Sparkling Hope (The Eastburgh Devils Series Book 1)

One week later. Wednesday.

Since last Monday night, Luna and I spoke only the most necessary words.

One night we were so close, and now it was like two strangers sharing a bathroom and living under the same roof.

By now, my Dad, Camilla, and Ruby were back, which somehow made it a little harder for me to be close to Luna because I was sitting in the library until late at night finishing that goddamn term paper. One minute before the deadline, I emailed the document to the professor.

At first, when I was so desperate and didn’t feel like working on this term paper on my own, I wanted to ask Luna.

I wanted to flirt a little bit, to wrap her around my finger and take advantage of her help, but I quickly realized that she was not so easy to wrap around my finger, and I didn’t want to take advantage of her.

To my surprise, I got my grade today in class and had just passed.

Passed is passed.

Luna wasn’t stupid, and she noticed me trying to be near her, which she permanently blocked.

I somehow tried to find her closeness by purposely oversleeping to leave simultaneously and offering her a ride in the car. Which she denied all week, and when it rained, she drove herself to college in her Mom’s car.

I wanted to order food on Friday night and asked her if she wanted to eat too.

It was from her favorite restaurant.

She denied that as well.

What a crappy surprise.

I later learned from Henry that Aria had canceled their date because Luna asked her and Lucy if they wanted to go out to eat. I didn’t know when it happened, but Trevor’s girl and this crazy duo became friends.

Also, I let her into the bathroom first every single day, so the room smelled like her raspberry shower gel.

With Carter, all was well again.

It was a little tense between us at first, but I decided not to bring up the subject of why we had fought. We didn’t have a chance to get out of each other’s way because we’re both forwards, he on the left wing and I on the right.

In the locker room, the mood was agitated and tense.

We were getting closer and closer to Game Week, which was hosted by the college every year. One of the college’s many traditions.

Every day was games of each sport discipline. Game Week started with a hockey game and ended with one.

Both were home games.

The Coach was not thrilled with our performance, which he made clear to us with a bellowing announcement.

I want you to make the opponents look like pussies on the ice but then play like men.

I felt his words were still floating around the sports locker room.

‘You guys still coming to the bar?’ asked Trevor as he looked at his dark blond, curly mane rubbed dry with a towel.

‘You’re still asking that?’ Carter grinned broadly.

‘I’ll be waiting outside your car,’ he nudged Trevor’s shoulder with his hockey stick and left the locker room.

‘I’m out.’

‘Me too,’ I joined Henry.

Trevor looked in disbelief in the direction of Henry and me.

‘Since when do the Sinclairs pass up a night at the bar?’

I rolled my eyes and purred my shoelaces shut.

‘I am taking Aria out,’ he smiled like a little kid.

‘Friends with Benefits?’ Charles laughed.

‘Oh, shut up.’

‘What about you, Wes?’

‘Got stuff to do,’ I lied.

I was going to try to catch Luna at the coffee shop on the way back from her shift and offer to take her home, but through Henry, who had a date with Aria, I knew Luna was taking the evening shift.

I finally had to do something if it wasn’t too late.

It’s been a week since we were so close to each other, and that was also the last time we really talked.

My body and my heart had such a strong addictive feeling for her. The kiss on the ice was supposed to happen, and it was the best kiss I ever had. I missed the mint taste on her lips.

Luna was right. I first had to make myself clear what I wanted and felt.

It was clear from the beginning. Her.

She was what I wanted and will get, and I hoped so much that she also wanted me. Luna was what I wanted and needed so much in my life.

‘A fuck date like Henry or what?’ Trevor laughed, which quickly faded when I looked at him thoughtfully.

‘I need to sort something out,’ and with that, I said goodbye to my friends. I walked to my car with a hockey stick and a sports bag hanging off my shoulder. I stowed all my things in the trunk and walked quickly across half the campus until I spotted the café from a distance.

A dim light shone into the room, and I saw Luna pulling up the chairs with her apron around her waist.

This girl was so fucking perfect.

The closer I got, the more sure I was with my decision, but the more my hands shook.

Her hair was braided in a pigtail with thin strands hanging out everywhere.

Luna disappeared into the storage room just as I opened the door to the café. My presence became known as the bell hanging from the ceiling collided with the door.

‘We’re already closed,’ she called from the storage room.

‘I know.’ Her head appeared at the door frame from the storage room, and she looked at me with her big brown beady eyes.

I was nervous because what I was about to do I had never done before, and I hoped it would be the first and last time.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’m here for you,’ I buried my hands in the pocket of my hoodie so she wouldn’t see how much I was shaking.

Luna ran to the last two tables to pull up the chairs.

‘Wes, not this again. I need to finish everything.’

‘Please, Luna. I want to talk.’

I remained transfixed in one spot while my eyes followed every move she made.

