The response to this story continues to blow me away. Thank you so, so much. Some dirty Beth/Daryl in the next chapter and I am worried that it seems like this story has been kind of stalling so next chapter, I promise things will pick up a bit.

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Chapter Twenty-One.

"Rosita!" Beth couldn't help but exclaim as she saw the familiar Jetta pull into the garage lot and her closest friend step out. She hurried from the office and met her halfway across the parking lot, laughing as Rosita threw her arms around her.

They hugged one another tightly for a few minutes and Beth knew she had missed her but now that Rosita was there for a visit from Atlanta, Beth realized just how much. They had met one another in the same recovery clinic – Beth for her eating and Rosita for cutting – and there was something that just seemed to click between them when they first met. Their rooms were across the hall from one another and oftentimes, one could be found in the other. When they had both left the clinic, they had gotten an apartment together – the apartment Rosita still lived in with a new roommate though Rosita often called and told Beth how much better and easier she was to live with than her new one; some guy named Eugene who had walked into the bathroom while she was in the shower one too many times for it to be considered an accident anymore.

"How was the drive?" Beth asked once they broke apart.

"I got a stupid speeding ticket. As soon as I stepped over into this county. I didn't know it dropped down to fifty-five. That is such a ridiculous speed to have it at," Rosita pouted and they began walking back towards the garage. "And the Sherriff who gave me the ticket did not care for my cleavage on display."

Beth laughed at that. "The horror. An actual honorable man." They stepped into the office and Beth smiled a little. "Well, this is it. This is my desk and I answer the phones and set up the appointments for the guys and handle the customer invoices."

Rosita smiled a little as she looked around and then her eyes fell on the windows that overlooked the garage. "And your view is spectacular," she grinned and Beth laughed a little, her cheeks warming. "Which one's Daryl?" She asked.

Beth came to stand beside her at the window. "Very last bay. You can't really see-"

"Oh my God, Beth, look at those arms," Rosita said, nearly licking her lips, and Beth couldn't help but smile faintly to herself.

Daryl was wearing the Dale's garage tee-shirt but the particular one today didn't have the sleeves, having been ripped off by Daryl long before, and she could see the way his biceps flexed and twitched with every movement he made. She couldn't blame Rosita for practically drooling at the sight of them.

Her boyfriend did have the most incredible arms.

Boyfriend. She was assuming that that was what Daryl was. They still hadn't had that conversation with one another and Beth was beginning to wonder if they actually had to have that conversation.

She was living with him full-time now and that hadn't been a conversation between them either. It had just sort of happened. He had asked her to stay with him a few days and then he never told her when she should go home and she brought over a few more of her clothes and they began sleeping in the bed together – just sleeping – and she began feeling more at home in the trailer than she did at the farmhouse.

She couldn't help but wonder if she and Daryl would ever have a conversation about anything or if things would keep moving forward without a discussion. She admitted that everything happening with Daryl did just feel completely natural so maybe there really was no point in talking about it.

"Beth, I take it this is her?" Dale asked with a smile, coming out of his office.

"Yes," Beth smiled. "Rosita, this is my boss, Dale. He's the owner. Dale, this is Rosita."

"Very nice to meet you, my dear," Dale smiled warmly as the two shook hands. "Beth has told me so much about you. And because of your arrival, we're closing a little early today," he said.

"Because of me?" Rosita both looked surprised and confused about that.

Dale chuckled. "Well, I was going to give Beth the afternoon off so she could spend more time with you but then I remembered that I can't run this place without Beth so if she's gone, we're just going to close for the rest of the day."

Rosita looked at Beth and Beth felt herself blushing. Dale was telling the truth. He honestly felt like he couldn't run his garage without her and Beth still was getting herself to try and believe that she was so important to Dale and the other guys. She wasn't used to being actually needed by anyone and she wondered if she would ever be used to others looking at her as if she mattered.

Rosita looked back to Dale. "Well, thank you for doing that."

Dale waved it off as if it was no big deal at all and Beth supposed that to Dale, it wasn't. He was probably going to take the afternoon as an opportunity to go fishing.

"Do you want to meet the guys?" Beth asked and smiled when Rosita eagerly nodded her head and she followed Beth out into the garage.

Since she had started whatever this was with Daryl, the guys no longer whistled at her even though she knew they had never meant anything by it in the first place. Axel and Martinez didn't anyway. They were both married though they seemed to complain about their wives often, Beth knew they loved them. They still flirted with her but Beth had been there long enough now to be used to it and know that it was just something they did. They were all merciless flirts and Beth no longer scurried away from them as if they scared the wits out of her.

