Luke pulled into the driveway of the Toretto residence at exactly seven PM. He took a deep breath looking up at the house. He wouldn't say he was nervous as much as he was anxious. He hadn't been on a date since before Samantha was born. It was hard to have any kind of romantic relationship with anyone when one was married to their work like he was.
When he had left the Toretto's homestead weeks before, Elena had suggested that he call her as soon as possible. It wasn't like he needed her suggestion since he had already planned on calling her. He found Valentina Toretto pleasant once he got to know her a little better. She was fairly easy on the eyes as well. Her black hair looked just as soft as her tanned skin and her eyes were dark pools of chocolate that could satisfy anyone's sweet tooth.
He had decided her eyes were his favorite feature when she hovered over him while she stitched up his arm. He hadn't even noticed his wound until about ten minutes after he had obtained it. She had practically forced him into a chair so she could patch him up. He watched her carefully as she cleaned his wound. Her eyes seemed so focused as she made sure there was no chance of an infection. She was less than amused with him when he had turned down the local anesthetic. He had watched her as she fussed over the others and their injuries performing a full work up on each of them.
He turned off his truck and opened the door. He wore a pair of his nicer jeans. The fabric felt weird against his legs since he had been wearing his cargo pants for longer than he would like to admit. He stuck with his boots since he didn't want to go too far out of his comfort zone. He wore a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He wanted to be casual. A civilian.
He walked up the front steps slowly as he took another deep breath. It had been so long that he had been on a date with anyone he wondered if anything in the game had changed. Were flowers still a thing? He hoped not because he hadn't even thought about flowers until he was getting ready to knock on the door. Not to mention he knew nothing of flowers outside of roses.
The door opened before he even had a chance to knock. He frowned upon seeing the judgemental eyes of Roman. Roman leaned up against the threshold of the doorway crossing his arms over his chest.
"Can I help you?" he asked. Luke's frown deepened.
"Roman! Is that Luke?" Luke heard Val scream from somewhere inside the house. Roman turned and leaned back into the house.
"Maybe." Luke saw Roman duck out of the way as something hit the wall behind him. Luke couldn't tell what it was since it flew out of sight just as fast as it entered his sight. "Now why you gotta go and throw stuff at me?" Roman complained.
"Because you are literally on my last nerve," Luke heard Val's reply as she descended the stairs. She finally appeared by pushing Roman out of the way and swung the door open. Luke grinned upon seeing her. She wore a pair of ankle high black boots with dark colored bootcut jeans tucked away in them. She wore a purple button up shirt with a black undershirt. Her hair was pulled back from her face by a clip that rested on the back of her head. She stood before him, but her focus was on Roman as he squared off at her.
"You better have her back by eleven!" Roman said with a teasing grin looking at Luke. Luke didn't have a chance to come back with a witty response because Val turned quickly and pointed a finger in his face.
"And you better sleep with one eye open tonight." Luke watched very amused as Roman looked truly terrified by Val's threat. Val finally turned her full attention to Luke and her mood shifted instantly. She smiled and Luke smiled back. "Hi."
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," she said stepping out onto the porch and closed the door behind her. "Get me out of here before I hurt someone." She was making her way off the porch and Luke followed behind her.
"Is everything okay?" Luke asked as she walked around the other side of his truck and hopped in. Luke opened the driver door and hopped into the truck himself.
"Nothing really interesting has happened since we've been back. We're all still trying to settle before we go out and try to reconnect with old friends and crowds. So, needless to say me going out with you tonight is the most interesting thing since the curly fry." Luke grinned at her as they drove down the road towards their destination. He knew the Toretto family was well known in the underground circuit and he was curious as to why they hadn't slipped back into it. They had been back for nearly a month. He figured that was more than enough time to get settled back into their old lifestyle even if they had been away from it for so long.
"So, what's Italy like?" she asked to change the subject. She really didn't want to think about the others back at the house. She was with Luke now. Just the two of them. That was all that mattered. She could feel herself already relaxing next to him.
"You mean you never went?" he asked glancing over at her. Val crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well, someone had to go and make us all international criminals, not naming any names, and I had to stay out of countries with extradition." Luke glanced over at her a couple times with a frown on his face. He knew what he had done, but he was sure that what he had done for them was more than enough to make up for it. He had cleared their names, even gave them a head start whenever they had taken down Reyes together, though that ended up being a bad idea since they had gotten all of the money.
As soon as he discovered that Letty was still alive, he had hunted down Dom because it was just the right thing to do. Dom needed to know that she was still alive. Even if there was an underlying motive to obtain the group's assistance to take down Owen Shaw. His thoughts halted immediately when he saw a grin creep onto the corners of her lips. He grinned too and shook his head at her.
