Three.

Well, to be honest, he found that he didn't hate her music in the least.

Beth Greene had two albums released and once he got back to town, he went to the music store and walked up the aisles until he found the "G" cds. He was just curious. She must have been pretty good – and popular – if she had to climb out of bathroom windows to escape people who wanted to take her picture. And he had never met anyone famous before. Who could blame him for being curious?

There was a teenage girl working at the counter and she scanned the cds for him and he handed over a twenty.

"You are going to love her," she said, seeing nothing wrong with him, a grown man with a little grey in the hair on his chin, buying music that very well was probably for people this girl's age.

"Yeah?" Daryl took his change.

"It's just her and a guitar and her voice is so awesome," the girl gushed. "She just did a show in Atlanta a few weeks ago and I got to go see her."

Daryl didn't know what to say after that. He took the bag and grunted his thanks to the girl and headed back out to his truck. The truck was a newer model – a heavy duty pickup truck that could manage pulling around his cattle trailers – and unlike the old pile of junk he had had for years before trading it in, this truck had a cd player and so, sitting in the parking lot, he managed to get off the pain-in-the-ass plastic wrapping from around the plastic case and slid the cd into the player.

And as the first song began to play, Daryl looked down at the picture on the cover. A picture of her taken at what was probably one of her shows, she standing on stage, singing into a microphone with a smile on her face as she strummed at an acoustic guitar strapped to her.

Daryl found himself staring at her. He couldn't believe that he had just met this girl this morning. Some famous singer had literally slipped into his arms this morning.

Shit like this didn't happen. It wasn't supposed to happen. Who the hell was he? In the grander scheme of things, he was pretty much a nobody. He had family and friends, but he was just a guy who lived in the middle of nowhere and who preferred the company of his cattle to that of pretty much anyone else.

He was quiet and he lived a quiet life.

And right now, he was listening to a girl he had met – randomly and quickly – sing on a cd about birthday cake and New York and this morning, looking back on it now a few hours later, it almost didn't seem real to him.

Daryl drove from town and headed down the road that would take him back home.

Open fields and a blue sky that stretched as far as the eye could reach, dotted with the occasional clumping of trees or woods and Daryl couldn't imagine living anywhere else in the world. Whenever he was away from here, he was always counting down in his head to how soon he could be able to get back.

Like he told Beth, his ranch was just a little one. Just a little over a two thousand acres; a little bit over three miles of land that was all his. There was a little bit of woods, too, that his cattle liked to go into, shading themselves among the trees or bathing themselves in the little river that flowed through the foliage. If he ever got any more heads, he would have to buy more, but for now, with his little herd, it was a good size. Something manageable.

As he drove up the dirt path that led to his house and the barns, he could see the herd out, lazing about in the grass, some sleeping or eating and he saw his man in charge when he was gone, sitting on his horse, watching over them, but upon seeing the truck, he turned and began a slow trot back to meet Daryl.

Daryl decided that he would leave his Beth cds in his truck. And he decided that he did like her music. It wasn't his usual taste, but there was something about her voice. He remembered her standing in front of him, leaning against the brick wall behind her with a soft smile on her face as she looked at him. She didn't even know him and she had already showed an immense amount of trust towards him.

It made him wonder how many people were in her life who she couldn't trust.

Getting out of the truck, he was greeted by a medium-sized, short-coated dog with hair so black, it looked almost blue in a certain light. When Daryl had gotten his land and his cattle, he knew he would have to have help to keep everything in line and after doing some research, and asking the other cattlemen part of the association for their advice, Daryl had gotten himself an Australian Cattle Dog. And thank God for Blue. Blue might have just been a little thing compared to other herding dogs, but he was a scrapper and the cattle always seemed to fall in line with Blue running around them, making sure they followed his directions.

Blue stood on his hind legs now, his front paws on Daryl's hip and his tail wagging a mile a minute. Daryl smiled as he rubbed the dog behind his triangle-shaped ears and then looked as the horse neared and then came to a stop.

