It had been Merle's idea. "Get the fuck outta this town for a while Darlene," he'd said. "My buddy has a job lined up for you. It's a gold mine."

When he found out what and where the gold mine was he'd told his brother to go fuck himself. He wasn't working for some old lady widow in the middle of nowhere for the entire summer. But the next night his daddy beat him so hard he'd passed out and Daryl changed his mind. He wasn't going to like it, but he did need to get out of the hell hole he lived in with his abusive fuck of a father. Let the asshole find a new punching bag, he thought, at least for the summer.

So there he was driving an old piece of crap pick-up Merle had confiscated from some dipshit who didn't have money to pay for the coke he'd ordered. Daryl hadn't seen a house for 10 miles and the last town he passed must have been 5 miles before that. There had to be houses around somewhere. Someone had to own the wheat fields that spanned out as far as the eye could see.

Daryl glanced down at the piece of paper with directions. He had already passed the last landmark and was looking for a driveway on the right. Finally he saw it and signalled his turn. You dumbass, he thought, he hadn't seen a car in half an hour, signalling was utterly pointless. Daryl bumped down the long drive, dust flying up behind him. There were fields of wheat to his left and something else, maybe corn, to the right, too early in the season for someone who didn't know shit about crops to tell.

As he pulled up in front of the house Daryl saw a few people working over by a large barn. He put the truck in park, killed the engine and jumped out.

A young woman came waking out of the house. She was cute, with short spiky hair, dressed in tight jeans, cowboy boots and a blue v-neck tee. Daryl was surprised to see so many people around. The way Merle made it sound, when he was teasing Daryl about losing his virginity to some old lonely widow, was as if it would just be the two of them. Him and this Carol chick he had yet to meet.

"Hey, your mom here?" Daryl asked, when the woman walked up to him. He assumed since she came out of the house and was heading to greet him that she must be the widow's daughter.

She smiled at him, ignoring his question. "You must be Daryl," she extended a hand. "I'm Carol."

He was pretty sure his mouth was hanging embarrassingly open. "You're Carol?" He eyed her suspiciously, "yeah right." He released her hand. "What are you, like 22? 23?" he added.

"25 actually," Carol replied, smiling at him. "How old are you?" she shot back.

"17. 18 next month," Daryl replied.

Carol crossed her arms and looked at him smugly, "Ah yes, 17... I was married at your age."

"Come on, you're shitting me. You can't be a widow. You can't own all this," Daryl waved his hand.

Carol nodded, "oh but I do." She flashed him another smile and Daryl noticed how it lit up her whole face. "I'll tell you about it sometime, but for now grab your stuff, I'll show you to your room." She turned and started walking towards the house. Daryl scrambled for his back pack out of the bed of the truck and trotted after her, thinking maybe it wasn't going to be quite as bad as he was expecting.

While they walked through the farm house to his room Carol started to fill him in on various things. "We're up before the sun every day, work until the sun goes down. We eat supper, then shower before bed. Sundays are different," she added. "We do the morning chores, then shower before church..."

"Oh I ain't going to no church," Daryl interrupted.

"Oh good," Carol smiled sweetly at him. "You can stay here and finish milking. We always struggle to get that done before church." Daryl actually considered going to church momentarily before he decided he'd rather have a deeper relationship with cows than God. "We have dinner earlier on Sundays, everyone eats together. No excuses," she warned. "And Sunday evenings everyone gets a break."

Carol opened a door and ushered him in. "Here's your room. Got your own bathroom over there," she pointed at a door. "Dresser, bed, there's linen, blankets and towels in the closet..." She thought for a moment, wondering if she had missed anything. "Any questions?"

"Can I smoke in the house?" Daryl asked, pulling out a pack.

"Nope, sorry," she replied. "You really should quit anyway."

Daryl snorted. He'd heard that a million times before. "Whatever," he muttered. It sounded rude and Carol snapped to attention.

"Listen to me little boy. I may not be old enough to be your mama but I have enough experience to deserve your respect." Daryl recoiled at her tone. "If you wanna stay you will be respectful, not just to me but to everyone here. If you can't do that then take your shit and go, now." Her blue eyes flashed.

Daryl's instinct was to tell her to fuck off and hit the road but the words that came out of his own mouth shocked him, "yes ma'am, you have my word."

"Good," she said, the smile returning. "Once you get settled come to the barn and I'll introduce you to the others."

Daryl watched her leave and wondered what the fuck just happened. He'd never backed down like that before from anyone but his daddy. But there was something about her that struck him. She had a confidence about her, and she obviously didn't take shit from anyone, and Daryl found himself respecting that, just like she wanted.

There was also the fact that she was smoking hot. If Merle had known he was sending Daryl to a bitch as sexy as Carol he'd have been there instead. Not for long though, Daryl though. She never would have put up with Merle's bullshit.

Daryl emptied his bag into the dresser and peeked out the window. He could see Carol talking to a tall guy in a cowboy hat. She threw her head back in laughter and Daryl felt his dick twitch in his pants. He knew he'd be jerking off later in bed thinking about his boss but right then he had to get it together and go meet the other douchebags he would be working with.

Daryl headed out to the barn. He met the cowboy hat first, his name was Cal. There was a young black kid named Andre and an older lady, Theresa. Carol informed him that some dude named Jeff and his fiancé Laura were out running a couple of the horses.

Carol sent him off with Cal to learn a few of the barn chores. Dark was approaching quickly and even though they hadn't worked for very long Daryl was exhausted when they were called inside for supper.

He tried to hide his yawns through the whole meal and answered questions as politely as he could. Laura was rather chatty. She annoyed him at first but by the end of dinner she wasn't so bad.

Andre excused himself to shower. When he returned a little while later he said good night and headed out the door. Cal disappeared next and when he returned he left as well. Daryl was confused. He had assumed they all had rooms in the house, like him.

Jeff stood up, "ready ladies?" Laura and Theresa stood.

"See you tomorrow Daryl," Laura said, waving as the three of them left.

Daryl looked at Carol, still seated at the head of the table. "Where did they all go?" he asked.

"Oh Andre and Cal sleep in the barn. And the other 3 are locals. Jeff and Laura drop Theresa off on their way home," Carol explained.

"Oh," he replied, still surprised he was the only one staying in the house.

Carol stood up. "Well I'm going to shower and turn in. 5 a.m comes early." She touched his shoulder on her way by, "night Daryl. Sleep well."

Daryl headed to his room and took a quick shower. By the time he crawled into bed he was exhausted. His plan of jerking off was lost the second his head hit the pillow and he started snoring.

A loud banging woke him from a deep sleep and Daryl groaned. He looked at the clock and buried his head under the pillow, wanting nothing more than to just go back to sleep. "Rise and shine, breakfast in 10," called Carol from the hallway.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he grumbled, climbing reluctantly out of bed.

Daryl stood in the bathroom brushing his teeth and looked into the mirror. "What the fuck have you got yourself into?" he asked his reflection.