Sorry, this took so long. I am working on all my WIPs. Which one do you all want me to work on next? Let me know. Xoxox Krissy

"""""Oh, my man

He got them real strong hands

And after working all day out in that hot sunshine

He comes walking in always lookin' so fine

Oh, my heart

Lights up like shooting stars

He like a knight in shining armor with them blue jeans on.""""

Tuxedo by Clare Dunn

Daryl had a few things to finish up at the garage, and he took Jamie along. It was the weekend still, but he had promised Maggie and Glenn that he would at least look at Christine. Jamie was happy to tag along, glad to be with him. He was far and away from the men she was used to, Greg and his friends. Daryl was so different, a working man with dirty hands, and he was all she could have wanted.

She sat on the floor next to him and handed him tools as he worked on Maggie's green nightmare with the radio playing in the background, soft country and classic rock, Mere's preference. They ordered a pizza from the pizza joint Glenn owned and spent the day talking about their next move. As they sat opposite each other on the floor eating and talking and she told him more.

When she was done telling her story, he wondered what a woman like her was doing sitting on the floor of his shop eating pizza. She came from the million-dollar world, from the places that the people on House Hunters were from. He knew the show because Merle was addicted to it and made him watch it sometimes. She was a long way from the world she came from.

Jamie fit in, though; she amazed him. She wasn't afraid of anything, and she had more balls than some men he knew.

"This is a beautiful car," Jamie said motioning towards Christine.

"It's a nightmare, and it's possessed," Daryl replied.

"Still…" Jamie mused. "My father was a mechanic; he would have been all over this; he loved exotic cars."

"Is he gone now?" Daryl asked.

"Yes." She said. "For a long time now, he would have liked you."

Daryl smiled at that, the idea of anyone's father liking him was foreign to him. The Dixon's had a reputation in the area, and most Daddy's did not want to see them coming to call. Both Daryl and Merle had made something of themselves, and the old man was gone, but not his memory. Not for a lot of people.

Jamie leaned against the side of the car and looked up at the ceiling. "I can't even begin to tell you how many school afternoons and weekends I spent in a garage, just like this. He had an old 80's Porsche 911 Targa, Connie." She smiled at the memory.

"Sweet ride."

"She's in storage in New Jersey." She murmured, and Daryl looked over at her and grinned. "She's mine."

"You're full of surprises aren't you?" He said leaning next to her on the Jag. Jamie smiled, looking down at her feet.

"Kinda." She laughed.

"It's alright." He bumped her shoulder. "I love it. Where in New Jersey?"

"Some little pine barrens town called Tuckerton, not too far from where the money is."

"You're very smart."

Jamie grinned, and then her phone rang. She answered, and it was Tara; she could hear the traffic of New York in the background, and she found that she didn't miss it the way she thought she would. That was her old life, she had a new life now, with this new man.

"Hey, Tara," Jamie said into the phone. "You ok?"

Daryl leaned over and listened to the conversation when Jamie motioned for him.

"I'm fine, but I noticed this guy hanging around the bank the last two days." She said as she walked down the street and looked the man behind her. "Now he's following me; he's not very subtle."

"Tara, are you sure you're safe."

"I'm in Times Square…Hang on."

Jamie and Daryl joined hands as they listened to Tara yelling on the other side of the phone. The words were hard to make out, but it was clear that she was yelling at the guy she thought was following her.

"She doesn't take any crap does she?" Daryl asked.

Jamie shook her head; that was the way you had to be in New York City, or you got eaten alive. That was just a fact. Soon Tara was back on the phone and telling Jamie that she just scared the shit out of the PI and ordered him into the nearest Starbucks's to buy her a café mocha.

"Me and this Eugene guy are gonna have a little chat; I'll call you later," Tara replied. And then she was gone.

"She'll handle it," Jamie said, still leaning against the car.

"No doubt." Daryl laughed. "So, you think he's looking down this way for you?"

"Yeah." She murmured. "He has connections everywhere, and I have a feeling that money wasn't even his, and I'm not sorry."

"Why did you take it?"

"I was in a panic after the last time he hit me, I just, I was so mad…" Jamie said. "He used my inheritance from my father down at Monmouth Park, betting on horses, that's what we were fighting about that day. I told him I was filing for divorce. The car was all I had left. I hid her from him before he tried to sell her."

Daryl slipped his arm over her shoulders and held her against him. "We'll figure this all out, get your car for you too. Guess a woman driving a Targa would have stuck out like a sore thumb around here huh?"

Jamie laughed, and they walked down towards the car and ate another slice of pizza.

"Almost done here and then we can meet Merle and my Uncle Abe at the bar. Make some plan. I think we should drive to NJ, hole up in one of those fancy casinos for a bit, get your money and your car. Merle and Abe can come; we'll close the shop for the week."

Jamie nodded, and he leaned down to kiss her softly. "You make me feel safe," Jamie said looking up at him, getting lost in his blue eyes again, like usual.

Just then the phone rang, and it was Tara. She was back out on the street and yelling into the phone so loud that Jamie could barely understand her.

"Greg hired this guy to follow me in hopes of finding you and the money. Vinnie the Snake told him he has five days to get the money back or he's getting buried in the Pine Barrens, Jonesy said that after he raised hell with him the other day. They're gonna kill Greg. Eugene is picking me up in an hour, and we're coming down there."

"Wait. What? Tara, who's Eugene?"

"The PI guy, I don't have a car, but he's from Hackensack, so he does. He doesn't work for Vinnie, and he had no idea Greg owed him that money, I let him know that little fact. He wants nothing to do with Greg or Vinnie, he just called Greg and traced him to South Carolina. He's knocking on your door, but I think Vinnie's guys must be following him, what do you think?" Tara said.

"I think you better slow down, don't come here Tara."

"Screw that! turns out Eugene knows Denise, she gave him a tetanus shot last year when he stepped on a dirty nail while following some cheating husband in Battery Park. He feels totally and utterly in her debt after she was kind enough to give him the anti-venom to combat his almost certain death from tetanus, his words not mine. Anyway he's in, and we're taking a road trip, Denise is coming too, see you tomorrow."

Then she hung up.