Maxine slips her phone out of the pocket of her shorts when it buzzes. It was another text message from their manager asking where the hell she was; their set started in twenty minutes.

It wasn't her fault she was late this time, it wasn't! Jared had given her the wrong directions to the venue, and so she parked on the completely wrong side. And lugging a guitar case wearing four-inch heels across a crowded park in the sweltering heat was not something Max had planned on doing.

She pauses and sets her case down, typing out a reply that she would be there soon. After putting her phone back in her pocket, Max grabs her case and continues across the field, heading towards the crowded fair. The smell of turkey legs and funnel cakes hit her nose and her mouth starts to water, she considers getting one, but soldiers on. That is until a large poster reading 'Free samples!' catches her eyes. Maxine makes a beeline for the stand, where a pretty girl with auburn hair, wearing a flowy dress and a flower crown, mans the rush of people like a pro.

"Hey! Welcome!" the girl smiles at Max as she deals with a customer. "If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!"

"Thanks," Maxine says, nodding. She tries all of the samples available: fruit with yogurt dip, some kind of zucchini noodle salad, and a turkey sandwich on a croissant. All of them were really good, really fresh and light on this warm day. "Did you make all of these?" she asks the girl.

"Not all of them. I did the salad," the girl explains, walking over to her; Max noticed the grey crutches on her arms helping her walk. "My partner did the rest."

"It's really good!" Max says.

"Well thank you," the girl smiles, "here: take a card. It's a 15% off coupon when you place an order."

"Wow, thanks," Maxine says, surprised.

"No problem. Tell your friends about us."

"I will!" Max nods. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you later," and off her words, Max hurries off towards the stage set up not far from the girl's stand.

"Here she is!" Gabbie calls from behind her drum kit.

"Nice of you to finally show up, Max," Kentucky says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry," Maxine apologizes. "But Jared needs to learn the difference between 'east' and 'west'" She blames, taking out her guitar and slipping the strap over her neck. She plugs into an amp and starts to play notes.

"Hey! Don't pull me into this! You have Google; you could have figured it out on your own," Jared says into the microphone, using their conversation as sound check. The patrons walking by chuckle at the scene before them, but Maxine and Jared don't notice.

"Oh: I did! But it was already too late." Max retorts, still miffed at her friend.

"Yeah, Jared. Remember: Never Eat Slimy Worms," Deacon adds

"Alright. Enough." Kentucky ends the bickering as fast as it had begun. "You need to knock it off. I'm not having it today!"

Ten minutes later, their set officially begins and Maxine turns it on for the thirty or so people watching them.

"Hey, guys! We are 'Kentucky Social'! We are a band based out of Nashville, Tennessee and this is our first show out here on the east coast. We are actually selling our first EP at the table over there," she points, "and the lovely Ms. Shay Butler will be happy to help if any of you guys are interested in getting one or any of the other merch we have back there. Okay. So, with that taken care of, this song is called 'Cattails'."

As she plays, Max watches the crowd; they seem to be enjoying themselves, especially after the band starts playing covers of songs they know and can sing along to. After a couple more songs, Max turns to Deacon and prompts him to talk.

"Okay," Deacon starts, "So this is our last song, and we just want to thank you guys for listening to us and supporting in any way you can. If y'all wanna follow us on social media, we are on Twitter and Instagram as TheKentuckySocialBand, so give us a follow and we might just follow you back," Deacon smiles, winking at a group of teenage girls sitting up front, causing them to squeal and rush to pull out their phones. "Alright, this one is called 'Hulk Smash' and it's on our new album. Enjoy."

Max had traded her acoustic guitar for an electric one, and as Gabby counts them off, she and Jared hit the first notes of the song, starting the 'lift hill' rhythm as they like to call it because it reminded Jared of going up the lift of a roller coaster. The high energy song was the entire bands favorite to record. But, from a technical standpoint, it was the hardest to play. Every part had its own complex melody and counter-melody, and the solo sections were designed to show the strengths of both the player and the instrument.

Zee, who played keys and sung backup, looked across the stage at Deacon and sees him struggling through his solo. Even after recording it for two days, he still hadn't mastered it, and at that moment, she could tell it was kicking his ass.

Maxine sees it too and starts hers a few bars early, rescuing her friend. She gets into the groove of the song and wails away on her guitar, knowing the crowd is with her when they start to cheer louder. Max doesn't see the frustration and hurt on Deacon's face; he had one chance to rock the solo and he couldn't even do it.

