Daryl was driving back on his motorcycle, down the highway that lead back to Woodbury. He left Merle back at the hunting cabin, with all the meat loaded in the back of the truck. Since Merle hated going to town meetings, he allowed Daryl to leave early and he would deal with bringing the meat back to the shop and putting it into the fridge.
Daryl had developed his love of the woods when he was a kid. On nights his parents were fighting, he and Merle would just make their way to their hideout, out in the backyard, and stay out of the way. Even after Merle left home, Daryl still went out there. It's also how he got so good with his crossbow. He was able to practice a lot with the amount of time his parents spent fighting.
But Daryl also loved taking his motorcycle to its limits on the open road. He could think so clearly out here. Not that he thought about much apart from the business, but it allowed him the time to think things over and make rational decisions.
Lately though, his thoughts turned to his blonde neighbour, Beth. He'd known her for just over a week and somehow had entered his thoughts more times than he would ever admit. It wasn't a lot, just more than he ever thought about a girl.
In their few interactions, he couldn't help but notice that she was a different kind of pretty. She wasn't heavily made up, instead barely wearing any makeup at all. Her blue eyes stood out, especially with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. He definitely felt an attraction to her even though he barely knew her. He thought back to what Merle had told him. He needed to busy himself with things, other than hunting and worrying about the business.
Instead of heading back to his apartment, he turned down the road towards the Grimes' household. As much as Merle had a point, he was still Merle. He needed Rick's perspective on things to help him make some decisions.
He pulled into the driveway to see Rick and Carl in the front yard, playing catch. Rick waved at him after throwing the ball to Carl. Carl caught the ball but then dropped the glove it was in, to run over to Daryl.
"Hey Daryl, you come back from hunting?" Carl eyes were wide with excitement. He looked up to Daryl so much and all the awesome things he got to do.
"Yeah kid, got me a 5 point buck this time."
"Wow, can I watch you cut it up again?"
"Only if it's okay with your dad," Daryl looked up to Rick, who would probably okay it. Rick just looked between his son and Daryl and sighed.
"How about you go see if your mom is okay with Judith. We got to leave in a little bit for the town meetin'." Carl nodded and ran back inside and Rick turned his attention back to Daryl. "What brings you here? Thought you would have stayed back with Merle a little while longer."
"Nuthin really, just thinking bout somethin' Merle said to me the other day." He said moving over to the porch. Rick knew that Merle could get under Daryl's skin so he was interested to see what he had said this time.
"We all know that Merle is all talk and really has nothing important to contribute to conversation."
"Yeah, but I think he might be right this time," Daryl said looking over at Rick. Rick crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the pillar of the porch. "Said I need to stop shutting people out and start getting to know people."
"Please don't tell me you believe his bullshit."
"It's true though, all I do is spend time round here or at the shop or out hunting. I only know people in this town cause of you but I don't go out of my way to talk to people. I'm gonna be thirty eight soon and I'm just starting to wonder if this is my life?" He sat down on the porch steps and stared at the ground.
"So what, you ain't happy?"
"I'm happy," Daryl deadpanned. He wasn't entirely too convincing to Rick though. Rick sat next to him and waited for Daryl to say what he really wanted to say. Daryl was always the kind of man who spoke only what he wanted and didn't beat around the bush. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke the real reason he was here.
"What do you know about that new girl, Beth Greene?" Daryl glanced towards Rick out of the corner of his eye. He noticed Rick just stare blankly ahead. "She's opening that bakery next door to me."
Rick knew exactly who he was talking about. He actually was dumbfounded that Daryl would bring up a girl to him. It had been a long time since he had and it was usually on how to break one loose from him. Rick had a sly grin on his face when he turned towards Daryl.
"Not much, I haven't met her yet. Lori has been talkin my ear off about her though. She's a sweet girl, gonna be big round here with the way she cooks," Daryl just grunted and kept staring out at the road ahead of him. "You talk to her yet?"
"Yeah, couple of times," Rick tried to get a read of what was going through Daryl's mind but he was at a loss. Daryl was always one to hold his cards close to his chest and this was no exception.
