A/N- It feels like ages since I updated but I had some serious writers block on this chapter! Hope you enjoy it and thanks to all the people who have started following and favourited!
Kate loved to drive. Ever since she had passed her test at 17 she had loved the pure freedom of jumping behind the wheel and saying "where next?" Her first car was a white Volkswagen Golf bought and paid for by many weekends and school holidays working her part time job at the local Marks and Spencers. Despite the big scratch that the rear bumper had acquired on day two of owning the car it was still her favourite.
After the accident Kate hadn't got behind the wheel of a car for weeks. She had barely left Lou's house after he took her in so that she, "didn't do something regrettable." Lou's house reminded her of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel with his eccentric assortment of items which were all mashed together from a lifetime of collecting. Bookshelves crammed and ever dusty, a Queen Anne desk with a secret compartment that contained a taxidermy bat, a bust of Wellington that sat perilously on a fragile antique end table inlaid with a teal hummingbird and fuchsia pink flowers.
Lou lived in the heart of London and Kate was sequestered to his guest room with its heavy burgundy curtains that remained mostly closed despite his best efforts to "cheer her up." Until one day. She'd woke in confused darkness, endured the moment where she remembered Harry was really gone and grabbed her phone. It was three in the afternoon.
This has to stop. She'd told herself and this day she had meant it. Kate had flung open the curtains and let the light that jumped into the room burn her eyes until she could find focus. Then she saw them there, bright, cheerful and full of the promise of spring. Daffodils in full bloom, a whole happy bunch of them swaying in the window box outside her room. She'd missed it. The point where the shoots become buds and buds become flowers. She opened the window to pluck one from its friends before she twirled it between her fingers. It was an event that she never actively looked for but it was always there, when the seasons began to change and a sea of yellow began to pop from green and suddenly the days felt a little warmer.
This was the turning point. The daffodils reminded her that no matter what she did the world was still going by without her. Kate decided to travel back in time, if only for today. Her keys had been difficult to find amongst the clutter of her possessions but when she had them she had pulled on whatever clothes her fingers found and jumped behind the wheel of her car. The family car, the Silver Volvo that Ryan had bought for her without discussion.
Kate drove for hours that day, chasing the daffodils all the way from London to Derbyshire where Spring hadn't yet bloomed. She bought a sandwich, cheese with Branston Pickle, and took a seat on some grass next to a cluster of daffodil buds. The yellow promise of the petals were just poking through, then it began to rain. It was a light mist like rain that sits in tiny pin prick water droplets on everything it touches and she decided to return home, or at least return to Lou, where she told him that she would like to join him on his trip to America if he would still have her.
Now, the air conditioning blew an icy breeze that was so beautifully refreshing that Kate could almost forget she was in the sticky Georgia heat while the speakers blasted out the summertime sounds of the Stone Roses album she had stolen from an old boyfriend. The bright red Mustang had been a somewhat extravagant rental choice on Kate's part but since the Museum were footing her expenditures she thought she might as well enjoy herself.
The drive to the fair wasn't the gridlocked city driving that clipped the engines wings. It was long empty stretches of country road that made the car feel like it could fly and their only witnesses were the livestock grazing in the fields.
Daryl told her to "take the next left," and her eyes left the road to steal a glance at him. He was sitting with his legs parted lazily, one elbow resting in the spot where the window met the door and his other in his lap, fingers splayed with his thumb indicating the way to his crotch where her eyes lingered for longer than was appropriate. Even looking wasn't exactly appropriate. Kate felt her cheeks redden and her eyes flicked back to the road as her finger cranked the air conditioning a little higher to combat the hot feeling that was superheating her.
"Over there ya see," he said, gesturing in the distance.
Kate could see the outline of some of the biggests rides peaking out over the treeline and she felt the excited anticipation in the same way she used to feel as a child going to a fair.
The carpark was a huge field half filled with trucks and fully filled with mud. She tried her best not to park in the worst of it and then it was official. They had arrived. With the engine off the silence filled the car, only punctuated by the dull thud of Kate's own heartbeat ringing in her ears as she turned to look at Daryl. Why did he make her so nervous? The more time she was spending with him the worse it seemed to be getting.
