by K. A. Linde
Liz laughed, trying to remain casual. “It’s okay, Calleigh.”
“What’s okay?” she snapped.
“I believe him,” Liz said with a smile. “I believe that Hayden wanted nothing to do with you because of me. Because you stood no chance.”
“What the fuck?” Calleigh muttered.
“Your threat that day that he interviewed for the job was kind of cute actually. To think that he would go near you. He was appalled that I was even irritated with what you had said.”
Misdirection. That was the name of the game. Maybe she could get the other woman frustrated enough to just leave, and then Liz wouldn’t have to deal with anything else Calleigh was alluding to. She figured Calleigh was grasping at straws and had just shown up at Liz’s door on a whim.
“Wow. Someone is in a bitch mood,” Calleigh growled, losing her cool.
“You did wake me up from a nap,” Liz said with a shrug. “Which I’d actually really like to get back to. So if you want to just . . . head out.” Liz gestured toward the door.
Calleigh shook her head and then started to leave. Liz held her breath. She just wanted her gone.
“I guess this was pointless,” Calleigh said.
“Pretty much.”
“Are you applying to Charlotte Times to be closer to Hayden? I hadn’t heard anything about your application.”
Liz smiled brightly. At last, one question that she could answer truthfully. “Actually I just accepted a job at the New York Times. So I’ll be moving to New York after graduation.”
“What?” Calleigh asked, stunned.
“Yeah. I’ve been interning with them all year and I just accepted a position.”
“Well, congratulations,” Calleigh said through gritted teeth. “How is that going to work with you and Hayden?”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Liz said. She couldn’t keep the self-satisfied smirk off her face.
“Great. That sounds wonderful. I guess I’ll see you in Charlotte sometime,” Calleigh said, opening the door.
“Sure,” Liz said. No chance in hell.
Calleigh walked through the door without a backward glance and then she was gone. Liz shut the door heavily and then nearly collapsed back against it. Holy shit! That had been so fucking close.
Chapter 30
HIGH STRESS
Liz had her phone out of her pocket in a matter of seconds. She skipped responding to Brady’s text message and just called him. She couldn’t handle the amount of stress she was dealing with right now, and she needed his reassuring voice to calm her down. Brady would make everything all right.
Liz was just proud that she had been able to redirect Calleigh. If she had realized how close she was to learning who Sandy Carmichael was then Liz was sure that she wouldn’t have left so easily. Luckily, Liz had been able to use Hayden to her advantage. Sure, Calleigh might find out tomorrow that they had broken up, but Liz didn’t give a shit. That bought her a day to talk to Brady and figure out what they were going to do.
She just needed a day.
“Liz, I’ve been waiting for your call. What happened?” Brady asked after answering on the first ring.
“Sorry. So sorry. Stressful day. Hayden left a while ago, but I passed out and only woke up a couple minutes ago,” Liz told him. Her voice was shaking. She had lost the calmness that she had before her conversation with Calleigh. At least she was able to be herself with Brady.
Brady sighed heavily. “I’ve been in Chapel Hill for nearly two hours waiting to hear what happened. A text would have been nice.”
“I know. Gah, I’m sorry. Just emotionally exhausted, Brady. Hayden and I got into a huge argument . . . more like a screaming match.”
“Was he trying to salvage?” Brady asked coldly.
“Yeah, he was. He tried to tell me that Calleigh Hollingsworth—you know, the girl who he wrote the article with—brought the story to the editor without his say.” Brady scoffed. Yeah, Liz wasn’t sure she believed that either. “And then he said a bunch of bullshit about how he didn’t put my name in it and we could work it out. Yada, yada, yada.”
“But it’s over?”
“Yes. Very much over.”
“Well, I can’t say that I’m disappointed. I just wanted to make sure I was nearby in case you needed me. I’ve been working out of a coffee shop. It’s kind of peaceful.”
“Maybe you should ditch the suit more often,” she said with a giggle.
“Not happening.”
“Good. I like them,” she said softly. “But there is one more thing.”
Brady sighed. “What is it? I’d like to hear it all before having to go back and deal with everything I left behind when I kidnapped you on Friday.”
“You kidnapped me?” Liz asked. “I went willingly.”
