CHAPTER ONE: DINNER
Beth was humming to herself as she crouched down and tugged on the door of the oven, her eyes scanning over the chicken that she had been cooking and checking that it looked to be thoroughly cooked. When she was satisfied that the food was ready, she reached up to the counter top to grab hold of an old oven mit and wrapped it over her hands before she took out the food and placed it on the counter top.
As Beth began to cut into the meat so that some of it was already sliced, she heard the familiar sound of Daryl's truck pulling into the driveway and she knew that it would only take him a minute or two to come into the house. Beth didn't always do this - playing the dutiful wife and having dinner ready and set on the table by the time that her husband was home could sometimes be impractical when she was still at the hospital when he arrived home or when she was completely exhausted due to the fact that her own shift had just finished a short while before his. On those days, it was practically impossible for Beth to be able to put in as much effort into making a decent meal for them both as she would like to, and those were usually the evenings that Daryl drove them to a local take-away and got them their unhealthy dose of junk food.
But then there were other times; times like tonight when Beth had been off from work all day and had spent the majority of her day playing along to that role, making sure that she cleaned their house top to bottom (how it could get that untidy when it was just the two of them living there was beyond her) as well as preparing their evening meal. They may have been married for almost two years now, but that didn't necessarily mean that Beth didn't like to make an effort for her husband anymore.
Satisfied with her work, Beth left the chicken on the side to cool down for a moment whilst she busied herself by grabbing two plates from the cupboard and walking into the dining room with one in each hand. Just as Beth was setting the plates down on the dining room table, she heard Daryl's key twisting in the lock of the front door and then heard the tell-tale sound of the door creaking open and then closing loudly. She knew that Daryl would be untying the laces to his work boots inside their small porch area and that he would probably be wondering what the smell was. Unfortunately, her finding the time to cook meals like this for them both really was a rare occurrence and she knew that it would take her husband by surprise.
Beth hoped that he hadn't taken it upon himself to treat them both to something from a local take-away tonight.
Pushing that thought away and reminding herself that they could always store whatever leftovers that they had tonight in the fridge for lunch tomorrow or even dinner in the evening again, Beth bit down on her bottom lip and slipped back into the kitchen to grab the chicken just as Daryl entered the living room. When she re-appeared from the kitchen with the tray of chicken balancing in her hands that were once again covered by the oven mit, Beth found that her husband was stood hovering over the dining table, both of his brows knitted together in confusion until he saw her carrying their food. His expression relaxed somewhat, but he still looked incredibly curious.
"Hey," was all Beth said to him as she scooted past him so that she could place the hot tray of chicken down in the middle of the table.
Daryl had opened up his mouth and looked like he was about to say something back to her, but Beth didn't give him much of an opportunity to speak at all. Instead, she turned around to face him and stood up onto her tiptoes before she leaned forwards and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. That silenced him for a second and then before he could open his mouth again, Beth disappeared back into the kitchen.
Two dishes had already been filled with a mixture of potatoes and vegetables and Beth grabbed them both, discarding of her oven mit and balancing one bowl on each arm as she made her way back into the dining room. Apparently, Daryl had chosen to follow her into the kitchen and was standing in the doorway as she padded around the room, watching her actions with questioning eyes.
Beth wondered to herself whether it was really all that surprising for Daryl to see that she had prepared a meal like this for them, and it instantly made her feel guilty. Her childhood memories mostly consisted of her mama spending a lot of her time in the kitchen, cooking and baking for their family so that they always had fresh food.
Maybe she wasn't as good at this wife business as she initially thought that she was.
"Need a hand?" Daryl asked as she scooted past him, but Beth just smiled at him and shook her head.
"No, no," she insisted, turning her head over her shoulder as her light eyes danced around the kitchen whilst she spoke. "I'm pretty sure I've got everything, I - oh!"
Beth almost dropped the dishes from where they were balancing neatly in her arms when she realised what she was forgetting.
"Actually," she said, her tone a little sheepish as she turned to face him again. "Would you be able to bring in the lemonade? I left it in the fridge to chill."
Daryl immediately nodded his head at her in response to her question and moved himself to the side so that Beth could move past him in the kitchen doorway. Just as she was scooting her way into the dining room, Daryl caught her by surprise and grabbed at one of her actions, stilling her in her movements for a brief moment. Beth turned towards him and looked up at him with wide blue eyes and a kind smile that she mostly saved just for him and waited for him to say something.
For a long few moments it seemed as though Daryl was debating over his choice of words, and in the end he chose to let out a little sigh and simply lean forward to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. Beth didn't try and hide the bright smile that spread across her face as a result of the gesture.
It was times like these that reminded her that it really was always the little things that made Beth remember just how much she loved her husband.
Beth finished off placing down the two dishes onto the table next to the chicken whilst Daryl brought in the pitcher of lemonade that she had made earlier in the day. He was also balancing two tall glasses along with it and Beth thanked him for helping before he sat down, but Daryl shook his head at her in a dismissive manner.
"Ain't nothin'," he mumbled at her. "Hell, you did all the work."
A soft smile and a nod of the head was all the response that she gave him before Beth joined her husband at the table, grabbing her knife and fork and reaching out towards the chicken before Daryl managed to get chance to. He looked a little taken aback at her movements as she began to place some of the readily-cut chicken onto his place, but he composed himself after a short few seconds.