"How'd it go?" Oscar asked.

"Good," Daryl gave a nod.

No way would he tell anyone about what happened to him this morning. There would be way too many questions and honestly, Daryl knew that it was something he wanted to keep to himself. Not because of the questions, but because it still felt so unbelievable and yet, it felt good. He kept imagining standing with Beth Greene in the alley and he didn't know her except what he could probably find on Google, but it was still amazing to him just how comfortable he had felt talking with her.

"Everythin' good here?" Daryl asked him.

"Yep. Bunch of lazy sacks today," Oscar said and Daryl smiled a little at that. "Want me to help you herd them up?" He asked.

"Yeah. Lemme go get saddled up and then once we get 'em rounded up, you can head on home for the night," Daryl said.

"Thanks, boss," Oscar grinned.

After Daryl had scrimped and saved and was finally able to buy this land and a small herd of cattle to start out with, he also hired Oscar, knowing that he would need the help. There was a double-wide trailer on the land that Oscar now lived in with his wife and their twin eight-year-old boys and Daryl didn't know enough words to say how grateful he was for the man. He didn't know how long Oscar would want to keep his family in a trailer, but Oscar had told him more than once that he was thankful to have a job and a roof over his and his family's heads.

Daryl knew that Oscar had run into some trouble a few years back and Daryl knew it was hard to clean a life up once that happened, but Oscar was good with both horses and cattle and Daryl wouldn't be able to run this place without his help.

Between the two of them and Blue's help, they were able to herd the cattle fairly easily into the fenced in areas near the barns where they would stay until tomorrow morning. Sometimes, Daryl would stay out with them at night, letting them roam the land, but for tonight, he wanted them all in one spot.

"Want to come over for dinner?" Oscar asked as they locked the gates and then led the horses to their stalls in the barn. "Pru's making this sort of hamburger casserole thing she makes and there's always too much of it."

"Nah, I'm arigh'," Daryl shook his head, brushing his horse down. "Ate big in Dothan earlier and I'm still full from that. But have her bring me some leftovers tomorrow."

"You got it," Oscar grinned. "Have a good night, boss."

"You, too."

Oscar left the barn, heading in the direction of his family's trailer, and with Blue following him, Daryl headed towards his own.

The house was just a little farmhouse. Daryl had never needed that much in his life and when he bought this land, the house that sat on it was the least of his worries. He had done a little bit of work on it – just to make sure it wasn't falling down around him – and now, it was the nicest place he had ever lived in. There wasn't much to it. A living room, kitchen, a small dining room and a bathroom under the stairs. And upstairs, there were two little bedrooms and another bathroom.

Inside, Blue first went to his water bowl in the kitchen, taking greedy laps before going to his pillow on the floor in the living room and collapsing heavily, exhausted like anyone at the end of a long day of work.

Daryl headed up the stairs to shower off and came back down a little bit later in a tee-shirt and sweatpants. He grabbed a can of beer from the refrigerator and then went to drop down on the couch in the living room. He had an old laptop that he had bought at a pawn shop a couple of years ago because the association had wanted an email address and Daryl hadn't had one so he went to go get himself one.

Now, he opened it up and went to Google. Daryl admitted that he wasn't too sure what he was doing, but that didn't mean he stopped from typing Beth Greene into the search bar. Within seconds, he had thousands upon thousands of hits.

And sure enough, the first few to pop up where the picture of Beth giving the middle finder to a photographer. He clicked on one of the stories concerning her drug use and he frowned as his eyes scanned over it. Daryl didn't watch movies – not new ones anyway – and if a show wasn't on ID or the National Geographic Channel, he admitted that he wouldn't know if a person was an actor or not – hence his ignorance when it came to knowing who Beth was when he first saw her – so he had no idea who this Zach Beauford guy was, but apparently he was an actor and Daryl was pretty sure that he hated the guy at first sight.

