Deacon was surprised when I told him I wanted another baby. He took a breath. "What?"

I snuggled a little closer. "I want us to have another baby."

He moved to lay on his back and ran his hand over his mouth. "Seriously?"

I propped myself up on my elbow and lightly ran my fingers over his chest. "Seriously. I mean, I grew up with a sister, you grew up with a sister. I just want Maddie to have a brother or sister. I don't want her to grow up being an only child."

Deacon was quiet for a minute. "But everything seems so good right now," he said finally.

"It'll just get better." I wondered what was really bothering him. "Why don't you want to do this?"

He hitched his breath and turned to look at me. "It's not that," he said. "It's just that I don't remember making Maddie with you. And I'll remember this. And it feels…I don't know, weird somehow."

I reached up and ran my hand through his hair. "I'm sorry about that, babe. I really am."

"I'm not mad, Ray. But this is a pretty big deal."

"Well, think about it this way. You were with Maddie practically from the day she was born. That's the most important thing. All the stuff that leads up to that, well, it's not all so pretty."

He rolled back on his side and put his arm around my waist. "Rayna, you were beautiful when you were pregnant," he said softly. "When I saw you that day in the park, I was so turned on by you. You just looked so beautiful."

I blushed, even though he couldn't see that in the dark. "Oh, Deacon, no. I was so big then."

He pulled me closer. "You had a baby inside you. That made you even more beautiful than you already were."

I smiled. "Well, then, you'd get to see me that way for nine months." I kissed him lightly. "One thing to think about is that while we're trying, we can make love. A lot."

He kissed me and turned us so that I was underneath him. "Then let's start practicing now," he said with a chuckle.

We'd been rehearsing for two weeks getting ready for my next tour when I woke up one morning feeling like I had the flu. I racked my brain trying to think if I'd been around anyone who'd been sick. I worried about Maddie catching something from me. Then I considered that maybe she had picked up something at pre-school and given it to me. All of a sudden the nausea overtook me and I jumped from the bed running for the bathroom. After I had brushed my teeth, I slunk back to the bed. Deacon looked concerned.

"You ok, baby?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No. I must have the flu." I crawled back in bed and snuggled up next to him. He kissed the top of my head and then he reached under the covers and ran his hand over my breast. I sucked my breath in. I felt a mix of arousal and a vague soreness. He kept at it, occasionally cupping it, but not really moving on from that, which was a little confusing. I looked at his face and saw that he was frowning. "What's wrong, babe?"

He took a deep breath, then moved his hand from my breast and rubbed it over his mouth. His eyes got wide and he looked at me with what looked a little like fear. He was worrying me. Had he felt something? "Ray, are you sure you aren't pregnant?"

Pregnant! Of course, we'd been trying, but I hadn't really expected it to happen this fast. But then, who was I kidding? All it had taken was one night with Deacon to get pregnant with Maddie. I laughed. "You might be right," I said. "What made you think so?"

His look of fear turned to one of lust and he reached again for my breast, this time running his thumb over my nipple and running his fingers over my skin in the way he knew got me hot and bothered. "Well, you got sick this morning. And then the girls," and he smiled and cupped my breast, "well, they're bigger." Then he ran his hand down to my stomach and ran his hand over it gently. "And you're getting a tummy."

I gasped. "Already?" He nodded. Then I narrowed my eyes at him. "How do you know about this stuff anyway?"

He smiled, then leaned in to kiss me. "I read." He shrugged. "I thought I needed to know about all this." He kissed me again. "I wasn't there the first time, so I thought I might need to get educated." He leaned in to kiss me again, this time sliding his tongue in my mouth, inviting me to do the same. And he moved his hand from my stomach and reached around my hip, pulling me towards him. I lifted my leg and hooked it behind him and he slid into me. Oh, this never stopped feeling good. I let myself relax into the moment, feeling him inside me, filling me up, taking me over the edge one more time.

When we were laying there facing each other, my leg still holding him close to me, our breathing heavy, I smiled. "I guess I should think about doing a pregnancy test to be sure." He leaned in and rubbed my nose with his. "How does this make you feel?" I asked. The one thing I had worried most about was what he had said so casually when I'd asked him how he could tell I was pregnant. He hadn't been there for any of my pregnancy with Maddie, except for that day I'd seen him in the park not long before Maddie was born. But he hadn't been a part of any of it and I was afraid he would resent me for that as we experienced this pregnancy together.

"I'm happy, Ray," he said softly, rubbing my back. "Really happy."

I went to the nearest drug store and picked up a pregnancy test. And then a couple more. Just in case. When I got home, Deacon was singing to Maddie. He stopped and looked at me. I held up the bag. "I'll be back in about five minutes," I said. He nodded and I hurried to the bathroom.

As I waited to see what the results were, I thought about when I had done this same thing when I was pregnant with Maddie. Things were a lot different then. Deacon was struggling with his drinking, he hadn't even remembered being with me the night Maddie was conceived. In some ways that seemed like such a long time ago and like it had happened to a different person. It had not been a completely unhappy time in my life, but it had been very unsettled. I hadn't thought about Teddy in a long time, but I still felt grateful that he hadn't turned his back on me then. The deal we'd made turned out to be an awful one, but I had really not known what to do. Deacon was in rehab, I was pregnant, and I didn't know what options I had. Teddy had offered a safe place to land and, for a while at least, it had seemed like a good place to be. But, as always, just seeing Deacon again was enough to turn my whole life upside down. I had made a decision that a lot of people thought was foolish, but it had turned out to be the best decision of my life. And now I was waiting to see if Deacon and I were going to have another baby.

The last time I'd done this I had dreaded the result. I had cried tears of fear and worry. I hadn't felt so joyful that time. But this time would be different. I wanted to have Deacon's baby and I was so happy to be able to do it with him this time, instead of hiding it from him. It was time. I reached for the stick and held it up. There it was. A clear plus sign. I was pregnant! Suddenly I was crying, but this time it was tears of happiness. I reached down and put my hand on my ever so slightly rounded stomach. A baby! Deacon and I were going to have a baby! I couldn't wait to tell him the news.

I got up and walked out to the living room. Deacon stopped his singing and looked at me. Maddie turned and looked at me too. I burst into tears and waved the stick, nodding my head and grinning like a fool. Deacon slowly put his guitar down, got up and walked over to me. He gathered me in his arms and kissed me. When he pulled back, I could see the tears in his eyes and he was smiling. "Are you happy?" I asked.

He kissed me again. "I'm happy, baby. So happy."

And then Maddie jumped up and came running over to us, jumping up and down and patting our legs. "What? What?" she cried.

We turned to look down at her and then Deacon picked her up and gave a big kiss on the cheek. "Mama's going to have a baby, Maddie," he said with a big smile on his face. "We're going to have a baby."

I watched her face as she processed that, not sure how she would respond. And then she clapped her little hands and yelled "Yay!" I smiled at her and then Deacon and I smiled at each other. I felt so happy, so complete. This was such a perfect day.