break up of country music's biggest stars was going to launch her career. She would no longer have to rely on the scraps that no one else wanted to do. Hanging up, she did a small internal happy dance before noticing for the first time the music coming from the house. It was clearly Deacon singing along with a female voice. Taking a couple of steps closer, so that she could hear better, Candy decided that it sounded a lot like Rayna. Before she could get even closer to confirm her suspicions the phone rang again. Looking down at the screen she saw that it was her editor. Rolling her eyes, she answered while also trying to concentrate on the female voice.