Chapter Thirty-One

"What about this one?" Maggie asked as she held up a lavender sleeveless dress, Beth smiling and taking the hanger from her sister. She disappeared into the changing room and slipped it on, struggling to get the zipper on the side all the way up but finally succeeding.

"This is it." Beth said with a smile as she looked at herself in the mirror, hearing Maggie chuckle from outside the door.

"Beth, sweetie, you've said that with nearly every dress you've picked out."

"No, Maggie, this is it." Beth opened the door and watched the smile spread across her sister's face as she studied her.

"It's perfect." Maggie answered and held up her phone to take a picture. Beth posed with her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest to show off the lacy top half of the dress, the bottom half multiple layers of chiffon that ended at her knees and spun outwards when she turned a full circle.

"Perfect, right?" Beth asked and Maggie nodded, stepping back and making her do one more turn.

"Perfect. Let's go pick you out some shoes and maybe a beautiful hair accessory to go with it. I can't believe it's already time for you to graduate. These past four years have flown."

"You're telling me. I never thought I'd get through testing."

"Daryl coming?"

"He said he wouldn't miss it for the world." Beth said and Maggie smiled as her sister disappeared back into the dressing room.

"You two are pretty serious now, aren't ya." Maggie said as she leaned against the wall next to the door, hearing Beth shuffling around inside, "Ya'll have been together four years now just about, think wedding bells are in your near future?"

"Well," Beth started as she emerged from the dressing room with her dress in hand and placing the rejected ones on the return rack, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hopeful. But, considering we got serious before he even asked me to be his girlfriend and that took months, I'm just going to safely assume that if it's meant to be for us, it's going to take a while with him."

"What's his deal?" They had made their way to the shoe department, Maggie and Beth grabbing a variety of high heels and wedge shoes they fancied and making their way to a bench so she could try them on.

"I think he believes that anything good in his life is going to be ripped right out from under him. Or that I'll find some reason to leave him. Anytime we argue or I get irritated with him, you can just see it in his eyes. He won't say anything, and he tries to act all tough, but the poor guy looks like a scared little boy. I think he's afraid I'm just going to leave and abandon him."

"Have you made it clear that you're not going anywhere?"

"I've tried, I can only hope some things that I have said have sank in and stuck. What really broke my heart, is after we had made it official, I went into the guest house to gather the laundry and I found a book hidden between the mattresses about overcoming childhood abuse and trauma. I flipped through it really quick before he came in and he had so much highlighted, notes written in the margins and even had sheets of notebook paper tucked in with even more notes written on it. He's trying so hard to get over his past, to get over what his parents did to him. I think he's scared he's going to end up like them."

"Poor guy. I'm amazed at how good of a guy he turned out to be. He's lucky, you're lucky, he's not a second Merle."

"For Daryl's sake, I try so hard to see the good in Merle, and I try so hard to let whatever stupid, sexist, or racist crap he says go like water off a duck's back but Maggie it is so. Damn. Hard." Beth said as she tried on a couple pairs of shoes, Maggie laughing and shaking her head.

"Just be thankful his visits are few and far between. Isn't he about due for some jail time again?"

"Like clockwork." Beth said as she set two pairs of shoes in front of her, trying to decide which pair she liked. She finally chose a pair of strappy white high heels, sticking the others back in their boxes and helping Maggie place them back on the shelves. After making their way to the registers and paying, they stopped at an accessory store and Maggie purchased a handful of items she would need to style Beth's hair for her graduation.

"I'm starving. Let's hit the food court."Beth suggested and Maggie agreed, the sister's making their way to their favorite Chinese place. As they ate they discussed Beth's plans after graduating college and Maggie's plans to begin taking her father's place as the owner of the clinic since Hershel was beginning his plans for retirement. Beth hadn't decided yet if she was going to pursue plans for veterinary school or not, but said she would take the next year to decide.

"Hey, Mags?" Beth said as they were standing at the trash cans, "I need to make one more stop before we head home." Maggie followed Beth's gaze as she saw the Victoria's Secret store with signs announcing a big storewide sale.

"You and me both, sister dear."

"There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" Beth shouted happily as Daryl made his way out of the barn. She smiled and waved to him, making sure to keep the clothes she brought him draped over her arm so they wouldn't fall in the dirt.

