Sin's Haven

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013 Carlene Love Flores

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-655-3

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
JS
Cook

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All
names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

For
the unique and the brave

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest thanks and respect to the
wonderful team at
Evernight
who have the courage to
bring so many wonderful and unique stories to life. Thank you so much for
loving my quirky webmaster tale!
A huge thank you to my
editor,
JS
Cook, for her help, enthusiasm and
encouragement on this series.

On a heartfelt note, if your life has
been affected by suicide, my heart and thoughts are with you. It has touched
mine and I take comfort in knowing that my loved one was one of the bravest
people I knew. Suicide does not change that and now they are at peace. I wish
blessings to you and yours, comfort and healing and eventual smiles. Thank you
for reading.

SIN’S HAVEN

Sin
Pointe, 3

Carlene Love Flores

Copyright © 2013

Chapter
One

Six years was a
long time to wait for a girl. Rephrase that. Six years was a long time to wait
when you were a guy and you were actually
waiting
.
Maybe it was time to wake up and smell the obvious, that it was never
gonna
happen with his crush,
Erby
.
Part of him wondered if he’d been dropped on his head as a kid. According to
his friends, nobody waited that long. Like, ever. If Jaxon cracked one more
Saint Benjamin
joke
…

Benjamin Wright
stood with a slouch so his well-meaning pseudo-stylists, Trista and Lily, could
fuss over his tie, hoping one day the joke would be on his buddies. The two
girls tucked hair behind his ears that he promptly shook loose. It wouldn’t
matter what he looked like tonight because yet again, he was the only dude
going stag. To make things even worse, it was his party. Benny slumped more,
making it easier for Trista and Lily to reach him, but he had to fight the
inner scrooge telling him he’d never get the girl.

“Will you two leave
that poor boy alone? The man’s turning thirty-one years old.
Geez.”

Lucky had a
point.
The big three-one.
There hadn’t been much to
celebrate this time last year either but his Sin Pointe buddies had once again
insisted on dragging him out.
Slanger’s
Night Club
had been a bust with its rowdy beer chugging crowd. And those were the ladies.
Word was they were switching it up and hitting a night owl coffee place this
year. Maybe if Benny still couldn’t get lucky with this tamer clientele, next
year they’d go ahead and hit the local library.

Did Benny
mention the guys all brought their dates along to these outings?

He’d sat there
on his barstool last year wondering what city
Erby
and her band
Lonerby
were playing in.

It looked like
much hadn’t changed this year. He twisted his mouth to the side which Lily
noticed right away. She reached way up and he felt her fingers softly try to
rub his lopsided frown away. Not in a sexy way or anything, because that would
be all kinds of wrong and Jaxon would murder him, but her touch felt really
good. Sort of like most things he witnessed as the glorified errand boy between
Sin Pointe and their women.

These boys and
girls did a lot of touching. He sat, feeling Lily’s fingers slip down to a
sisterly pat on his shoulder.

Just the thought
of nearing his thirty-first birthday and the prolonged bout of celibacy he’d
inflicted on himself nearly gave him the shakes. Most everyone who knew Benny
thought of him as sweet. No really, that was the exact word his boss and
roommate, Jaxon, had used to describe him just the other day. Well, if they
could read his thoughts right now, they’d be in for a red-blooded surprise.

As he stood
there looking down at Trista and Lily, he couldn’t help but think something
drastic was going to have to happen so that he might finally end up with a
girl.

The
girl.
Erby
.

There had always
been something about her. She had that quirky oddball quality, kind of like him,
that made him feel better about his own freakiness and therefore less like a
freak. If he ever had her to himself, he’d peel away all her punk rock armor
and appreciate the soft, smooth woman he dreamed about beneath it. Maybe she’d
be okay seeing the real him too. He shook the thought of
Erby
being revolted away and cracked his knuckles.

 
“Benny, be still,” Trista said as she bounced
her little monster on her hip a few more seconds before handing Eddie over to
Lucky. Benny smiled at the pipsqueak who cooed back.

See, that right
there. That was awesome. Yeah, Benny could admit it. This past couple years, he’d
thought of wanting something like that, at some point. While he wasn’t
envisioning pint-sized, bright-haired little ones with
Erby
just quite yet, it wasn’t completely off his radar.

