Page 200 of The Compass Series

HAILEE

“ I can’t believe you threw up on Superman’s shoes,” Henry said the next morning at the front desk of the inn. I slouched in my chair, hungover and dumbfounded about how my night turned out. I didn’t even want to go to the stupid festival.

“I didn’t throw up on Superman’s shoes. I threw up on Aiden Walters’s shoes.”

Henry frowned as he walked over to the coffee table we’d set up for guests. “I hate to break it to you, Hailee, but they’re the same person.” He grabbed a cup of coffee, added sugar and cream, then brought it over to me. “I’d be so embarrassed if I were you.”

“Don’t remind me,” I groaned, taking a sip of the coffee. “Thank you for this, Henry.”

A noise was heard at the top of the stairs, and I sat up, alert.

Henry reached across to me and patted my hand. “Don’t worry. Superman already left. He headed out to the gym for a workout. You don’t have to face your humiliation until later.”

Goody.

“I’m not humiliated,” I urged.

“Hailee, I think you’re great. Really, I do. One of the best people I know, but if there’s one thing you’re bad at, it’s lying.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting to work?” I asked.

He glanced around the inn and shrugged. “Nobody needs anything.”

“Maybe you should vacuum the floors for something to do.” The pounding headache I was nursing wasn’t leaving much space for me to socialize with anyone at all. Not even sweet Henry.

“You got it, boss lady.”

He hurried off to do the task as two women walked into the inn with their suitcases. They looked about my age, maybe a little bit younger. They were giggling and whispering to one another as they approached me. Then the blond turned my way with a big smile on her face.

“Hey, there. How are you doing?” she asked with a little Southern twang to her voice. She was not from around these parts, that was for sure. Our town didn’t have many passersby. Most people just kept on their way for another forty-five minutes and headed straight to Chicago.

I pushed out a smile and tried to ignore my flipping stomach. “I’m doing good. How are you? How can I help you?”

“Well, yes. My name is Marna, and this is my best friend, Violet. We have a room booked for the next few weeks. I know we are a bit early to check-in, but we were hoping we could maybe get in early.”

“For sure. Let me get your ID and a credit card so I can pull up your reservation.”

She handed me her goods, and I noticed her charm bracelet. It had little charms of books, cats, and hearts. “Oh, I really like that.”

“Thanks, my mom gave it to my when I was a kid. I never take it off,” she explained.

I touched the piece of jewelry dangling around my neck. My Tom necklace. I hadn’t taken it off, even though Aiden took his off all those years ago. It oddly gave me comfort during my hardest days.

After I shook off my emotions, I found their reservation. As I typed in their information, they whispered to one another as if I couldn’t overhear them.

“Stop, I’m not going to ask her that,” Violet said to her friend.

I smiled at them both. “You can ask me anything.”

She sighed and brushed her hands through her long, red hair. She glanced around the inn and then leaned in toward me. Her voice lowered, and she whispered, “Is it true Aiden Walters is staying at this inn?”

I sat up straighter, stunned by her question.

Oh my gosh.

Were they groupies?

I cleared my throat and returned to entering the card information. “I’m not allowed to share guest information like that.”

“That means yes!” Marna said, slapping her hand against her leg. “Can we get a room near his?” she questioned.

When pigs fly.

“We actually have a great room for you on this floor right down the hallway.” I handed them the keys. I rang the bell sitting on my desk, and Henry came over within seconds. “Henry, can you show these ladies to their room? Welcome to Leeks, ladies. I hope you have a great stay.”

Henry was quick to grab their suitcases and chat their ears off as they walked off toward their room.

Mr. Lee wasn’t kidding. Having a celebrity staying at your inn was very good for business.

By the end of the night, all our rooms were booked.

That fact alone gave me anxiety. I doubted Aiden came to the inn in hopes that a ton of fans would be checking in.

I’d remember how bad his panic attacks could be. I didn’t want these people giving him any kind of trouble.

When I was done working for the day, I headed out to pick up some very important items, and I headed back to the inn with them in my grip.

I’d been going back and forth with the idea of saying something to Aiden, but I also knew I couldn’t avoid him forever.

And who knew? Maybe what I read as cold and distant the night before was just my boozed-up mind playing tricks on me.

