Thank you all so much! We made it through Daryl's first story, and Beth said she loves him. Can we blame her? Let's listen in for more of the story.
Enjoy!
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"Wha…what did you say?"
She smiles up at him, "I said I think I love you Daryl D…," that's as much as she's able to say before his lips are on hers. The passion is deep and their bodies are humming with desire...and then he pulls away.
His hands rest on her shoulders and she looks so crushed and confused, wondering what in the world just happened, but she can't seem to put together the words to ask. He looks just as crushed as she is when he tries to explain, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kissed ya like that, I shoulda…ah shit Beth, I'm pretty sure I feel the same way about you, but you ain't heard the rest of the story. It might change your mind."
My God, how bad can it be, "Oh."
"Yeah, oh."
"Well tell it to me then."
"A'ight, lemme get a glass a water. I've talked more tonight than I have my whole life and my throat's as dry as a bone." That's true, but he's also buying himself a little time to get his thoughts in order.
Her gaze follows him and she wonders to herself, what is it about this man. How can he look so fierce, so ruggedly handsome, and still have that sweet hint of boyishness about him. It's such an appealing combination. She watches as he gets a glass down from the shelf, then turns and asks her, "Want one?"
"I'll just have a sip of yours." He smiles to himself, is that how it's gonna be? Sharing cokes and water, and what else? Everything? That'd be fine with him, he kind of likes the idea. Stop that shit he warns himself. He's got no business making plans. Better wait until you see what she thinks when she hears the rest of the story.
He hands her the glass, she takes a sip, hands it back and he empties it in one long swallow. "Can we lay down on the bed, I promise I won't bother you for, well you know. It's just that, man, the floor is hard and my ass is gettin' sore."
She giggles, she would put it a little more delicately, but yes, "Mine too."
He flops down and she lays next to him, nervous and stiff as a board. Beth has never laid in bed with a man, maybe this isn't a good idea.
He's never been a cuddler but he thinks he might like to do some cuddling with her. "Scoot a little closer Beth, I ain't gonna bite ya," she starts to move closer, and he surprises himself when he takes it a little further, patting his chest as he invites, "Here, lay your head on me."
She's nervous, still questioning whether this is a good idea, but the truth is she can't resist this chance to get close with Daryl. She rests her head on him and smiles to herself, oh my gosh, who would have guessed he'd feel so warm and cozy, then out of the blue she asks, "What was her name?"
He doesn't have to question who she's asking about, he answers, "Janie, her name was Janie." He breathes in, "She was cute, and a real nice girl," he stops himself, "Sorry, maybe ya don't wanna know all that."
"No, no I do. Do you have a picture of her?"
"Not on me, but yeah, I have a few. Erma gave me a little book of pictures from when Janie was growing up, you know, birthday and school pictures. I'm savin' it for Teddy. And I have her high school graduation picture in a frame, it's in Teddy's room."
"Oh that's wonderful. I'm so glad he has that."
"Why are you so nice that way? I thought you wouldn't wanna hear nuthin' about her."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm a little jealous she knew you first." She moves in a closer to make sure he knows just how she feels, "I guess I want to know about her because she was a very important part of your life Daryl. She always will be, she's Teddy's mother." She leans up so she can look in his eyes, "It's a tragic story and it breaks my heart, it really does. Whether there was deep love or not, you were such a good man to her. I know she had to be so relieved and grateful, not everyone would have handled it as well as you did." She places her hand lightly on his cheek, "She was very blessed to have you, and so is Teddy."
The praise embarrasses him, shit, he didn't do anything special, he just did what he could. He's biting his lip again, but at least now it's not so fierce looking, "Yeah, as wrong as it mighta been at the start, and as terrible as it turned out for her, I can't imagine my life without Teddy. It ain't been easy tryin' ta be a good Dad to him, but I sure do love that little boy."
She's smiling just at the thought of Teddy, "He's a sweetheart, and I can tell how much you love him, I love him too." It warms Daryl's heart to hear her say those words.
It occurs to her that they're doing an awful lot of talking, but not about whatever was supposed to come next, "So, um, what else did you think you should tell me?"
His open palm is skimming gently over her back, but Beth can feel his body begin to tense at her question, then she hears him swallowing hard, and he says, "So, I told ya I promised myself I was givin' up gambling, I had Teddy and responsibility. It wasn't just cuz it's illegal, there's also a lotta real nasty folks that get in them games and…it just wasn't a good idea."
He draws in a breath as his hand moves to stroke her hair, "Then you told me your story about your Daddy's money and Randall, and two things came ta my mind. First was, I wanted ta make that jerk real sorry for what he done, the other was…" he stops talking, pulls her closer, and continues, "I wanted…shit Beth, you had them sad eyes and ya cried when you told me the story, and I just kept thinkin' if your Daddy got his money back, maybe you'd find your happiness."
It sounds so sweet and noble. She snuggles into him and whispers, "You did it Daryl, you got Daddy's money back, and honestly, it's you who makes me happy."
"That sounds so damn good to me, but hang on for the story." There's no sense sugarcoating it, just rip the bandage off, "Yeah, I got the money back cuz I broke the promise I made to myself. The reasons I went to Atlanta were ta ask Merle to help me find Randall, but also to get in a high stakes game where I knew I could get the money to give your Dad."
"Oh my gosh Daryl, you won all that money playing poker?"
"Yeah, I did," he tells her how the game was held in a fancy hotel room, and that a person had to have an invite to play, "Merle took care a that part." He tells her how much it cost and she gasps in disbelief. Then he tells her how long they played, and the reason it came to an end when it did was because a fellow was cheating. He doesn't tell her how the other men piled on the offender beating him in anger, he simply says, "while them other guys were tryin' to get their money back from him, I grabbed my cash off the table and me n Merle split."
