Page 198 of The Compass Series

AIDEN

P laying the role of the social butterfly outside completely drained my energy.

The moment I reached my room at the inn, I collapsed onto the bed.

Shockingly, the mattress was one of the most comfortable beds I’d ever laid on, and I’d slept on a lot of beds.

Especially during my last worldwide tour press conference.

I rubbed my hands over my face and sighed.

Being back home felt odd. I hadn’t visited my hometown in over five years.

Some would say I made it a mission of mine not to make it back home.

By “some,” I meant my mother, but I saw her often enough.

I spent pretty much every day with my father since he was my manager.

Mom would’ve been out in Los Angeles with us, but she had her restaurant in Chicago to tend to. Still, she flew out often for visits.

A part of me never wanted to come back to Leeks.

I felt like a complete asshole when I arrived in town with all the fanfare shown to me by the townspeople.

My face was plastered all over the town’s shops, and there were celebratory decorations across our downtown.

The streets were blocked off for a huge festival happening that night to welcome me home for the next few months.

My father hated that I wasn’t staying at their place, but the idea of being in town and sleeping in my childhood bedroom seemed like a personal nightmare. Especially if Hailee was right next door at any point in time.

Hailee.

Just being in town made her come to my mind often. I couldn’t walk down the street without a collection of memories shooting through my brain.

A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts, and I was thankful for the interruption. I opened the door to find Henry, the bellhop, standing there with a huge welcome basket in his hands. He wiggled his nose and tossed his head back a bit to try to push up his falling glasses.

“Hey, Mr. Walters. Sorry to bother you, but I wanted to bring you a welcome basket for your stay. I read online that you’re allergic to tree nuts—just like me—so I checked and double-checked all the ingredients in each product.

If you want anything else, I can run to the grocery store and pick it up for you, no matter what.

Day or night, sir. I mean, school is starting back soon, so I’ll mostly be here at night, but I can skip classes if you need me to. ”

I took the basket from him. “No need to skip school, but thanks, Henry. I appreciate it.” I set the basket down on the nearby table, then reached for my wallet to give him a tip.

“Oh, no, Mr. Walters. It’s fine, truly. I just wanted to drop it off.

You don’t have to pay me a cent. Honestly, just being able to be in your presence is a gift.

I don’t know if you know this, but”—he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose—“I’m your biggest fan.

I’ve seen every movie you’ve done and watched every interview.

I don’t think anyone out there could be a better Superman than you, and I know you’ll do the next trilogy justice.

I know people can say a lot of negative crap online, but I hope you don’t let it get to you.

I know you’ll kill those roles in the best possible way.

Internet trolls are just jealous jerks.”

I liked this guy.

He had heart.

“Thanks for the reminder, Henry.” I handed him a couple of twenty-dollar bills. “And you can call me Aiden. I’ll be here for quite a few weeks, so we might as well be on a first-name basis.”

Henry’s eyes bugged out of his head as if I’d just asked for his hand in marriage. He nodded rapidly. “Of course, Mr. Wal—er—Aiden. Thank you. Also, there are two people downstairs who were hoping to see you. Mr. Lee made it clear that no one should be able to bother you, but?—”

“I figured your parents were worth breaking those rules for,” a familiar voice said, walking up the staircase down the hall.

I smiled wide as I saw my mother coming my way, with my dad not far behind her. Henry excused himself, leaving me with my greetings.

I held my arms out for a hug from Mom, and she swatted my shoulder with her purse.

“Aiden, how dare I find out you made it to Leeks through the gossipy women in town. How did you not stop by our place before prancing through downtown? My goodness, you were out here hugging strangers before your own mother.”

I pulled her into the hug she was fighting against and held on tight. I kissed the top of her head as her small figure settled into my embrace. “Sorry, Mom. I was hoping to come straight to the inn but got noticed.”

Mom returned the hug, then pulled back and playfully tapped my cheeks with her hands.

“Of course, you were noticed. You’re Superman!

” Her eyes started tearing up as she said those words.

“You’re Superman, Aiden!” she exclaimed.

I hadn’t seen my mom in person since the news came out that I’d be the next in line tackling a worldwide favorite fictional character.

“Don’t cry, Mom.”

“I’m not crying,” she said as she wiped away the tears leaking from her eyes.

“Telling your mother not to cry is like telling water not to be wet,” Dad said, interrupting the hug Mom and I were sharing to pull me into an embrace of his own.

Unlike Mom, I didn’t tower over him. Even though I’d put on a good amount of muscle mass over the past few years, Dad still had me beat in height.

He pulled away from me and nodded once with a smile on his face. “Superman.”

“I still haven’t wrapped my head around it yet. I can’t believe it.”

He placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed.

The small affection spoke volumes of his thoughts.

It was his way of saying he was proud of me.

