He had just sent a quick text and walked to the back of the house instead of through the front door like I would expect. “Yo, Dom, we were just getting ready to come look for you?” said a man with scruffy facial hair. “Who’s the Chick?”

“Her name is Amelia, and she’s the one who kept me from going behind bar. She didn’t run for the hills when things got rough.” Dom said tearing the other guy down a bit. It made me feel awkward so I pulled my hand from his crossing my arms over my chest. Looking down at myself just made everything worse as I realized I was still covered from head to toe in car grease.

“Amelia, I’d like to introduce you to my crew. This is Vince, Leon, Jesse, Roman, Tej, Brian, Letty, and my sister Mia.” Dom said pointing to each one in turn, “Team this is Amelia.”

“Looks like I already owe a few apologies.” I said with a small smile on my face as I looked a Jesse and then Brian. “Sorry guys, it’s been a long week and you caught me at a bad time.”

“No worries.” Brian and Jesse said in unison.

“Nice to meet the rest of you.” I said then turned to Dom. “Do you mind if I borrow your shower?” I asked quietly.

“Not at all. Mia will show you where it is.” Dom said waving Mia over. “Show here were the shower is and the empty room upstairs just in case.” He said before walking into the house.

When it was just me and Mia left outside I turned to her. “I just need to grab my bag from the car.” She nodded her head and we walked out to the car.

“Thank you for bringing my brother back to me.” She said as she led me into the house and up to the bedroom. “The bathrooms across the hall.”

“It’s no problem, like I told him, I don’t think someone should do jail time for racing.” I said with a shrug grabbing a red belly shirt and some tight black pants. “Do I have to worry about anyone invading this room?”

“No everyone knows the second floor is off limits when we throw a party,” Mia said smiling. “But you might want to lock the bathroom door so the monkeys can’t get in.”

After taking a quick shower I blow dried my hair and got dressed. I walked back into my room and pulled out the small makeup bag I had in there. I put on some light eye makeup, and lip gloss, before making my way downstairs to join the party.

When I got to the bottom of the steps Dom was standing there with a beer in each hand, one of which was still sealed. “I thought for a moment I was going to have to come find you.” Dom joked handing me the unopened beer. “You look great by the way.”

A few hours later. . .

“Oh my god, and then there was this one time at camp. There was this rock climbing activity we had to do and I was the first one to make it all the way to the top. The problem was that when I got up there I couldn’t get back down, and the instructors keep yelling at me telling me to just let go and everything would be ok. Eventually they ended up having to call the fire department so they could use the ladder on the fire truck to get me down, and it still took three guys to get me down, because I wouldn’t let go of the wall.” I said laughing my ass off. Everyone had left except for Dom and his crew, and we were sitting around the kitchen table drunk sharing funny stories. I had decided it was a good idea to stay the night after the fifth beer landed in my hand.

“That reminds me of this one time Me, Dom and our parents went camping. It was like three in the morning and Dom decided he wanted to go swimming so Dom and I walked down to the dock, and Dom took off running and jumped off the end. He screamed like a girl because the water was so cold and work up everyone in the camp ground.” Mia said and we all burst out laughing again.

I had managed to get my laughter down to giggles before I looked back up to see Dom staring at me again. As soon as our eyes locked I felt the butterflies erupt in my stomach. I quickly looked away bringing the walls back up, I can’t let these people in, I can’t let anyone in every again. “I’m off to bed.” I stated standing up from the table after finishing the last of my beer, and then I walked out of the kitchen and upstairs only to realize that I had no idea which door was the right door anymore. I knew it was across from the bathroom, but that door was closed to.

“It’s the third door on the right.” I heard Dom’s voice rumble out from behind me.

“Thank.” I whispered before walking into the room without looking back.