A/N: Thank you to everyone who responded to the first chapter, I appreciate every comment, follow, and favorite!
"You should've just called me, Beth," Glenn said with a frown, "I would've helped you fix your sink, no problem."
"Glenn," Beth replied, rolling her eyes at her brother in law with a patient smile, "You're about as good at this kind of thing as I am!"
"But between the two of us we definitely could've figured it out," Glenn continued to argue as he flipped a circle of pizza dough in the air, watching it spin like a giant, floured frisbee. He caught it and added sullenly, "Why'd you have to call Maggie? She's never going to let me live it down."
Beth finished layering pepperoni on a pizza and turned to him, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "I told her not to tease you about it and she agreed, just this once." Glenn rolled his eyes but smiled his thanks. Beth smiled at him and added, "Besides Maggie can't cook for anything and everyone knows you make the world's best pizza."
"It's all in the sauce," Glenn replied confidently, smoothing a ladle of red marinara across the newly tossed pizza crust with a flourish.
"Really?" Beth asked innocently, "I thought it was the crust that made the pizza?"
She proceeded to listen for the next ten minutes as Glenn explained why the sauce makes the pizza, quietly layering pepperoni's, mushrooms, sausages, and green peppers in a circular pattern as she listened. She could've recited the speech by heart, having spent years working weekends at her sister and brother- in- laws' pizzeria but she let Glenn talk, knowing it would make him feel better about her calling her sister for help with home repairs over him. Glenn loved to fix things, he just wasn't any good at it, and that knowledge always wounded his pride just a little bit, especially when Maggie showed him up. It didn't help that Maggie loved to tease him relentlessly about just how bad he really was with a wrench or hammer and now she had a new occasion to add insult to injury. Thankfully Beth had negotiated a cease fire but she doubted Maggie wouldn't at least get in a few cheap shots before Glenn threatened her with divorce.
Beth placed the pizza she'd just finished decorating into the oven and retrieved the one that was done baking, smiling at the choice of toppings: all the meat Rhee's Pizza offered with pineapple. She knew whose pizza this was. She slid it onto a plastic serving tray and grabbed a metal riser for the table and a stack of three plates before pushing through the double doors and out into the restaurant dining area.
Merle Dixon sat with his wife Carol and her daughter Sophia, flicking paper straw wrappers rolled into tiny balls at the girl. Sophia had her hands extended with her index fingers held up to form a goal post and was giggling wildly as Merle lined up another shot. Carol berated them both but didn't make a move to stop them, her hazel eyes alight with humor.
"World's best pizza with the world's worst combination of toppings," Beth announced as she approached the table and Merle leaned back in the booth with a toothy grin.
"That's your opinion and you're entitled to it, even if you are wrong," He replied and Sophia giggled again. "How you doin', girl?"
Beth slid the riser onto the table and then placed the pizza on top as she returned his smile, "I'm good, Merle. And how's the Dixon clan?"
"Rowdy," Carol answered with exaggerated patience as she scooped straw wrapper balls into her palm.
"So, business as usual then?" Beth replied with a wink at Sophia.
"We ain't rowdy," Merle argued with exaggerated hurt, "We just get overexcited 'bout pizza night."
"That's putting it mildly," Carol commented dryly, thanking Beth as she handed them a stack of plates and Carol traded the plates for the debris from the table football that had taken place and an empty buffalo wings appetizer basket. Carol divvied the plates out then asked, "Can we get one more? My brother- in- law is joining us tonight."
"Of course," Beth replied, quickly turning to get another plate while wondering why she'd never known Merle had a brother.
As she turned away from the table she slammed right into something hard that let out a small grunt at the impact. The empty wings basket went flying with a spray of straw wrappers and Beth started to fall backwards before a strong hand grabbed her arm quickly, keeping her upright.
"Oh! I am so sorry!" She exclaimed to the customer who'd ended up with a wings basket on his head before turning back to the person she'd run into for a second round of apologies. "I'm such a clutz…" Her eyes met steel blue and she recognized the man that had helped her in the hardware store, Daryl. She blushed furiously as she realized he was still gripping her arm and stammered, "Really I should be locked up for other people's safety…"
Daryl released her once she seemed to be stable enough to stand on her own feet and asked in a gruff voice, "Ya alright?"
"Fine, I'm fine," she assured him, back- stepping towards the kitchen where she could hide until her face stopped flaming red. She waved off Carol and Merle who were half out of their seats in shock, "I'm okay, really. I'll go get your extra plate…"
She sped into the kitchen as quickly as she could without actually running and headed for the far corner where she could hide behind a stack of pizza boxes. Glenn was pulling a pizza from the oven and called with concern, "You okay? What happened out there? I heard a crash!"
