Yes, this is most definitely a slow burn but if you tilt your head and look for it, Beth and Daryl are already making progress though some might not agree with that.

…

Chapter Ten.

"A'right," Daryl says to her once he pulls into a parking space in the lot of the A1 Hardware Store and they get out of the truck, Louis trotting beside them as they walk towards the store's front entrance. "Now, I ain't tryin' to be sexist or anythin' but when we're in there, let me do all the talkin' with the salesguy."

Beth is quick to nod her head in instant agreement.

Thank God Daryl can be here to help her because what she said on the phone to him is the truth. She has absolutely no idea what she is doing. All she knows is that she doesn't have air-conditioning and she thinks it's time that she gets some. She had tried to research on the internet for what she should get but there had been too many units and too many options and she didn't know where to start. She doesn't mean to annoy Daryl with her constant asking him for help with things around the farm but she really has no one else. There's Otis, yes, but despite what he claims, he's getting up there in years and he should start taking it easier. The farm is her responsibility anyway and not his and she's going to try as hard as she can to make a go of it because despite what Daryl told her about her daddy, selling is just not an option for her.

They stop outside the doors before entering the store and Beth looks to Louis, who is panting and wagging his tail excitedly. She smiles at him and rubs a hand behind his ear.

"I didn't think you could bring dogs in there," Beth says though it's not really something she's honestly ever thought of.

"Yeah," Daryl nods and then pulls a leash from his back pocket. "'s long as he's on this, there's a bunch of places he can go into. I was in Home Depot a few months ago and someone had brought their poodle in. If that dog can be in there, Louis can be, too."

Beth smiles at that and watches as Daryl clips the leash onto Louis's collar. She walks with them through the automatic sliding doors and she goes to get a cart – more out of habit than anything. And taking the leash from Daryl's hand, she loops the handle around the cart's bar. He looks at her and his lips do that twitch things and Beth smiles in return.

"A'right," Daryl stops them before they can walk any further. "'fore we get there, lemme know your price point. How much you got to spend?"

"Um…" Beth thinks about it for a moment and then shakes her head. "I don't know. I went online but I was seeing prices all over the place. I guess…" she pauses and looks up at him and she doesn't want to seem like an idiot or helpless but she called him to come with her because all of this is just a little bit outside her comfort level. "Three thousand?" She fires out the first random number that pops into her mind.

And she wonders if that's way too low or way too high but Daryl just nods and he steps away. With Louis and pushing the cart, Beth follows after and Daryl keeps his steps slow so they can walk side by side.

She wants to thank him again for helping her and though she still doesn't know nearly enough about this man, it's clear to her that he never seems willing to accept anything like that. He doesn't seem comfortable with any type of praise but he should be comfortable because everyone should be thanking him all of the time. Beth knows she's not the only one he helps out with things around their houses and they should all be thanking him until they're blue in the face. She gets the feeling that without Daryl's handyman business, much of their little town would probably be falling apart.

She looks around as they head towards the back of the small – yet stuffed full – hardware store. There is everything she can imagine needed for building and repair packed into each aisle they pass. And she can't help but giggle to herself and Daryl looks at her curiously.

"Wha'?" He wonders.

She shakes her head but can't stop smiling. "I bet you know more than everyone who works here," she says, looking up at him, and she sees his lips twitching – just slightly – before he seems to collect himself and with his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, he shrugs, but she can see the tips of his ears poking through his hair turning a faint pink.

The air-conditioning and heating units are in the back of the store and Beth stops the cart next to Daryl as he stops to look at the first one they come across. He walks around the unit and then lifts up the card of information hanging from it, reading over what's listed there. She can't help but lean in a little closer to him and peer onto the card as well even though she has no idea what she's reading. She recognizes the words; just not strung together.

Goodman GSX130361: 3 TON, 14 OR 15 SEER CONDENSER, R-410A REFRIGERANT

Okay…

She lied. She has no idea what she's reading.

"Can I help you?" A salesman comes up to them wearing a green vest and a smile.

"Yeah. We're lookin' to get an AC unit for the house," Daryl says. "This one looks 'bout the one we're lookin' for."

"It's a good one, that's for sure. One of our best on the floor," the salesman agrees. "And it comes with a 10-year warranty and is made specifically for these southern states. How big is the house you're looking to cool down?"

Daryl looks to Beth.