"I think Lori mentioned that she told her about the town meetin' tonight, so she might be there," Rick added. Daryl stood up, dusted off his pants and made his way to his bike.
"See ya there then," Daryl put his helmet back on and started up the bike. Rick just stood up and stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to decipher what just happened. Lori came out of the house at that moment, to see Daryl backing out of their driveway and leaving to make his way home.
"Was that Daryl?" she asked. Rick nodded and kept staring at where Daryl sat. "Not like him to stop by after huntin'."
"Just needed to talk bout some stuff," Rick looked over at his wife and kissed her forehead. "You talked to Beth and told her bout the town meetin' tonight, right?"
"Yeah, saw her in the diner this morning. She seemed to be on board," Lori gave Rick a confused look. Why was he asking about Beth? It wasn't until Rick walked inside the house and Lori looked at the driveway did she figure out what Daryl wanted to talk about.
He stood outside of the church, finishing off his cigarette. Everyone had made their way inside but he didn't catch a glimpse of Beth in the crowd of people. She only knew about the meeting, it wasn't a guarantee that she would be here. Daryl wasn't even a hundred percent sure why he cared. It's not like he was going to make sure to sit with her and talk with her the whole time. This was confusing for him. He was in uncharted territory here and he didn't know how to proceed.
He inched his way through the door of the church to see the mayor already talking to the crowd of people. Daryl was known to be late and leave early so no one took notice to him. He scanned the crowd to see almost everyone was there, but his eyes locked in on the blonde ponytail not 2 rows from where he stood. Without realising what his body was doing, he found himself taking the seat next to her. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see her take notice of him but still stare straight ahead. He detected a slight smile tug the corner of her lips and a mixture of relief and something else bubbled up in the pit of his stomach.
"Now, we had a great first quarter around here, and as you'll see by these graphs, we are on our way to having a terrific year," Phillip said. A collective groan let out around the church and Daryl was right along with them. He should have figured it was that time to talk about sales and revenues. He felt Beth's body shift towards him and he took a look to see her face coming closer to his.
"Did he just say graphs?" she whispered. He gave a small chuckle at her incredulous tone and leaned towards her.
"Shoulda seen the PowerPoint he had last month." Beth let out a little giggle. Once he heard her giggle, those little bubbles in his stomach seemed to turn into butterflies. He suddenly felt the need to hear her giggle like that some more. The perfect opportunity came when Phillip's assistant came out with the giant graphs.
"Oh good, he brought his butler." Beth looked to Daryl confused and back to the front where she saw Milton, putting up the boards, and changing them as Phillip needed. She had to cover her mouth to stop from laughing out loud. This just put a bigger smile on Daryl's face.
Once Beth was able to compose herself, she asked "Who is that guy anyways?"
"Milton, he's the mayor's personal assistant."
"So his job is to create graphs and PowerPoint presentations?"
"And God knows what else. He just follows Blake around, with his little notebook, takin' notes"
"What do you think he writes about?" Beth added with a playful tone. Daryl just grunted and shrugged his shoulders. Beth gave him a glare. "C'mon Daryl, where's the fun?" She smiled at him and suddenly his mind went blank.
"Maybe he's writing about all the ways he plans to kill the town's people." Beth tried to say with a serious face but failed when Daryl caught her grinning.
"Or maybe an escape for a zombie apocalypse," Daryl whispered. Beth giggled again, this time a little too loud. Carol turned around to glare at the noise but her face softened when she noticed it was Daryl and Beth. Embarrassed, Beth covered her face with her hands. Daryl chewed on the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing out loud at her.
The rest of the meeting passed with little comments passed between the two in whispers. Daryl prided himself on getting her to giggle a few more times with his wit. Once Phillip banged his gavel, everyone stood to leave. Beth looked at Daryl with astonishment and amusement.
"He has a gavel?" she laughed. He nodded his head and went to stand up.