"Nothing!" Beth exclaimed, "Just me being clumsy at a professional level!"
"Oh," Glenn replied, turning back to his work without a second thought.
Beth darted into the corner, out of the view of the restaurant that could be seen through the cutout window between the kitchen and the dining room. She steadied herself against the wall, focusing on slowing her breathing and reasoning with herself that she shouldn't be embarrassed, accidents happen all the time. Of course she was mostly embarrassed because out of all the people to run into it had to be Daryl, the same person she'd practically forced to help her at the hardware store now clearly getting a second look at how manic she could be. She sighed, looking up at the ceiling and silently asking God why, why of all people had it been Daryl? She didn't know why but she didn't want to look like a fool in front of him. She shook herself and straightened up, forcing the embarrassment away with a determined shove. She was wasting time, she had other customers to help and she couldn't spend the rest of her shift hiding because of a simple mishap.
"Beth?" Glenn called to her from the other side of the boxes, "This pizza is ready… when you are… although if you take too long it'll get cold… but I can make another if you need more time…"
Beth gave herself one last shake and walked out from her hiding spot to retrieve the pizza Glenn had placed on the counter. She added a plate to the stack she picked up for the other table and pushed through the door again, hating the feeling of warmth that instantly flooded her cheeks again as she strode back out into the dining room. She delivered the pizza to the right table, giving apologies for the wait, then grabbed a slice of pie from the refrigerated case behind the register and took it to the man who'd received a wing basket hat earlier, apologizing profusely again as she handed him dessert on the house.
She took the extra plate to Merle and Carol's table and decided she wasn't as surprised as she should be to find Daryl sitting with them. She approached and handed him the plate with a hesitant smile, saying again, "I'm so sorry about before, really."
Daryl lifted a shoulder in a shrug and replied, "Don't worry 'bout it."
Beth found she was a little transfixed by this man of few words and she blinked for a moment before forcing her attention away from him to Merle, asking conversationally, "So Merle, I take it Daryl is your brother?"
Merle grinned at her again, clapping a hand on Daryl's shoulder as he answered, "Yes ma'am, this here's my baby brother. Daryl, this here's Beth. Ya almost ran her over earlier, 'member?"
Beth felt her face flush again as Daryl replied sourly, "Shut up, Merle."
Hoping to change the subject, Beth asked brightly, "So why didn't you tell me you have a brother, Merle? You've been coming in here for years and I've seen you at least once a week ever since you got married."
Merle shrugged good- naturedly, mirroring his brother, "He ain't been 'round here for too long but you'll probably be seeing more of 'em now that he's got his place fixed up. Ain't that right, Daryl?"
Daryl lifted his shoulder again, "Yeah, maybe." He looked up at Beth and added, "Been orderin' from here for a while, jus' first time I've come in."
"Well that explains why I've never seen you in here before," Beth replied with a smile, "And why I met you the first time at a hardware store."
"So Beth is the girl you helped out yesterday?" Carol asked, her eyes going from Daryl to Beth shrewdly. Beth noticed the back of Daryl's ears going red as he reached for a slice of pizza with a noncommittal grunt. Carols eyes narrowed like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary and she continued knowingly, "So that's why you chose blue."
Beth looked between them, wondering what on earth that meant, and felt a quick thrill shoot through her at the thought of Daryl mentioning her to someone else. Apparently she'd made an impression, although time would tell if it had been a good one.
"This is disgusting," Daryl muttered after his first bite of pizza, lowering it to his plate to pick off the chunks of pineapple.
"Ya just lack any real taste for the finer things in life," Merle argued and Sophia nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
"I'll check in on y'all later," Beth said with a laugh, feeling like it was time for her to take her leave from the family dinner.
Beth went back to help Glenn in the kitchen then helped serve pizzas and clear tables. Saturday night was always their busiest night and with Maggie out sick things were even more hectic. Before she knew it she was handing Merle the check and he and his family were leaving, waving and calling goodbye to her.
Daryl went with them and as he went to step through the door he must have felt her watching them leave because he turned slightly and looked back at her, nodding once and saying, "Nice seein' ya."
She smiled at him, lifting a hand in farewell then he was gone and Beth watched through the windows as he hugged Sophia and Carol then went to a motorcycle and started it up with a roar, disappearing down the small town road.
A customer drew her attention and she wrote down their order with an apology, heading back into the kitchen and thinking maybe tonight she'd have some all meat pizza herself, with no pineapple on top.
