Chapter 32 – Daryl
I can't get over the fact that this beautiful woman is mine. She wants me…she misses me…and maybe someday she'll tell me that she loves me. That night she was sleeping in my arms doesn't count when she mumbled 'I love you Daryl,' I want her to say it to me, then maybe I'll have the balls to say it back to her. I've never told anyone before that I loved them, and it scares the hell out of me to feel this way. All this intense stuff is running through my head as I'm getting dressed after the killer shower we shared. I can't get enough of her and I doubt I ever will.
I'm starving since I didn't bring anything to eat while I was hunting. That wasn't smart of me. "Lauren, I'm gonna go down to grab something to eat. I'm starving, okay?"
"Sure I'll be down in a few. I need to fix my hair since it got all wet in the shower," Lauren says giving me a sly glance.
I come up behind her and wrap my arms around her. "I love you wet…everywhere," I whisper to her. "Everywhere."
"Oh…my, "is all she can say. "Daryl, we can't…so please don't get me started again."
My stomach growls so loudly and we both burst out laughing. "Go get something to eat. If Carol isn't there and you can't find anything, I'll be down in a few minutes.
I give her a kiss on the back of her head and let her out of my arms. "I'll see you downstairs and Lauren…."
She turns around to look at me with her hairbrush in her hand. "Yeah?"
"Leave it down….I like it that way."
"I was planning on it," she says with a smile. I return her smile and close the door to head downstairs.
Carol and Maggie were getting dinner together, so I snuck into the pantry and took a box of old cookies out to the living room. I relaxed on a sofa with my feet up on the coffee table munching on stale chocolate chip cookies when Rick joins me. I offered him some but he waves them off. "What did you find out there?" he asked.
"I want Lauren to be here. There's something I found that she may be able to explain." I tell him popping another cookie in my mouth. Damn they still taste pretty good. I guess the scavenging today was successful.
Carol suddenly reaches over my shoulder and grabs the box out of my hand. "You've had enough."
"What are you my mother now?" I turn and yell at her. "I want those back."
"After dinner," she says over her shoulder. "And that's in fifteen minutes." Carol then sends Carl to tell the people in the bunkhouse that dinner's in a few minutes.
I start to call Carol some choice names under my breath and I look at Rick who's just shaking his head. "Where's Lauren," he finally asks.
"Fixin' her hair. It got wet in the shower."
"I wonder whose fault that was," he laughs at me.
"His," Lauren says as she made it into the living room. "Completely his." She sits next to me and I feel my body perk up simply by her closeness. "So what's up guys?"
"I wanted to wait until you were here to tell Rick what I saw today."
"I'm here so, what happened?" she asks.
"Okay… so I wandered the woods checking out trails and tracks. Plenty of deer and the usual critters you find in the deep woods. Hunting is going to be easy. I could bag a deer everyday if I had to. No sign of walkers or no sign of people except in one place." I turned to Lauren. "What do you know about a small farm about five or six miles from here on the right side of the lake with a wind turbine?"
"Daryl, I have no idea. There are so many small farms around here and I don't know everyone. What was so special about it?"
"It had the first sign of life I've seen since we got here…I saw a man there…a big guy with a long beard." I could see that she wasn't recognizing it.
Lauren thought for a bit. "I'm sorry guys, this doesn't sound familiar. I need more to go on."
I looked over at Rick and I could tell he was concerned. "Daryl, why don't you take her back there tomorrow and show it to her. Maybe that will help. We need to know what we may be up against," Rick said with a very serious tone. "
"That's fine with me." Lauren said. I nodded my approval to Rick and Carol called us all to dinner.