Time...

Chapter 2

Feeling suddenly awkward, Dom cleared his throat and reached for the wallet in his hip pocket. Raven closed the space between them in two short steps and placed her hand in the middle of Dominic's chest to still his movements.
"I don't want your money Dom." She said softly looking up from her hand to meet and hold his quizzical gaze, "I wasn't sure that I could get your attention just hearing that someone wanted to race you. I knew that the bet would get you here." Suddenly shy herself, Raven started to pull her hand away from Dom's chest but her hand was quickly covered by his much larger one.

Raven smiled at the touch; his hand was warm like she remembered and it gave her a butterfly feeling in her stomach. She noticed the new scars on his knuckles and felt a pang of sadness. Even thought she wanted to believe differently, she knew those weren't just from banging the thin skin there against the metal of a motor.
How much had he endured since she had left; what had happened to the smiling, carefree man that she had loved and laughed with all those years ago.

Raven's eyes shifted upward to his face, waiting for him to speak again. Dominic smiled and leaned forward to whisper into her ear.
"If I recall correctly, you never had a problem catching my attention. In fact, you can consider it caught all over again. I've missed you." Dom said the last three words so softly if she hadn't been concentrating so hard to keep her composure, she would have missed it.
Raven let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. The feel of his breath on her neck, along with the smell of him and his close proximity made her he spin a little. She felt herself sway and chills run up her spin and she closed her eyes to block everyone out. He had missed her...those words, spoken so softly by this man sent her reeling.

Raven opened her eyes to look at Dom's face. All at once she saw all the pain, loss and longing in him. Dom pulled back as he straightened, he bit his lower lip thoughtfully looking her over.
"Sounds like we have some catching up to do. You call me when you're ready, my number hasn't changed." She reached up impulsively and touched the side of Dom's face with her free hand. "But don't make me wait too long, huh Dominic?"
Dominic took a deep breath, breathing in the soft scent of her perfume one last time before moving his hand so that Raven's hand was now free. He didn't understand, even now, how she could make him feel like they were all alone while standing in the middle of a crowd. Dom heard Letty make a rude noise through her nose and that pulled him back into the present and out of his thoughts.
"It's been long enough in my opinion. I'll call you tonight." Dom said with a lop-sided grin.

She looked past him and into Mia's eyes.  Her return was a surprise to her old friend as well.  No one noticed the look or the slight nod that was exchanged between the pair.  No words were spoken between them, but they knew each other's thoughts.  Mia knew that as soon as Raven had talked to Dom and explained her departure there would be plenty of time to catch up.  Mia smiled to herself, thankful and suddenly hopeful for her brother's future.

Mia and Raven had been like sisters while Raven and Dom were together, sharing easy other's secrets and dreams.  Mia was relieved that this was a secret that she wouldn't have to keep much longer.

Raven smiled at Dom and the turned and walked back to her car.  She opened her door and prepared to slide in but couldn't help smiling at Dom one last time.  She slid into her seat, closed the door and started the engine.  She could feel her excitement building as she put the car in first gear and drove away from the crowd.  This time everything felt so right.  She knew that Dom might not like her reasons for leaving but knew that he would understand that she had done what she had to.

Dom watched Raven drive away and the turned to Mia who was already smiling at him.  But that happiness was replaced with a scowl and irritation as soon as Letty was in front of him frowning up at him.
"Dom what the hell are you doing?!  First you get beat by a chick and the you go all soft and smiley at her.  Are you that hard up for pussy that you can't even stay focused on a race?  I never thought that I'd see that day Dom.  And how could you look at her like that with me standing there?"  Letty stood in front of him, arms crossed over her chest waiting for some kind of explanation.
"I'm sorry, I must of heard you wrong.  I think it'd be best if you came at me with less attitude and more, sorry I'm fucking your best friend in your own house.  In fact, it would be great if you could just shut the fuck up and step the fuck off right now.  What just happened has nothing to do with you or your feelings."  Dom stopped and laughed before continuing, "It just hit me that nothing that I can say to you right now even matters because we aren't together.  So let me just say this...Mind your own fucking business."
"Who is she Dom!  I don't remember seeing her when we were together?  She some new race-rat whore?"  Dom didn't think that he'd ever been so overcome with the want to hit a woman.  Instead he leaned in close to her so that he wasn't broadcasting their business across half the desert like she was.
"Letty, this isn't the time or place for your jealous bullshit.  But I will get on your level for just a second...she's a better fuck than you could ever imagine."  Dom leaned back to look at the shock on Letty's face.  He laughed and pushed past her on his way to his car.  He was careful as he left not to throw sand at everyone standing in the crowd even though he wished he could give Letty a mouthful.

Dominic knew that he needed to put some distance between himself and Letty; unfortunately that also meant that he was distancing himself from his whole crew as well.  After he was on blacktop again, Dom pulled out his cell phone and called Mia.
"Mia, hey, I'm heading back to the city.  I've had enough of Letty and her bullshit.  I just need some breathing room.  Yeah, imma call her as soon as I get off the phone with you.  Alright, love you too, be careful."  Dom smiled hanging up the phone.  He didn't know who had been happier to see Raven, him or Mia.  He knew that they had been close and that Raven's leaving had hurt, almost as badly as it hurt him.  He opened his phone again and dialed an old familiar number.
"Didn't think I'd call did you?"  Dom laughed at Raven's reaction on the other end of the phone.  "Look, where are you, I need to see you and we need to talk."  Dom made a mental note of the address that Raven gave him and accelerated toward her.