Sparkling Hope (The Eastburgh Devils Series Book 1)

Weston left the bar after returning from the hallway with the guest bathrooms. It was obvious to anyone in the bar with eyes in their head that the two had a fight.

When Carter came out with a bloody nose, I thought he was pretty much cashing in, but then when I saw his red, swollen hand and Weston’s face shortly after, I wasn’t so sure. Weston’s lip was bleeding badly, and his jaw was swollen.

The blood from his lip had dripped onto his gray hoodie, and I would have loved to run after him.

I couldn’t leave that bar to chase after Weston without Aria pulling my hair. Carter handed the ice pack back to the bartender and thanked him.

I turned to him on the stool and looked at his blood-crusted nose. ‘You okay?’

‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ he gently touched his nose.

My tongue burned to ask him what happened, why they were fighting, and how Weston was doing, but I forced myself not to ask him that.

‘He’s an asshole, Luna. But just so you know, he’s never been as vulnerable as he is with you. He likes you, believe me.’

I knew he was an asshole, but he hadn’t made it clear that he liked me.

But instead, the opposite.

What should I believe? I didn’t think anything as long as I didn’t hear these words from Weston himself.

I just wanted to go home and crawl into my bed.

‘See you around,’ Carter walked back to the others and sat on the bench next to Henry.

Aria, Landon, and I were already in the mood to leave before Carter and Weston came out of the hallway with bloody noses and lips.

After we paid for our drinks and Aria said goodbye to Henry, we left the old building.

‘Do you need a ride?’ offered Aria after we had already said goodbye to Landon.

‘No, it’s fine. I’ll call my Mom back’ I held up my cell phone, and the screen showed my mother’s missed call.

‘Let me know if anything happens,’ Aria said, and I nodded.

The cool November air settled on my skin in the form of goosebumps, and I buttoned my coat all the way down before dialing my mother’s number.

‘Hey Luni, we finally reach each other. It’s been weeks.’

‘Mom, you’ve been out since Saturday.’

‘That’s almost the same. How are you?’

How was I doing? Good question.

Other than falling in love with Weston, telling him about Dad and the car accident, us making out in the hot tub, and having sex as a result? Good.

‘Good. How’s Nebraska?’

Luckily, I wasn’t facing my mother. I was horrible at lying, even more, when I had to say it to the person’s face. She bought it from me. Maybe it was the tequila shots I had drunk over the evening.

‘Sunny but pretty cool. I bought a coat here in Nebraska,’ she enthused.

I grinned.

Even though she had only been gone since Saturday, I missed her.

Since we’d been staying temporarily at the Sinclairs’, we’d barely had time to talk. I was happy that my mother had the chance to fly with Camila, but that also meant that we saw less of each other.

Mom told me about the guy she had met, gushed about the coat a few more times, and that she wanted to cook the pasta herself that she had eaten in a restaurant with Camila.

I would tell as much as she did, but I didn’t feel like it. I just enjoyed listening to her.

‘I’ll be hearing you. Take care,’ she said.

‘I will, Mom.’

We said goodbye just in time as I ran up the driveway, and Weston’s Jeep was in the driveway.

My hand searched for the front door key in the side pocket of my coat, and when I felt the cool metal on my fingers, I pulled out the key ring and unlocked the door.

The phone call to my mother somehow calmed me down and reminded me that soon we would no longer live here but in our own four walls.

It was like earlier when I picked up the dress and boots, completely dark. I turned on the light and locked the door behind me. In my jacket and boots, I walked through the kitchen to the stairs, where I turned off the downstairs light at the top of the second floor.

I put my shoes back next to the closet and put the coat over the armchair before entering the bathroom.

I just wanted to go to bed, close my eyes and forget about the whole day. In the bathroom, there were towels with traces of blood on the vanity, and next to them was an open band-aid pack and a pair of scissors.

The urge grew in me to check on him and ask him how he was doing and if everything was okay after the fight with Carter.

I stared at the doorknob, which I would have to turn to see Weston.

I cautiously leaned my ear against the door, hoping to hear anything.

Nothing.

Knowing what I felt for him was strange, and I wished I could suppress my feelings for Weston the way I did before.

Suddenly the doorknob turned, and the door opened. Panicked and in shock, I took two steps back again, and my eyes gazed into his red-rimmed eyes.

My eyes wandered to his lip, which was swollen and looked pretty bad. His jaw was discolored green.

‘I’ll clean that up in a minute. The Band-Aid just won’t hold.’

