After what seemed like hours of rehearsing, Reba had finally had enough and told the band to head off for some relaxation before the show that night. Taking a well deserved break, she drank some water and sat down on the stage...as great as cowboy boots were..they were not kind to your feet after being on them all day. Closing her eyes, she didn't notice Narvel walking back into the room with a piece of paper in his hands, looking at it intently with a pencil in his mouth. He didn't look up until he got to the stage and noticed Reba, sitting with her legs out in front her crossed at the ankle and leaning on her arms which were spread behind her back, almost as if she were bathing in the stage lighting. As he stepped closer, Narvel watched the look on her face as it went from tiredness to content, a small smile playing on Reba's lips as she felt herself melt into the floor. He felt bad, knowing that tomorrow that smile wouldn't be there, and the look on her face will have changed to that of which he never liked to see...sorrow.

Being so very quiet, he gently sat down on the stage and began looking over his list again. He knew that she needed this time to relax and get into her mindset for the show, plus it wasn't often that she got the time to settle down, so he let her have now, and when she was ready, she will let him know. So there they sat, on opposite ends of the stage, in complete and content silence.

After a few minutes of looking at the list, the words began to get blurry as his train of thought moved to Reba once more, he wondered if she knew he was there, for she had not moved from the spot he found her in, her eyes still closed and her breathing steady. He looked over at her and he wished to God he hadn't for what he saw took his breath away. The lighting on Reba made her glow a soft gold hue, almost as if she were an angel. The light had caught millions of dust particles surrounding her and when they caught the light they shone like glitter. Her profile was what captured him the most, her soft curls gently caressing her face and upper back - she had been letting them grow out, and he was silently grateful for that, for he thought she never looked more beautiful than when she was natural, no make-up and loose hair - she hated her forehead, always trying to cover it up, but he secretly hated it although she looked adorable with bangs. The angle at which her head was tilted made her nose more pronounced than usual, he realised then and there that he had always loved her nose, it was pixie-like, a gentle slope from the forehead into a upward curve and then down to a tiny round tip. Perfect.

Her mouth.

Dear Lord, why didn't he recognise this sooner? All of a sudden when looking at this woman why did he want to take her in his arms and gently kiss those lips? Those soft, full lips, that when she sang, they would contort around her words so delicately that he was amazed the first time he watched her sing, when that powerful voice came out with just a glimmer of movement.
Those lips were responsible for the best smile he'd ever seen. He loved it when she smiled big, grinned or just sweetly sloped up one side of her mouth. And those dimples, they were to die for. This glimpse of Reba's profile slowly came to an end when he reached her chin, again tracing the line from her lower lip - on which he wanted to gently suck on and nibble - he saw that it continued down into a perfect "S" shape, gliding down into her swan like neck...

Narvel abruptly moved his eyes away when his thoughts became too much to handle. How can one tiny detail, change the way he looked at his boss from respect to...lust? He was a married man for Pete's sake and shouldn't be thinking like this. So why was it so hard to tear his eyes away from her in that moment? Maybe it's the tiredness from today, they have been working hard...or maybe the fact that his wife isn't here and he's getting lonely? yeah that's it, he thought, you're looking at Reba like that because you haven't gotten any for a while you...hound dog.

As he was shaking his head to himself, he went back to focusing on the paper infront of him, making little changes to ideas here and there.

"How long have you been sitting there?"

Narvel quickly glanced up and turned his head in Reba's direction, her soft Oklahoma accent bringing him out of his work.

"Um..not long..I didn't want to disturb you so I just sat here till you were ready"

Reba looked at him for a long time, her eyes sparkling like a deep ocean in the soft light. He felt like he was being scrutinized for a while until she smiled at him, although somehow, this one didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Thank you, I appreciate it"

He smiled back.

She scooted on closer to him and sat cross legged with her hands clasped together in her lap.

"So...this the list?"

