Thought it was time for a slightly fluffier chapter.
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Rayna sat in her car on route 40. She was stuck in traffic again on the way to the Highway 65 offices. "When are they going to be done with that damn construction," she thought to herself. She turned on the radio and settled in for a long commute.
It had been a week since Philly. They'd had a long talk with Maddie in the morning, and she had been grounded since then. It had been more than an eventful weekend jam packed with ups and downs, but the one thing that Rayna couldn't get out of her head was that night sleeping in Deacon's arms. She could still feel the heat of his body as it was pressed against hers, smell his scent that always drove her wild. She was lost in thought when the woman behind her honked. "Sorry" Rayna waved as she inched forward five feet, but she still couldn't get how good it felt to be near him out of her mind. She'd wanted to pull him closer, hell she wanted to do a lot of things to him that wouldn't have been appropriate with their daughter in the room next door. "Damn it," she thought out loud. "Why'd he have to be so sexy?"
She let her thoughts drift again, this time further back to the last time they'd made love the morning before the CMAs, now over a year ago. It was one of the first times she'd let herself wander back there in her mind. For so long she had done her best to block out the memories of those few short months they'd been back together. He'd woken her up in the morning, peppering kisses on her shoulder and back, snaking his arm around her stomach and pressing against her. He managed to get out an "I love you," in between planting kisses on her neck that sent waves of heat through her whole body.
"I love you too," she cooed back. Deacon turned her body beneath his so he was hovering over her. Then he brushed the hair away from her face. "I don't want to hide anymore baby. I want everyone to know that you're mine. Let's go to the CMAs together." Rayna looked up into his baby blue eyes and she realized there was nothing more that she wanted in the world. "Let me just tell the girls, but yes, it's a date."
"Good, I'll be there at 6:30 to pick you up." Deacon's smile couldn't be bigger and she could still feel his joy as he covered her mouth with his and slid his hands down her body and under her ass so that she was pressed flush against him. Rayna remembered feeling him inside of her, how close to him she felt at that moment. How she thought they'd never have to be separated again. Now she didn't even know if Deacon wanted her back.
Just at that moment Dolly Parton's Will He Be Waiting for Me came on the radio and it was more than Rayna could handle. The tears slid freely down her face at the realization of how much she missed Deacon, and how unsure she was that she's ever have a chance with him again.
The lyrics to the song cut a little too close to home.
I can still see that lonesome road stretched out before me
The road that led me out of his life
I can still feel the tears he cried on my shoulder
The day that I told him good-bye
I never should'a left him
Never should'a gone
Oh what a crazy fool I've been
She cursed herself for being so scared when he'd shown up at her door all those months ago. Hiding with Luke wasn't a solution for anyone, and just made everything so much worse.
He will be waiting for me
He will be, won't he
Or could it be his love for me has faded and has died
He will be waiting for me
He will be, won't he
Or will I find that this time
I'll be the one to cry
Once again Rayna was woken from her revelry by a honk. She wiped the tears from her face and drove on into whatever it was ahead for her. She knew that whatever was in her future, she was the one who'd gotten herself into this mess.
##
Deacon was up at the cabin. He needed a couple of days to clear his head. He knew that all teenagers experimented with alcohol, Maddie wasn't unusual, but he just worried about her more since she had his blood running through her veins. Maddie apologized in the morning through the pain of her hangover and promised to never do it again, but he knew that he and Rayna and Teddy couldn't always be there to make sure that she stuck to that promise. This is what kept him up at night. Well that and the thoughts of Rayna that were still running through his head.
When she'd chosen Luke over him back in May, Deacon was sure that he'd never hold her again, but there he was holding her close all through the night as their daughter slept off her vodka induced haze in the room next door. It had been such a rough night it was really just for comfort, or at least that's what he told himself. He tried not to think about how excited it was making him to feel her skin rubbing against his, how her hair always smelled like lilacs after a rain.
This was all too much for him. She was overwhelming his senses and she wasn't even here at the moment. Deacon headed outside and grabbed a ladder from his tool shed, then he proceeded to climb up to his roof to clear the gutters. He tried to distract himself, but being at the cabin, the place that he'd bought for Rayna, that he'd thought they were going to grow old in, it was too distracting. He rested his head on the edge of the roof and sighed. He had tried to push it down, but the ache in his heart was still there. He could try to deny it, but it wouldn't do any good. He knew he still wanted her, wanted to live his life with her, make dinner with her, drive the kids to school with her, hell, he even wanted to do the laundry with her. All those mundane things, he still wanted them, and he wanted them with her. He also couldn't 100% get passed what had transpired in the last few months. He knew Rayna loved him, and knew her well enough to know that she'd just been scared when she'd chosen Luke, but that didn't make it hurt any less. As he climbed back down and sat on the front porch he realized that he was willing to still fight for them, but Rayna had to ask him to fight this time. He wasn't willing to do it alone anymore. If she wanted them to work she needed to let him know that.
Deacon looked out at the lake and remembered the first summer they'd spent up here. He'd bought a canoe and they were out in the middle of the lake, Rayna in the front and Deacon in the back. She was shirking her rowing responsibilities and was just stretching herself out in the polka dot bikini she'd recently bought. "Hey up there, not complaining about the view, but maybe you want to help me row so we're not stuck out here all day. Rayna flashed her 1000-karat smile at him, the one that always got him right in the heart no matter where they were. "I need to work on my tan so I don't look all pasty up on stage."
"Darlin' you could never look pasty. Don't get me wrong, I love watching you stretch out like that, especially in that little bikini, but we're never going to make it back to shore at this rate."
"Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Did I not mention I was thoroughly enjoying the view of you in that little bikini?"
Rayna laughed. "Big strong man, I think you can get us back to shore on your own."
A wicked smile appeared on Deacon's face. "Or maybe we should just swim." Deacon flipped the boat surprising Rayna as they both ended up in the lake. When they popped up she was screaming and he was just watching her laughing. She swam over to him half heartedly hitting him. "I can't believe you Deacon Claybourne. I could have drowned."
"Baby, you are one of the best swimmers I know, and besides, I would have saved you." Deacon pulled her into his arms until she was pressed against him. The lake wasn't very deep so he was able to stand and still keep both of their heads above water. Rayna wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. "I am a good swimmer, but I'm still mad at you." Deacon leaned in and kissed her first softly and then more passionately as the kiss deepened. He pulled back for a second. "How about now?"
"Well, maybe a little less mad. Let me see if I can forgive you all together." Rayna pulled Deacon's head towards hers once again capturing his mouth with her own. As he felt her tongue battle with his, he could feel himself starting to get excited. He untied the back of her bikini and let it float off as he swam them to a place on the edge where a rock both secluded them and provided a hard surface.
Deacon smiled to himself as he remembered that it was months before they found the top of that bikini. Then he shook his head trying to get rid of the image of her 25-year-old body naked on the rock as they both sunned themselves in the nude for the rest of the day. "Man," Deacon said to himself as he rubbed the scruff on his face. "I need a better distraction."
Deacon headed in and picked up his guitar. He strummed a few chords as he spent the rest of the day writing a song. It was a good distraction; of course it was also a song about a girl in a purple polka dot bikini.