"Got that about a year ago. Makes him feel more important." Beth just shook her head and kept laughing. Daryl was so pre-occupied with Beth; he didn't notice Lori and Rick come up behind him.
"It looks like you two are having fun," Lori said, grabbing Beth's arm. Beth was startled by the touch and suddenly grew embarrassed by what Lori had implied with her tone. She looked to Daryl to see him rubbing the back of his neck and looking equally as embarrassed. "Beth, I wanted to introduce you to my husband Rick."
Rick and Beth shook hands while Rick looked between Daryl and Beth. "I've heard so much about you. My wife can't get over how good a baker you are."
"Oh that's so sweet of her," Beth replied looking up to Lori. "I was hoping to meet your kids tonight too."
"Oh, they just get bored at these things and Carl is old enough to watch Judith," Lori replied back.
"He also likes the money he gets from it," Rick added. The adults all shared a little chuckle and made their way outside. "How you getting home Beth?"
"Oh, it's not too far a walk, and it's such a lovely night out."
"Well, it's past dark so I think you should have someone walk you home. It's a good thing that Daryl here lives right next door to you." Daryl turned his head so quickly to Rick and gave him a death glare. Rick just smiled a little and put his arm around his wife to lead her to the car. "You two have a good night."
Beth and Daryl just stood there while everyone went their separate ways. She chanced a glance at him and noticed he was shifting around on his feet uncomfortably. He happened to take his hat off and push his hair back and Beth could see a hint of red to his cheeks under the light of the church.
"You don't have to walk me home," she spoke softly, breaking the silence. He looked down to her and shrugged his shoulders.
"Not like its outta the way or nothin'," he added. They began to make their trek down the road that would bring them to the main street. Although there was silence between them, it was a comfortable silence. But Daryl wanted to try and get to know her a little better so he was trying to think of something to ask her. Too bad she beat him to it.
"So how long have you and Merle lived here?" she asked, kicking a rock in front of her.
"Close to 5 years now, opened the shop just over 4 years ago."
"Where did you guys live before this?" Daryl was at a loss of words. He wasn't sure how much he wanted to share about his past. That was the point of moving out here, to get away from that past and move on.
Beth could sense his hesitation and tried to back-track. "I'm sorry, that's none of my business."
"Nah, not that. Just don't want to ruin your night with a sob story," he said, chewing on his thumb nail.
"Oh," They walked in silence for a little while, till they made it to the back lane of their building. "I had a really good time tonight. Didn't think a town meeting could be that much fun."
"They usually ain't."
"Well, I'll make sure to sit next to you at the next one then." They finally reached the front of their buildings and stood to face one another. The crickets were chirping and the wind softly blew the wind chimes that were attached to the buildings out front.
Unsure of what to do next, Daryl froze between to taking a step closer to her or taking a step back to his door. His shoulders tensed at the thought of this night ending. He noticed Beth's eyes laid on him but quickly looked away and walked towards his door.
"Thanks again Daryl, for tonight," she said softly. She offered him a smile and went to her own door. He made sure to see her get inside safely before retreating through his own. Once inside, he banged his head on the wall and clenched his fists at his side at his reluctance to speak to her. It was easy to speak to her at the meeting, it flowed without thought. Why was it so difficult when they were alone? That feeling of butterflies in his stomach only grew the more he saw her smile and giggle. Now that feeling was gone and only regret lingered inside.
If Rick was here, he would tell him to take this as a victory. It went out of his comfort zone to be close to her and talk to her like that. It never felt wrong though. He guessed that he would need to take baby steps and maybe he could figure out how he wanted to approach things with Beth.
He trudged up the stairs with heavy thoughts running through his head. If all they did was stay friends, he would be happy with that. But it puzzled him as to why he wished that they could be more than that.
Again, thanks to everyone for the reviews and follows. Put a big ole smile on my face!
Thanks to Brandy and Carla for the wonderful help.
Since I've written so far ahead for this story (chapter 12 is already completed), for every signed in review, I will send you a little sneak peek of chapter 7.
*HINT* Someone is celebrating a birthday