He and Beth met at some award show where they presented an award together and then proceeded to date for seven months. Beth ended the relationship – abruptly from what Daryl could gather – and Zach came out and started saying that Beth was taking all sorts of pills and she kept the bottles in her purse and took them with her everywhere and for some reason, people were entertaining the idiot.

Daryl clicked out of the news and went to the images page instead and images of Beth flooded the page. He felt himself swallowing as his mouth went dry. Damn, she was really beautiful and just looking at the stills of her smiling and at concerts and on red carpets attending events, he began to wonder if this morning really did happen or if it was just some long drawn-out fantasy. Maybe he had seen Beth's picture on a magazine cover or something and his imagination took off.

He went back to the web and clicked on her Wikipedia page. She was from Georgia, like she said – not that Daryl thought she would lie about something like that – and she was twenty-seven years old. That kind of made him wince because he definitely wasn't twenty-seven.

He then went to her main webpage, which showed her schedule of tour dates. She was in Montgomery tonight and tomorrow, she would be in Mississippi and then slowly, she was making her way around the states, heading further away from Georgia. Not that that mattered, Daryl reminded himself. It didn't matter where she was because the odds of seeing her again, he had a better shot at winning the lottery and he didn't even buy tickets to play.

Daryl closed the laptop and leaned forward, sliding it onto the coffee table before grabbing the remote control and sinking back into the couch. With a chug of beer, he turned on the television and watched some crime show and he was asleep by seven.

Beth had taken the stage at eight and when she stepped off again at ten to cheers and people chanting for "more, more, more!", she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. She was exhausted – more than how she usually was when finished with a show for some reason. No. Not for some reason. She knew exactly why.

Eric and Aaron had had her doing damage control all afternoon and she was drained. Her throat hurt from singing the show and she needed Jell-O and now, her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. When she had gotten to the club in Montgomery, Eric had already called some of the press and he had her smiling for so many pictures, Beth had lost count and the flashing had done her eyesight no favors.

"We just have to show them that you're coherent and sober," Eric had explained.

Beth had hated every second of it no matter how warm and friendly her smile had seemed and how polite and a good old-fashioned polite Southern girl she had been to the press shouting questions at her. She just honestly wanted to run away from it all and she found herself hating Eric a little for making her do all of this.

She knew she wasn't on drugs. Those close to her knew she wasn't. Those were the people who mattered. Not these paparazzi shouting questions out at her as they snapped her pictures. But because Zach was – technically – a bigger celebrity than her and he had played the part of broken-hearted wronged party to the press, they were eating his stories up and she found herself on the defensive and Beth didn't know how to get herself on the other side.

She just wanted to write songs and play her guitar.

"Good show," Aaron said to her with a smile, but tonight, Beth had no response.

She just wanted to go home. Not back to the hotel, but home. She wanted to hug her mom and daddy and go to sleep in her own bed and wake up to her mom making French toast downstairs in the kitchen and then take her horse, Nelly, out for a ride.

Going home wasn't an option though and she already knew that even if Eric hadn't already told her that. If she was just to disappear, her parents' farm would be one of the first places everyone would look for her and she couldn't have that madness descend upon her parents like that. They didn't ask for the attention like she had when she signed that contract.

In her dressing room, Beth set her guitar down and went into the bathroom. When she flushed the toilet, she went to the sink to wash her hands and she splashed cold water on her face before lifting her head and looking at her reflection.

This was what she wanted. She had wanted to write her songs and sing them on stage for audiences and this had been her dream since she was a little girl, singing her solos in the choir during church services on Sunday mornings. This was what she had been born to do. This was what she wanted to do. …wasn't it?

"Beth?" Aaron knocked gently on the door. "You okay?"

Beth swallowed. "Yes," she responded and she wondered if he believed her. Her voice didn't even sound like her own.

When she opened the door, Aaron was standing there and his eyes were dark with concern as he roamed them over her face. She tried to give him a smile, but she had already smiled so much this evening and she just didn't feel like it anymore.

