Deacon isn't there yet, but Juliette followed the route Rayna had texted her, she found the little bridge and the picnic table, and she's almost sure she's at the right place. She can see why Rayna and Deacon would meet here. It's removed and quiet. No one would bother them.

She waits another ten minutes until she starts to wonder if she is, in fact, at the right place. She is about to take her phone out of her purse to call Deacon when his truck pulls up on the bridge.

"Sorry, I'm late," he apologizes as he jumps down a little wall on his way to join her on the picnic table. He squeezes her shoulder before he sits down next to her. "Listen, Ray, I'm sorry I snapped at you last night."

"It's okay," Juliette says, although she has no idea what he's talking about. It must be something that happened after she'd stormed out of Soundcheck.

"But I still think you and Juliette could benefit from each other if you would both stop being so stubborn. Juliette is ready to."

She frowns. Juliette is ready to? Either he's bluffing or there is something Rayna didn't tell her. Deacon has a way of looking at Rayna, though, that makes it difficult for Juliette to do anything but agree with him. "I think I could try," she says.

Deacon is different when he's with Rayna. Different than the Deacon Juliette knows. She'd noticed that very early, the first time being that night at the Bluebird when he'd called Rayna to the stage instead of her. When Juliette is in a room with the two them, it often feels like there is some silent conversation going on between them that no one else is catching on. It annoys her, but she thinks about Teddy and wonders what it must be like for him. It must be hell.

All of Deacon's attention is directed at her now, and it's a little... unsettling. She isn't used to it. She isn't used to him looking at her like that.

They keep quiet for a moment then, just soaking up the sun and listening to the sound of water, and maybe she imagines it, but at some point she could swear Deacon is starting to lean toward her. She follows suit, she starts to lean toward him, and—

"Ray, what are you doing?"

She pulls back. Crap. "I'm sorry, I thought..."

He looks at her like he doesn't know who she is. He hops down the table. "I'm going to go now," he says.

She watches him walk away before she closes her eyes, cursing herself. Crap, crap, crap. What did she do? Rayna is going to kill her. Well, the silver lining is that as long she's in Rayna's body, Rayna can't actually kill her. At least, she hopes so.

—

The moment Rayna sees Juliette show up at the house instead of calling, she knows something's wrong.

"It's possible I screwed up," Juliette confesses.

Rayna should have seen it coming. What were the chances Juliette Barnes would go 24 hours in her body without messing something up?

"It wasn't entirely my fault, though," Juliette tries to defend herself as she plops down on the couch.

"Of course it wasn't," Rayna scoffs. "What did you do?" she asks, and she decides it would probably be a good idea to sit down too for this.

"It's possible I tried to... kiss Deacon."

Rayna's head drops, and she buries her face in her hands. "Why, oh, why would you do that?" she asks, the sound of her voice muffled. She can't look at Juliette or she's going to kill her which amounts to killing herself.

"I see how you and Deacon look at each other. All his songs are about you. And then you guys meet at your spot," she says, drawing air quotes with her fingers, "while you and your husband sleep in separate bedrooms. I misinterpreted the signs." There's a beat. "So, you and him, you never..."

Rayna finally removes her hands from her face to look at Juliette. "No, Juliette. I'm married."

"Well, maybe your mind refuses to, but your body definitely did want to."

Rayna pulls a horrified face. "How did Deacon react?"

"He stopped me, and honestly, he looked a little pissed at, well, you."

Her relationship with Deacon is complicated enough at it is, especially since she canceled the tour and she fired him from the band. They are walking a very thin line. It would be very shady of her to try to kiss him out of the blue after all that. Of course he is pissed. She doesn't know how to fix that now, and she doesn't trust Juliette to do it for her. Not anymore.

"What do you want me to do?" Juliette asks.

"I can't stress this enough, nothing. For the love of God, please do nothing."

Juliette rolls her eyes and raises her hands in surrender. "Fine by me." She looks at the clock on the wall. "If we're finished here, I should go. Your body is supposed to be at Liam's studio in 20 minutes."

She gets up and heads for the door, but after a few steps, she stops and turns around. "Just to be sure, you're not sleeping with him either, right?"

"Juliette!"

"Alright, alright, I was just checking."

—

All she's been thinking about since Juliette left is that she needs to fix things with Deacon. She has no idea how, but what she knows is that she needs to see him. Even if she can't point blank talk to him about it, at least she will know where his head is at.

