Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Even hearing his name sent chills down my spine. I couldn’t lie straight to Dad, so instead, I pushed myself from the desk. “I’m going to get back to helping Mama, and I’ll come get you when the food is here.”
He smirked. “Good on you for not lying to me. Love you forever.”
“Love you longer than that,” I replied, giving him another kiss on the forehead.
After we all ate dinner together, Mama and I got to work decorating the cookies.
I was a bit stunned that Mama bought my speech about Aiden being nothing but ancient history and me being fine with his return to Leeks. If anything, my nerves were a mess. I could hardly stop making up scenarios of what would happen if we ran into one another. For the past week, I’d been having fake conversations with myself as if I were speaking to Aiden for the first time in years.
“Hey, dude. What’s up? Want to do that weird handshake we always did?”
“Hey, Aiden, how goes it?”
“Well, look what the cat dragged in. Get it? The cat? You were my Tom. I was your Jerry. Meow!”
Clearly, I was screwed.
My stomach had been in knots, and those knots tightened even more as I plastered Aiden’s face against the sugar cookies. A face I once loved so much. I still loved it, to be honest. Aiden Walters was the kind of man that a woman never truly got over. My biggest fear about seeing him was that those feelings of longing would come rushing back at me, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from diving straight into his arms.
For that reason alone, I needed to avoid him at all costs.
I didn’t have a clue how I would avoid seeing Aiden tomorrow, but I knew I had to try my best. With the way my heart and mind were tangled up, it was clear the results of our interaction may vary.
Sure, I was able to play cool with my parents about the idea of coming face-to-face with Aiden. Yet I wasn’t certain I could do the same when it came to him being right in front of me. That night I’d take semi-tricking my parents as a victorious win.
And the Oscar for best performance of getting over one’s ex in a mature and appropriate fashion goes to Hailee Rose Jones.
Best performance ever.
23
Hailee
* * *
“He’s here! He’s here!” people chattered around the Starlight Inn the following morning as I organized the bookshelves in the sitting room.
Those words alone made my heart pound faster within my chest.
The people surrounding me hurried from where they were socializing and dashed out of the building. I knew exactly where they were going—to the clock tower to see the golden boy of Leeks, Wisconsin. The man of the hour. The Oscar-winning celebrity who was born and raised in our town. The one, the only, Aiden Scott Walters. America’s—correction, the world’s—heartthrob.
I couldn’t believe the day had finally come.
The news of Aiden returning to our small town had been all anyone had been able to talk about since Laurie informed everyone of the news about three weeks ago. It had been five years since Aiden stepped foot in our town, and a lot had changed for him since then. He’d been a star in an Emmy-winning drama series. Last year, he starred in three blockbuster films, and just recently, he’d won his first Oscar.
It was hard to believe there was a day and time when he was my Aiden. My best friend, my other half. My person. Now, we were nothing more than strangers. People didn’t talk enough about the shift from friends to lovers and then to strangers. It cut a little deeper than most heartbreaks, and that wound never completely healed.
At one time in my life, I thought Aiden would always be in my corner, and I’d be in his. I was his biggest cheerleader, and he was mine. That was why when I broke his heart and ended things with him, I also shattered my own.
“Hailee! Hailee!”
I turned around as I held Shakespeare’s collection of sonnets in my hand to find Henry standing behind me. He shook with excitement as he stared at me through his thick-framed round glasses. His shaggy blond hair was swept across his forehead, and he brushed his hand through it, making it messier.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Did you hear the news? Aiden Walters is here!” he exclaimed as if he’d come dashing into the room to reveal that Santa Claus was, in fact, real and came to town a few months early.
I smiled at his joy. “I think everyone heard.”
“He’s right in the town square by the clock tower. Rumor has it he’s signing autographs!”
“Oh?”
“Yeah!” Henry stood there blinking at me repeatedly. I blinked back with a lack of expression. I’d pushed all my emotions deep down that morning, hoping nothing would let my feelings come out that day. It turned out Henry felt enough for us both at that very moment. He was grinning ear to ear like it was Christmas morning, and his happiness was enough to make my day not suck. Henry was a gentle soul. He was a nerdy sixteen-year-old who’d just started working at the inn a few months prior. He’d been bullied a lot for just being himself, which infuriated me. He didn’t fit in a lot with people, something I could relate to.