Loving the Buster//Brian O'Conner

twenty six

Dom's decided to drag Letty out into the desert for Race Wars. I decided to tag along. I don't think I realized how much I missed racing for fun until today. Race Wars takes me back to when we all started out racing. So much has changed since then.

I stand with Dom as Letty prepares to race. It's nice seeing her in the driver's seat again.

"Keep it under 9,000 RPMs," Dom tells her. "Kid's gonna fry his pistons after the first 200."

Letty looks at the car next to her before looking back at Dom. "You know that's not my style. I gotta ride or die, right?"

"How about you just ride on this one?" Dom tells her.

Dom and I step back from the starting line.

"She's got nothing to worry about," I assure him.

Dom smiles slightly. "I know."

We stand and watch as both cars pull up to the starting line. The flag girl throws her arms down and both cars are off. Letty may not remember who she is but I can see she never forgot how to race a car. Like Dom told her the guy fries his pistons before the finish line. Everyone cheers as Letty wins.

Letty pulls back up to us. She is surrounded by people as she steps out of the car. A blonde girl steps out of a truck.

"Hey! That's the girl I heard so much about. Where you been at, ghost girl?"

Everyone starts to cheer again. Hector laughs as he picks Letty up. When he puts her down Letty punches Hector in the nose.

"Letty, what the hell?" Victor remarks. "Huh?"

I look at her worried. Before I can get to her, Letty gets in Dom's car and takes off.

"Damn, dawg! Girl's still got that swing, homie," Hector states.

"You never could take a punch," Dom remarks.

Hector laughs. "Right, right. Hey, man. I'm glad you're back, man. It's good to see you!"

Dom smiles slightly as he hugs him. "Good to see you, Hector."

Hector smiles at me. "You to girl."

I laugh as I hug him. "It's been too long, Hector."

Being unemployed means I've got all the time in the world to spend with family. I sit in the living room with Jason as Mia gets Jack ready for school.

"I still can't believe you're a dad," I confess.

Jason laughs. "Sometimes I can't believe it myself."

"And Jack is already so big," I state.

"Don't remind me," Jason remarks.

"Brian and I are thinking about it," I confess.

"Having a kid?" Jason asks. I nod my head. "Maybe get married first."

"You and Mia didn't get married first," I remind him.

Jason laughs. "Do better than me, Maricruz."

"I don't know. It worked out pretty well for you," I reason.

"Daddy!"

Jack comes running towards Jason and Jumps in his lap.

"I guess it did," Jason agrees.

I smile as Jason carries Jack out to the car as Brian walks with him. Mia and I lag behind on the porch.

"Dom, you have a package out here!" Mia shouts. "It's from Tokyo."