Description: An unfortunate mishap leads you into the hands of the law and while incredibly handsome, you sure did wish that this detective would stop following you around.
Ch. 1, Ch.2 w/c: 3k
Pairing: Detective!Eddie Munson x Trailer Park!Reader.
Tags: Strangers to mild enemies to lovers, drama, romance, mystery. (This will be updated as chapters progress)
⚠️: Deceit, money troubles, touch starved and touch avoidant reader, found family, trust issues, weaponised independence, explorations of loneliness, abandonment, criminal activities, gun use, slow burn.
Fluff, angst and eventual smut in later chapters. (This will be updated as chapters progress) My blog is 18+ MINORS DO NOT ENGAGE
Authors note: This is my new baby and hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as l am loving writing this story. What do you think happens next? And what’s the deal with Billy? 👀 lemme know! Re-blogs and comments are ALWAYS welcome in this house and I thank you for your time xoxox
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Chapter Two
The gentleman hunched over at the end of the bar raises his empty glass at you, signalling he’d like to order a refill. You oblige, tending to him for the fourth time tonight. Usually on Saturday nights you are swept off your feet with orders and impatient newcomers, but tonight it’s a little quieter, probably from the absence of the live band that accidentally double booked themselves.
Throughout your shift you tried to pull the man into polite conversation but you were met with silence on numerous occasions and while this place attracted its fair share of solo drinkers, his steamed shirt, grey tailored jacket and slick hair said that he didn’t belong here. Finally, upon deliverance of his drink, he speaks.
“I’ll take two beers as well, please. Bottles of Bud if you have ‘em.” His tone is steady, indifferent to the people cramming up next to him and you slyly raise an eyebrow at the stranger.
“Are you expecting company?” Absentmindedly you grab two pint glasses from beneath the bar, inspecting them briefly before setting them up on the counter then turning back to the mini fridge to scoop up two of the iconic brown glass bottles. The red labels are slippery with condensation and you nearly allow one to slip from between your fingers.
Over your shoulder you follow his gaze to the back booths of the bar, lowly lit and tucked away. The man in front of you having ducked his head at a shadowy figure waiting for him,”Just a friend.”
This wasn’t just any ‘somebody’. This was a somebody you were coming to know inside and out.
“Son of a… Would you excuse me?” Your tight lipped smile read undeniable annoyance as you slam his beers down onto the counter. Promptly you ask your coworker in passing to keep an eye on your station whilst you dealt with an inconvenience. They asked no questions and you marched your way over to the booth where the familiar face perched grinning up at you. Unperturbed. He looked different now, dishevelled and worn out. The top of his collared dress shirt unbuttoned to his collar bone and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows which reveal the ink sketched along his arms. He really wasn't what he seemed, was he?
“I see you’ve met Steve—”
“You following me?” You have never been tailed before, but that doesn’t mean you’re dim witted to what officers do to those they suspect of a crime.
Eddie couldn’t help but admire your sharp instincts, although they were untrue this time around, “I am not.”
“I don’t believe that.” Defensively your arms pull across your chest, “This is my bar and I ain’t never seen you around here before. Now, it could be coincidence but I think that highly unlikely given the recent events. So, you're either following me or you’re moving in next door. Which is it?”
You stand toe to toe for a minute, neither one of you willing enough to back down until Eddie eventually gives in. Not a soul alive could amount to your stubbornness.
“I am working,” He confesses, “But this isn’t about you.” He cranes his neck to catch the gentleman's attention at the bar who you had curtly dismissed, “My partner. I’d tell you what we’re doing here but you know I can’t.”
“So, you’re in law enforcement and you drink on the job. Could you get any more predictable?” The ribbon of your apron tickles the back of your bare thighs.
“I’m full of surprises.” He muses.
“Is that so?” You hide your amusement well.
Eddie hums, punctuating Steve’s arrival to the table. Now with only one beer in his hand which he glides along to Eddie.
“Surprise me, then.”
“Maybe I will.”
“I doubt you can.”
Steve groans sleep stricken into his hand, “Come. On.”
“Sit with us. Have a drink?”
“Is that the trick up your sleeve?”
“I’ll have you know that casual drinks can take you all sorts of places.”
“Like back to your place?”
He shrugs with a ghost of a grin which he conceals masterfully as his lips come to purse around the neck of the beer bottle to take a refreshing swig.
“Unlike you two rookies who are supposed to be on the clock, I can’t be wasted while at work. Buh-bye, boys.”
