It was the cool, breezy late afternoons she'd come to love about Alexandria, especially the ones that he was around.
She matched her strides to his long ones as they strolled in companionable silence, wondering only half-seriously if she should grab his hand that was swinging absently at his side. There was a time when she would've done it in a second, if only to laugh satisfactorily at his reaction.
She gazed sideways at him, taking in the way his bangs fell over his face as he looked down at the sidewalk as they moved, smiling secretly to herself.
A blurry motion out of the corner of her eye distracted her and she waved semi-enthusiastically to the light-haired man that was trying to catch their attention from his porch. "Good evenin, Carol!" The man called once she looked up.
"Hello, George," she said, smiling sweetly.
"Evenin, Carol," a deeper voice said.
"Hi there, Douglas," she replied, gazing over her shoulder in time to see him tip his hat in her direction.
She bid hello to two more gentlemen before they made it to their side of the street.
"Everyone is so nice here," she murmured casually as they walked across the driveway in front of the one of two houses that had been assigned to their group that they'd claimed.
Daryl snorted loudly.
"What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ya didn't notice all that yammerin, comin from ev'ry guy in town?" He huffed. "I could fix it for ya, if ya want," He said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She stiffened, stopping in their tracks.
"That outta stop that unwanted attention," he continued, his expression sour.
She laughed. "What attention? They were just saying hi. Being polite."
He snorted again. "Yeah. Every guy that talks ta a pretty lady just wants ta say hi," he muttered.
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "I doubt it. I've never really been known as pretty," she said with a slight smirk. "Not like Jessie, or Maggie."
He sniffed. "Them big blue eyes say otherwise."
"Really?" She said, her cheeks reddening.
"What? You mean you'd actually be interested in one'a them assholes here?"
She shook her head. "Nooo. Not those assholes." She grinned. "I just never realized you thought I was pretty."
He rolled his eyes, shuffling his feet in the grass.
"Thought you said I look ridiculous," she continued teasingly.
"I said them clothes you're wearin look ridiculous," he corrected with a shrug. "Ain't you."
"Well, I suppose I could take them off for you," she said playfully, laughing at the tips of his ears turning red before she even finished the sentence.
"Stop," he muttered.