"Italy is beautiful no matter what part you're in. You should get out there and check it out for yourself now that you don't have to worry about being locked up." Val hummed looking out of the window.
"Maybe I will one day." The ride fell silent until they arrived at their destination at a Mexican restaurant somewhere in the center of town. Val leaned forward taking the building in. The restaurant hadn't been there when they had left all those years before and she wondered if it was any good. She could see a lot of people on the inside talking, laughing, and eating so she came to the conclusion that it was a good place to eat. She hopped out of the truck and walked around the front of the truck. Luke stood there waiting for her and they made their way into the restaurant.
Val's senses were immediately taken over by the smell of the food being prepared on the inside. She heard all the chatter of everyone inside and the laughter. There were tables in the center spaced perfectly apart to where the waiters and waitresses could get through even with seats pushed back away from the tables. There were booths along the walls. There was a bar in the very back. The air felt warm and friendly and Val decided that she really liked the place already. They waited at the front for the host to come and seat them.
They slid into their booth and their waiter came to get their drink orders. Luke and Val glanced at each other then grinned. They were still silent and it was a little awkward. It was really odd seeing Luke as just a civilian after seeing him as the soldier that who's only purpose was to bring her entire family down at one point in time. She had seen him dressed in normal attire and that was when her, Tej, and Luke went to collect older model cars that couldn't be hacked, but even then she saw him as Hobbs. Not Luke. He was just pretending to not be a soldier at that point. Now here he was, full blown civilian. He wasn't working. There was no enemy hiding in the shadows threatening the safety of mankind. It was just her and Luke. Not Hobbs.
It wasn't up until that point that she realized that she had no idea what she was doing. Hell, she didn't even know what had possessed her to give him her number. Sure the reasoning she gave herself was so she could somewhat pay him back for getting her old job back. Her old job that she hadn't even tried to go and actually get. She had been too busy trying to find her own place to worry about her old job. She wanted to be living on her own before she went back. It had been three whole weeks since she had been looking and she couldn't find anything. Part of her felt a little guilty. She felt she had let Luke down. He had went out of his way to help her and she hadn't even acted on it. Would he be upset with her? She had seen him angry. She had seen him annoyed. She had seen him completely relaxed. She had even seen him amused.
That was when she realized that she knew absolutely nothing about him. His age, his history, nothing. What had put him into working with DSS? What did he do for fun? Did he even have fun? She decided she needed to know a little bit more about him. She could start there. She put her elbows on the table and leaned forward.
"So, Luke, tell me a little bit about yourself." Luke scoffed looking down at his hands then back up to her with a grin.
"What would you like to know?" By this time, the waiter had brought their drinks to them. The waiter asked them if they were ready to order their food and that was when both of them realized that neither of them had even touched their menus. Luke politely turned the waiter away as they reached for their menus.
"Anything really. I don't hardly know anything about you." Luke grinned as she opened her menu and looked everything over. Luke opened his own menu and started looking over it too. He leaned back with a sigh as he searched his mind of what he could possibly tell her. He really didn't want to lead with the fact that he had a daughter and she was currently the only female on the planet that he cared about other than his mother.
He knew that she had no kids and part of him was curious as to why. She had no boyfriend that was present during their encounters though there was a little ping going off on his radar that maybe there was something going on between her and Tej, but that was quickly pushed aside when he overheard Val call him her 'best friend in the whole wide world'. It wasn't like he cared if her and Tej were together because at that point he was just assessing the team.
"Well, what's there to know? I, uh, I played football in high school." Val groaned laying her menu flat on the table.
"You're not one of those people that like to live the old days over and over because those were the best days of their life, are you?" she asked the look on her face full of distaste. Luke chuckled.
"Hey, you said anything," he defended pointing a finger at her. Val giggled picking up her menu again. "Tell me something about yourself." Val frowned looking at him over the top of her menu. She looked back down just as soon as their eyes met and Luke noticed that she pulled the menu up a little farther as if hiding behind it.
"You've read my file." Luke had read her file. He knew about her criminal background. Theft, possession, grand theft auto. He knew about her stint in rehab, though she never completed it, but after all that her criminal history ended. He had no idea why it ended or what had happened, but she didn't leave the country until about seven years after. She had been a well known doctor before the criminal activity started. Luke laid his menu down and reached across the table hooking his finger on top of the menu and pulled it down to where he could see her eyes. Her eyes had darkened. He had upset her, but she was trying to hide it.
