Home Is Your Heartbeat ('Home Is' Book Two - Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 64 - These Days (Jackson Browne)

NATE

"OH WOW....Olivia's pickled dills. May I have one please?"

I have my hand hovering over the huge mason jar on Maggie's dining table....in anticipation of the go-ahead.

It came with a laugh.

Enid stopped snipping at Maggie's hair to stare at me in astonishment. When I almost swallow the vinegary, spicy treat whole.

Treat?

Since when have you ever scoffed dills, Nate? You know you avoid them like the plague. Thanks to Aunty Farty who once gave Mum a batch she'd made, using pure alcohol instead of pickling vinegar.

I almost burst into laughter. Remembering how Frankie re-purposed them as firelighters for our BBQ.

Then the realisation hit.

Bugger me! Think I might've just had my first weird food craving????

Hope bubby doesn't get heartburn. Can they burp in there? What happens if they get the hiccups?

Maggie's voice breaks through my infantile imaginings of Daryl's head lying on my tummy. As it bounces around like popcorn and belches to boot.

Anything sliding through my stupid head right now is better than what's desperately trying to take up residence.

"Nate's a magician, Enid. If you put anything remotely edible in front of her? Then it disappears in a blink. Word of warning though. Come between her and a Redskin, you won't live to tell the tale."

She winked at me cheekily and I poked my tongue out at her.

When Maggie tucked her head down again, Enid and I gave each other wide eyes of relief.

Our bantering plus the long nap she took this afternoon at our insistence has brought back a little of her pep. Just as the pickle did for me.

A little....

*

Daryl, Glenn, Mich and Ro have been gone for over eight hours now. Carol for goodness knows how much longer.

We're all feeling every millisecond of it.

Rick came back on his own a little while ago. Morgan is still out there looking for her. They came across her car....shot up and surrounded by dead bodies. Recently dead  bodies, heavily armed still.

Wouldn't take an Einstein much to surmise exactly who they were or where they were heading. And Dwight's threat from yesterday rings in my ears once more.

"....you're going to let us take whatever and whoever we want...."

Dwight, the mood I'm in right now?  You try it and I reckon I'm gonna take your life in return. Unless Dixon gets to him first.

His overwhelming release last night didn't surprise me.

Daryl had a fair bit of a soft spot for Denise. Was in total awe of how she picked up the reins as Alexandria's doctor. It was a two-way street though, because she adored and looked up to him like a big brother.

When he first found out that she and Tara were together? He simply said, "They're pieces of completely different jigsaw puzzles, yet they fit up perfect....regardless. Just like me an yer."

He's said similar before. Apart from telling me he loves me, that I'm every second of every day to him? It's one of the most profoundly romantic things to come out of his mouth so far.