Maddie and Daphne enthusiastically take Deacon's arms at once to pull him back into the warmth of the cabin.
"Just for a little bit, I can't stay long," he says, shooting Rayna an apologetic look over their heads. "I really gotta get back on the road before the storm hits."
"Of course."
"Not staying long" turns into a lot of s'mores and a round of checkers with the girls, and time slips away in a hurry.
Rayna comes in from refilling her coffee cup in the kitchen, and finds the three of them now sitting on the floor around the coffee table, Deacon dealing playing cards found in a junk drawer, and using nickels to bet with.
"Really, Deacon," she says mildly. "Are you trying to teach my girls to play poker?"
"It's math, Ray," he says, with a wink at Daphne. "That makes it educational, right?"
"Not quite."
Daphne giggles.
Rayna settles in the old comfty recliner and watches them for awhile, hiding her smile behind her mug, loving the way all three of them wear a version of the same face, intensely staring at their cards.
"Dad, you're cheating!" Maddie exclaims, after Deacon wins a hand with four aces. "You were hiding a card in your sleeve."
"What- no," he says innocently. "I would never do that."
Rayna loves the way the word "Dad" slips out so easily between the two of them now, as if it has always been this way.
His smile is contagious, that smile she has always secretly admired, that just gets better every year as he ages, and soon the girls are laughing too. After how much time she's spent away from them in the last six months, after all the confusion and heartache they've all been through, it is the best sound she's ever heard to hear the three of them laugh.
For a split second, she thinks about Luke, and realizes it is the first time all day he has crossed her mind. She doesn't miss him, and that seems wrong in a way, to not miss someone you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with. But this scene in front of her, this feels so unbelievably right that it heals the space in her heart that has been sore and bruised for the last week. It heals the regrets, the guilt, the sadness over everything. Little by little she feels like she is getting herself back.
She knows she made the right choice. Watching how happy her girls are right now just confirms it.
Deacon stands up to take a break, and he walks over and gazes outside. The snow is blowing ferociously now, leaving drifts against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"It looks like it's getting pretty bad out there," Rayna says casually.
"Guess so, huh."
"You should probably just stay," Maddie adds hopefully. "I mean it's your cabin. We just kind of invaded it."
Looking at those two sitting there with their pretty pleading eyes, he is a goner.
He glances over at Rayna.
Her expression is neutral. "Well if the roads are snowed over, you better just stay."
"Yeah," he says, his eyes meeting hers. "Guess I better. Wouldn't want to leave you girls up here in a storm all alone anyway."
"Besides," Maddie adds, breaking the gaze that travels between them. "I need to win all my money back from you, Dad."
After another round of cards and a few more s'mores, the sleepy-eyed girls hug them both good night and wander off to their room.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Deacon says with a knowing grin.
"Did what?"
"Let them distract me into hanging around long enough for the storm to hit."
"I did no such thing," Rayna says, feigning innocence. But he sees the lingering smile as she follows the girls to say goodnight to them.
When she comes back, he is sitting on the couch, feet up on the table with a cup of coffee in his hand, staring into the fire with a more somber expression than earlier.
She watches him from the doorway for a minute, wondering what he's thinking. It's strange to be on the other end of this scenario, but something is going on with him. She can feel it. Right now she pushes the worries away.
This is perfect, she thinks. Thank you, mother nature. What better way to start reconnecting than being snowed in for a few days. And it gives her excuse not to go back. She knows they need to, but the thought of all that faces her, she cringes even trying to imagine what the press is making of it.
"Hey," he says quietly as she approaches. "The girls asleep?"
"As soon as their heads hit the pillows," Rayna says. "You wore them out."
"They wear me out too. But I love every minute with them. You know that."
"I do," she stands in front of him and reaches out her hand, and he looks up at her, his blue eyes questioning.
"C'mon, Deacon," she says, and her eyes smile, teasing. "Dance with me. Like we used to."
His eyes say he sure as hell wants to. He is done pushing her away. Even though he knows he should, he can't. He needs her too much. His life means nothing without her in it.
"I'd have to be an idiot to say no to that." He sets down the coffee cup on the edge of the table, and stands up.
The record player in the corner has been playing quietly all day, and now she turns it up just a little, and the sweet sounds of "I'll be home for Christmas" float out around them as he takes her by the hand and spins her around, and then pulls her in closer.
