Preacher's Daughter
Chapter One: Growing Up Dixon
I'm Bobbie Jo Bake, your typical southern girl and the only child of a Southern Baptist preacher, a man that very much wanted a son. I had to fight against the restraints of being the good little southern belle my mother wanted and being the tomboy that loved to hunt and fish.
My father didn't like me hanging out with the Dixon boys and after their mother died he never let me go over to that shack they called a house. I loved hanging out with Daryl but Merle; I wanted to kick his ass daily.
Daryl looked up to Merle, followed him around like a lost pup at times. But when I was around, he became a different Daryl. With Merle in and out of lock up, Daryl often had to take care of himself. I think it was those moments that my mother showed her Christian kindness, often sending me over with plates of food.
Being tall like my father and curvy like my mother made it difficult for me dodge the advance of the good ole boys that came my way but my red headed temper and homegrown tenacity soon proofed I wasn't just another southern belle. Most boys didn't even bother as soon as they saw Daryl and he was rarely gone from my side.
In the years I'd been around the Dixon's, I had grown from having truly friendly feeling for Daryl to having truly loving feelings for him.
I would often ditch school to hang out with Daryl, pitching my mother's approved clothing for the t-shirt and jeans combo I had hidden in a duffle bag in the woods.
Daryl would tell me I was going to get caught one of these days and then my dad would bring the wrath of God down on the both of us. I knew my friend Ida Mae would cover for me, I'd lied for her enough.
One thing was for certain, I couldn't leave Daryl alone with that abusive prick of a father and Merle preaching his anger and hate to him. Merle would go off for days, sometimes weeks and leave Daryl to become their old man's punching bag.
The thought of ending the old bastard had entered my mind but Daryl wouldn't hear of it. The lashes on his back, the black eyes, the cut lips and pain he carried inside were more than I could bear at times. All I could really do was patch him up and go out in the woods so he could at least try to forget.
We had a small hid out, an old hunting cabin that had been long forgotten. Daryl and I would spend hours here sometimes, hours just hanging out and cleaning our kill from the day.
It wasn't much but to this simple Georgia girl it was heaven and Daryl was my closest friend. There were times I look into his face, into those endless blue eyes and get lost. He'd often elbow me or shout at me to bring me back and every time I'd smile and hide the blush across my face.
When I turned sixteen I was determined to lose my virginity and I hoped beyond hope that Daryl would be my first. One evening in our hide out I asked him if he'd do this for me, the words stuttering off my lips. Rubbing his hand over his face, he looks at me with bewilderment. After a few silence moments he turns and walks out of the cabin. A few weeks go by before I see him again and on that night he crawls up to my bedroom window and without a word takes me to my bed.
That night was so special to me but he made it clear it couldn't happen again. Being the stubborn type, I vowed on the morning he left my arms I would never lay with another. Daryl was awkward but gentle with me, telling me he only did this because he didn't want my first time to with some asshole.
I never asked him again and after a year or so things went back to the way they use to be, well the way they use to be for him. I never gave up that perhaps we'd be together again, that he'd still thought about that night. It would be some many years down the road before I'd feel his touch again.
As we got older, after the old prick died, I stayed with him more. I didn't go off to college like other girls; I didn't marry a fine southern boy and settle down. Instead I stayed right by Daryl's side, protecting him for the new prick that tried to control him, Merle
Working on the family farm was tiring work but since I refused to get a real job as my parents called it my father told me I had to earn my keep. When my dad would go off on trips to buy cattle or on revivals for the church I'd sneak Daryl in the house, my mother keeping my secret.
My mother, Josephine, was a quite lady, faithful wife and caring mother. I was her life and my happiness was all that mattered to her. My father, Robert, was a strict man, lived by the bible but loved his family. He ruled with an iron fist, blaming the Dixon's for his daughter's choices in life.
I remember a particular warm summer evening when my mother and father where away buying a few bulls. I met Daryl out in the woods, his cut off work shirt and patched up jeans his signature look.
My father had been more than strict as of late and I was more than excited to spend the weekend with Daryl, the two of us hadn't been together in over a week.
"If it ain't the preacher's daughter or do I need to start callin you the farmer's daughter?" Daryl chuckles at me, picking up his crossbow.
"You best not Dixon, if you want to keep your head." I punch him hard in the shoulder, my blue eyes blazing back at him.
Slinging my bow over her shoulder I smiles back at him. Daryl takes the bow from me, flexing it in his hands. "When are you gonna get a real bow. Merle can pick you up a crossbow."