Daryl gave her a small smile before he jumped out of her car and lit his perfunctory cigarette. She realised that he reminded her of an old boyfriend she had when she was studying for her A-Level's, the same from whom she had acquired the CD. He was the 'bad boy' boyfriend that was almost a rite of passage for most teenage girls. He'd been older, cooler, the kind of boy she would have never brought home to her parents, if they gave a shit. He'd given her many firsts, everything was always so exciting with him, until she went away to University and left him behind. Liam, she hadn't really thought about him in a long time.
Kate pulled down her sun visor and looked at her face in the little mirror before reapplying a coat of her lipstick. Then she looked out the wing mirror at Daryl and wondered what he had been like when he was 18. Probably just the same as he was now.
/
The fair was as bright, loud and obnoxious as Daryl knew it would be except it wasn't annoying him in the way it usually would. There were rides, games, food stalls and a little petting zoo in between the large crowd of people that were milling around. They joined the throng, walking side by side and he wondered if this was a date but knew he wouldn't dare mention the word. Not only did he not think he could force it from his mouth but he knew Kate probably wouldn't like that idea very much, even if that's exactly what it was.
Daryl watched her run her fingers through her long hair before tying it up in a high ponytail. It was such an ordinary thing for her to do, he'd seen Charlene do it many times but there was something about watching Kate doing it that made him want to run his finger along the back of her newly exposed neck before he kissed her there.
Instead he asked her, "what ya wanna do first?"
"Erm," Kate looked around as she kneeled to stroke a billy goat that was poking its head through a metal fence at the petting zoo. "Shall we go on some rides?"
"Ya like rides?" All that spinning and flying through the air made him uneasy. He liked his feet on the ground or his ass behind the wheel of whatever was travelling faster than he could walk.
"You did invite me to a fair…"
"Just checkin'." The last thing he was going to do was pussy out in front of Miss Uppity and he wasn't scared. Dixon's weren't scared of anything. He felt a short, hard tug on his jeans followed by another. He tried to jump away but failed as a great big goat held onto his back pocket.
Of course Kate would like this. She laughed before she made her way behind him to ward off the goat while saying, "she wants a piece of your arse… but she'll have to get in line I suppose."
Daryl liked to think she was talking about herself but from the wink she gave him he knew she was referring to her ridiculous idea of his sex truck. "Be a damn short line an' I don't wanna give my ass to a goat.."
"Oh look," Kate pointed behind him before sweeping past. It was a sea of yellow fuzzies as a hundred chicks all scurried around little their pen with their tiny squeaky chirps. He watched an attendant pick one up and pass it to her then watched the way her face lit up like it did whenever she smiled. Kate turned and looked to him, holding the chick up so he could see.
"Cute," Daryl said as he stroked its little head. His eyes never left hers. Jesus Christ she was pretty.
"I'm glad you like it, I just bought you six."
Daryl's face fell, "what?"
Kate bit her lip and he felt relief flood him as he could see laugher start to bubble forth. "Don't worry Mr Dixon I don't buy livestock on a date," she giggled then stiffened, her cheeks filling with pink, "I mean…"
"Shall we get out tickets," Daryl interrupted. There was no way in hell he was going to let the woman correct her slip up. This was fucking great. Miss Uppity might be trying to play hard to get but she was the one saying the word date which meant she was thinking it.
Kate was suspiciously silent and frozen like a statue so he decided to act cool even if inside he was doing a happy dance, the kind of ridiculous happy dance that he always frowned at Charlene for doing whenever she won a few dollars on the lottery. But then he couldn't be too damn cool, he wanted to touch her, he wanted their date to end with a kiss. Daryl stepped a little closer before he eased his fingers in between hers to take the chick and return it to its pen.
"We should wash our hands," Kate decided before she turned around and marched towards a little water butt that had been set up in between all the pens. She was trying to avoid looking at him and her cheeks still had that rosy glow that he liked so damn much. He didn't think he'd ever made a woman react this way and he found it strangely erotic, her blushes and her reluctance to give into him. She couldn't even give into the word date without a fight which made the hunter inside of him even more eager.
