Chapter 10
The next morning Daryl stood on Olivia's front porch and knocked firmly on the door. Olivia swung the door open and smiled. "Hi," she said softly.
Daryl nodded and cleared his throat. "Ya said ya wanna learn how to shoot a bow. Brought mine, if ya wanna practice some now." He held the bow out briefly to show her before placing it back on his shoulder.
Olivia smiled widely, happy. "Sure. What do I need to wear? Are we going outside the wall?" She motioned him to come in and shut the door. He noted she had all the windows open to catch the breeze. Summer was fading into fall and the days weren't nearly as hot here as they were down in Georgia.
"Naw, we ain't goin' outside the wall just yet. But what ya got on is fine," and he waved at her clothes-shorts and a tshirt. "Best put some kinda shoes on though," he added as an afterthought.
She nodded and went toward the bedroom. He glanced around curiously. He hadn't really paid attention to anything when he'd walked through the other day. Nothing fancy, she didn't have a lot of knick knacks or that kind of stuff cluttering the place up. He'd seen Deanna's house and it was stuffed full of pictures and vases and all that shit. He imagined if Olivia had wanted she could have gotten some of that stuff somewhere here. Or had Aaron look for it. No, her house was clean and uncluttered and felt comfortable. For all that there wasn't a lot of stuff in here, it felt welcoming.
Olivia walked back into the room with some hiking boots on and stopped. "This okay?" She had changed into jeans, rather tight fitting jeans at that. The tshirt was the same. He nodded brusquely and opened the door and they headed out.
They walked silently, side by side. He was grateful she didn't ask a lot of questions-where were they going? Why had he changed his mind? Beth had always been full of questions. But she was the only person he had ever tolerated it from. And it'd taken him a while to get used to her questions. Just when he'd gotten to where he actually looked forward to her questions, they'd stopped. Because he'd lost her. And now she wouldn't ever ask anyone a question ever again.
He shook his head to clear his mind of the thought. He needed to concentrate on teaching Olivia how to shoot the bow. They stopped at a little park like area a few streets over from her house. He'd placed a target on a tree in an area where if her shot went wild it wouldn't strike anyone. Or anything, like a house or something.
The next few hours were difficult. Although there was a good cool breeze, Daryl felt uncomfortably hot. He told himself it was the bright sun beating down, but he knew better. Olivia was the first person he'd let get this physically close to him since Beth. He had to remind himself not to flinch when she moved back against him, or turned her face toward him to ask him a question. He found himself comparing her curves to Beth's, her scent to Beth's, the feel of her skin to Beth's. It was all different, not better or worse, just different. He was actually glad she was different from Beth. That would have been too cruel, someone almost but not quite Beth.
Daryl nodded approval as Olivia quickly picked up on his instructions. She hit the target every time. She had a bit of difficulty cocking the bow, but not as much as he'd have thought. She was strong. He wondered briefly how many men she'd had to tackle or struggle with in the course of her work. And the thought of her punching or kicking some guy made him feel a bit …aroused? He shifted uneasily and tried not to be obvious what he was doing, trying to get his dick to settle down. Christ. She was nothing like what he'd ever hooked up with. Definitely not anything like Beth. But again, she was different in an interesting way.
He stepped back from her after a couple of hours and squinted at the sun. "Better let ya go for the day. Been at it awhile. Ya did good," he mumbled as he slung his bow back over his shoulder. Olivia looked slightly disappointed and he smirked.
"Well, thanks. I enjoyed it. When can we practice again?" She was standing looking at him a little uncertainly.
"I dunno. Ain't got no schedule. Goin' out on a run with Aaron in a day or two. Can practice tomorrow if ya want," he mumbled back.
"Oh okay. Well, just come over and get me when you want to go," she murmured, still standing there as if she were uncertain what to do next.
Daryl nodded and hesitated. Feeling like he should say something, but he didn't know what. She nodded and turned and started walking back to her house, and he felt disgusted with himself. He should've said something to her. But he didn't know what. Fuck. Women were something he never could understand.
Daryl shrugged and headed back to his house.