I'm so glad that you guys enjoyed the first chapter. I love all your reviews! Like, they honestly make my day. Just one other thing I need to say is that there's a lot going on in my life right now, and it may be a while before I'm able to update again. It might not be, I could get some time, but I'm just giving you guys some warning in advance.
"You're a lifesaver, Mi," Dom breathed as his sister picked Hadley up out of her stroller and pressed a kiss to the girls forehead.
"That's what family's are for, right?" Mia grinned as Hadley made a face at her and then giggled when her aunty made one back. Mia looked back and raised an eyebrow at Dom. "Well, some family," she said pointedly, before looking back at Hadley and putting on her high pitched, baby voice. "Except for your mummy, aye, darling girl?" Mia nuzzled her nose into the soft skin of Hadley's neck and she squealed happily. "Except for your mummy, who's just a little bitch—"
"Mi," Dom said warningly. Mia took in a deep breath and fixed an attempted calming smile on her face.
"Okay, rant over," she said. Dom's eyes lifted when he heard noise in the house and Brian O'Conner, his sisters boyfriend and one of his closest friends, appeared in the doorway. He gave him an easy grin before looking at the toddler in his girls arms. He held out a few fingers and Hadley flailed her arms about, reaching out to grab them.
"You know you can stay here with us, right, sweetness?" Brian cooed, shooting a cheeky smile for Dom. "You don't need to hand out with this oaf all the time." Hadley giggled before pulling Brian's hand closer to her and putting his fingers into her mouth, gnawing down on them. "Alright, I'll catch you later, Mi," Brian leaned in to kiss Mia on the mouth and then one of Hadley's forehead. "My car?" Brian asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"I don't think so, man," Dom replied, already walking down the drive and toward his car. Brian grinned at Mia and carefully extracted his fingers his fingers from Hadley's mouth and wiped off the drool on his jeans as he followed after the Cuban. As he slid into the passenger seat, he felt something under his ass and jumped up and hit his head on the roof. He reached underneath him and pulled out a blue teddy bear that had pink eyes and paws.
"Shit, man," Brian grinned as he tossed the bear into the backseat. "A year ago, did you think that you would be going around with teddy bears and—" Brian shifted his feet through the clutter of things on the floor of the car and grinned again. "And baby wipes?"
"I didn't even think about this eight months ago," Dom replied quietly, turning over the engine of his car and pulling away from the curb. Brian glanced over at Dom and saw he had a serious, almost somber expression—one that often seemed to be on his face for the past few months. Brian chewed down on his lower lip and tapped his fingers against his thigh.
"Have you heard from her lately?" Brian asked, his voice soft and non-threatening. Dom's fingers flexed on the steering wheel and for a moment, Brian thought he was going to go quiet and it was going to be a long way to work in awkward silence. But then Dom surprised him and spoke.
"She called last week," his voice was low and gravelly. "Asking for money." He took in a deep breath and shook his head. "Didn't even ask about Hadley." Brian pursed his lips to stop himself from saying something negative—Mia did that enough for everyone—and settled for shooting him a sympathetic smile. "What can you do though, right?" Dom continued, almost to himself now. "Addicts only care about themselves."
The rest of the drive was spent in quiet, other than the music playing from the radio. When they pulled up outside the newly opened DT's garage, Brian hoped work would be enough to drag his friend from his funk.
He really wasn't a man to be stuck in an office in front of a computer but given Mia's looked after his daughter so often and didn't expect anything in return, he owed her at least trying to sort through the invoices for the weekend. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when Mia finished her accounting degree and actually got a full time job—he didn't know who else he would trust with the finances of his family business. He thew down the pen he was chewing on and leaned back in his seat. Music was playing loudly in the garage and he could hear the boys yelling and laughing. Dom stood up and stretched, deciding to take a break from the accounts and actually do some work he was good at—and enjoyed.
"Decided to stop fucking up the book work for our lovely Mia to come back and fix after you?" Roman Pearce joked as Dom came out into the garage. Dom pulled the fingers at his friend but there as a playful smile on his face as he did so. "You know you just double her work load?" Roman continued as he leaned against one of the trolleys by the car he was working on. "You think you're helping, but you really don't have a clue what you're doing."
"Bro," Tej Bridges had that long-suffering expression on his face that he got almost anytime Roman opened his mouth. "You barely graduated pre-school. You ain't got two feet to stand on." Roman looked as though he was going to snap back something smart, but Tej kicked out at the trolley he was leaning on. It sent the trolley rolling away and Roman nearly went sprawling to the ground, but he managed to awkwardly recover. He shot a dirty look at Tej and then the rest of the crew that were laughing. Brian clapped his hand down on Roman's shoulder, giving him a cheeky grin.
"No worries, bro," he began. "That forehead of yours would have broken your fall." Dom grinned as Roman started protesting and he turned his back to his friends, walking over to a car he was working on in the corner.
It kept him occupied for a good few hours, almost until closing time. He worked right through lunch, and the boys knew better than to disrupt him. A year ago, Dom wouldn't go more than half an hour without cracking a joke or throwing out an insult—even if he was wrapped up in an engine—but now it was like he could focus on one thing forever, not once needing to come up for a breath of air. In a way it was good; Dom had taken over the family business when his father had passed away, and he need to be mature and level-headed when operating both a chain of DT garages and a small corner market. But then there was also the downside; where Dom was only twenty-four years old, and he had the responsibilities of someone far older. While his friends were stumbling home at three in the morning from clubbing and drinking, he was attempting to get a few steady hours of sleep.
"Hey, bro," Vince Martin was suddenly behind him and Dom looked up and blinked.
"Shit, man, when did you get here?" He asked, grinning at his oldest friend and reaching over to slap him on the back affectionately.