"Rosita, this is Caesar Martinez and Axel Jenkins," Beth smiled as she introduced her friends to the first two mechanics.

As expected, Martinez gave her a grin and a wink and Axel asked her if she needed a place to stay because he would be more than happy to give her a bed for the night and Rosita just laughed and shook their hands and gave them her own winks. She had always seemed far more comfortable with men than Beth and had even brazenly flirted with the male orderlies at the clinic.

"This is Zach Baker," Beth said as they went to the next bay.

Zach looked up for just a moment before looking again down to the engine he was working on. "Hey," he said and said nothing else.

Zach hadn't really been speaking to her for the past few weeks – not since the other guys found out that she had started staying with Daryl. He seemed to understand now that nothing would ever happen between him and Beth and now that he knew that, he seemed to have absolutely no interest in even speaking to her.

"And this is Daryl Dixon," Beth said, coming to the last bay. "Daryl, this is my best friend, Rosita Espinosa."

Daryl wiped his oily hands on the red rag always in his back pocket. "Hey," he let out in his usual grunt and Rosita smiled widely at him, shaking his hand.

"It is so nice to meet you, Daryl. I've heard so much about you from Beth," she said.

Daryl looked to Beth. "Not sure there's that much to say 'bout me," he said.

Beth just gave him a soft smile. "Rosita and I are going to go get pizza for lunch. Do you want to join us?" She asked.

"Rick wanted to go get somethin' to eat today," Daryl said. "We could join you if you want," he then suggested with a shrug.

Beth burst into a smile at the thought. "We would love that. We'll meet you there?"

Daryl nodded and looked back to Rosita. "Guess I'll talk to you later."

Rosita just kept smiling at him. "Can't wait." And when they turned away and began heading back towards the office, Rosita snatched Beth's arm and pulled her in close. "Good God, Beth. That man," Rosita pretended to fan herself and Beth couldn't help but laugh softly. "That man undresses you every time he looks at you."

"He does not," Beth instantly argued, her cheeks exploding in red.

Rosita laughed. "Trust me. He is. He definitely wants you."

"He only wants me because he hasn't seen me naked yet," Beth said before she could stop herself and as soon as she said it, she saw Rosita's smile start to fall.

"Beth-" she began to say but Beth quickly shook her head, stopping her.

Beth really didn't want to talk about this. She hardly even wanted to think about it and even though they were growing closer and the desire to be more intimate with Daryl was growing stronger with each passing day, she still got herself dressed when she was sure he was nowhere near so he couldn't see her without clothes on.

She had hung a full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door and she had looked at herself the other day in just her bra and underwear. She had gained weight and gained a bit more since leaving the clinic but standing there, looking at herself, she couldn't stand the thought of Daryl seeing her like this and seeing him cringe. Her breasts were nothing but bumps, most of her ribs were visible and her hips stuck out in severely beneath her skin. There was nothing sexy or womanly about her and Daryl would take one look at her and look away. She knew he would. There was no way he would still be attracted to her if she took her clothes off for him.

As planned, Dale closed the garage down at noon for the day and Rosita went to her Jetta as Beth waited for a moment for Daryl beside his bike. She smiled as he crossed the parking lot towards her and he smiled a little, too.

"You and Rick won't mind sharing your lunch with us?" Beth asked.

Daryl just shook his head. "I think we'll be just fine," he said. "Where you headed after eatin'?" He asked.

"I was going to take Rosita home. She wanted to see the trailer," she said. "If that's alright?" She asked.

He shrugged. "'s your trailer, too."

And he said it so casually, as if she should have known that already, Beth couldn't help but bounce up on her toes and throw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. His hands were on her back, lingering there, and she closed her eyes, breathing in his scent for a moment. When she pulled back, she smiled at him and his lips twitched in a smile in return.

"You two are disgustingly cute," Rosita commented as Beth got into the car and Beth blushed and smiled down to her hands in her lap. "And you seem happy. Are you happy?" She asked.

Beth nodded and looked to her closest friend. She and Rosita were the same age but Beth always felt so behind in everything. There were still some days where Beth didn't feel like a young woman but rather still a little girl. Rosita embraced her femininity out of the womb, it seemed. Beth would listen to Rosita's stories about men and relationships and she would wonder if she would ever have that for herself. Even when it came to recovery, Rosita was released before her.

"I've never been this happy before," Beth confided in her and Rosita smiled at her as if relieved with her answer.

There was only one pizza place in the small town – Rhee's – and by the time Beth and Rosita got there, every table was taken with the lunch crowd. Beth's eyes scanned the crowd and she saw Rick already sitting at a booth along the middle of the room and he spots her at the same time, smiling at her. Beth took Rosita's hand and tugged her towards the table and Rosita gasped when she saw Rick sitting there.

