Page 39 of Only Some Stars Fall
“Funny thing is, if it weren’t for you and your fucked-up brother, she’d still be alive, and your parents livelihood wouldn’t have tanked.”
At that moment, my blood runs cold. I don’t know who he is referring to, but I know an unspoken town secret has been exposed. Hux immediately stops. His hands clutched into tight fists.
I’m running to him before I even realize it. I reach him just as he turns to head back to Nick, grabbing his wrist. He glances back at me; anger lights his face, but sadness takes over his eyes.
“Please don’t,” I whisper.
The world around me goes still; not one person moves, and all I can hear is a ringing in my ears. Finally, Hux takes a deep breath, his chest still heaving as he closes his eyes. I see the pain and trauma he relives in the way he holds them shut. When he opens them, he looks from me and then back to Nick, staring him down.
“I don’t want to see you on Anderson property ever again.” The words coming out of his mouth like venom.
Turning, he walks past me, and I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I was still holding as I look up to the sky. The stars are on full display, peaceful and sparkly. A shooting star dances across the sky, just like on the first night I was under these stars with Hux. At this moment, it feels like this might be the last time for us, maybe our shooting star, our moment of magic has fallen, but then I hear it, low and hoarse, but I hear it.
“You coming?”
EIGHTEEN
EVERLY
I follow behind Hux silently.I don’t look back or question if I should have stayed with Nick. When Hux is in my orbit, it’s a magnetic pull I can’t ignore. We walk in the shadows of the night back up to the side of the house.
“Wait here, and I’ll let Alex know you’re coming home with me.”
I only nod my head, my throat dry, my heart pounding. I just want to be with him. I want him to touch me and make me forget my anxieties and hang-ups. And I desperately want to do this for him, as well. I want us to be lost in one another completely.
The scene on the dock helped sober me up, but that last beer I chugged went down way too fast and now is sitting in my stomach directly on top of the Jell-O shots. Everything spins slightly. I lean up against the side of the house and close my eyes.
The next thing I know, I am in warm arms being carried. I hear the door of a car shut softly behind me. I don’t open myeyes, the exhaustion is too overwhelming, but it’s quiet wherever I am. All I hear is the sound of peepers and the lapping of waves on the pebbly shore.
I should be concerned. I am a drunk girl way too far from home, being carried by what is clearly a strong man. But I know this smell. I recognize the sound of the breathing, and I can feel the electric current in all the places our bodies are touching. I can sense safety.
The slamming of a screen door followed by the happy taps of dog nails lets me know we are at Hux’s cabin. He places me gently on his bed, a bed I have now been in twice. The smell of him on his sheets beneath me and wrapped around me has my want for him intensifying.
I open my eyes as Hux slides underneath the covers beside me. “You must think I am a serious drunk. This is the second time you’ve had to rescue me.”
“Nah, I think you’re nineteen years old and enjoying your first summer away from home. It’s not a crime. Well, not in my book.”
“From the way you’ve acted toward me, I beg to differ.”
“You having a good time isn’t what makes me upset.” We both lie in silence, staring up at the ceiling.
“Who was she?” I ask, praying this time he will finally open up to me.
“Someone who turned my family’s life upside down in more ways than one.”
“I want to know; I want to understand you, Hux. I am so confused on where we stand, how you feel about me, about anything, honestly. Am I just some summer quest for you? Just a naive college girl to mess with a bit?”
“If that was the case, do you think I would have almost beat the living hell out of Nick for kissing you tonight? That all I cansee is red every time this summer I have had to see his hands on you, or the way the two of you laugh?”
“I don’t… What happened, Hux?”
“He is who you should be with, Everly, or at least someone like him. You have the same path ahead of you. You’re nineteen with everything ahead of you. This place is a fun summer stop for you, a nostalgic memory one day. Me? I’m twenty-two, and my life is over. This is where I stay, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, where I belong.”
I am quiet as I stare at this beautiful man’s face. He holds so much hurt, so much pain and anger for reasons I still don’t know, and yet I can tell his soul is good. I might have questioned it in the beginning, wondering if he was like all the other beautiful, cocky boys I was tempted to fall for in the past, but it’s clear now. I can confidently tell that’s not the case.
“Just let me in. That’s all I’m asking. Please?” Tears fill my eyes, and I involuntarily let out a small sob.
Hux pulls me to him, holding me tight. His chin resting hard on the top of my head. “Not tonight. I will, just not tonight.”