"I think it's around 2800 square feet," she answers and she hopes that's right. She thinks she heard her daddy say that once upon a time when someone asked him. All she really knows is that the farmhouse is rather large and the salesman's raised eyebrows show that he's thinking the same thing.

"Then, this would definitely be your best bet," the salesman says, looking back to Daryl, and Daryl is back to looking over the information on the sign. "And it just so happens to be on sale this week."

"Hmmm," Daryl says, glancing over to Beth before back to the salesman. "You mind givin' us a second? Want to talk with her 'bout some things."

The salesman nodded, still smiling. "Take as long as you two want and come find me if you have any questions."

Once alone again, Beth looks at the unit as if she knows exactly what she's looking for.

"We ain't buyin' one today," he informs her and Beth's eyes fly to look at him.

"We're not?" She asks and her eyes widen with surprise but then she frowns with confusion. "But this one's on sale…" she then echoes the salesman's words.

"I gotta go to your house and see the size of your heatin' ducts. They might not be the right size or in the right spot for gettin' your money's worth. You wan' your house cool, right?"

Beth nods because she's starting to feel a headache coming on. She isn't sure what exactly she had been expecting but it isn't this. Maybe she should just buy a window unit instead of getting a whole air-conditioning unit for the entire house.

"'m gonna have Merle come and help. I know how to buy one of these but Merle knows what needs to be done to get it installed. He works for Buddy," he says and she nods, already knowing that, remembering George Mitchell at the drugstore complaining about him. "Places like this sell units at a good price and they get you on installation fees."

"I'll take your word for it," Beth says.

After they look at a few more units – which all look exactly the same to Beth – they head away from the section but Beth doesn't feel like leaving the hardware store just yet. It's not her usual place to spend time but it's probably Daryl's and she likes spending time with him. She tries to think of something to do with him other than cookies and tea or movies in the park but both of those things are two of her favorite things to do and she can't think of anything else to possibly suggest to him.

"What do you like to do?" She hears herself blurt out rather suddenly.

Daryl looks at her, obviously a little surprised, too. Beth feels her cheeks warm but she keeps looking at him, awaiting his answer.

"Wha' do you mean?" He asks. "In my spare time?"

"Yes," she nods with a smile. "What do you like to do when you're not working?"

His brow furrows and he gives her a look as if he's never been asked anything stranger than that. And that's strange to Beth because hasn't anyone tried to get to know him before? What did he and Amy talk about when they began dating?

Beth keeps looking at him, waiting his answer, and Daryl seems to know that not answering her really isn't going to be an option. She can be extremely stubborn and will just ask him again and maybe he already knows that about her.

Daryl shrugs. "I like to read," he says and then looks at her as if waiting to see what her reaction to that would be but Beth just keeps looking at him and smiles faintly. "And I go huntin' just 'bout every weekend."

She already knows that part and she nods. "What do you like to read?"

He shrugs again. "All sorts of things, I guess."

He turns his head away as if he doesn't want to talk about this anymore and Beth can't help but frown a little as she turns her head away, too. She had already made the confession to him that she wants them to be friends and this is how people become friends. They talk with one another and get to know one another. Maybe she should invite him over for cookies and tea. He had seemed to be able to talk when in that environment.

Her eyes catch a passing sign. "Do you mind if we go in the nursery? There's a sale."

"I don't mind," he says and they both turn, heading towards the sliding doors at the side of the store that lead into the outdoor nursery.

The hardware store has put all of its flowers, plants and trees on sale since it's far into summer now and most people are done with their planting and everything that is left seems to be a little wilted. Beth always hates seeing things like this and Maggie and Shawn always used to tease her for being so sad about something so silly. It's like going to a tree lot in December and seeing the Christmas trees that hadn't been sold yet. Beth always gets the urge to buy everything that's left.

"Lookin' for anythin' special?" Daryl asks from beside her.

"I just want to buy everything here," Beth answers, looking around at the remaining marigolds, pansies and geraniums, all a little wilted in the intense Georgia heat.

"Plenty of room in the truck bed," Daryl responds with a shrug and Beth smiles a little at that because he doesn't know that she's absolutely serious.

Louis lets out a bark then and they both turn, lifting their eyes to see a squirrel scurrying alongside one of the exposed rafters of the nursery ceiling. He wags his tails and pulls on his leash, pulling the cart with him, and Daryl gently guides Beth aside so he can hold onto the cart's handlebar and keep Louis from running the whole thing off with him.

