Chapter Twenty-Three

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

I wanted to stay there with Letty in my arms forever, just holding her to me. ‘Course, I already knew that wasn’t gonna happen. No way in hell Frankie would let us stick around when the club started getting busier. Not that I could really blame him. He’d had some problems with the cops before about letting minors in the club. Right before I went to jail there was some big thing where some guy went on a drunken rampage in the parking lot, pulled out a gun and shot this pregnant woman who’d been walking down the street, nearly killed her. Turned out the guy was only nineteen, and Frankie’d been letting him in the club on a regular basis, even though he knew the guy was underage. The club almost got shut down then, but somehow Frankie managed to keep it all together. Still, ever since then he’d been paranoid about making sure nothing like that happened again. He would’ve killed me if he’d known Letty was only sixteen.

Even concentrating on Letty and the way her body felt pressed up against mine, the silkiness of her skin, the subtle scent of her hair, I could feel Frankie watching us as the song ended, keeping track of where we were. I took Letty’s hand, led her to the door, nodding a thanks at Frankie before we walked out.

“So,” she asked, looking over at me, “what’re you planning on doing with me now?”

“Well…I know what I’d like to do with you…” I said as I opened the car door for Letty. “But I think Leon would prolly kill me…”

“Oh,” Letty replied looking a little confused. “Oh!” she repeated as I got into the car, as she finally figured out what I’d meant.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her. Not many people see it, but Letty’s this sort of strange mix between a tough street chick and a sweet innocent girl…at sixteen, she’d seen a hell of a lot, but not actually done that much. Even now, she’s a lot more innocent than people would think. The toughness isn’t an act, but it’s not all there is to her, either. I always have loved that about her.

“Hey,” she continued, reaching over to smack my arm lightly. “What makes you think Leon has any say in my sex life?”

“Who said anything about sex?” I teased. “How d’you know I wasn’t wanting to go get you wasted, tattooed, maybe a few piercings… You know, as a birthday present.”

“Yeah, sure Dom,” Letty laughed. “That’s really what you were thinking.”

“Okay, so it wasn’t. But we do need to get back to the garage… I’m surprised Mia hasn’t called yet to see where the hell we are.”

“Why?” Letty asked. “You guys have big plans for me or something?”

“Well, we did,” I replied, laughing.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah…dinner, cake, presents, the whole thing. Hopefully they saved some food for us…”

“It’s not that late, is it?” she questioned, leaning over to look at the clock, giving me a nice view down her shirt.

“Nah, not really,” I replied, trying to pay attention to driving instead of her. “’Bout eight-thirty or so. But you know how Mia gets when she cooks…”

“Oh, shit,” Letty exclaimed. “Mia cooked? Okay, we need to get home like now. ‘Cause I do not want to be yelled at by Mia today…”

As anxious as she was to get home, Letty fell asleep about five minutes later. She didn’t even wake up when I pulled up in front of the house. I just sat in the car and looked at her.

You know how people say that there are certain moments you wish time would just freeze and you could stay there forever? That moment in my car, watching Letty sleep, is one of those for me. The way her hair fell against her neck, the slight movements of her body, the quiet murmur of her breath… And then she stretched, opened her eyes, looked over at me… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful in my life.

“So we gonna go in, or are we just gonna sit out here in the car all night?” Letty finally asked after a few minutes.