I headed to his hotel room door, took a deep breath, and knocked on it four times.

When he came to open it, my breath got caught in my throat, and I started choking on my own air.

I turned away from him and tried my hardest to clear my throat.

My eyes began to water as panic began to rise in my mind.

I began coughing hard, unable to cover my mouth due to the box within my hands.

Was I choking? Oh gosh, I was choking in front of Aiden as he blankly stared my way.

“Sorry,” I said, forcing myself to swallow as a few more coughs slipped through. Once I gained my composure the best I could, I looked at him and smiled. “Hi.” If you looked up the word awkward in the dictionary, my photograph would be plastered there.

Aiden stared at me coldly, and a chill raced up and down my spine as he didn’t say a word.

I cleared my throat—again. “I wanted to apologize for throwing up on you last night. I normally can hold my alcohol better, but the mix of fried cheese and slushy, and?—”

“Is that all?” he harshly cut in. His eyes were unamused, and his stance was hard as he crossed his arms. Was his chest always that broad? Regardless, it was clear that I didn’t dream up his standoffish appearance the night before like I’d hoped. He wasn’t the same gentle boy I fell in love with.

“I, well, no, I, uh?—”

“Words, Hailee,” he ordered. “Use your words like a grown-up.”

Well.

That’s rude.

I shook my head and held the box out toward him. “I bought you new shoes. You’re still a size thirteen, yes? They’re probably a lot cheaper than the ones I ruined last night, but I figured it was the least I could do to make up for it.”

“I don’t want your shoes.”

The flurry of butterflies in my stomach was having their wings ripped off one by one. I inched the box closer to him, glanced around the hallway, and whispered, “Just take the shoes, Aiden.”

“I don’t want them,” he repeated. He stepped back into his room and went to shut the door, but I put my foot in place to stop it from closing.

“Aiden, please.”

“What do you want?” he snapped, his eyes packed with hatred. A hatred I thought I’d daydreamed the night prior. A hatred that I thought I’d never see come from him. A hatred that broke my heart.

“I… I?—”

“Words,” he barked in a low scowl. His harshness threw me for the biggest loop. Never in my life had Aiden been so rude to me, even when we ended things. Sure, he texted me being confused, and I ignored his messages, but he was never rude. Just hurt.

Plus, he treated everyone else in town as if he was a golden retriever, the nicest man alive. Why was he being so painfully rude toward me after all these years? Besides, he moved on! He had his dream life. His rudeness was uncalled for.

People break up in life, Aiden. That doesn’t mean you have to be a total dickhead.

“What’s the matter with you?” I shot back. “I’m trying to be nice.”

“You should stop trying. It’s not working.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re being a dick.”

“Good. Then maybe you’ll leave me alone.”

“I—”

“We aren’t doing this.”

“Stop cutting me off!”

“Then finish a fucking thought!” he hammered back, his veins popping out of his neck.

“I would if you wouldn’t cut me the heck off! Geez! I came to bring you a pair of shoes, you jerk. You don’t have to be like that. I figured after all this time, we could maybe be on good terms, but?—”

“We aren’t.”

“Stop cutting me off,” I said once again.

His brow knitted, and he glanced at my foot blocking him from closing the door. Then he looked back at me. “Move your foot.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Hailee,” he sternly said. Hearing his lips say my name? It was a new kind of heartbreak because he used to say it so gently. “Move. Your. Foot.”

I moved it.

He slammed the door in my face, leaving me standing there with a shoebox in my grip and my ego buried six feet under.

As I walked away, his door swung open, and he called after me again. I turned toward him, hopeful that he’d come to his senses and was ready to apologize to me for being so cold and nasty.

He approached me slowly, and with each step he took, my heart began pounding faster and faster within my chest. He was so close that my mind made up a crazy idea for a second that he would lean in and kiss me right then and there.

That he’d been fighting a war in his mind, and his outburst was just because he didn’t know how to act around me after all this time.

That his lips missed my taste so much that he was going to fall back into me.

Fall into me, Aiden.

He hovered over me. His blue eyes narrowed, and his chest puffed out. His full lips parted as he whispered, “I am in town for the next few months, and I want to make something extremely clear, okay?”

I swallowed the lump that sat in my throat. “Okay.”