Restless

Chapter 38

"Talk," he growled walking away from her.

"Okay, I know what you saw and it looked really bad, I mean Rick confirmed that it clearly looked like I was making out with Zach, but Daryl I wasn't. I really wasn't. I know you don't believe me, but please listen to what really happened." She could tell he wasn't buying it at all. "Okay, I went home after my house calls to grab a quick bite to eat. Mrs. Caldwell was lonely so she was chatty and it took me longer than it should have. When I came out of the house to head back to the infirmary Zach was waiting for me. I honestly didn't know why. I hadn't seen him in weeks. He said he was waiting for me." Dayna took a breath before she continued.

"Why?" drawled Daryl.

"I had no idea so I asked him. He said he wanted to ask if I wanted to take a walk with him later that night. He said it was going to be a clear night so the stars would be out and that reminded me of you. Instead of answering him, I was thinking of you and our nights under the stars and I think he took that as a yes because I started to smile and he pulled me towards him and kissed me," Dayna said trying to explain but she could see he still was angry.

"So you're telling me that prick kissed you knowing you were with me? Does he know I will kill him?" Daryl said in a steely voice.

"That's it, he didn't know."

"Why the fuck not?" Daryl exclaimed raising his voice. "You ashamed?"

Dayna rolled her eyes at him, "Of course not! No one knows, except our friends. How could they? You left right away on the supply run. Did you expect me to shout it in the streets? Our friends knew and that was most important, the rest of them would have found out when they saw us together. I had no reason to tell Zach. Daryl, I never thought he'd ask me out."

"I knew he was looking at you. Every fuckin' time he saw you he got a hard on for ya and I wanted to kill him, but you weren't mine so I had no claim," Daryl practically shouted.

"No you didn't have 'a claim' on me, but now you do and I would never do anything to jeopardize that. I gotta finish this so you know everything that happened. Back to the kiss..."

"Fuckin' kiss," Daryl muttered.

"It completely took me by surprise. I froze for a few seconds not knowing what to do, but I never kissed him back. I swear it. That's when I put my hand on his chest and pushed back. He's a nice guy, Daryl and I knew I was going to hurt him, so I wanted to be gentle," Dayna tried to explain. It wasn't going as well as she had hoped. She looked at Daryl and his hardened expression hadn't softened at all.

"That's when I told him about you and about us. It surprised him, but he took it okay. He said you were a lucky man and wished us well. I thanked him for being so nice about it and I gave him a goodbye kiss on the cheek. Then he left. That's the God's honest truth, Daryl. This was just one huge misunderstanding. I swear. Please tell me that you believe me." She wasn't sure what she said had made a difference or not. He still looked as mad as when she first saw him but didn't he even believe her a little? Dayna sat down on the bed frustrated and sad.

Dayna realized that she had never given him any reason not to trust her and that got her mad. He wasn't being fair to her. She stood up right away and got in Daryl's face. "I waited months and months for you. Three times you got my hopes up and three times you smashed them, yet I still waited for you to realize that we should be together. Why the hell would I risk that? Why would I risk losing the best thing that happened to me in two fucking years! And piss off the most dangerous man I know. I didn't do anything wrong, Daryl!" Now he was pissing her off. Stubborn idiot! Dayna walked to the other side of the room and looked out the window.