Quietly they salute your departure.
“Oh, and Eddie?” You pivot to face him.
“Yeah?”
“You know where I live. You're meant to woo the girl before you ask her out to drinks,” Your lips dance with the faintest smug smile, “I like Marlboro Reds and pink tulips.”
“Where d ‘ya like to eat?” He coaxes.
“Surprise me.”
"Is that a yes?”
“Maybe. As long as little Bo-Peep leaves her sheep at the station.”
“Fuck you—” Steve’s curse is an exaggerated slur of his drunken tongue.
“You have my word.” He crossed his heart like a Boy Scout and you rolled your eyes with a smirk.
“Bye, now…” Eddie watched each sway of your hips as you walked away and your smirk remained there prominent on your face. Knowing that he was looking at you in a way that screamed that he wanted to play your game of chess.
People were buzzing around you like trailer park mosquitoes and the swarms only worsened as the night dragged on. You lost track of Eddie’s whereabouts quickly with the flow of customer traffic and the soles of your shoes became sticky with spilled alcohol on the worn wooden slats. Each step was like walking on glue and even over the noise of the live band you could hear the velcro like sound ripping in your ears.
“Hey, Dollface! I ordered a drink ten fuckin’ minutes ago!” The boozehound snarks from your side as he wraps a slimy fist around your bicep which you snatch away before he has the chance to clamp his fingers down on the flesh.
“Touch me again and that drink will get smacked over your head , ‘Darlin!” You spit in his face, unafraid and challenging. Part of you hoped for the violence because there was nothing you wanted more than to slap him in his idiot face.
“Just pour the damn drink!” He looked to his plaid clad buddies for validation and you tuck your serving tray beneath your armpit. Some of them ignore the altercation entirely while some chuckle softly to themselves.
“Word of advice, Sweetie,” You leaned in dangerously close. Close enough to smell the stench of fermented beer on his breath, “Don’t talk shit to the person handling your beverages. I might just get Big Chef Gary over there to spit in it for ya.” You flash a wink over to Gary who stood sweating in the corner, a damp towel pressed to his forehead and his dirtied off-white apron low on his hips.
The stubbly faced man gulps, unwilling to put up the fight you were hoping for and unfortunately he flinches at the thought and shrinks down in his seat.
Slightly disappointed you turn back to the bar, ill prepared for your heated stare to meet Eddie’s across the room. Shrouded in shadow his eyes held an intensity you hadn’t registered before. His feet were planted firmly on the floor where he stood, braced and ready to spring to your aid if need be. If there was anything Eddie hated more than bullies and lukewarm beer it was sleazy drunk men with no manners towards women. He couldn't stand it, but seeing you handle the dirtbag yourself made him inwardly smile.
As the end of your shift neared the anticipation pumping through your veins with each tick of the quiet clock hand was enough to send you climbing the walls, “You look excited.” Eddie appeared in front of you like a corny jump-scare in an old horror movie.
“Shift ends soon.” Your eyes flicker between him and the small leather strapped watch on your wrist.
“You uh… you’re quite the magnet for trouble, aren't cha’?” You immediately scoff with tight eyebrows.
“That guy was a pig— no pun intended.” Eddie shook his head, his curly hair sweeping against his brow bone.
“I admire your courage. Usually that kind of confrontation takes me at least a few drinks.” His finger tip draws short circles on the counter top and the gleam of his silver rings catch your eye.
“Yeah, well, round these parts you have to hold your own…” A soft shrug of your shoulders draws Eddie’s attention to the fly away baby hairs tickling the base of your neck. So unravelled yet beautifully soft.
“Tell me ‘bout it,” The words possessed him and a split second decision between freezing and laughing it off held him hostage. He decided a bit of both would suffice. Thankfully you mistake his discomfort for drunken tomfoolery.
“How many have you had?” You quiz with a teasing squint of your eyes.
“‘M sober as a judge.” And he was. The lone beer hadn’t even given him a slight buzz. Apparently, though, it had given him the curious urge to open up to you.
“I saw you earlier… you looked.. bewitched.”
“By you? Oh, yeah—”
“No. Seriously,” You study him, “You were ready for a fight… maybe you’re as prone to a brawl as I am.”
“It was just instinct.”
“Comes with the job?” You interrogate further and it silences him for a moment.