Laughter rumbles softly in his chest. "You're not exactly home for Christmas," he reminds quietly.
"Don't you know, Deacon? Home is with your family, it doesn't matter where you are."
She gives a quiet content sigh, and leans her head against his shoulder. Everything else in the background just melts away.
It is the last song on the record. The music ends, and the fire is down to the last smoldering log, and somehow they are still dancing, swaying softly. It feels like a new beginning is starting right now. And it's so fitting that it would be here, in that place where their family had started in the first place with Maddie.
"Ray," he says, tightening his arms around her. "There's so much we gotta talk about, things I gotta tell you…" But right now, he just couldn't take away that light in her eyes, and the feeling that this was finally the beginning of their chance to get it right.
"Deacon," she whispers. "I miss us."
Her eyes are the brightest he's seen them in a long time. The dull ache in his chest that has been there for days lessens just a little as Rayna leans up and presses her mouth against his hesitantly at first, then more determined. It is a long and slow and sweet kiss, and so very, very right.
It takes him back for a second to the first time she'd shocked the hell out of him by kissing him when she was sixteen years old. They'd come so far, and been through so much, and the battle was far from over. But he'd fight, alright. He'd fight like hell to hold onto this, for as long as he could.
The energy between them lights his blood on fire instantly, and if her girls weren't asleep in the room down the hall, he would already be scooping her up to carry her down the hall to the room that he still secretly thinks of as "theirs".
She wants him just as much, and the ferocity of it surprises her. The fire has always been there under the ashes, but now that they've breathed on it and brought it back to life, there is no stopping it.
Rayna leans her forehead against his, and closes her eyes as she tries to make her breathing slow back to a normal pace. "That was nice," she whispers.
"Yeah," he says softly. "Real nice."
"I think I better…go. You know. To bed and all. The girls…."
"I think you better."
Rayna presses one more kiss to his lips, and reluctantly breaks away from the circle of his arms. "Goodnight, Deacon," she says, a little smile lingering on hers, and she leaves him standing there in the middle of the room alone and heads off to bed in the room next to Maddie and Daphne's.
Deacon sighs as he watches her go, knowing he isn't gonna be getting much sleep tonight without a cold shower or a trip outside on the porch to let the icy wind beat at him for a minute. Funny how she can make him forget everything. Even a potential death sentence. Right now doctor's appointments and cancer treatments are the farthest thing from his mind.
He's not much of a religious guy, but as he sits in the chair by himself and watches the fire die out completely, he says a silent prayer that this isn't going to be the only Christmas they get to spend together, but if it is, he will do his damnest to make it one they won't forget.
##########################
Rayna wakes to the smell of pancakes and girls giggling. She lays in bed for awhile, just listening, a smile crossing her face.
"Dad," Maddie is saying. "Those pancakes do not look like snowflakes."
Daphne is howling with laughter. "Snowballs! They look like snowballs."
"Well snowballs, then," he is laughing with them. "Don't I get credit for trying?"
"I suppose."
Rayna rolls out of the nice warm bed and walks barefoot down the hall, where she stands in the kitchen doorway wrapped up snuggly in a red flannel robe she may have pilfered from Deacon's closet a few days ago. She watches the trio at the counter.
"It's Christmas Eve, you know," Daphne says. "That means presents!" Her smile fades a little. "Wait, how are we going to get our presents if we're here?"
"How long do you think it will snow for?" Maddie asks. "Are we going to be snowed in here for Christmas?"
"I think so. But I'm sure Santa will find his way," Deacon says, scooping the rest of the pancakes off the griddle and onto a plate with a spatula.
"We're too old for that. We know Mom buys the presents, Deacon. I bet they're all at home in her closet."
"Oh come on now, that's no fun!"
Daphne is the first one to notice her mother standing there.
"Mom!" she exclaims. "We were going to make you breakfast in bed. Go back to bed."
Rayna laughs. "Well that's a beautiful thought, sweetheart, but I wouldn't mind at all having it out here with the three of you."
She goes to the windows and peers outside. It's the day before christmas. The blizzard is howling, and she can barely see the edge of the porch. None of them are going anywhere, at least for awhile. Inside the cabin is warm and cozy, and her heart is happy.
Their little trio has turned into a circle, and she doesn't mind it one bit.