"How was your day?" Beth asked him.
Whilst Beth continued to place more pieces of chicken onto his plate, Daryl busied himself by heaping portions of potatoes and vegetables onto both of their plates, and Beth thought to herself about just how considerate he was towards her. Even after a long day of work, Daryl still had to make sure that he at least did something to contribute to her efforts, and Beth thought that it was incredibly sweet. Even if he would argue that he was only plating up some of the vegetables that Beth had cooked herself, she still appreciated the small gesture much more than he probably realised.
After all, Beth knew of far too many of her friends who were married to lazy men, and Beth was more than certain that those men would have never even dreamed of offering to bring in the lemonade for their wives; never mind assist in plating up the food for them both, too.
"Was alright," Daryl said simply, shrugging his shoulders before he nudged Beth's plate - which was now overflowing with vegetables and mashed potatoes in a way that made her wonder exactly where on earth Daryl expected her to put her own meat - back towards her. "Bit busy. Ain't too sure why, though. S'not really a busy time o' year."
Beth nodded her head at that. Even after all this time of being with a mechanic, she didn't know much at all about cars, but she still tried her best to make an effort to chat with her husband about his line of work.
"Was there a lot of people with flat tires today?" Beth asked, biting back a smile at the memory.
Daryl smirked at that but shook his head no.
"Nah. Jus' this one guy," he told her as Beth began cutting some more chicken to put on her own plate. "You done much yourself?"
Beth shrugged her own shoulders - a trait that she had most definitely picked up from him - as she settled back into her chair. Beth was a lot shorter than Daryl and had to pull her chair impossibly close to the table so that she could reach, and in doing so she made her leg brush against his. The two of them always sat next to each other at the table, rarely ever across from one another, and Beth loved the sense of closeness that they had together in such a normal way. Sometimes, their relationship reminded her of the way that she had seen her parents behave with one another as she was growing up.
"Done a little bit of reading," Beth commented as she poured herself a glass of lemonade before passing the pitcher over to Daryl. "I've cleaned up a little bit, too."
Daryl nodded at that as he took a large bite of his food.
"I can tell," he said as he glanced around the dining room. He chewed on his chicken for a long moment before looking back down at his plate of food and then back up to Beth. "This is good," he told her, motioning towards the meat with his knife. "Real good."
Beth dipped her head slightly and blushed at his compliment before raising her fork and placing some chicken into her own mouth.
She had to admit that the chicken was pretty good.
"'S the occasion?" Daryl asked, and Beth thought to herself that this may have been the hardest that Daryl had ever tried in making an attempt to be casual when asking her a question. Usually, if Daryl wanted to know something, then he would just ask her outright. Her husband was not a man of subtly. Instead, he was very much straight-to-the-point, and Beth appreciated that about him.
So seeing him behave like this almost made her want to laugh, but the nervous feeling that swam around in her stomach at his question overcame that girlish desire to giggle at him. Nervousness was not something that Beth usually felt around Daryl - at least, not anymore, because she was so confident and comfortable around her husband and she knew that he felt the same around her, too. Still, Beth found herself shuffling a little awkwardly in her seat and taking a long gulp of her lemonade because her throat had suddenly became incredibly dry before she addressed his question.
For a brief moment, Beth wondered why it was that she even bothered trying to be like this sometimes; to be the wonderful, dutiful housewife who dotes on her husband and makes sure everything is ready and perfect for him. In all honesty, it wasn't as though she was disappointed - that would never be Beth, could never be Beth because she was always too busy with her own job, making her own money to be able to be like that all the time for him. More than that, it just reminded her of exactly how observant her husband really was. He could see right through her no matter what, and there was absolutely no way that she could hide anything from those deep blue eyes.
Truthfully, Beth had been worrying about this conversation all day and had debated long and hard over the different ways in which the two of them could tackle this.
In the end, Beth had decided that food would probably (most definitely) be the best route to take.
Secure was definitely a word that Beth would use to describe her marriage and she was not at all worried in the slightest that Daryl would run away from her when things got tough. If anything, Daryl had developed a tendency to run to her whenever things got a little bumpy. There had been more than just a few times when Daryl had been pushed out of his comfort zone with her, but he was always loyal and good and strong. Beth admired him for being all of those things, and all of the more things that he was, too. They may have both still been learning more about each other, but Beth was still more than confident enough with their marriage to know that under no circumstances would her husband run.
Still, that fact only made this topic of conversation a little bit less nerve-wracking than it already was, even though Beth thought to herself that Daryl probably already had a hunch about where exactly this was going.
"Oh," Beth started, shaking her head. "Nothin' too special."
She tried her hardest to sound very casual and nonchalant as she cut into some more of her chicken, but it couldn't have worked very well because Daryl arched a brow at her expectantly.
At his knowing look, Beth cleared her throat and shuffled in her seat for what had to be the tenth time in as many minutes before she spoke up, deciding that it would probably be best for her to literally just grab the bull by the horns and spit it out instead of dragging this whole thing on any longer and working Daryl up into a frenzy of panic and worry.
After all, they both knew that Daryl was anything but the most patient person in the world.
(He was trying, Beth would give him that, and he had gotten much better over time, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was a saint, either.)
Beth inhaled a deep breath before she looked at her husband straight in the eyes and delivered the news that she was certain he just had to already know by now.
"I'm pregnant."