Shyer now his hands clasp in front of him and he studies the skin around his nails, “Not quite.” You saw him then, the wounded child that created the man with a irreparable chip on his shoulder. It squeezed your chest because you knew that deep down you were both alike in ways unspoken.
“Walk me to my car?” To that Eddie beams, his smile a blinding ray in the sombre light.
“I was wondering when you’d ask.”
—
The black concrete beneath your boot clad feet is riddled with cracks and the smell of freshly mowed grass clings to your nostril hairs causing you to nearly sneeze. Nearly. When you find your car nearby it is tucked away in a bay with the white lines barely visible. Faded to the tarmac.
“Y'know, it looks like you’ve abandoned that car,” Your face finds Eddie, his hands are stuffed into his denim jacket and beneath the street lamps he is even more striking than the first time you lay eyes on him, “I could probably book you for parking illegally.”
“Go on, Detective. Cuff me.” You hold out your upturned hands, expecting a silly slap to the wrists but what you receive left you near breathless and flinchingly wary.
The rough pads of Eddie’s thumbs find the veins of your wrist, stroking tenderly with an apologetic undertone, “They marked you.”
The remorseful look on his face had you feeling stranded with a head full of noise.
The red rings hadn’t entirely left the delicate skin and you had forgotten about them until now. Now they itched as if they were fresh and a dormant part of you snatches your hands away from the gentle man in front of you.
“Doesn't hurt, if that’s what you’re wondering. Besides, I’m a big girl. Can handle it.” Steady fingers slot your car key into the door mechanism and the car screams to life with the anti-theft alarm sounding into the night. Clumsily, you clamber inside and shut it off before you attract unwanted nocturnal attention. Eddie observed you voicelessly, his heart rattling as he tried to keep a firm grasp on who he was and who he was with. Until his professionalism ran dry.
His face ducks down into the dark of your car to meet your eyes, “Can we start over? Not from the beginning but from right now. Here.” Somehow he knew he had crossed a line.
It was incomprehensible to you that this stranger, a shady police officer no less, would care about your well being and expect nothing in return. Why did he want to befriend you? What was he looking for? More importantly, what were your burying?
“I’m not sure what you want from me.” Your hands grip the steering wheel intensely, paling your knuckles as you try to work through your discomfort.
“Why do I need to want something from you? Can’t two people coexist as friends…?” His eyes alluded that he wanted more than that.
“I don’t expect you to understand this, Detective, but what you're looking for… you won’t find it in me. Our worlds are too different to ever coexist,” You would be lying if you said his soured expression didn’t blanket you in a veil of guilt, “You should focus on whatever it is you’re working on. And next time… I’ll walk myself to my car.”
“So, there will be a next time?” He toyed.
“Goodnight.”
Eddie stood there, absorbing the small frown on your face and the light bouncing off of your cheek. He may have stood there a minute too long but he didn’t mind. This could be his last time seeing you, after all. But he doubted it…
After closing your car door for you he raps the palm of his hand against the tin metal of your roof a few times, seeing you off as backed out of the parking lot.
You were deeply flawed, Eddie could sense that much, but even after spitting his closeness back in his face the way you did he still decided to watch you drive away with a fascinated sparkle in his deep eyes and a tug to his full lips. You, on the other hand, watched with frustration as his silhouette shrunk to the backdrop in your rearview mirror before he disappeared entirely; consumed by the darkness of nightfall.
The hard pill people who met you had swallow was that you didn’t trust anyone. Not a soul. Over the years no one has managed to get close to you, the real you and it begged the question; Nature or nurture?
The probability being a bit of both.
But you had always felt like you were born backwards. That there was something irremediable within you that even you couldn’t touch or comfort.
Ultimately it led to your aloneness, but you never quite felt lonely. Just alone plus Ellie which you weren’t mad at. You found that it would be nice to talk to another human being, though, someone who could answer your absurd questions back.
Ellie could only sit panting at you with the same puppy eyes she never grew out of.
“What do you think, Ells? Think he's up to something?” Her tail wagged at the sound of your voice and you giggled as she slumped her entire body weight into your side. You wrapped your arms around her, “I’m serious, there’s something about that boy… I just can’t prove it. Yet.”
You smile with clenched eyes as Ellie’s slobbering tongue furiously licks at your face, “Okay, okay. I’ll drop it for the night…” You pet her soft coat gently, your lips peppering kisses atop her head. She smelt like dog and needed a bath pronto, “Now… how about a midnight snack, hmm?”