"Wha' 'bout you?" Daryl asks, his head turning back towards her. Beth is looking over the flowers and she lifts her eyes to look at Daryl. "Wha' do you like to do when you're not fixin' animals?"

Beth feels a warmth spread across her chest from him asking but she does her best to push it aside and ignore it. "I love to sing and I play the piano. And I read, too," she answers him.

"What do you read?" He asks.

"All sorts of things, I guess," Beth tosses back at him with a smile and he smirks at that.

She hears a rumble and for one second, she stupidly thinks that it's her stomach because she is hungry. But then she's noticed that it's gotten a little dimmer in the nursery and the sky has turned overcast outside with approaching rain.

She steps away from the tables of flowers though she does so with some reluctance because she really doesn't want to go without buying all of these poor flowers. "We should probably go before it can hit."

"We can if you wan'," Daryl gives his head a nod. "But there ain't no better time to buy flowers though then in a rain shower."

And not for the first time, Beth looks to Daryl and wonders what goes through Amy's head.

Because yes, Daryl is handsome. Very handsome. Ridiculously handsome. Some people might not think that at first glance but his good looks are definitely there. He's tall and broad and built and just looking at him, Beth can't imagine too many things being able to knock him over. Even there in jeans and a wrinkled tee-shirt with facial hair from not shaving and too-long dark hair, he's more handsome than any of the clean-cut models Beth used to think as being her ideal kind of man.

But not only is Daryl handsome, he's kind. Simply put, he's just a kind man who is always willing to help her out when she calls him randomly, in need of him.

Sometimes, there doesn't seem to be too many genuinely kind people left in this world.

The rain has started to fall, pounding the roof above their heads, by the time Beth buys twelve sleeves with twelve small containers of flowers in each sleeve and five bags of soil. She also buys two rose bushes and one wilting maple tree that probably won't make it past this season but she doesn't care.

They stand inside of the doors, watching the downpour of rain falling from dark clouds.

"I think I went a little overboard," Beth then says, looking at the flowers and bushes and the maple tree standing next to Daryl.

Daryl just shrugs as he always seems to do. "Leas' they'll get a good soakin' in this." He begins unwinding the leash's handle from the cart and unclips it from Louis's collar before looking back to Beth. "Ready to run?" He asks.

She smiles, almost laughing. "I actually love walking in the rain."

And she's not sure what his reaction to that will be but after a moment of looking at her, his lips twitch. Not in a smirk but the twitching that shows that he wants to smile. It's almost like he doesn't quite know how to actually produce something as seemingly simple as a smile. Beth decides right then and there that she will get Daryl Dixon to smile if it's the last thing she ever does while here on this earth.

"A'right," he gives his head a nod and hefts the maple tree bucket in his arm. "Walkin' it is."

And with that, the automatic sliding doors open and they step out into the rain together.

…

Every Sunday, Beth gets up and goes to morning church service and then goes into the small cemetery next to it to visit with her mama and daddy for a while. She tells them everything that's going on in her life and with the farm and the practice though she believes that they can watch her from wherever they are right now and as she talks, she feels a scratch in the back of her throat and tears burning her eyes and she tells them how much she misses them and wishes they were here – though they already know that, too.

She then goes home and leaves her dress on but takes off her shoes because it's gearing up to be another hot and humid day and dresses are cooler to her to wear than anything else. After drinking another cup of coffee and eating toast with peanut butter slathered over it, she goes into the living room and sits on the bench at the upright piano, one of the fans pointed directly on her. Her fingers curl over the keys but before she can even play one note, she hears the familiar sound of gravel kicking up on the dirt drive, and she turns, seeing a truck through the front window, approaching the house.

"Stop," she whispers to her stomach as it immediately begins flipping and flopping all over the place. She needs to get rid of this crush because she and Daryl are friends and what more can she ask for than that? She already knows nothing more will ever happen between them.

She stands up from the bench and goes to the front door, stepping out onto the front porch. And as the truck gets closer, she sees that it's not Daryl and not Daryl's truck but rather, it's Merle Dixon behind the wheel.

Her stomach doesn't stop though because it knows that Merle is here because of Daryl.

"Hey, Doc," Merle says as he hops out of the truck.

"Good morning," Beth greets him with a smile.