Maddie and Daphne make short work of setting the places at the counter and get great amusement out of serving them restaurant-style.
'I'm really glad you're here," she says quietly to Deacon as they wait for the girls to bring their "orders".
He reaches over and squeezes her knee. "I am too."
After breakfast and kitchen cleanup, Daphne and Maddie spend a good portion of the day in their room, working on a secret project. They are making presents with things out of the craft box Daphne brought along, Maddie says, and Rayna and Deacon are not allowed to come in. The girls come out every once in awhile looking for glue or tape, or a piece of ribbon, but that is it.
With not much else to do, Rayna settles with Deacon in the living room, in front of the fire, with a cup of the girls' hot chocolate she has pilfered.
"Marshmallows and all," he teases. "You're livin now."
"It feels good to be away from everything," she admits. "I needed a break, maybe more than I thought."
He nods. "Sometimes you have to step out of the box a little and look at your life from the outside."
"Guess so."
He's got his guitar out, working on a new tune as always.
She goes to the bookshelf in the corner and pulls out the thick photo album that is still on the bottom shelf, knowing full well what it is. Pictures upon pictures of their first years together. There's three more albums like this on the shelf right next to it.
"My goodness," she murmurs. "Look at that hair. What was I thinking?"
Deacon stops playing for a second. He leans over and takes a look at the picture she is pointing to. "Your hair. My cut off shirts. We were a hot mess."
"Yes we were," she says, laughing softly. But something else is evident in those pictures, the way they look each other could never mean anything except two people that only have eyes for each other. They were young, and so damn happy. In deep. In love.
She sighs a little, remembering. "It was so much easier back then, wasn't it?"
"It was," he says quietly.
He starts playing again.
Somehow they start out on opposite ends of the couch, and before long, they're stretched out with their feet up, opposite of each other.
The memories hit her hard, how many nights that they'd spent here together doing this very thing, before the rest of the world got hold of them, and it all went to hell.
"That sounds nice," she says. "Got any words yet?"
All day they have been cautiously dancing around each other after that kiss last night. She wonders if it was a mistake, if it's too early, but it felt so good and so unbelievably right, that she thinks there is no way it can be. What they really need, what they've needed all along, is a slow and steady chance to start over.
"Nah, just had the tune in my head for a few days."
She just listens, enjoying that his playing and the occasional noise of the girls running through, and the buzz of the wind outside, the crackling of the fire are literally the only sounds in the world at that moment. It is peace to her ears.
After awhile, Deacon stops playing and rubs his temples.
He looks tired, she thinks. Then again, stuck in a cabin for two days with a bunch of females would run any man ragged.
"Are you okay?" she asks, concerned.
"I'm good," Deacon tries to sound like he means it. "Just got a headache is all."
"Why don't you go take a nap," Rayna says. "The girls and I are going to cook Christmas dinner from….well, whatever we can find. We'll wake you when it's ready."
"You sure? Just for a few minutes, maybe. It'd help."
"Go."
Deacon hates to admit it, but he is relieved to go down the hall and lay in the dark room and close his eyes. Just for a few minutes, he thinks.
Two hours later, Rayna is shaking him awake gently by the shoulder.
"Hey there," she says, her face hovering over his looking a little worried in the dim light of the bedroom. "Are you alright? You've been asleep for a long time."
"I'm okay," he says, shaking the fog from his head, and sitting on the edge of the bed. She hovers over him, still looking concerned.
"Is your headache gone?"
"Yep," he says. And it was. He felt a lot better. For now. "How's the Christmas prep going?"
"Well it turned into homemade chicken soup and bread. It's not exactly a Christmas feast, but I hope that sounds good."
"It sounds amazing," he says, reaching for her hand and squeezing it gently.
"Deacon…." She says again softly. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," he says. "Go on out there by the girls, I'll be out in a minute."
Reluctantly she leaves him in the dark room. He rubs his eyes, and regains his composure before getting to his feet. He didn't bring that damn bunch of pills along, partially because he didn't want Rayna or the girls to see them, partially because he really had been planning on being back home before he needed them again.
As much as he hates to admit it, he feels like crap without that medication. He needs to get home.
##################################################
After dinner, the girls are beyond excited to bring out the project they've been working on all day.