"Whatcha got there?" he asked as he made his way to her, placing a hand on her hip as he leaned in to grab a kiss.

"Well, I couldn't decide on which ones were perfect, so I got both and I wanted you to try them on." she said as she held up two button up shirts and two pairs of dress slacks.

"Guess you waited until the last minute for all of this, huh?" he asked and glanced at the two shirts, "Well, let me go shower and get all this dirt and sweat off and I'll play dress up for ya."

"I'll be waiting." Beth replied as she made her way to Daryl's house with him following right behind her. She sat down on the couch after laying the clothes across the back, flipping through Facebook and Instagram as she waited for him to finish his shower. When he came out she felt her face flush and her heart skip a beat, smiling up at him as she stopped in front of the couch. He was sporting a towel wrapped around his waist that barely hung on his hips and a pair of clean boxer briefs draped on his shoulder. He slid the towel off and began to finish drying himself, grinning at Beth as she bit her bottom lip and crossed her arms over her stomach.

"Problem, Miss Greene?" He asked with a smirk, tossing the underwear onto the coffee table as he brought the towel up to dry his hair.

"I think you're uh, you're a little under dressed." she said and he brought the towel back out of his face, letting it lay across the back of his neck. She felt the burn in her cheeks as she let her gaze wander over his body, tan skin pulled tight over firm, hard muscles built from the four years of working on the farm. His handful of tattoos decorated on his skin just added to the appeal and the shaggy hair still damp from a hot shower made her pulse quicken.

"No, Miss Greene." he said as he moved to her, tossing the towel aside and laying her back along the couch, "I believe you are overdressed for the occasion."

"Wh-what about trying on the clothes?" she asked before a moan escaped her lips as his mouth found the tender flesh of her neck.

"I'll try them on, I promise." he muttered, his breath hot against her skin, "But first, I think you need to unwind from your shopping trip."

"Oh? Oh!" she squeaked as his hand slid up and under her skirt and found it's destination, her arms wrapping around him to hold him to her.

"I like the dark blue on you." Beth said as she ran her fingers through her disheveled hair, pulling it back into a high ponytail while Daryl modeled his new shirts for her, "Wear it with the black slacks and the black tie."

"Whatever you say, Miss Greene." he answered and looked over at the other outfit draped across the back of the armchair, "What about that one?"

"I'll take it back unless you want it."

"Eh, they're nice. Being around this family I tend to need nice clothes and don't have any. You don't mind I'll hang on to them." She smiled and stood, walking up to him and placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"That's perfectly fine, Daryl. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go make sure my dress is hung up and my shoes are out of reach of Maisy before she gets a hold of them. Hang up your clothes so they don't wrinkle, okay? And I'll see you at dinner."

"Sure thing. Oh, hey, Beth. You got plans graduation night?"

"I think the family is just going out for dinner afterwards, and then coming home, why?" she asked as she leaned against the door frame.

"I was wondering if I could take you out afterwards, you know, to celebrate some more with just us."

"I'd love to Daryl." With a smile and a wink she was outside with the screen door slamming shut behind her. He grabbed his clothes and walked back to his room, opening the nearly empty closet and hanging them up inside.

"You sure about this, Daryl?" Hershel asked as the nearly terrified man sat across from him in the leather armchair in his study. He swallowed hard, nodding his head and clearing his throat.

"This is the most sure 'bout anythin' I've ever been in my life, Hershel. I got myself some land, I got approved for a loan so's I can afford to build a house. It ain't gonna be big like this one, least not anytime soon, but it'll be big 'nough and I got steady work durin' the off season."

"Daryl, Daryl, you don't have to try and sell yourself to me. I know what kinda man you are." Hershel answered as he rested his hands on his stomach, looking over at all of his family pictures that decorated the wall next to his desk, "Yes."

"Yes? You sure?"

"Positive."

Daryl swallowed hard as he closed the closet door and turned to sit on his bed, looking around his room. He reached over and slid his nightstand drawer open, rifling under some piles of bank paperwork and some empty packs of cigarettes until his hand closed around a small jewelry box.

Just gotta think of the right time. He told himself as he looked over his shoulder and spotted Beth through her bedroom window, You can't blow this.