"You mean steel me a crossbow. Teach me to shoot yours then I might think about it." My pale pink lips curve slightly, my smile more of a smirk.
"I've been tryin to teach you for years. What changed your mind?" Daryl loads the crossbow, pulling back on the arrow.
"I'm a little older now, stronger now. I'm not that teenage girl anymore Daryl. Hell, I'll be 25 next week. Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can't hang out with me. Dammit Dixon you'll always be just Daryl to me." I had been holding in the fear that Daryl was outgrowing me and after a week of not seeing him, it all came pouring out. In the good old days Daryl would always sneak into the barn and wait on me near sunset. Now, I always had to come to him.
"Whoa now ... where is that comin from red?" He hands me the crossbow, his eyes narrowing.
"Let's just go shooting." Trying to play it off, I give him a quick smile as we walk towards the cabin.
When we reach our forest hide out he takes me by the top of my arm, swirling me around. "I ain't lettin this go."
I look back at him, watching him play with the scruff on his chin. "Why don't you come to the farm anymore?"
He runs his hand through his hair, his eyes looking down at the forest floor. "Merle and I have been busy. We've been hunting and tracking and …"
I cut him off as I shove his crossbow back at him. "You've been Merle lap dog again, doing whatever he asks. You know you're going to end up in jail with him someday Daryl."
"Listen Bobbie Jo, you don't know Merle like I do. He's my only family." He could tell his last words cut into me as if he stuck me with his hunting knife.
Not wanting to let him see me cry I start running, running back to that empty farm house and away from him.
He catches me when I clear the meadow, before I have a chance to jump the fence. He pulls me back towards him, the two of us crashing to the ground.
Laying there in the high grass, with the summer wind whipping around us, I couldn't stop myself from doing what happen next. My lips crash onto his, my hands caressing his face. I feel his hesitation, his lips almost rigid.
As my tongue licks at his bottom lip as he begins to kiss me back, rolling me over in the grass. He braces his weight on his elbows, his hips grinding into me. All I wanted was for him to take me right there, to make me feel the way I did when I was sixteen.
He stops, pulling back from the kiss. His ocean blue eyes swallow me whole, drowning me in the love pouring out of them. My fingers play with his hair, running a strand behind his ear. I feel his lips once again, moving hungrily over mine.
A low hum growls from my throat as he settles himself between my legs. I feel him go stiff as my fingers go under his shirt, the scars from his father's beatings still there. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, you were there for every one of them." His small smile is enough to melt my heart, my body puddy in his hands.
"Daryl! Daryl boy … you best get back here. I told you that you was done with that stupid farm girl. Daryl!" Merle's words run hot all over me and before Daryl has a chance to stop me I climb to me feet, my bow gripped tight in my hand.
"Get off my land Merle Dixon and don't you ever talk to Daryl like that again." The flush in my cheek made me hot all over, my teeth clinching together.
"I know he's here somewhere sweetheart and he's coming back with me. You and him, you're done playing games. Time for my baby brother to be a real man. He's been chasing your pretty little ass for too long and for what … you ain't even given it up to him. Figures, Daddy's precious little virgin." Merle beings to laugh when Daryl pops up from the grass and slugs him hard on the chin.
"You don't talk to Bobbie Jo that way … every!" Daryl looked more pissed than I'd ever seen him. In the twelve years I'd know Daryl I'd never seen him look at Merle that way.
Merle rubs his chin, smirking wildly at his little brother. "You win little bro. Go have your fun with farm girl, tomorrow you and me … you and me."
Daryl takes my hand as Merle walks off, his fingers lacing into mine.
"Where were we?" I move in to kiss him again and he jerks back from me.
"Not here, not now. Let's go huntin and I'll show you how to shoot my crossbow." I could tell the moment had passed but I'll be damned if I'd let him off the hook that easy.
I take his hand when a brilliant idea pops in my head, one guaranteed to get me more time with him and possibly in my bed. "I'll go but only if you promise to spend the week with me … at my house."
We walk into the woods, Daryl walking up behind me with his crossbow. With his arms around me he helps me hold the weapon while he directs me on how to aim and shoot. "I'll stay with you but you have to promise to stop pissing off Merle."
Taking a deep breath I nod my head knowing I was lying to him. Merle was an ass and he treated Daryl like his personal servant. One thing was evident though, Daryl loved his brother no matter what.