Monday morning came too soon for Beth. Although she was excited to start her student teaching, something she'd been looking forward to for the last year or more, she hated to leave the tight little cocoon that she and Daryl had created for themselves over the weekend. It had been the most wonderful two days of her life and Beth desperately hoped that things between them wouldn't change once they'd gone back to their normal life of school and work. For some reason, which Beth realized was completely irrational, she feared that once things went back to "normal" and she couldn't spend as much time with Daryl that he would change his mind about being with her, that he wouldn't want her in the same way anymore.
As Beth dried her hair, she tried to shake those worries from her mind. She focused on what she had in front of her today, orientation at the school where she'd be student teaching. She'd been told by her advisor that there were 4 other students from her program who would also be student teaching at the same school and although she wasn't sure who they were, she was certain she'd know at least some of them. She knew that this first week would be draining on her, but she was exciting about the opportunity ahead. She was incredibly tired, not having slept as much as she should have, tangled up in the sheets with Daryl for most of the night and early morning, both of them desperate to savor the little bit of uninterrupted time they still had left together.
She smiled at herself in the mirror thinking about her and Daryl's last round, in the shower just a few minutes prior. She never thought she'd be having sex with someone in the shower, not even her future husband, but Daryl ignited something inside of her that she couldn't explain. She found herself constantly aroused, desperately wanting to be next to Daryl all the time, wanting to feel him touching her and making love to her. And those feelings had driven her to be much more adventurous than she ever imagined. Before Daryl, her sexual experiences had been pretty limited and had all been very tame. But over the last couple of days she and Daryl had had sex at least 15 times, she guessed, and they'd seemed to really lay caution to the wind, giving over to their instincts and letting themselves touch and feel and respond to each other, experimenting and exploring together. And now that Beth had gotten a taste of what that could be like, she knew there was no going back. She just wasn't quite sure how she'd manage to make it through the entire day without Daryl. Part of her hoped that she'd just be so busy that she wouldn't be too caught up thinking about him.
Beth spent more time than she'd wanted looking through her clothes, trying to decide what to wear. She knew she should have planned out her clothes the night before, just like her mom had always taught her to do, but she hadn't wanted to stray too far from Daryl, so she'd put it off until this morning. And picking out her clothes was a bit harder for her because of the haphazard order they were hanging in within her new closet. Daryl had done an amazing job at moving all of her things to the new house from her uncle's place – but she had some work to do herself in organizing her things just the way she wanted them.
Beth also noted to herself that she needed to go shopping for some school clothes as soon as possible – even before summer started she'd planned on doing this, knowing that many of her clothes weren't appropriate or practical for her to wear to school. She'd saved a great deal of money up over time, but she didn't have as much as she would have if she hadn't stopped working half way through the summer – and she couldn't help but worry a little about money. She wouldn't need as much this school year for books and other school supplies, but she couldn't help but wonder how she and Daryl would be able to afford to live in such a nice house and maintain a decent lifestyle, especially when she wasn't currently bringing in any income at all. She knew that she couldn't go back to lifeguarding, her therapist had suggested that it wasn't a healthy environment to put herself back into. Beth would probably need to find a part-time job, she thought, to work a bit at nights and some on the weekends. But the thought of taking any bit of time away from her little bit of time with Daryl was painful to think about, to say the least. She knew she needed to be stronger, needed to do what she had to do to help contribute to their household, but currently she wasn't feeling particularly strong with relation to anything to do with being away from Daryl any more than what was absolutely necessary.
She finally chose a pair of cropped fitted black dress pants, a flowy three-quarter length blouse, and a pair of black patent wedges. She hurriedly put it all on, checking the time, noting that she was running a few minutes behind schedule. She pulled her hair half back, knowing she'd be more comfortable with it pulled out of her face, and then grabbed her purse before hurrying into the kitchen. She hadn't seen Daryl since they'd gotten out of the shower, and she wasn't sure where he was or what he was doing. She was shocked to find him in the kitchen, a huge stack of pancakes piled up next to him on the counter. He smiled up at her, and she saw then that he'd set two places at their little kitchen table. He'd laid out their plates, silverware, napkins, juice glasses, and coffee mugs. He took a little ceramic container out of the microwave, which Beth realized was syrup, and picked up the plate of pancakes, moving towards the table.
"Big day… Need a good breakfast." Daryl said, smiling to her sweetly as she looked at him, a little in shock. She knew the expression on her face probably said it all, but she couldn't help her surprise. She'd not known Daryl to cook much, although she knew that he could. But this man, she thought, continued to amaze her, always thinking of what he could do for her, always trying to show her how much he loved her, through whatever way he could think of.
"How did I get so lucky?" Beth asked, sliding up beside Daryl and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I'm the lucky one, baby girl…" Daryl said, bending his head down to brush his lips against hers. And all of a sudden, the last thing on Beth's mind was making it to school on time. She deepened their kiss, and couldn't help the arousal she felt when she felt Daryl's hands run down her back and cup her ass tightly.
"You're gonna be late…" Daryl said in between kisses.
"Don't care…" Beth said in response, smiling against Daryl's lips. And she didn't. She knew she should, knew it wouldn't be good if she was late on her very first day. And she knew she didn't want to do anything to mess up her relationship with those at the school where she'd be student teaching.
But as Daryl pushed her backwards, up against the kitchen counter, then lifting her up onto the counter, spreading her legs and touching her over her pants, she just couldn't bring herself to care. And she wasn't sure if she would ever care about anything else in life as much as she cared for this man - and that feeling both thrilled and terrified her. It was her turn to think that Daryl would certainly be the death of her, but she was pretty sure she'd found her happily ever after.
xx The End xx
Author's Note:
First, I'd like to thank each of you who for continuing to read this story, and for all your encouragement and feedback along the way. This was my very first experience with writing fan fiction and all of you have made the experience wonderful.
I'd like to thank the many of you have regularly reviewed this story. And I'd particularly like to thank a new friend rckyfrk for being a critical voice for me during all of this.
I am bringing Man on the Beach to a close. But the storyline is far from over, so I will be starting on a sequel that I hope you will all follow with equal enthusiasm. This new story will follow Beth and Daryl throughout the next year as they explore their relationship, plan for their future, and certainly face more than their fair share of obstacles along the way. The new story will be titled Man with a Mission.
I invite you to follow me as an author so that you'll be notified as soon as this new story begins, which should be sometime within the next week.