Oh, the baby
making would be uh-may-zing. But so would be the other stuff.

He liked kids
and they liked him. Trista told him it was because of all the striped clothes
he wore which were easy for them to see. He was pretty sure it was because they
liked pulling his long hair and drooling on his most favorite wool caps. Now if
he could just convince
Erby
that she was missing out.

“I think I’m
gonna
call her. Like, now. Are you almost done?” Thoughts
of the looming, all-important band camping trip excited and scared the crap out
of him, way worse than tonight’s birthday gathering. How many years had he gone
alone?
Every single one.

That could not happen
this time.

Benny considered
calling
Erby
again and inviting her to join them at
the coffee club. If she came, maybe he could ask her to be his camping date.

But he’d already
left that message.

Twice
this week.

He understood
how busy she must be with her band not to have responded.

And why couldn’t
he keep his mouth shut? Announcing his need to call
Erby
just now had plunked a big ole frown on Trista’s face. He fidgeted with his
bracelets, pulling the rubber and letting them slap back against his skin, and
wondered if he would ever be someone’s other half.

Just then Lily
was at his side picking cat fur from his sleeve. “When you said
her
, did you perhaps mean
Erby
Wells?”

“Uh,
yeah.
Why?” He’d lived with Lily and Jaxon long enough now to know when Lily was
acting all girly and coy. Sometimes it was fun to join in the act with her but
that usually got more jokes from Jaxon. Nothing meant to be hurtful because he
knew Jaxon could give a crap about whether Benny was into dudes or not.

But that was the
thing.

He liked girls.

A
lot.

They just didn’t
like him back. Not like that anyway. He shrugged his shoulders and thought of
how close he was to Trista and Lily.
And then noticed Lily
about to twirl the hair right off her head if she didn’t stop twisting it.

“Earth
to Benny.
Hey,
hun
,
over here.”
She tried swatting his nose with the ends of her curled hair
but was entirely too short. “Promise you won’t be mad but I may have found
someone’s number and invited her to your party tonight.”

Before Benny
could respond, Trista chimed in. “Oh geez, Lily. You should have your own show.
‘Completely Unexpected and Poorly Timed Hook Ups by Lily’.
Seriously.”

“Whatever,
sis.
I would not be as happy as I am had I not brought Jaxon back here for you.” She
paused and smiled. “
Which yes, ended up being a win-win for
me.
”

“But this isn’t
about you, Lily. You haven’t known
Erby
as long as I
have.”

That was when
Benny threw up a time-out signal to separate the two. While he knew why Trista
was so irked about this secret phone call, he had to admit the thought of
Erby
being there tonight thrilled him.
A
little too much.
Benny adjusted himself by casually shifting his weight
from one foot to another, hoping that tingling feeling that started in his
chest and dove down through his groin wasn’t showing up anywhere.

Six
years.

He had to secure
that camping date. And even if
Erby
wasn’t really
into the outdoors like he presumed, wouldn’t she want to attend for the mere
fact it was a Sin Pointe party? Couldn’t hurt since he knew she wanted them to
invite her and the rest of
Lonerby
back out on the
road again when the new tour started. “Trista, it’s okay,” he said, willing to
overlook that reasoning if it meant having
Erby’s
company.

Trista eyeballed
Lily and then turned her eyes on him. “But Benny, baby, you just said the other
day that you thought maybe it was time to move on.
Sweetie, I
agreed with you wholeheartedly, remember
? Didn’t we fist bump on it?”

He stood there wide-eyed,
surrounded by the two sisters, and embarrassed that Lucky was even hearing any
of this. Apparently Lucky was embarrassed for him too because he shaded his
face with his hand, and pretended to be really into something on the breakfast
bar counter.

“Lily, did she
say she was coming?” Benny asked quietly, turning away from Trista and
sidestepping her reminder. He had to know.

“She did,” Lily
said with a cheesy smile for her big sister who just scowled.

“Fine.
Just
don’t say I didn’t warn you. You really should let it go. Move on.”

Trista was
right. The fact
Erby
was coming to his party didn’t
mean anything.

It meant
everything
.

The possibility
of a happy birthday hug or kiss, or more, and confirmation he wasn’t a complete
loser would be the icing on his cake. For the love of God and finally proving
he had some game other than Xbox, he hoped she showed.