Weston held up his hand, showing the folded-up Band-Aid.

He looked beat, and it bugged me that I felt so sorry for him, but the best thing for me to do would be to just leave the bathroom and not meddle in his affairs.

Something inside me wanted nothing more right now than to be hugged by him until I smelled like him.

‘Can you help me?’

‘Mhm,’ I nodded slowly, realizing that now I couldn’t keep my distance to him anymore.

‘Sit down.’ Weston sat on the bathtub’s edge while I wet a washcloth and cut the band-aids to fit his wound.

Again, we were both in the bathroom, him sitting on the edge of the tub while I stood between his legs and doctored him up. The only difference was that a lot had happened between us since then. It was so stupid to help him, and I knew I was only hurting myself more.

With the washcloth, which I moistened under running warm water, I carefully stroked around the wound on his lip to wipe away the dried blood. I put my free hand on his cheek to do the same with the cut on his jaw.

We weren’t talking. Nothing was happening between us, but at the same time, so much was happening inside me.

My desire for Weston was growing by the second, and that hurt so much at the same time because I knew what I wanted, and that was not the same thing he wanted.

I pulled the protective foil off the band-aid and stuck it to the cut on his jaw.

I tried to focus on his injuries, not his eyes watching me. My body was reacting so much to his closeness, and I felt the tingle between my legs and the sting in my heart at the same time. I had to protect myself and create distance.

‘Done,’ I mumbled and turned away immediately and put the band-aids and scissors in the drawer with the box where the medicine was inside.

When I turned around, he stood with his naked torso before me, and I felt the sink against my back.

‘Luna,’ he whispered my name softly.

I won’t look at him and lose myself in his eyes again. I focused on the floor of the bathroom. Weston’s fingertips touched my arm. Goosebumps spread across my skin, and I took a deep breath.

My heart was racing like crazy.

He triggered so much in me.

Way too much, and I would let it happen again and again.

‘Let it go. I get it.’

My pulse was reaching high speed, and I would go into cardiac arrest here and now if he didn’t stop touching me. His hand moved from my arm to my back. Weston moved closer to me until his forehead rested against mine.

‘I can’t get you out of my mind, Luna,’ he whispered, and I felt his alcohol-scented breath on my skin.

‘Weston, I don’t want to hear any more of this,’ I interrupted him. Still looking down, I focused on something else, not those goddamn eyes.

‘Listen to me.’ His deep voice clashed against my skin like a wall, leaving me with a shiver.

I looked at him in those deep dark brown eyes that shone like amber in the daylight.

Weston’s hand traveled down my back, and his fingertips on my skin made my blood boil in my veins. Weston found the ends of the ribbons that held the dress together.

I didn’t stop him, even though I really had to.

Because even if we had sex right here and now, it wouldn’t change the situation and would only hurt me more in retrospect.

He pulled on the ribbon, and I felt the straps on my back loosened. The tips of our noses touched, and he nudged mine with the end of his nose.

His other hand pulled my pelvis closer to him, and I felt his boner pressing against my pussy, which was far too sensitive to this touch.

Weston slowly wandered his fingertips over my back, loosening the crossed ties more and more. I would be screwed if I didn’t end this between us right now.

‘Weston,’ I sighed, his name to protect myself from what was about to happen and the wounds it would leave on my heart.

This wasn’t a request because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. I want so much, so much from him. To look at his face in the morning and study every millimeter, I would never get bored.

But knowing that he won’t reciprocate all that I feel for him all at once is like someone trampling my heart.

To create distance, this closeness to him was definitely the wrong way to go.

I gasped out loud. ‘Weston, stop.’

Immediately, he dropped his hands from my back and extinguished our physical closeness by stepping back.

‘Listen, Luna.’

‘No, Weston, you listen to me now,’ I said hoarsely. Heat rose inside me.

Something in me was afraid to break something between me and him with those words, even though there never was.

For him, anyway.

‘Don’t tell me you can’t get me out of your head when that’s not true. I get it. It was a one-time thing between us, so don’t play with me, Weston. Please don’t play with me,’ I whispered the last words.

My cheek was sore from the inside, so many times I chewed on it with my teeth to hide my trembling jaw and hide from him that I felt so weak in front of him.

He tried to take my hand, but I pulled it away from him and ran back to my room, where tears rolled down my cheeks as soon as the door was closed.

Being in love can be so beautiful, and while you felt the butterflies in your stomach, you also felt the painful stab through your heart at the same time.

There will never be an us.

Only him and me.

How could something that never really happened hurt so much?