Then before he could get overly emotional like Mom, he pulled back.

“I wish we would’ve talked about this temporary break you and your mother came up with behind my back,” he said.

“I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to make sure it works. ”

“And it does,” Mom argued quickly. “Filming for the movie doesn’t start until next year. He earned this break.”

“That’s not exactly how this industry works, sweetheart,” Dad told Mom.

“Well, I don’t care. My son needed a break, so he’s taking one.”

I smiled. Mom would always go to war for me.

“I was hoping to come over to your house before the festival tonight for dinner,” I said, trying to turn the topic around.

Mom combed her hair behind her ears. “Of course, you were. I already have dinner planned out. But for the time being, we are going to lunch at the diner. I’ve got our corner booth already reserved for us.”

I laughed. “Since when does the diner take reservations?”

“Since my son became Superman. Now, you get ready and meet your father and me downstairs.”

She headed downstairs as Dad stood in my hotel room, looking around. His brows were knotted as he crossed his arm across his broad chest. “You sure you don’t want to stay with us? We have more than enough room.”

“It’s no big deal.”

“This inn gets a bit drafty sometimes, I’ve heard.”

“It’s fine. I’ve got blankets.”

“Sure, sure. Makes sense.” He brushed his thumb against the bridge of his nose. Something was eating at him.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. I get you want to take a break, Aiden but… Just don’t take your life for granted.

Many don’t get the level of success you have.

If I were you, I would’ve eaten these opportunities up.

If you change your mind about this long hiatus, I can get us up and running quickly.

You have something millions of people would dream of, Aiden. ”

He reminded me of that on the regular—to count my blessings. In a way, I was living out his own dream, so I felt a responsibility to give it my all, even when I didn’t love my career as much as I should’ve.

“Is this my ‘with great power’ speech?” I joked, nudging Dad in the arm.

“You’re Superman, not Spider-Man, which is kind of disappointing. I’m more of a Marvel guy.” He chuckled, shoving me. “I’m surprised you chose to stay at this inn,” he mentioned, shifting the conversation.

“Why is that shocking? It’s the only place to stay in town.”

“Yeah, but I figured once your mother told you…” He narrowed his eyes and grumbled. “Your mother didn’t tell you, did she?”

“Tell me what?”

“About Hailee?”

My whole body tensed up the second the name rolled off his tongue.

A wave of anxiety hit me as I packed down the feelings that were trying to unleash from a simple name.

Shakespeare once said, “What’s in a name?

” Well, a lot of trauma and heartache, Mr. Shakespeare.

That was what was in a name. Especially when that name belonged to the girl who took my heart and hammered it into a bloody pulp.

“What about her?” I shortly asked.

Dad grumbled under his breath and shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t have left it to your mother to tell you. The woman is always forgetting something if it’s not written down on a Post-it Note.”

“What about her?” I repeated, trying to act as if my mind wasn’t spiraling already from her mere mention.

“She works here.”

“At the inn? Since when?”

“Few years now. She worked part-time while she was in school, then this summer she became the manager after the former one quit. She pretty much runs this whole place since Mr. Lee is getting older.”

Shit.

The last person I wanted to see was the woman who broke my heart and never looked back all those years ago.

She was dead to me. I didn’t need for her to have a resurrection of sorts.

I could’ve gone my whole life not hearing her name again, and I would’ve been just fine.

Sure, I drunkenly texted her a few months back, but outside of that, I never thought of the woman.

The lies we tell ourselves daily.

“It’s bothering you,” Dad mentioned.

“It’s not,” I said through clenched teeth.

How could Mom forget to tell me that? Seemed like a big fact to misplace.

She was able to tell me all about the importance of organic products and about how the small-town dog Skipp just went through hip surgery, but she somehow forgot to drop the bomb that the place I was staying was the same place Hailee managed and lived?

I doubted it was due to her forgetful mind. If I knew one thing about my mother, it was her love for love. She probably had it somewhere in her mind that if Hailee and I reconnected, some old love story would resurface. A second chance romance of sorts.

Not a chance in hell. Hailee Jones and I would never be endgame. She killed all possibilities of that when she crushed my soul.

“Guys, you must come try this flavored water the inn has! Mr. Lee added pomegranates!” Mom hollered, breaking us away from the conversation of Hailee.

We headed downstairs, went out to lunch, and talked about everything under the moon except for Hailee.

Yet being back in town and knowing she worked at the inn was eating at my mind.

Knowing that she was working at the inn unlocked an avalanche of connections we once shared.

Everything around me reminded me of her.

Hailee was soaked in every aspect of the small town that raised me.

From the candy shop on the corner of Riley Street that we broke into freshman year to Cole’s Ice Cream Shoppe where she’d eat only the bottom of her cones.

Every single inch of Leeks reminded me of Hailee.

She was now freshly on my mind.