"Oh my gosh, well that was probably smart. How scary."
He can't help smiling, shit she's cute, "Yeah, we thought it was the smart thing to do." He leans down, kisses her hair and says, "It had been a long couple a days, we'd been up most of the weekend, so me n Merle went back ta his place for a nap. It was the phone ringing that woke us up. Some guy Merle knows called to tell him where Randall is, doing time in county jail. We decided we needed to pay him a little visit. We put on some of Merle's work clothes so we didn't look overdressed for the occasion, and went out n ate some breakfast. Then we rode over to the jailhouse."
She wants to hear more, but right now there's a more pressing matter, "I'm sorry, please hold your thought Daryl, I have to use the powder room."
He's smiling again, "Yeah, you go powder Baby. I could use a turn myself when you're done, not sure about the powdering part."
"Stop." But she's smiling as she hurries that way. She does what she needs to do, then stands at the sink to wash her hands. She's so tired and absentmindedly glances at her watch, holy cow, it's eleven o'clock. She never, ever stays up so late, but then she's never had so much to discuss with a man. That thought makes her smile as she quickly dries her hands and scoots out the door so Daryl can have his turn.
He uses the toilet, washes his hands and checks the time on his watch, fuck, he can't be staying up this late on a work night, especially after getting no real sleep all weekend, but he can't leave before this is done. He'll be okay, he'll get through tomorrow, it'll be a bitch, but he'll do it. Him and Teddy will make it an early night and he'll try to catch up a little.
As tough as it's been to tell her all this shit, it's been worth it. He's glad to have damn near all of it out in the open. Hopefully she isn't going to throw him out when she hears this last part.
They lay back down, his arm wraps around her and her head rests on his chest, and she says, "Tell me what happened Daryl."
"Ah shit Beth, I'ma tell ya, but I don't wanna. I know you're gonna think I'm an asshole." His hand runs softly and slowly down her back as he adds, "I won't blame ya if you throw me out." That's the best he can do, warn her.
His eyes are closed, his hand is still lightly stroking her back, and he finishes his story, "So we went to the jail, told the guy at the desk we were there to see Randall, that we were his cousins. They didn't care ta know more than that, the guard just checked our driver's licenses and took down our names and the numbers. The thing was though, the licenses weren't for real, Merle keeps a stash of fakes, just in case. You should know, my brother, he works his way around the law, through the law, he knows a lotta people on both sides of the law, and alotta people know him."
"Anyway, so a course, Merle had a connection with the guard, he didn't know him, but they had a mutual acquaintance and there was mutual trust. Merle told the guard we'd like ta have a private meeting with Randall, and while he was tellin' him that, he slipped him five hundred bucks."
Beth gasps, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot of money."
Daryl acknowledges, "It is, but we had it after that poker game, and if you're gonna bribe a guard you gotta make it worth his while so, yeah, he took the money. Next thing we knew we were in a room, me and Merle, it musta been a room where they take guys to question them. It was just four concrete walls, no windows and a table bolted to the floor. We waited a couple minutes and pretty soon the door opened and the guard pushed Randall in and said, "Ya got fifteen minutes.'"
"Randall's eyes were big and round, he was scared shitless. He knew sumthin' was up, so I asked him, you remember stealin' an envelope of money and a car from a farm girl up north a here?'"
"I thought he was gonna start cryin', he kept sayin' it wasn' him, then he'd say he was sorry he done it, and every time he lied, I hit him. Hard. When he'd had enough, I made him write the note cuz, shit, I admit that at the time I hadn't planned on tellin' you exactly where the money came from, then I realized, I couldn't start this thing with you on a lie. Anyway, he wrote the note, I roughed him up a little bit more, and I told him as soon as he got outta jail he better get outta Georgia too, or I was comin' after him."
She draws in an uneven breath; she's shaken by all the revelations in this short story. My gosh, he's broken the law, more than once, he beat a man up, he considered lying to her, thank God that he didn't, but oh my. She's trying to get her thoughts and her feelings straight while Daryl lays quietly waiting for a response from her. He's still stroking her back and just hoping to God she doesn't tell him to get the fuck out and never come around again.
He's shocked when she says, "There were so many times I thought if I could just punch that creep in the nose I'd feel so much better."
He snorts softly, "Nah, you?"
"I'm not a saint you know, everyone gets to that point of anger and frustration sometimes Daryl. The difference is, I would never really act on those feelings, but obviously you would, and you did."
Okay, that's that then. He starts to get up and she asks, "Wait, where are you going?"
"I thought you wanted me to go."
She needs to sleep but she's not ready for him to go, especially not on a sour note. "Not yet, let's lay here a minute and think." She doesn't have to insist, he's already laying back. He holds her close, wrapped up in his arms, and within a minute or two they're both sound asleep.
Her alarm goes off at five am and Daryl practically flies off the bed, "Oh shit, I gotta get home before Teddy wakes up." He's on his feet, leaning down and kissing her softly before hurrying to the door, "Sorry to rush off, I'll see ya at the diner."
His hand is on the knob but he stops short of opening it, instead he walks toward her and kneels next to the bed. His open hand caresses her face and he smiles that small little smile. He kisses her sweetly, then a little more passionately, before pulling away and telling her, "I do love ya Baby, I hope you can overlook stuff, forgive me, whatever I have ta do ta earn that from you, I will. " Before she can tell him to get screwed, he's out the door, down the stairs and firing up the car.
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A/N It's out in the open now. Please leave a comment. As always, the chapter photo is on my tumblr blogs, gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please have a look. I'll be back next week with more of Love at the Solo Cafe, and let's just say, Andrea will have a gigantic taste of her own medicine. I hope you'll be here, and until then remember, I love ya large! xo gneebee