"Like half an hour ago, bro! You didn't even notice me!" Vince laughed. Dom looked up at the clock on the wall and his eyes widened in surprise as he realized it was just after five. "Mi called and said to come over for dinner. Thought I'd stop by here first to see if you were still working."
"Yeah, just finishing up," Dom rubbed the back of his neck and looked underneath the bonnet of the car he had been working on. It wasn't quite perfect yet, but the owner wasn't coming until tomorrow afternoon, so he had plenty of time to finish up in the morning. "Brian, you ready?" He shouted over Vince's shoulder to where Brian was standing with Tej and Roman by the roller door at the front of the garage. Brian nodded in reply and Dom looked back at Vince. "We'll see you back at the house.
"You ride in with buster?" Vince snorted.
"No," Dom gave him a lazy, half smirk. "The buster rode in with me." Vince snorted out a laugh before turning around and leaving the garage, yelling goodbye to the rest of the team as he went. Dom unhooked the metal rod that was holding the hood open and let it down gently, before wiping his hands down with one of the rags on a nearby trolley. He walked into the office and pulled out the money from the register, locking it away in the safe and mentally making a note that he would need to go through and count it tomorrow. He grabbed his jacket and keys from the desk and walked back out into the garage to join his boys.
"So is it dinner at your place tonight, bro?" Tej asked with a smirk as he and Brian walked out in front. Roman was closest to all the switches, and turned off the lights and then hit the big green button that released the roller door.
"I'm always up for Mia's cooking," Roman grinned eagerly and rubbed his hands together.
"Yeah, sure," Brian shrugged. "We can throw something together." Roman paused and lifted an eyebrow.
"I said I'm up for Mia's cooking. Not your half-assed attempts at cooking a sausage," he stated. The other three boys laughed and Brian punched him lightly in the arm, still walking toward his car. He looked back over his shoulder when he realized that Roman was still watching him go, a worried look on his face. "I ain't kidding, man! Remember that time Mia was out of town and we cooked those burgers? I don't think I've ever had food poisoning that bad."
"Just get your ass over to the house," Brian laughed as he got into the passenger side of Dom's 1974 Plymouth Barracuda. Dom shot one last look back at the tall, dark skinned man, who still looked—well, frankly terrified—at the possibility of Brian's cooking, and got in the drivers seat. He turned over the engine and shifted into gear. Then he frowned and looked over at the blonde next to him.
"Did you really give him food poisoning?"
It was a good thing that Mia had been taught from an early age to always cook more than needed, because she had only expected her man, her brother, Vince and his girlfriend to be over for dinner, and she ended up with Roman, Tej and Jesse Lomas as well. She didn't look particularly surprised, though, as they all trooped into the house.
"Boots off at the door," she reminded them from the kitchen as she heard the front door swing open. Vince and Rosa Osorio were the first to walk in, Vince giving Mia a kiss on the cheek before grabbing a beer out of the fridge and bee-lining for the lounge. Rosa stayed in the kitchen with Mia to help with dinner. The rest of the boys, starting with Brian and ending with Dom, came in next. Kissing Mia and Rosa, and then each taking a beer and joining Vince in the lounge, where the TV was now turned on. Dom leaned against the kitchen table, arms crossed over his chest as the two woman moved in sync around the kitchen.
Bet you didn't expect this many for dinner," he observed as he saw there was now another pack of mince being pulled out of the fridge.
"Not quite," Mia grinned over her shoulder as she put on more pasta. "But the more the merrier."
"Where's my girl?" Dom asked, looking down the hallway and into the lounge, wondering if she was in her walker.
"She fell asleep," Mia cringed as she looked back at Dom. Her brother groaned and made a face. "I'm sorry, Dom! She only slept for like half an hour this morning, and then she didn't go down for her nap after lunch and I think I may have wore her out in the jolly jumper while I was studying this afternoon."
"She's gonna be awake for half the night," Dom muttered.
"Sorry, Dom," Mia repeated but he just shook his head.
"It's fine, Mi. She in the spare room?" Mia nodded and Dom left the room. He walked down the hallway to where there was a port-a-cot set up, something that Dom had invested in a couple of months ago, given how much time he and his daughter spent at his sisters house. Hadley was awake, although it looked as though it had only just happened, given she was still blinking sleepily and her fingers were lazily clutching a purple teddy bear at her side. She heard him enter the room and turned her head, her eyes widening when she saw Dom coming closer, looking a lot more alert all of a sudden.
"Hey, sweetheart," Dom cooed and an angelic smile pulled at Hadley's lips. She lifted both her hands in the air as he leaned over the side of the cot, and kicked out with her little feet. "You wouldn't go to sleep for your Aunty Mia, aye? And now you're gonna have your daddy up all night?" Hadley giggled and grasped at his shirt with her tiny fist. He shook his head, unable to keep the smile off his face. There was a noise behind him and he turned around.
"There was something I wanted to tell you, when you were alone," Mia said, coming into the room with her brother and neice. Dom raised an eyebrow as she joined them, holding out a finger to Hadley. The little girl gripped it tightly in her hand and started chewing down on it instantly.
"What is it, Mi?" Dom asked.
"It's Letty," Mia said, licking her lips nervously as she looked up at him. "She called me this morning. Said that she's moving back."
We went to go and see Mad Max in the weekend and it was actually pretty good. I didn't really know what to expect but I actually quite enjoyed it. Tom Hardy is always a complete babe, and I love Charlize Theron. The other thing that has made me happy—or more just thankful—is the fact that me and my husband are healthy. I mean, a lot of what's going on right now is that there are two people who are really important to me who are unwell in one way or another, and I'm just glad that me and my hubby are good!
Let me know what your thoughts are!
And if you leave a review, I'll send you a preview of the next chapter :)