"I have read your file," he said as a matter of factly, "But I want to know something that isn't in the file." Val sighed closing her menu and laid it on the table. Luke had done the same since he had figured out what he would want to eat. Val rested her cheek against her fist giving him an amused look.
"I didn't play football in high school," she admitted. Luke chuckled shaking his head and leaned forward getting ready to smart off to her, but their waiter came back to take their order down. Once he got their orders and took their menus, Luke looked back at Val, glad that she no longer had something to obstruct his view of her. She was looking down at her hands as if she was in deep thought. He wanted to ask her what she was thinking about, but he knew that she wouldn't tell him.
"Do you have any brothers and sisters?" she asked suddenly. Luke crossed his arms and leaned them on the table.
"No, I'm an only child. I was raised by my mother. My father took off on us." Val frowned giving him a saddened look, but it soon went away when she noticed the little shine in his eyes when he mentioned his mother. Val glanced down.
"Mia was only a year old when mom had passed away. So after that, it was just us and dad. Dad was gone a lot because he worked two jobs. One of those jobs, of course, was racing. Dom practically raised us." Luke watched as her eyes grew dark again. "I was only seventeen when dad died. They tried to put me and Mia in homes, but I legally emancipated myself and dropped out of school so I could care for Mia." Luke grinned at her as a certain fondness appeared on her face. "When Dom got out, he forced me to go back to school so I could go to college because he knew how bad I wanted to be a doctor." It was the short part of it, Luke knew, but he was glad that she was able to open up like that. What she had told him definitely wasn't in her file.
Their food finally came and Val couldn't believe what was set in front of them. She had ordered a smothered burrito, but the way they placed food in front of Luke it seemed like he had ordered one of everything. She grabbed her fork and knife wondering if she had ordered the wrong thing and maybe some of the plates on the table was hers as well.
"You know, my mom had to work two jobs when I was growing up," Luke said nonchalantly as he reached for his utensils as well.
"Yeah," Val scoffed looking around at all the random foods. "And one of those jobs was just so she could feed you." Luke let out a genuine laugh as he looked around.
"I have to watch my figure," he said putting a bit of food in his mouth. Val laughed with him, but she had to admit, he did have one hell of a figure. She wouldn't doubt it would take all of this food to sustain his massive build. His metabolism had to have been crazy high. Her eyes wandered down to his broad shoulders that didn't look as big as they did whenever he wore his tight shirts whenever he was on a job, but that still didn't mean that they looked any less massive under his shirt. His complete size was well hidden under the casual wear he had on right now, but she could remember how big he was.
Her eyes traveled back up to his eyes, then she felt her cheeks nearly burst into flames as he was watching her watching him. She looked down at her burrito and cut into it before shoveling it into her mouth.
Luke couldn't help, but grin as he watched Val's eyes begin to wander his body as soon as he made his remark. He couldn't help himself. He felt his pulse quicken upon seeing her do this. When her eyes met his he didn't look away. He wanted to see her reaction to when she found out that she had been busted watching him. He was more than glad that her cheeks instantly turned red as she looked away. He took another bite of his food grinning at her.
"Valentina Toretto, is that you!?" Val's eyes widened at the male voice across the restaurant. She searched in the crowd with Luke and Val's face lit up as she slid out of the booth. A man came toward them holding his arms open wide to her. He was Latino and bald with a pencil thin moustache. He was a little on the bulkier side. He seemed friendly enough when he came up to Val and wrapped her up in a hug and spun her around. "Where have you been, Val? You and Mia just kind of up and disappeared like your brother."
Val smiled warmly at him while her hands rested on his shoulders and his hands stayed on her waist. Luke frowned at the gesture, but didn't do anything about it. He had no idea who this man was and Val had said that they hadn't connected with any of their friends since they had gotten back. With the way this man was acting towards her, they had been close.
"It's a really, really long story, Hector." She turned her attention towards look pulling away from Hector to where her arms was around his waist while his remained over her shoulder. "Hector, this is my friend, Luke. Luke, this is an old friend of mine Hector." Luke reached out his hand and shook it and nodded a hello. Luke looked at Val who was smiling back at him. Luke couldn't help but grin back at her. Hector shot a look between the two.
"Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" Val turned her attention back to Hector and smiled at him, but her eyes did more than enough to tell him that, yes, he was interrupting something. Hector grinned then leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'll leave you alone. It's good to know you're back. Come to Race Wars next month." He stepped away from her and nodded his head to Luke as a way of saying good-bye.
Val slid back into the booth watching Hector depart.
"That was Hector. He's one of the higher ups on the underground circuit and a long time friend of the family." Luke hummed taking another bite of his food.
