2. Ian

Chapter 2

Ian

I sat up when the pilot announced that we would be landing soon. The four-hour flight home was a taxing one, but I was happy to be back home. I loved Cloverhill. I grew up here and the town would always be a big part of my life.

My sister and my mother still lived here, so I tried to visit as often as I could. With the hockey season over till October, it was the perfect time to visit. My mom was always trying to get me to come home, so I knew she would be happy to see me.

I’d told her about my flight, which meant she and my sister were probably waiting for me at the airport. I just hoped my sister didn’t bring her best friend Hazel. It took a certain level of mental preparation for me to be able to see that woman. Mental preparation that I wasn’t able to do on this four-hour flight.

I walked through the airport with my luggage in hand. I scanned the crowd and caught sight of my mother. Her dark hair had a few more gray strands than I remembered, but she looked as beautiful as ever. A younger replica stood beside her. The resemblance between my sister, Jade, and our mother was uncanny.

I got my father’s light brown hair and green eyes, while Jade got all her features from my mother. Dark hair, dark brown eyes, wide smile. They offered me identical smiles, rushing forward so they could pull me into a hug.

“Finally, we’ve been waiting for over an hour,” Jade complained when she pulled away. “What took you so long?”

“My apologies. Next time, I’ll be sure to shove the pilot away and fly the plane myself.”

Jade laughed and so did I. “I missed you, kid.”

“I’m older than you.”

“Well, I look like mom so technically I gave birth to you.”

I scrunched my nose. “That’s a disgusting way to look at it.”

My mom shook her head. She was used to Jade and me having this kind of banter, so she didn’t bother complaining. Jade opened her mouth to say something else, but her eyes widened when she saw the crowd approaching us.

“I was wondering when they’d get here,” she said.

“How did they even know I was coming back today?” I asked, huffing out a frustrated breath.

“Because your crazy fans are crazy.”

A group of people walked over to us, all smiling from ear to ear. I had to hold back the deep sigh that threatened to spill out of me. Just once, I wanted to go somewhere and not have a bunch of strangers gang up on me. I wanted to go somewhere where I could have some peace and quiet.

But I knew I couldn’t complain about the fame. It was a part of the job, but I was just so exhausted by it. I wished I could be a hockey player and still live a normal life, or as close to normal as possible.

That didn’t seem like it was happening anytime soon, so I smiled as the crowd reached me and did my best to hide my growing frustration. I’d just gotten off a flight. All I wanted to do was eat something and pass out for at least eight hours. Was that really too much to ask for?

Apparently, yes.

“Ian! Welcome home!” one girl shouted. She was smiling so widely I thought she’d hurt herself.

I loved my fans, but there were definitely moments when I wished I had a simpler life. A life that would allow me to return home without meeting a group of strangers at the airport.

“How long will you be in town?” another girl asked, sporting the same painfully wide smile as the woman beside her.

“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. I walked as we spoke. The quicker I got to the car, the quicker I could say goodbye and go home.

The crowd waited outside while my family and I got into the car. I waved them goodbye, and they waved back. I sighed in relief when the car took off. At least for now, I could enjoy a bit of peace.

“You look tired,” my mom said from where she sat in the backseat. I sat in the passenger seat and Jade drove the car.

The traffic light turned red, and the car stopped. Jade leaned over then, a mischievous smile on her face. “She means you look like shit,” she whispered.

“You claim you missed me, but you have a weird way of showing it.”

“This is how I show it.”

I laughed and shook my head at her. “What have you been up to, by the way? How’s the yoga studio?”

My sister ran a yoga studio that she’d opened a few years back. There were only a few in town, which made it easier for her to attract customers. “It’s great. How was the season?”

“The usual. You win some, you lose some.”

“From what I gathered, you did a lot more winning than losing. And the people say it was all thanks to the magnificent Ian Carter.” I heard the sarcasm in her voice, but it didn’t bother me.

I smirked. I’d always been proud of my skills. When I joined the hockey team in high school, it started as a hobby. Something to do in my free time. But as the months went by, I realized it could be so much more. I loved hockey, so making a career out of it seemed like the obvious next step.

“Well, if it’s what the people are saying, then it must be true.”

Jade pulled into the driveway of our childhood home, where she still lived with our mother. She was gracious enough to carry my suitcase inside for me. My sister oscillated between being the kindest person you’d ever meet and the most obnoxious one.

