Sweet Little Lies Part 11

This only made them crack up harder.

Eddie got himself together first. "Gotta go," he said and headed for the alley. Trash day was his favorite day of the week because he loved nothing more than to go dumpster diving for treasures.

Twice now, the entire building-all fond of Eddie and protective of him as well, had implemented a system where everyone bagged up anything that might be of interest to him separately so that he didn't have to go searching.

And then they discovered that Eddie was dumping out all the bags into the dumpster regardless.

Turns out, Eddie liked the thrill of the find.

"You smell like a skunk," Archer said to Eddie.

Eddie blinked. "Is that right? Well, I'm sure we have skunks around here somewhere."

"You think?" Archer asked casually. "Because I'm thinking it smells like weed."

"Huh," Eddie said. "Good thing you're not a cop these days, huh?"

Oh boy, Finn thought. Even Old Man Eddie knew better than to remind Archer of his cop days, which in turn would remind him why he wasn't one anymore.

Archer's eyes went flat. "You growing?"

"Only exactly what I'm allowed," Eddie said and pulled out a laminated card on a ribbon from beneath his s.h.i.+rt.

"You selling?" Archer asked.

"Sir, no sir," Eddie responded, adding a smarta.s.s salute.

Finn and Spence both grimaced. "Man," Spence said. "What have we told you? Archer has zero sense of humor."

Eddie grinned. For reasons that Finn had never figured out, Eddie liked to f.u.c.k with Archer.

Archer gave a slight head shake, like he was talking himself out of making Eddie disappear. "You know the rec center on Union?" he finally asked.

Eddie nodded. "Past the p.o.r.n shop but before the COME TO JESUS sign?"

"Yeah," Archer said. "They're having a free meal tonight. Pot roast and potatoes."

"I love pot roast and potatoes," Eddie said.

"You want a ride, come by my office at six," Archer told him.

Eddie grinned at him. "See, I knew you liked me. Though not as much as Finn. Finn gave me five bucks." Eddie looked hopefully at Archer.

Well versed in this game, Archer snorted. "I'll pay you ten if you tell me why lover boy here's limping like he was rode hard and put away wet. I know you know more than you're telling."

"You think he got his k.n.o.b polished," Eddie said.

Archer flashed another grin. "Yeah."

Finn flipped Archer off, which only made Archer's grin widen.

"I don't know everything," Eddie said. "But I guess I do know some things."

"Such as?" Archer asked.

Eddie held out his hand.

Archer rolled his eyes, fished through his pockets and came up with the promised ten.

"Okay," Eddie said. "I know he went inside Trouble's apartment with her, but only stayed a few minutes. He came back out in this condition. It wasn't long enough for him to get laid . . ." He slid Finn a sideways look. "At least I hope it wasn't. You ain't a quick trigger, are you, boy?"

Spence about busted a gut and handed Eddie another ten. "Totally worth every penny."

Finn shook his head and walked away from those a.s.sholes, and he wasn't going back to the pub either. He needed a few hours horizontal on his bed-where he would absolutely not think about how he'd rather be getting his k.n.o.b polished.

Nineties Karaoke Night cheered Finn up considerably. First Archer bet the gang that Spence couldn't rap "Baby Got Back."

Spence rapped "Baby Got Back." Perfectly. He was in a suit too, evidently fresh from some business meeting.

The ladies went nuts.

In penance, Archer had to sing "I'm Too s.e.xy" by Right Said Fred.

s.h.i.+rtless.

The crowd went wild. But even better was what happened when the girls showed up. They walked in together, Elle, Willa, Haley . . . and Pru, all dressed in vintage nineties.

It was a cornucopia of hotness but Finn's gaze went straight to Pru. His heart about stopped. She wore a tight, short, high-waisted denim miniskirt that showed off her mile-long legs to mouth-watering perfection, a cropped white tee with an equally cropped leather jacket that kept giving sneak, tantalizing peeks of smooth, flat belly, and some serious platforms that told him Elle had been in charge. Her hair had been teased to within an inch of its life and she appeared to be wearing glitter as makeup.

Everyone had fun ordering nineties-style c.o.c.ktails, so he made Pru a special one-a Chocolate Mock-tini. She raved over it so much that everyone else wanted one as well, and it became the night's special.

Eventually the ladies all got up to sing "Kiss" by Prince and brought down the house. Not because they were good. But because they were so bad.

Pru had been right. She couldn't sing. Couldn't dance either. Or keep rhythm. Not that this stopped her or the glitter floating around her in a cloud everywhere she moved.