"You gave me a ticket," she frowned, letting go of Beth's hand so she could cross her arms over her chest, her frown deep and fierce.

"You were going seventy in a fifty-five," Rick said, looking as if he wasn't at all surprised to see the particular speeder from this morning joining him for lunch.

Rosita slid into the booth next to him, pushing him towards the wall, making herself quite comfortable. "What kind of stupid county drops the speed limit by ten and doesn't put up a sign to tell the drivers?"

Rick raised an eyebrow. "I pulled you over next to a speed limit sign."

As Rosita and Rick kept going back and forth, Beth looked around, wondering what was taking Daryl and she slowly slid into the seat across from Rick. She liked Rick and she loved the friendship he shared with Daryl. They had grown up together and Daryl had been a part of the Grimes family throughout most of his life, helping him through things that he hadn't told Beth about yet but what she had been able to guess about on her own. The way he would sometimes flinch or his seemingly disdain towards all people or passing comments about his childhood. She didn't know and she wasn't sure she wanted to know but if he told her, she would listen.

Over the noise of the people, she heard the bell tinkle above the door as someone opened it and Beth turned her head, smiling as she saw Daryl enter. He spotted them immediately and within seconds, he had approached the booth and had slid into the seat beside Beth.

"Everything alright?" She asked because she had seen him leave the garage before she and Rosita had.

He nodded. "Yeah. Just went to go pick up somethin' for you that I've been lookin' at and I took it home real quick."

"For me?" She asked as if she didn't understand and Daryl just kept staring at her, his eyes intently focused on her. "What is it?" She asked.

He smirked at that and shook his head. "You'll find out when you get home."

"Can you give me a hint?" She asked, leaning into him, looping both of her arms through his one, pleading with him as if she was a little girl asking for a sweet.

And she knew they weren't generally affectionate like this with one another in front of others but there was something about today. Maybe it was the way he smirked or she was happy to have Rosita there with them or the way he had slid into the booth beside her as naturally as if they had been doing it a thousand times before.

What she had told Rosita was true. She had never been this happy.

"Just a little hint?"

Daryl just kept on smirking and shook his head again and looked to Rick and Rosita across from them. "We decide what kind of pizza we gettin'?" He asked.

And Beth couldn't help but grow more and more excited as they ate their pizza and Rosita asked Daryl all sorts of questions as if she was Beth's self-appointed bodyguard and even though Daryl gave one-word grunts as he usually did when faced with any type of conversation, Rosita seemed pleased enough with his answers. She gave Beth all sorts of these smiles from across the table throughout the meal that made Beth blush because even though she couldn't read Rosita's exact thoughts, she had an inkling of what they were.

Beth couldn't help but her foot down on the gas pedal of Rosita's car as she drove them through the trees of the woods, down the faded dirt road that led to the trailer. She couldn't help it. She had absolutely no idea what to expect but knowing Daryl, she knew it was going to be so sweet and incredibly thoughtful. She looked back on when they were first courting one another and exchanging gifts. All of his to her had been so perfect and meaningful and he hadn't even know her then when they had begun doing it.

She parked the car and didn't even wait for Rosita before she hurried up the steps of the trailer. She knew she was acting silly and slightly ridiculous and she almost wanted to laugh at herself but she couldn't help herself. It was Christmas morning and she was a young girl all over again, hurrying down the stairs in the farmhouse, eager to see the Christmas tree and all of the presents for her beneath it.

And when she unlocked and opened the door, she stopped so suddenly, Rosita bumped into her from behind.

Beth's mouth fell open and her hand lifted to cover it. She could hardly believe it. Standing in the middle of the room, in front of the couch, was a keyboard. A black keyboard and a stand and where on earth had he gotten this from? Why had he gotten her a keyboard?

She walked towards it slowly as if worried that if she rushed to it, it would disappear. Her fingers reached out and they brushed down the white plastic keys. He had gotten her a keyboard. Daryl Dixon had gotten her a keyboard and had brought it here for her to have.

Rosita was standing near the door, her arms crossed over her chest and a slight smile across her face. Beth slowly sat down at the couch and the seat was a little too low but she didn't care as she rested her fingers over the keys. She didn't turn it on so there was no sound but that didn't stop her from playing the first few bars of the first song that popped into her head.

She played the keyboard and almost felt like crying, overwhelmed with a barrage of emotions slamming into her all at once. But in the center of it all, she knew one thing for absolute certain and with absolute clarity.

Daryl Dixon loved her. And she was in love with him.

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