He nodded

"May I see?" She held out her hand and looked in his eyes

"Su..sure"

He handed over the piece of paper, all the while looking down bashfully. She took the paper and looked it over, humming when she noticed something appealing to her. With her sitting this close, Narvel was becoming aware of how good Reba smelled, her sweet scent a mix of vanilla and oranges, Good Lord, he thought, I'm a dead man.

After waiting for her to finish reading for a few minutes, she gently reached out and grabbed his pencil which was still in his hand, their fingers touched briefly, but this only appeared to affect Narvel.

"Do you mind if I make a suggestion?" she asked softly

"No, go ahead"

"This one here, number 9? I think that if maybe we change the backdrop to a deeper blue, then it would help the transition into the last song, as the stage has to be in complete darkness. If it's a too brighter colour then the change would be less seamless...you know what I mean?"

Amazing. He thought. I was just about to write that down before she startled me. He smiled.

"That's exactly what I thought"

She looked up at him, her eyes shining with excitement

"Really?! That's great!"

His smile got bigger.

Hers, went all the way up to her eyes, dimples an' all.

After going over the list once more to reiterate all that changes they had made, Reba and Narvel both sighed in happiness. They had worked as a team and had gotten a great result out of it. Now all that was left was to put them into motion, something that Reba could tell Narvel was having trouble with.

"Can I ask you something?" she said

"Sure"

"Why didn't you show this to Charlie? These are great ideas Narvel, it looks like you have been thinking about them a while now, I'm sure you've wanted to get them out there"

Narvel looked down onto the stage floor, all of a sudden very nervous.

"Come on, you can tell me" She put her hand on his shoulder

"I guess i just didn't want him puttin' me down in front of the guys. I knew that if I'd shown you first then I would have at least one person on my side. Charlie would just straight up say no"

Reba kept her hand on Narvel's shoulder, looking down at his hands, noticing how they still looked so soft and gentle, despite long hours of playing the steel guitar.

"Narvel if you keep having ideas like these I will always be on your side. You are a talented man. No one else I know in the business would have thought of all this for just one show, for one singer who most of the country hasn't heard of. You put a lot of effort into this, and I appreciate it. Charlie on the other hand, he just takes some wearin' down. Don't worry about him, leave that part to me, kay?"

"I don't want to be a cause of something Reba"

"What do you mean?"

Narvel took a deep breath.

"I know, like the rest of us, what's been goin' on with you and Charlie. And I fear if you bring this up when you're trying to work things out, that it may bring out another fight between you two, and I don't wanna be the cause of that, I don't want to be the cause of your sadness"

Reba was in shock. She thought she had hidden it well, after every fight with Charlie she would hold her head up high and pretend that it didn't hurt her, but as soon as she was alone, the tears would fall, and her heart would hurt just that tiny bit more than the day before. Had she really been that careless that she had shown her real feelings, maybe even for a second. Maybe. But that didn't shock her, what shocked her was that Narvel the quietest of the bunch, had been the only one to mention her feelings rather than their own.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that, you're my boss and what you and your husband talk about is none of my business"

Reba stopped him with her hand, when he looked up he saw that her eyes were shining more brightly than before. Were those tears?

"Don't ever apologise to me. That was a sweet thing for you to say. I'm just sorry that you saw that side of me"

"That side is what makes you human Reba, you can't be this non stop workaholic happy as larry performer all the time, you need to have a place where you can just be...I dunno...Reba"

Reba smiled, grateful for this man in this moment.

"Narvel, you sure don't do things by halves do ya? when you wanna make a girl cry, you make her cry"

"I'm sor-"

Reba held a hand up

He smiled.

After composing herself, Reba jumped up from the floor and held her hand out for Narvel, pulling him up with her.

"How's about we go and get some real food, since you guys left me starvin' back there".

Narvel had the courtesy to look ashamed...only a little though.

"I wanna get to know you. Heck! tell me your life story Narvel Blackstock, we got," she looked at her watch, "exactly three hours till showtime" she grinned at him.

Narvel laughed a good hearty laugh. It took Reba a full minute to lose the widespread grin on her face from hearing it.

"You got it, Red"