They finish the song, the final note echoing through the speakers, and their small audience cheer uproariously. Especially the group of teenagers in the front row. The band takes a bow, each member getting their few seconds in the spotlight. And when Deacon takes his bow, the teens in the front scream even louder, and Max rolls her eyes.

Once they're all backstage again, Deacon rips off his neck strap and comes very close to throwing his guitar into its case.

"I think that went well," Gabby comments with a smile.

"Yeah, so do I," Zee agrees, wrapping an arm around Gabby's waist. "For our first show out of state, we did good."

"I think the crowd liked it," Jared says. "They sure rushed the merch table pretty fast."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Maxine whispers to Deacon, trying to help her brother. But Deacon doesn't say anything, just shoves past her through the curtain separating backstage from the front of house. Max sighs and continues cleaning up, joining the conversation Jared and the girls have started.

Deacon has always been hard on himself, especially in the past eight months when they got a real producer who got them into a real recording studio and got their first EP made. He wanted to be perfect, like he had something to prove. He didn't, but Deacon Laythum was nothing if not hard-headed; his father's son.

[][]

Their next set wasn't until after the sun went down, so they all went in separate directions. Zee and Gabby headed towards the American Girl store to find a present for Zee's little sister, Deacon had calmed down and reluctantly followed Maxine and Jared deeper into the street fair.

"I have to show you this booth," Max says excitedly over her shoulder. "They have the best food."

"Food? She said food, right?" Jared asked, perking up like a puppy.

"Someone has the munchies, huh?" Max laughs, giving Jared a knowing look and hooking her arm through Jared's.

"Maybe."

Maxine has to roll her eyes. "Come on."

The food booth Max had stopped at earlier was still busy and the three friends wait their turn for a spot at the table. When room opens up, Max reaches in and hands samples back to the boys. "Here: taste."

She was looking for Deacon's reaction, food was always a sure fire way to get him out of a funk, but instead got Jared's.

"Okay, you were right: this is really good."

"Well, thank you!" The auburn haired girl says to them. "Hey! You came back!" she directs at Max.

"Yeah, Max, this is good," Deacon says, looking up, noticing the beautiful girl before him.

Max can see the change in her brother's face; how he stands up straighter, the double take he gives the girl behind the table. She can see the instantaneous attraction Deacon has.

And she prays for the girl's sake.

"Hey. Hi," Deacon stammers, quickly smoothing out his hair, extending out a hand to the girl.

"Hi," The girl smiles, completely smitten. She'd eaten the apple. Pricked her finger on the enchanted spinning wheel.

Max felt her body get hot, and not from the warm weather. She knew there was nothing she could do but sit back and hope this one didn't implode as bad as the last one.

"Was that you guys playing a little while ago?" The girl asks.

"Yeah, it was up," Deacon smiles.

"You guys were amazing!" The girl replies, shaking her head in slight disbelief.

"Thanks," Max answers, not giving Deacon a chance to refute her compliment. "We're playing again later tonight if you want to come check us out." The invitation is casual, almost said with a shrug, but she can see Deacon perk up.

I'm doing this for you, babe, Max thinks, don't fuck it up.

"Definitely," the girl smiles. "We're done here around five, I think, so I'll come over after." She gets pulled away when another customer gets her attention, though she does glance back at Deacon a few times.

"Come on, let's keep walking," Jared requests. They start to walk away and get a ways away before noticing Deacon isn't with them. "Deacon! Let's go, man!"

"Yeah," Deacon replies with a wave of a hand, slowly walking away, not taking his eyes off the girl.

Yep: he was totally smitten. Maxine silently prays for them both; hoping this spark would last and not fizzle out as quickly as it had come.

[][]

That night, under the glow of a ring of string lights, Kentucky Social plays their second show. The crowd is just as enthusiastic as the earlier one, and the band uses their energy to let their music ring out loud into the warm Fall night. It's the same set they played earlier, but somehow better; feels different in everyone's bodies.

The girl from earlier does show up, though she's with a friend, and Max notices them whispering to each other every so often, especially after Deacon's solo in 'Hulk smash' (which he crushes for the first time ever). Max sees Deacon returning their looks and amping up his showmanship for her, his smile wide. He looks to be actually enjoying their show; something she hasn't seen much from him as of late.