She's pacing back and forth, trying to come up with some plan, when she notices the envelope that Deacon brought earlier and that she left on the kitchen counter. She realizes she forgot to tell Juliette about it, but it had been the last thing on her mind after what had happened.

And then, she gets an idea.

She knows she shouldn't, she has a feeling Juliette won't like it, but it's Juliette's fault she is in this situation in the first place.

—

"Thanks for driving me there."

Deacon picked her up at the house after she'd called to ask if he could drive her to the rehab center. She isn't proud of herself for coming up with this idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"I didn't feel like going alone," Rayna adds, hoping it will sound believable.

"I get it," Deacon says. "I'm glad you called. Jolene's going to be really happy to see you."

Half an hour ago, Rayna didn't even know Juliette's mom's first name was Jolene. She had to google it.

Deacon has his eyes on the road, and Rayna glances at him a few times from the passenger seat. She needs to find a way to bring the subject up without being too obvious.

"I called Rayna, like you told me to," she decides to lie.

"Yeah?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"We agreed we should find a compromise about the song," she lies again. Deacon frowns at that, and she wonders if she might have gone too far to be credible. "What?" she asks.

"Nothing, you're just... full of surprises today."

He gets silent again, and she realizes she isn't going to get anywhere like this. She clears her throat. "How are things between you and Rayna lately?" she asks, and Deacon almost chokes.

"Seriously, what is going on with you today, Juliette?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you'd usually rather eat glass than talk about Rayna."

"I'm trying to show interest in your life, that's all."

"Well, please... don't."

He stops talking altogether after that, and they drive the rest of the way in silence. He only speaks again once they've arrived and he's found a spot in the visitors parking lot.

"I'll wait here," he announces.

She frowns. "You're... not coming with me?"

"No, I think it would be better if you go alone." He puts a hand on her forearm. "It'll be alright."

She looks at the building. This is the part of the plan she didn't really think through. Not only did she go nowhere with Deacon, but now she's going to have to face Juliette's mom alone.

She realizes she royally screwed this up.

—

Juliette knows she's going to regret this, but she can't help.

"What do you think of Juliette Barnes?"

Liam takes his eyes off his computer screen and turns around on his chair. He waits a few seconds before he says, "Nice rack. Okay voice. Packaged to a tee for 14-year-olds."

She knew she shouldn't have asked. She feels the need to defend herself. "I think there's more there."

Liam gets up from his chair and pretends to check her head. She swats him away. "What are you doing?"

"Checking for head injury," he snarks. "Did you hit your head overnight? Weren't you there last evening when she was acting like a spoiled pop tart?"

Juliette really, really shouldn't have asked. She grabs her purse and gestures to the studio's entrance. "I'm going to go now."

Liam looks confused. "Did I miss an episode?" he calls out, but she's already out the door.

—

Juliette had thought the toughest part of being Rayna Jaymes would be to deal with the girls, but in the end, they had turned out to be the best part of her day. Most of the time, they are the ones making all the conversation. Daphne, especially, is a walking ray of sunshine. That girl is in a good mood all the time.

The rest of Juliette's day, on the other hand, hadn't gone... so great. Between the Deacon thing, Liam being an ass and Bucky who had kept calling to know what she is planning to do about the anniversary song... she just had enough.

The only one she hasn't heard from yet is Teddy. Not even a text. Not that she's complaining, but she wonders if it's something she should worry about. When the girls had asked her if Dad was going to be there for movie night, she'd been honest, she'd told them she had no idea.

She's in the kitchen now, making popcorn while the girls are in the living room still trying to agree on a movie. Rayna had texted earlier to tell her to call when the girls would be asleep. It had been the first sign of life she'd gotten from Rayna all afternoon.

Juliette is getting the popcorn out of the microwave when her phone beeps. It's a text from Teddy saying he's sorry, but something came up.

She puts the popcorn in a bowl, takes the lemonade out of the fridge and heads to the living room. "It's going to be the three of us," she tells the girls. "Your dad has to work late."

Maddie puts the DVD in the player and turns the TV on. They all settle on the couch, and Daphne snuggles next to Juliette, her head resting against her shoulder. Juliette smiles.

Yes, these two really have been the best part of her day.

—

TBC