The brothers have about ten years between them but sometimes, Merle looks so much older than even that. With how old Paulie is, it's no secret to anyone who can do math that she was extremely young when she gave birth to her oldest son. But sometimes, Merle even looks older than his mom. And because their town loves to talk about everyone, Beth knows that Merle hasn't had exactly something of an easy life. Even after Will was dead, Merle couldn't shake the demons on his back. Drugs, drinking, crime and prison… For the most part, it seems as if maybe he has finally straightened himself out. After all, he does have a job now with Buddy's "Cool Boys" Air Conditioning Repair – even though it seems, according to some, that he shows up to that job whenever he feels like.

This morning, he looks as if he maybe never went to bed the night before. His jeans and white wife-beater are wrinkled and the shirt has a stain over his stomach not to mention the bags under his eyes as if they hadn't seen a pillow for many hours now.

"Lil' brother told me to come and get my ass over here to check out the air ducts," Merle says as he grabs his toolbox and approaches the porch with a grin.

Beth smiles in return. "You didn't have to rush over here. Daryl and I were just looking at units yesterday."

Merle shrugs. "Way Daryl ordered me, wasn' thinkin' I had much of a choice."

She feels her cheeks warm and she quickly lowers her eyes but not quickly enough because she's not even looking at Merle and she can still practically hear him grinning. She tries as quickly as she can to compose herself. There is absolutely no reason for blushing or stomach clenching. Daryl is just her friend and that's exactly how he's treating her. Like a friend.

"Hot damn," Merle says as he follows her into the house and it's probably hotter in here than it is outside even with the windows open and fans blowing. "Literally. Hot damn, Doc."

"You get used to it," Beth shrugs.

He's frowning though. "'m glad Daryl told me to get my ass over to see you."

Beth shows him into the basement and she stands off to the side so not to get in his way as he holds a flashlight between his teeth and checks out the air ducts that shoot off from the ancient heater. He has a pen and measuring tape and after each measurement he takes, he writes the number down on the inside of his wrist.

"Do you want a piece of paper?" Beth offers.

He shakes his head. "Nah," he says through the flashlight. He works for a few more minutes, measuring all of the ducts in the basement and then he drops the measuring tape back into his toolbox along with the pen and he takes the flashlight from his mouth but leaves it out and turned on.

"Surprised your old man didn't put central air into this place sooner," Merle comments.

Beth shrugs. "He talked about it but there was always something that had to be done first. You get used to it," she says again.

"Ain't no gettin' used to Hell, Doc," Merle responds.

She has heard plenty of stories of Merle Dixon. Less than savory stories. But even though she hardly knows this man, she finds herself not feeling nervous being alone with him in her basement right now. She does her best to not listen to small-town gossip anyway.

"I have some lemonade upstairs in the fridge. Would you like a glass?" She offers him.

"Hell, yeah," he agrees immediately and she laughs softly.

"You're a bit dramatic," she comments as she heads up the stairs, Merle right behind her, and she does her best to not think about how he's probably looking at her ass right now.

"Daryl's told me that," Merle shrugs and he shows himself to the table, heavily dropping himself down into one of the chairs as Beth goes to the cabinet for two glasses. "I tend to ignore 'im though. Especially when he says that while he's moonin' away on some girl who just ain't worth the spit in my mouth."

Not exactly a charming way of putting it but Beth can't help but silently agree though she certainly has absolutely no grounds to have any sort of opinion on this matter.

Beth fills the two glasses with the raspberry lemonade and comes to sit at the table. "We've talked about it. Daryl and I about Amy. His feelings can't be like a light switch," she tells the older Dixon, hoping she can gain some understanding for Daryl's feelings.

Merle snorts and pauses to take a long guzzle of lemonade. "And if this was over any other girl in the world, I wouldn' expect him to get over her just like that," he snaps his fingers to emphasize his point. "But it's Amy and there's no reason for him to still be wantin' her."

Beth takes a sip from her own glass. "He's in love with her," she says and ignores the tightening in her stomach as she says the words. Again, she has no right to feel like that even though in the back of her mind, she wonders why she finds herself agreeing with Merle. She doesn't know anything about Daryl and Amy's relationship and she can't pretend that she does.

"Daryl ain't got the first clue as to what a lovin' relationship is," Merle says.

"And you do?" Beth asks him with a raised eyebrow.

Merle just grins at her. "Hell, Doc. Never said I did." He takes another swig of lemonade. "All I know 'bout love is that this whole thing 'tween Daryl and Amy ain't it."

…

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