Maybe this girl is good for him, Maxine thinks as their set wraps up. They take their bows and thank the audience once more before heading backstage. Max has never seen Deacon clean up any show a fast as he did that night. It was like he turned into a little kid who was forbidden to watch cartoons until his room was clean. She follows him to the curtain and watches him make a beeline to the girl, knowing without seeing his face that he's using that 'flannel-wearing, horse-riding, "I can fix that" cowboy' personality he's famous for. Max sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, sending good vibes to the girl.

A few minutes later, Max appears from backstage carrying a load of gear to the truck they had rented. Deacon is still talking with the girl, though her friend was nowhere to be found. Max watches their conversation, the girl is laughing as she tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, and sees Deacon touch her bicep. Max continues to walk, gagging at how sacerine the scene was.

Were they suddenly living in a rom-com and no one told her?

She doesn't see them walk over to her, but hears them as they get close.

"Max! You remember Finn, right?" Deacon asks.

Finn. She has a name to the face. "Of course I do!" Max smiles. "Glad you came. Did you like the show?"

"Oh my god!" Finn groans. "It was so good! Even better actually hearing it up close rather than listening to distant grumbles," she laughs.

Maxine laughs too. "Good," she nods. "You guys wanna go out for a drink or something?"

"Actually," Deacon starts, both him and Finn locking eyes. "We were gonna go get food. Finn told me about this place that sounds really good."

"Oh! Cool, yeah, you guys have fun."

"You should come with us!" Finn says, spirited. She must have picked up on the slight drop in her voice.

"Nah. I don't want to be a third wheel," she says. "Really. You guys go. Have a good time. But next time: I'm coming with."

"It's a date," Finn agrees.

"Thanks, Max. I'll see you later," Deacon tells her with a quick hug before walking away with Finn.

She didn't see them for the rest of the night.

[][]

The next morning Deacon joins them at the breakfast buffet, dressed in jeans and a green tee shirt, carrying on as if nothing had happened.

"So-" Max starts before Deacon quickly cuts her off.

"Nothing happened Max."

"I wasn't gonna ask!"

"You weren't asking very loudly."

"What happened?" Gabby asks, curiously oblivious

"Nothing!" Deacon says, exasperated, not wanting to elaborate on the previous night's events.

"Deacon went on a date last night," Max says, taking a bit of her omelet.

"Max!" He's staring daggers at her.

"Was that supposed to be a secret? You said nothing happened."

"A date?" Gabby inquires with a saucy smile. "Do tell, Deacon. Do tell."

"There's nothing to tell," He says with a shake of his head. "We went to dinner and got a drink and then she went home and I went back to the hotel."

"Ooo," Gabby teases. "Is she cute? Did you kiss her? Did you get her number?"

"What, are you twelve?" Zee, interjects with a playful shove to their drummer.

"She's very cute," Max relays, pulling up the girl's Instagram account. She'd found it through a tagged photo of her on the account attached to the catering company Finn owned, which she got off the card Finn had given her.

"Oh wow!" the other two girls gasp, taking the phone and sharing it.

"Deacon, tell me you got her number. You'd be stupid not to," Zee says, enamored with the girl.

"He got her number," Max says, reading her brother like a book.

"How do you know?" Deacon asks.

"Because I know you, Deacon Laythum. You're the kind of guy who always gets a girl's number. Who makes sure to text her to make sure she got home safely. The kind of guy who sends funny memes to said girl knowing they will make her smile."

She's not wrong, and the look on Deacon's face lets her know he knows it too.

"But, let me tell you this, Deacon: She's not like the other girl's you've gone out with. No, no. This one is special," Max says. "This one, from the moment you locked eyes, took your heart and head and jumbled them up like jelly beans. She claimed your entire being with one smile. You did more than get her number. You got her."

The others watching take notice of the change in Deacon's expression but don't say anything.

Maxine eats for another few bites before talking again. "She has you. And you have her. So, if you hurt her like the others. If you do something to make her lose that smile that made you fall in love, it will do more than hurt for a few days. You will feel like you've lost a part of your body."

Their table falls silent once Maxine finishes her soliloquy; they don't know what to say after that.

"Wow, Max, go off, I guess," Zee says, breaking the silence, holding out a hand to slap five with her friend.

Maxine finishes her food, watching Deacon type furiously on his phone and then get up a moment later when it rings. Probably off to seek counsel from his brother.