I cannot thank you all who have read this and loved it. I have never gotten a response like this on one of my stories on this site and words cannot express how much it means to me.

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Part Thirty.

He had been tracking the deer for almost two hours and the one shot he had finally gotten at it, he had missed. He couldn't believe it. He hardly ever missed and he went to go collect his bolt once the doe had run off, shaking his head in disbelief at himself. He didn't follow its trail. He was done, tired and hungry and deciding that it was just time to go home. Tomorrow was a fresh chance to get something else.

With his crossbow loaded in his hands again, he began heading through the woods in the general direction of his house. He wasn't in a hurry and he kept his eyes out. If a squirrel or rabbit crossed his path, he'd take it out but he wasn't necessarily hunting after anything anymore.

He came through the trees to cross the road that led up to the Greene farm and he stopped suddenly when he saw the woman standing there, a few feet away from a car parked alongside of the road. He stared at her for a moment. He couldn't help it. He was never one to really notice females, he admitted. He didn't really notice most people if he was being honest. He kept himself away from them and they usually returned the favor, leaving him alone.

"Hi," this woman smiled at him and her smile was as bright as the sun.

He blinked at her, not saying anything, just watching her. She took a step towards him and Daryl almost countered it with a step of his own back but he stopped himself before he could. This woman was more like a girl – small and the doe he had been tracking probably weighed more than she did. There was no reason to take a step back from her as if she was capable of hurting him.

"Do you know how to change a flat?" She asked.

His eyes moved from her to her car. Without a word, he walked towards it and she hurried over to meet him. She popped the back hatch and he pulled the spare tire and the jack from the storage groove. He was sure not to look at her again.

She stood too close and he could smell that she had a sweet scent. Like strawberries on a summer day. She had blonde hair and it was down and kind of curled with a few of the front locks pinned back from her face. She was so pale and he wondered how she could be like that while they were in the middle of the summer and his own skin was tanned from always being out in the sun. Maybe she was one of those girls who stayed in all day. She wore a dress with a flower pattern that brushed across her mid-thighs and brown cowboy boots on her feet.

She was pretty. Damn pretty. And Daryl didn't want to look at her again.

He concentrated on changing her tire, doing his best to ignore the fact that she was standing right beside him, her scent filling his nose. He felt himself scowling. Who the hell was this girl? He had mistaken her for a woman earlier but now that he had seen her up close, he saw she was too young. She was a girl. A girl who wasn't giving him his personal space.

He could change a flat tire in his sleep and he was glad he still could so easily despite this sweet-smelling girl standing too close to him. When he finished and picked his crossbow up, getting to his feet again, she was beaming that same bright smile at him, either not noticing or just ignoring the deep frown on his face.

"Thank you so, so much," she smiled up at him.

He still didn't say anything and they stood there, looking at one another.

"I'm Beth," she then said, giving him a small smile, almost as if she was shy all of a sudden and he almost snorted. He doubted this girl even knew what being shy was.

She held out her hand then, making the introduction proper, and Daryl stared at her. There was no way he was going to make physical contact with her. She was already making his stomach swirl as if he had been drinking too much without eating anything beforehand and somehow, he knew if he touched even an inch of her skin, he'd probably throw up. And just thinking of even maybe doing something like that, his frown deepened even more. What the hell was this girl doing to him?

But this girl, Beth, kept standing there, smiling at him and holding her hand out, obviously not at all intimidated with his frown. And why wasn't she? Most people – smart people – got the hell away from him when he was frowning like this.

Even as he yelled at his brain to get the hell out of there, he reached his hand out and shook hers – light and barely touching her at all and his hand dropped almost instantly. He tried hard to ignore the sudden scorching of his skin from where it had touched hers for that brief second.

He didn't tell her his name. He figured he didn't have to. If she was from this town, she already knew it. Everyone knew who he was whether he knew them in return or not. He looked at her and wondered where she lived. And then he scowled because why the hell was he wondering that? She was on the road to the Greene farm. Maybe she was one of Hershel's daughters. He knew the vet had a couple of them.

She opened her mouth as if to say something else but she then closed it again as if she had decided against it. Daryl was relieved. He didn't want to hear her voice again. With just the few words she had said to him, her voice was gentle and he could hear the kindness oozing from it and it made him uncomfortable.

He gave her the slightest of head nods and then without looking at her again, he moved past her, crossed the road, and headed into the woods on the other side, leaving her behind him and feeling her eyes on his back.

He clutched his crossbow tighter, wondering why the hell his hands were still burning. Even the hand that didn't touch her had this weird tingling in it as if it had fallen asleep and was waking up again.

He kept frowning. He didn't like it.

Daryl knew if he never saw that girl again, it would still be too soon.

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The End.

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