"We had this idea awhile ago," Maddie explains. "So we just brought everything along and finished it here. We borrowed a few pictures from the photo albums in the living room, so hopefully that's okay? Aunt Tandy gave us some pictures a few weeks ago, but we ran out."
"It's fine, sweetheart," Rayna says as she unties the ribbon on one box and Deacon opens the other. "I can't wait to see what's in here."
"This is our Christmas present to you," Daphne says proudly.
In the boxes, they find an old stack of miniature records, 20 or more in all, each hanging from a ribbon tied in a bow. The girls have pasted a picture on each one, and decorated them beautifully with buttons, glitter, anything they can find.
"We thought you could hang them on the Christmas tree," Maddie says. "And then it'll really be like a family tree."
"Oh, these are beautiful," Rayna says softly, picking up the first one. There is a black and white picture on the front of her with the girls, when Daphne was just a new baby wrapped in a tiny blanket. Her eyes blur a little with tears, as she looks at that picture and thinks just how time fast has gone by.
"They sure are," Deacon says next to her, a lump in his throat. The one he's holding has a picture on it taken on a tour bus back in the day. He's asleep with a guitar next to him, and barely able to see out from behind it, a 3 or 4 year old Maddie is cuddled up asleep next to him.
He knows she got that picture from the book in the living room. It's one of his favorites, one that he's looked at a hundred times or more since he found out Maddie was his.
"Come on, let's hang them on the tree," Daphne says excitedly, taking her mom's hands, while Maddie takes Deacon's.
He looks back at her, and holds out his other hand for Rayna.
Her heart melts as she rises out of her chair, and her fingers tangle with his. So familiar. So right. Sometimes she wonders why she ever fought this so long, because letting it happen is so much easier.
Together the four of them hang the collection of ornaments on the tree and stand back to admire their work.
"Most perfect thing I've ever seen," Deacon says.
"It's like a real family tree," Daphne chimes in.
"Yes," Rayna says softly. But her eyes are not so much on the tree, as the three people standing beside her. "It most certainly is."
#################################
Christmas morning.
The blizzard has stopped.
Rayna is the first one awake for once. She slips on her boots and coat and walks out onto the porch.
It is beautiful, perfection untouched. The sun coming up lends a sparkle to the blanket of snow, and the temp has warmed up enough that it is already melting quickly. So perfect and undisturbed. There is not a sound except the drip-drip of icicles melting from the eaves, the chirping of little birds fluttering about, and the quiet rush of the river.
After about ten minutes, she hears the door open behind her, and Deacon appears on the porch.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She says wistfully.
"It sure is," he says, but he isn't much looking at the snow.
"You think the roads are okay?" She asks. "Not that I'm in a hurry, but I'm sure Tandy is worried about us."
"I'm sure they're fine now," he says. "And Tandy does know you're here. I had to give in and to tell her. She was holding the girls' presents hostage until I did."
"Well we'll just…wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be good," she says uncertainly.
"You can't hide forever," he says quietly.
"I'm not hiding," she is indignant.
He raises his eyebrows.
"Okay fine," she says begrudgingly. "I'm hiding. But I know there's going to be a media firestorm over the wedding being called off, and it makes me sick to know the girls are going to be put right back in the middle of that."
"They're tougher than you're giving them credit for," he says. "And so are you."
Rayna shakes her head, leaning against the porch pillar staring out at the snow, hardly able to look him in the eye. "You know, sometimes I swear you give me too much credit. All the awful ways I've gone and screwed everything up between us….keeping Maddie from you…my relationship with Luke…." Her bottom lip trembles. "It's such a mess," she whispers. "How can I ever fix all of it?"
"Well," he says, and his hand slide around her waist, pulling her in to lean back against him, and his voice soft next to her ear. "You wanna keep kissing me like you did last night, that could help."
"Deacon, be serious," she says with a sigh. But her little smile says she's thinking about just as much.
"Come on," he says, kissing her neck and giving her a little shiver that has nothing to do with being cold. "You know the girls are awake in there. They're probably watching us through the window. Daphne is chomping at the bit to get at those presents we put under the tree last night. Just put it all behind you for now, okay?"
"Okay," she murmurs, turning and slipping her arms around his neck to hug him tight. "Merry Christmas, Deacon."
"Merry Christmas, Ray."
No present under the tree can ever match the one he is holding right then.