‘What is there to talk about?’

So many things I should have told you long ago.

She ran behind the counter and put plastic packages of various cut-up fruits in the small refrigerator. It drove me crazy that she was walking back and forth so much.

I took a deep breath because I would lay my whole heart open to her now, put it in her hands, and she could do whatever she wanted. Luna can kick it around and throw it on the floor, give it back to me, not accept it at all, or she can take it and give me a chance.

‘I wasn’t lying last week when I said I couldn’t get you out of my head,’ I began.

No response from Luna. She took the broom and swept up the crumbs under the tables.

Actually, she had been in my head for the past six months.

‘When the semester started, you and Aria were at a Devils game, and you sat down in front of the girl I had a thing with.’

No reaction.

‘God, you know, you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and that night you made it so hard for me to focus on that goddamn game, that twinkling smile you had the whole game,’ I grinned, ‘and six months later my bathroom smells like raspberries because you live next to me.’

Luna looked up at me for the first time.

‘You never leave my mind, and you turn my head over and over every day, but I’ve never been more sure of myself in my life than I am now. I was scared of being loved, and I am scared that I can’t give you that love.’ I breathed again for the first time and waited for her to react.

‘Meeting you was like buying a hockey stick and knowing that I will not step on the ice again without that hockey stick.’

She looked at her shoes, but I saw her embarrassed grin, and that was the moment I realized that all this was not for nothing.

‘I like you a lot, Luna Montgomery.’

I said it.

There was no turning back now. All I was waiting for was a reaction from her.

She looked at me with a jolt, and I gazed into her sparkling eyes.

‘Really?’

‘Would I be standing here otherwise?’

Was that a good sign that she was asking me that? I’ve never confessed my feelings to a girl before.

‘Say that again.’

I swallowed. ‘I like you. I really like you and would say it a thousand more times to prove it to you.’

Luna took two steps toward me, took my face between her hands, and pressed her lips to mine.

My hands closed around her waist, and I pulled her closer.

I got my girl.

My heart was pounding like crazy, and I felt like it was about to slip down my pants. I was so nervous and infinitely happy at the same time.

I detached myself from her for a moment to look at her and make sure that this was my reality.

That Luna was my reality.

Being in love was so beautiful.

Carefully I leaned back to her lips, and I couldn’t help but, like Luna, engage in the kiss with a smile on my lips and slip my tongue between her lips.

This kiss should never end.

We slowly detached from each other again, and we smiled at each other. Her arms leaned around my neck, and my hands found her pants pockets.

‘I like you too, by the way.’

Nothing ever felt so right as this moment right now.

‘Is that so?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘You make me so happy and horny at the same time,’ I grinned.

She laughed at the statement and rolled her eyes playfully. ‘I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do about that now,’ she said wryly.

As much as I adored her body and her lips, I wanted nothing more than to simply feel her presence at that moment.

‘We can do something about my growling stomach, though.’ I had been hungry since practice.

The last thing I ate was a bagel with cream cheese and avocado that Henry brought me after the swim practice we submitted today.

‘We could go to Rudy’s Burger Paradise,’ I suggested, releasing my hands from her pockets so I could check my phone to see how long the diner was still open.

‘They’re open for another hour.’ I showed Luna my phone where the diner’s hours were listed.

‘I’ll have to hurry then,’ and glanced around.

‘We have to hurry,’ I corrected her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

I’d be an asshole if I didn’t help her.

So we got going, me sweeping up the accumulated crumbs under the rest of the tables while Luna hummed along to the music and stood behind the counter, cleaning the coffee machine.

I waited at the door for Luna, who hung her red apron away and retrieved her bag and winter jacket from the storage room. She turned off the lights until we were standing in a dark café.

The only light was the two streetlights that shone in front of the building.

When I held the door open for Luna, it was pouring rain. Water flowed into the gutters, and the raindrops pattered on the ground.

‘Do you have an umbrella?’ I asked Luna, looking at her as she watched the rain.

‘Unfortunately, no. I guess you don’t either, do you?’

I shook my head.

Either way, we would get wet, but the downside was that I was wearing a hoodie that would be instantly soaked, and Luna’s black-colored puffer jacket had no hood. So we had no choice but to run to my car, where we would arrive wet.

‘I guess we have no choice,’ at this sentence, she looked at me with such big sparkling eyes, as if she was happy that we didn’t have an umbrella and had to run through the rain.

Without warning, she grabbed my hand and started running.

The rain immediately soaked my clothes. I could feel the drops running down my face.

Abruptly Luna stopped, and I almost ran into her.

‘The key,’ she said.

‘Hold this,’ she handed me her bag and ran back to the door of the café to pull the key out of the door lock.

The moment she came back towards me, I was sure and hoped with every bone, every vein, every heartbeat that she was mine forever.