They fell into comfortable conversation with each other. They laughed about little stories they told. Val had told him about how she hadn't even acted on getting her old job back because she was wanting to find herself a house before she got her job back. She was glad that he wasn't even angry and even offered to keep an eye out for any kind of home that she might be interested in. She had told him about how she had remodeled her old room so Jack could have it and Luke seemed really impressed with the fact that she could do something like that.
He told her about how he came to be in the DSS. As soon as he had graduated high school, he had joined the local police force. After a couple years, he had been approached by someone to see if he would be interested in joining the SWAT team. He had been with SWAT for a few more years before he was approached once more to see if he wanted to join DSS. He slowly worked his way up through the ranks until he had become a team leader.
Val was amazed at him since he had finished almost everything on his plates before finally leaning back saying he was done. Val was curious about when he would be eating again.
When the waiter laid the check on the table, Val went to reach for it, but Luke had snatched it up before her fingers could even touch it. She gave him an exasperated look as he looked it over.
"Uh, I said I was buying you dinner." Luke shook his head making a sound that he didn't agree with her. She repeated the sound back to him to which he repeated it back to her. She blinked a couple times. "What do you mean?" she asked then made the sound one more time.
"Because where I was raised, when a couple of people go on a date, the man pays." Val froze. A date? She had never meant for this to be a date. She went to correct him, but she stopped herself to think it over. They had been here for a little over an hour talking back and forth. She had enjoyed his company and she would even go as far as saying that she had fun with him. A blast even. She couldn't believe how funny he was. He had seemed so serious and deadpanned that she wasn't even sure if he could smile. And he had a fantastic smile. Okay, she had to admit it, she was on a date with Luke Hobbs.
Luke seemed happy that she wasn't going to argue with him about it as he slid out of the booth to go pay for their meal. He held out his hand for Val to take so he could help her stand. Val grinned and obliged him. His hands were rough to the touch, but gentle as it slightly tugged at her to stand.
They walked side by side to the front of the restaurant so Luke could pay for their meal. Once it was paid for, Luke led her out of the restaurant and they hopped back into his truck. Luke watched her for a moment, as he pondered whether or not to take her home. He wasn't ready for her to leave his side, but he hadn't really planned on anything other than dinner.
She had seemed to enjoy herself so maybe there was a chance that he could take her on another date. He glanced over at her as she stared out the window as he pulled out of his parking spot.
"This was a lot of fun, Luke." He glanced at her again to see she had turned his attention to him.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Val narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember her schedule.
"I have, like, seven houses to go look at tomorrow. My realtor says one of them is going to be 'The One', but I've heard that line before." She sighed with a roll of her eyes glancing back out the window. "You could come with me if you'd like."
Luke thought about it for a whole three seconds before responding.
"Nothing about any of that sounds pleasant." Val chuckled leaning back in her seat.
"Yeah, I know. Roman went with me today and he complained the entire time." Luke chuckled.
"I honestly don't think I've ever heard him not complain about something." Val laughed then shrugged her shoulders. There was a brief silence between them. "I would love to go with you tomorrow." Val looked at him with wide eyes.
"Really?" Luke hummed nodding his head.
"Yeah, why not? We'll grab a bite to eat afterwards." Val smiled.
"Sounds good. My first house showing is at eight in the morning." It was then that he stopped in front of her home.
"I will pick you up at seven thirty." Val nodded and opened the door. She glanced back at him when he called out her name. "You looked really nice tonight." She smiled brightly at him then hopped out of the truck and pulled away from the curb. It was going to be much of a date tomorrow, but it was something. He was going to be spending the entire day with her. Luke would be lying if he said he wasn't a little excited about that. Going out with her had been more relaxing and refreshing than he could have thought.
Val walked up the steps to the house and walked in with the biggest smile on her face. She made her way into the kitchen and opened the fridge to pull out a beer.
"How did it go?" Mia asked rushing into the kitchen. Val laughed turning around to face her sister. Dom was close behind to make sure that nothing bad had happened. They both had seemed very pleased with her story and they went into the living room to sit down for some television.
Val stared at the television, but she wasn't watching what was on. She was too busy thinking about what was going to happen tomorrow. She didn't even care if she was going to be looking at several houses the next day. She was going to be with Luke. He would make the day pass by quicker. She was excited to see him again.
Author's Note: Alright my darling readers, here is another chapter. I hope you guys were just as excited to read as I was to post it. I also hope you enjoyed it. I'm happy for the reviews I that was posted on my last chapter and all I ask is for my readers to keep them up as I really do enjoy seeing the wonderful feedback you all are giving me. Also, I would like to thank all of my new friends who have favorited and followed this story.
Much love my readers!
Aven