"Am I allowed to take an Aspirin?" She asked and she didn't mean to be a bitch – not to Aaron, of all people – but she couldn't help it. Right now, she felt like being a bitch to everyone. If her daddy came through the door right now, she'd snap at him, too.

"Beth," Aaron began and then sighed softly as he went to go take out a bottle of Aspirin from his bag. "I know Eric's being a little crazy right now, but he's doing it for you." He tapped two white tablets into the palm of her hand. "We both have seen just rumors destroy a person's career and we don't want that to happen to you."

"It's been a year, Aaron. Just a year and I'm exhausted," Beth said. She popped the pills into her mouth and downed them with a guzzle of water from her bottle.

"Where would you go?" Aaron asked even though she hadn't said a word about leaving. But it was sort of obvious, wasn't it?

She wondered how obvious it was that she just wanted to leave. If Aaron could see it without her saying a word, could Eric? Could the press? Could her family when they saw her pictures or spoke with her on the phone?

And Aaron didn't ask the question to be cruel. He was asking because it had to be asked. If she left, where would she go? Not to her parents. Not to LA or New York. She'd be too easily recognized there and everyone would accuse her of running away because she had something to hide. Maybe the Arctic Circle of Canada would be safe or some abandoned mining town in Montana. Or maybe…

Or maybe a highland cattle ranch in Georgia.

Beth thought of Daryl then and not for the first time that evening. For some reason, she had gotten the idea in her head when she had been up on stage that Daryl Dixon would show up to the club in Montgomery that night to see her show and surprise her. She knew it was completely insane. She knew she watched too many romantic movies and read too many romance novels. But she hadn't been able to shake the possible image from her mind.

She had found his number on the Highland Cattle Association webpage and they had also posted the address of his ranch. What would he do if she just showed up? No one would find her there, that was for sure. But how selfish would that be of her? To just show up on Daryl's doorstep and expect him to hide her for a while from the world? She didn't even know him and he didn't know her. There was absolutely no reason that Beth would put such an imposition upon a complete stranger.

Maybe she could just fly up to Michigan and stay with her sister and brother-in-law for a while. They would have no problem hiding her and they would love to have her. Every time she spoke with Maggie, she told Beth at least twice during the conversation that she needed to come visit her and Glenn more even though Beth hadn't had much downtime in the past year and when she had had a couple of precious days to relax and do nothing, she always went back home to the farm.

But would tracking down where Maggie lived be too easy for everyone who would want to find her? The answer was a simple one. Yes. The paparazzi had taken pictures of Maggie before and knew her name and what she looked like. Finding Maggie Greene-Rhee would be as easy as finding a "friend" who could corroborate Zach's stories of her drug use.

The more she thought about it, the more that going to Daryl's ranch was the best option for her. And that was completely insane and completely selfish and she had to get that idea of her head right this instant.

She couldn't get away. If she ran away, it would be even worse for her and the fires Eric and Aaron would have to put out because of her would be even greater.

Feeling tears of frustration and exhaustion start to sting her eyes, Beth blinked quickly in a way of warding them off and she turned, collapsing onto the couch.

Aaron sat down on the coffee table across from her. "I know you don't want to do this, but maybe if you fed them something about Zach-"

"No," Beth swiftly cut him off just as she had any other time it was suggested. "That is a low level I am not going to stoop to. Just because he wants to sling mud doesn't mean I have to sling it back. I am not going to let all of this change me that much where I would even consider doing something like that."

Aaron was quiet after that for a moment because her answer hadn't changed and she hoped that he knew that it wouldn't.

"Where would you go?" He asked her again. "If I got you a car right now and helped you sneak out of here, where would you go?"

Beth closed her eyes and held her water bottle to her forehead. It wasn't supposed to be like this. All of those dreams she had had of living this exact kind of life, she had never imagined it be ever like this. Why would she have ever imagined this?

She thought of long-haired cattle and land that stretched beneath the blue Georgia sky and of a man with dark hair in need of a cut and blue eyes shy to meet her own.

"I don't know," Beth whispered.


I'm already excited for the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading and please take a moment to leave a review!