Finn loved every second of it.

That was until she dragged his a.s.s up on stage and made him do a duet with her. "The Boy Is Mine."

He was pretty sure not a single one of the guys would ever let him forget it either.

Sean bailed shortly after that, a woman on his arm, a smile on his face. Finn was happy for him, but when the night ended and the girls went to leave, he realized he was screwed because he didn't have the option of taking Pru home.

Even if that was only up two flights of stairs.

He had to stay until closing, add up the till, make sure everything got closed and locked up.

Which means he got to watch Pru, his Fun Whisperer, walk out.

She hugged him good-bye, and the feel of her up against him almost had him saying f.u.c.k it to the pub. But he couldn't. He showered and hit his bed two hours later. Alone.

And when he woke up the next morning he had glitter all over his pillow.

Chapter 12.

#BiteTheBullet The next few days were busy at work, with Pru's s.h.i.+fts consisting of one cruise after another, but she still had plenty of time to think. A lot.

Karaoke night had been fun. Watching Finn laugh with Archer and Spence had been a highlight for her.

Fun looked good on him. It made her happy to see him happy, and she realized it'd been a good week for her, too. Willa, Elle, and Haley had been so welcoming, taking her in, adding her to their group without hesitation.

It meant a lot. It also meant that she wasn't entirely alone. She knew she had Jake, but he was like a brother at this point. An overprotective, obnoxious one.

You have Finn . . .

Even if she had no idea what to do with him. Although she'd had plenty of ideas the other night.

It turned out that dancing and singing karaoke in front of a crowd with Finn's eyes on her had been shockingly arousing.

Which apparently had been obvious. Haley had given her a knowing glance at the bar. "You look hungry," she'd said.

"Oh, no," Pru had told her. "I'm fine, I had a plate of chicken wings."

Haley and Willa had laughed.

Even Elle had smiled.

"You're not hungry for food," Elle had informed her, with Curly and Mo nodding their heads in agreement. "You're hungry for a good time. With our boy Finn."

"Well that's just . . . a bad idea," she'd finished weakly. She looked at Willa and Haley for confirmation of that fact.

"Hey, sometimes bad ideas turn out to be the best ideas of all," Willa had said. "Just do it. Have some magical s.e.x. And whatever happens, happens."

What would happen is that Pru would screw up one of the only good things she had going for her right now. "Just do it? That's your big advice?"

"Or in this case, him. Just do him."

Pru snorted.

Willa had turned to Elle and asked, "Think she'll follow my sage advice?"

Elle studied Pru's face carefully. "Hard to say. She's cute and sharp, but she's got some healthy survivor instincts. That might hold her up some."

"Stupid survivor instincts," Willa had said on a sigh.

And Pru agreed. She had some survivor instincts, and they often got in her own way.

"For days a cloud of glitter has been following you around," Jake said, startling Pru back into the here and now.

"I went to Karaoke the other night," she said. "Rocked it too."

"But you can't sing," Jake said.

"I can totally sing."

He snorted. "And the glitter?"

"It was Nineties Night. This required copious amounts of glitter, which apparently is like the STD of the craft supplies. Once you use it without protection, you can't get rid of it." Pru looked down at herself. "Ever."

"Even Thor's wearing glitter," he said. "You're messing with his manhood."

"Real men aren't afraid of glitter," she said.

"Real men are terrified of glitter."

At the end of the day, Pru collected her dog from Jake's office, where she found him asleep sprawled on top of the desk.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"He likes to see what's going on," Jake said.

And Jake liked the company. She'd almost feel bad about taking Thor away when she'd moved but oh yeah, it'd been Jake's idea for her to go. "I hope he got glitter all over you."

"h.e.l.l no," Jake said. "Glitter doesn't dare stick to me. But you've got some on your face."

She couldn't get rid of it. She'd already sent Elle an I-hate-you text. Twice.

"We're going to have to forfeit tonight's game," Jake said. "We're short a player. Trev's out with mono."

She and a group of Jake's other friends and employees played on a local rec center league softball team. Jake was their coach. Coach Tyrant. "Who gets mono at our age?" she asked.

Jake shrugged. "He's a s.h.i.+p captain, he sees a lot of action."

"I'm a s.h.i.+p captain," she said. "I see no action."

"And we both know why," Jake said.

Not going there. "Don't forfeit," she said. "I'll find us a player."

Jake raised a brow. "Who?"