I planned to spend the night at home before moving to the apartment I’d rented for my stay. I loved my family, but I also needed my privacy. I began to reconsider that plan when the mouthwatering scent of savory food hit my nose.

“I made some lasagna. I know how much you like it,” my mom said as she led me into the kitchen.

Together, we set out the food on the dining table and sat down to eat. Shortly after, Jade joined us. As we ate, I shared with them all the details of my last hockey season. Despite watching all my games, they listened intently as I recounted matches they had likely already seen. However, experiencing it through a screen was much different than living it in person.

“Just be careful out there,” my mom said after I’d finished telling her about my teammate who got injured on the field. Sam was a great player. Thankfully, his injury wasn’t serious.

That was the risky thing about a career in sports. One bad injury could end it all in a flash. Careers could be ended in a split second. I shook my head to stave off negative thoughts like that and turned to my sister. “So what’s the latest in Cloverhill? Anything interesting happened while I was gone?”

“When has anything interesting ever happened in Cloverhill?”

My mom laughed at that. “Hazel always complains about that.”

“Hazel?”

My sister’s best friend was the last person I wanted to discuss. Not that I’d never had anything against the woman. We just didn’t get along.

After a few intense arguments, we’d taken to staying out of each other’s way. She avoided me like I was the plague, and I did the same. For a long time, we hardly spoke, and that was fine by me. It was peaceful that way.

Despite all that, I didn’t hate her. Not really, anyway.

But my feelings towards her took a turn for the worse a few years ago. My career was taking off well, but I’d avoided telling people I was from Cloverhill. I wasn’t ashamed of my hometown. Far from it.

I simply wanted to keep this last piece of myself for me. I wanted Cloverhill to be a safe place I could go to and feel normal. My plans were promptly squashed when Hazel released an article about me that the entire world that I'd grown up in Cloverhill. That article turned my safe space into a hub for all my fans, effectively taking away the last piece of normalcy that I’d been desperately trying to hold on to.

Ever since then, I came home a lot less because coming here was like walking right into a sea of adoring fans. And while that would sound like a good day to anyone else, it sounded like a stressful one to me.

A good day for me was being in this house, with my family, and away from a world that loved to scrutinize everything I did. I’d been under a microscope since the day my career took off. Hazel’s article had increased the intensity of that microscope.

That was why we didn’t get along. She was my sister’s best friend, but she’d still gone out of her way to make my life difficult, and I couldn’t forgive her for that. I never would.

“Yes, Hazel, my best friend,” Jade said. “You remember her, right? Or have you become so famous that you’re starting to forget people? Am I next?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Very funny.”

“I thought so too.”

I sighed when I realized that seeing Hazel was an unavoidable discomfort. Sooner or later, I would run into her. Cloverhill was only so big. Plus, she was close to my family. I’d accepted my fate a while ago, but it didn’t make it any easier.

If I had my way, I would never see that woman again. Unfortunately, the situation was out of my hands.

“Hazel reports about everything happening in Cloverhill, but as you know, that isn't a lot. Although the other day a girl went missing.”

“Missing?”

“Yes. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know Hazel is looking for her.”

“That’s… kind of her.”

“It really is,” my mother said, ever proud of the second daughter she didn’t give birth to. She’d welcomed Hazel into the family from the very beginning. Everyone in my family loved Hazel. I was the only one who disliked her.

And who could blame me for that?

She practically ruined my life. With one article, she turned my home into some kind of tourist attraction where I was the attraction. People traveled to Cloverhill to visit my high school or the diner I used to go to with my friends. They also visited the coffee shop I loved, which made it increasingly difficult to get a simple shot of espresso.

All the simple pleasures I experienced in this town were ripped away after Hazel published that article. Now I couldn’t leave my house without running into someone who wanted to take a picture with me or get my autograph. It was better when I wasn’t in Cloverhill. I typically ran into fans all over the world, but those happened once in a while. Here, more than a quarter of the people were in town solely for my sake.

It added to the pressure I already felt and made walking down the street almost unbearable. It felt like everyone was watching me, judging me, waiting for the moment it would slip up in some way.

I knew that was mostly in my head, but it didn’t stop me from feeling that way. And it was all thanks to Hazel Jones.