"Hey," he said smiling at her. It was a little awkward, but in a good way. It felt the same way it had the first time they ever admitted their feelings for each other.
She just gazed up at him with her eyes. Her eyes were so dark they were practically black. She didn't speak a word but her eyes showed a lot. They showed pain and sadness. They showed someone that had been broken so many times that she wondered if she would ever fully be whole again. But, at this moment, Dom thought he also saw love in them.
He reached out and put his hands on her arms, rubbing her soft skin. "I thought it might be good if we talked. You know, alone," he said hesitantly. Letty was the only person who had ever made him hesitate. Everyone either feared him, worshiped him, or wanted to kill him. She had never felt any of these ways…maybe the wanting to kill him part, but not enough to act on it. She had always taken him for exactly who he was. She had never accepted his cocky bullshit. And was able to dish out just as much as he was.
"Talk?" she asked with a small laugh. She bit the left side of her lower lip. He had always found that to be a very sexy nervous habit of Letty's.
He shrugged. "Yeah, unless you don't wanna talk to me right now."
"I'll talk to you," she said, sitting down on the weight bench in his room. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Spring compressors," he said sarcastically.
"McPherson struts," she added. God, Dom loved how much she knew about cars. It was very sexy. Then, thankfully, she added, "I missed you, Dom."
"I missed you too," he said sitting down on his bed to face her. "I'm sorry about it all."
"What's 'all'," she asked.
"Leaving you, leaving the team, what I did to Linder, all the shit," he said sincerely.
"Well, I know you wouldn't a left if you hadn't been handcuffed. I forgive you for that," she joked. It was good to hear a joke.
"I know I never asked you 'cause some things you just have to hold on to but…," he was having a really difficult time getting it out. He was comfortable talking to Letty. He always knew he could be honest with her. She could always tell when he wasn't. But, now, he just stopped.
"I wasn't ever with anybody else. And, if you were, in prison, I'd rather not know about it," she said, trying to hold a straight face. She was doing what she could to cut some of the tension. Dom appreciated that. He was having a hard time, though, because rejection wasn't really something he had ever dealt well with. That was, most likely, why it had taken years for him to admit his feelings towards Letty. He didn't want to loose face. And, now, he was struggling with the same dilemma.
He just smiled and chuckled with her response. After not drinking for two years, he could feel those five beers. It made things a little bit easier. "I guess I just wanted to tell ya' that I'm glad I'm back near you and I never stopped caring about you. I don't know what that means about right now, but, I wanted you to know."
"You tryin' to pin me down or something?" she said smiling at him.
"Oh, I could pin you down if I wanted to," he said wrapping his arms around her and pulling her towards him.
"Wow, you can pin down a hundred pound girl. You're such a badass," she mocked.
He just smiled at her. At this point, he knew everything would be the same with them. They were never much into labels. They went deeper than labels. Boyfriend/girlfriend were never terms that the two of them would ever consider sporting. But, at that moment, when their eyes met, they knew they were something and that was all that mattered.
The both spent the next few hours completely wrapped up in each other- with a main focus on the physical aspects they had missed the most. Dom had forgotten how amazing Letty was. She was wild and crazy in a way that always kept him on his toes. She'd try anything with Dom- trysexual- and she had quite the imagination. It made for a nice afternoon. When they started to hear more music and people downstairs they decided to reemerge. When they went downstairs Dom noticed a few familiar faces and a few unfamiliar ones. He was much happier now, though. He was ready to make up for lost time.
"Hey man, where ya' been?" a seemingly drunk Vince joked.
Dom just smiled and grabbed a beer. He handed Letty one. He looked around to try and notice who all was at his house.
"Welcome back, bro," Hector said to Dom, coming up from behind him.
"What's goin' on, man," Dom said, turning around to greet him.
"The streets have been lonely without you. When you gonna get back out there?" he asked.
"Soon as I can. I need to make some money. But, I gotta do some work on the car first. You know, I gotta make sure I can smoke your ass before I get in the ring," he said. Hector was his main challenger. Usually, the other drivers had spent a lot of money on their car but didn't really know how to drive it. Hector knew how to drive. He liked racing against Hector.
"If you want to make some money," Hector said, lowering his voice, "I hear Tran's got a little import/export thing goin' on that he's looking for some drivers for."
Dom smiled, "I don't think Tran's the biggest fan of me."
"Yeah, I heard about what happened with you and his sister. Fucked up, yo," Hector said, joking around.
"Listen, it wasn't even like that. Tran's a lotta talk. You know that. It was…a misunderstanding," Dom said. The truth was he had turned Tran's sister into a one-night stand. But, that was mainly due to the fact that he and Letty got together the next day. Otherwise, he probably would have at least gotten a few more nights out of it.
"I hear ya, I hear ya" Hector said. "There was talk about getting some road action tonight. You down,"
"You want me to stand on the sidelines?" Dom asked, eyebrows perched.
Hector smiled, "unless you got something to race."
"Where?" Dom asked with a suspicious grin on his face.
"Right off Pacific Coast Highway. I thought we'd do like 2 G buy in for all interested parties," Hector said, hoping Dom would find a car to race.
"We'll see what happens," Dom said. Now, he needed a car and $2,000. Surely, an excon could work this out.
TBC
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AJ