"Two," Daryl said to the pimple faced teenager that was running the ticket stall. He'd used his chance when Kate was distracted to buy her a wristband and seal the notion of this being a date. He found her standing exactly where he left her, wearing the exact same dumbfounded expression.
"I've never in my life seen a monkey ride a dog," Kate turned to look at him and he couldn't tell if it amused or horrified her.
"Welcome to Georgia," he chuckled before he shoved his bright orange wristband into his pocket then pulled the sticky label off of Kate's. She could have affixed her own quite easily but it was an excuse to pick up her wrist as he carefully wrapped it around. "Don't let a goat eat it, or a monkey."
"Thank you," Kate almost whispered as she grasped her wrist in her other hand.
They walked towards the rides and of course the first one she wanted to go on was in Daryl's opinion the worse. It spun around, it spun upside down, it looked fucking awful. He supposed it was like eating vegetables, better to get them out of the way first then he could enjoy the rest of the meal.
After they had been on every ride at least once, Daryl was feeling more than a little bit motion sick. He decided what he needed to make himself feel better was a full stomach. Somehow he knew that the sweet and greasy goodness would settle the sick feelings in a way that only fair ground food could.
"We should get candyfloss," Kate declared with a great big smile. Daryl rolled the word and the way she had said it around in his head. Candyfloss, not cotton candy.
"And corndogs," Daryl suggested, as they joined a queue for a big food truck. His mouth was watering at the mere thought of eating one.
Kate pulled a face, "I think I'll pass."
"You can't pass, fair ground rules..."
"Rules?" she gave him a devilish smile. "What will you do if I break them?"
Daryl swallowed down hard and a hundred and one ideas crossed his mind, all of them dirty, "I'll have to…"
"What ya'll wanting?" the old man standing in food truck interrupted them.
Daryl cleared his throat. Probably for the best. Despite what Miss Uppity said he ordered her a corn dog before he asked, "what ya wanna drink?"
Kate bit her lip and he wondered if she would decline his offer to buy her a drink but eventually she let out a soft sigh and relented, "lemonade."
Success. Daryl passed Kate her corn dog and her drink with no resistance except for the sexy little pout she gave to the corn dog.
"Ya ever even had one?"
"That's not the point."
"Well if ya ain't tried it how do ya know?"
"Sometimes you just know."
Daryl stared at the alien who had never even had a corn dog, with all her hair that was falling out of her ponytail and her floral pants that made her look like some kind of goddamn hippy. "If ya don't like it I'll eat it," he decided as they took a seat next to each other on a picnic table.
"But you'll get my…" Kate put the corn dog to her lips and half laughed before she said "cooties".
Cooties, he wondered how she could be both sexy and adorable at the same time. Daryl took a long drink of his coke and tried not to react but he was thinking about better ways to get her cooties all over him. His eyes fell to Kate's lips and with bated breath he watched her take a bite of the corn dog. It might have been because he was wondering if she would enjoy it but it was more likely because he liked the way her mouth had wrapped around the end. He was a damn pervert. She caught his eye and he looked away, his ears burning. Thank god people couldn't read thoughts.
Daryl spotted Charlene first, her long red hair was unmistakable. Not far behind her was Jim in the trucker hat that never seemed to leave his head. Daryl wondered if his friend would wear the 'Jim's Construction' hat to his own wedding and knew that Char would likely shoot him if he did. He relaxed, he kind of liked the idea of his friends meeting Kate then Charlene could stop setting him up all time.
Daryl was almost about to stand up and wave them over when there she was, Cassie. She stepped out from behind a group of teenagers who were clustered together taking selfies and throwing popcorn at each other. His heart sank to the bottom of his feet. Shit.
"You can have it," Kate nudged his shoulder bringing his attention back to her big brown eyes and soft smile.
"What?"
Her brow furrowed, "my corn dog."
"Right," Daryl swallowed down the queasy feeling that was rising. The idea of grabbing hold of Kate and running away crossed his mind and seemed like the best option. But when he looked back towards Charlene she waved to him and he forced a smile. Fuck.
Daryl knew he had to say something to Kate before they got here. What was she going to think? Or on second thoughts maybe it wasn't too late to run.