“How could you not?”
“Arrogant ass,” she mumbled.
“What is it you were going to tell me?”
“Calleigh Hollingsworth stopped by when I woke up from my nap.”
“The reporter ex-girlfriend?” Brady asked. His voice was like ice. She was sure he already saw red flags.
“Yeah. I think she might know something. Hayden didn’t tell her it was me, but I think she’s really close to guessing.”
“Did she say that?” he demanded. “Do I need to get Heather on it?”
“She didn’t say anything exactly. It was what she was implying. I think she wanted to see if I knew who it was or if Hayden had told me, but she kept skirting around it. I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now, but I wanted you to be aware. We might have to, um . . . alter our plans if she starts sniffing around.”
“All right. I’ll mention her name to Heather and see what comes out of it. I’m sure she’s already had someone looking into both of them extensively.”
“That’s good. Yeah,” Liz whispered.
“Hey,” Brady said, his tone softening. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Totally. Um . . . just a little freaked out and overwhelmed and exhausted. I just feel like everything happened really, really fast. Like a year and a half ago I wanted this, then we were apart for so long, and now it’s only been a weekend and we’re suddenly just jumping into things,” Liz rambled on.
“Do you . . . not want to?” Brady asked. It was so strange to hear the hesitance in his voice.
“I do. I do. It’s just . . . well, can you understand how insane this might all feel to me? I never thought we would get back together, Brady. Certainly not publicly. When I left you, I really left. I tried to forget and move on. I wanted you to have the things that you wanted.”
“I wanted you.”
Liz nodded and wished that he could see. She wasn’t trying to push him away, but she didn’t want to hold in everything she was feeling either. “I know that now. I want you too. I mean, I wanted you the whole time. It’s just hard adjusting to fighting so hard to let you go to this, and then the whole public aspect. I’m just worried. Not about us,” she quickly corrected. “But about everyone else.”
“Well, we can’t really do anything about anyone else. I think as long as you’re not worried here. Right here. Then we’ll figure the rest out,” Brady told her.
“That’s true. I’m just . . . I don’t think I’m ready to go public, Brady.”
“We’ll figure out when the best time is, but, Liz, if you’re going to be with me, that’s kind of a side effect. I’m not hiding you anymore.”
“I do want that,” she said. “I wish this was coming out better. I know that we have to beat the reporters to figuring it out and I don’t know how much time we have for that, but I just wish however much time it is that we had more of it. Am I making any sense?”
“You want a normal relationship. I get that,” Brady said gruffly. “But you want me and I can’t give you that. I never could.”
Liz closed her eyes and hung her head back against the door. She knew that. If she wanted Brady there were going to have to be sacrifices, bu
t how big would those sacrifices be? Her privacy? Her career? Her ambition? Deep down she knew whatever the sacrifice, it would all be worth it. But the what-ifs drove her insane.
“I don’t want normal. I’m . . . I don’t know. It’ll take some getting used to.”
“I think it does in every relationship. We simply have some additional hurdles.”
“You’re right. I’m just overly emotional right now. I wasn’t happy without you. I’d never be happy without you, Brady,” Liz said.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine continuing on this path without him, and all she saw was darkness. Blank, empty darkness. But being with him was like a shining light, a beacon of hope in the darkness. She wasn’t going to let that go for anything.
“Something we can agree on.”
“I don’t want to have to hide my apprehensions from you,” Liz told him. “But we’ll get through this, right? It’ll be worth it.”
“Every second with you is worth it.”
Liz sighed. “I should probably let you go so that you can get back to work. Sorry to kind of unload on you.”
“It’s all right, Liz. Just try to get some sleep. We’ll start to figure everything out this week.”
They hung up the phone and Liz slowly stood from her position against the door. She had a crick in her neck and really wanted to take a shower to ease some of the stress. She wanted to talk to Victoria about everything that had happened, but she didn’t have the energy. As Brady said, they would figure everything else out this week.
Liz took her time in the shower, scrubbing her body clean, and washing her long blond tresses. Once she was finished, she toweled off and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a UNC sweatshirt. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head, because she didn’t feel like taking the time to blow it out, then set to work on her neglected homework from the past week.
About fifteen minutes into her journalism assignment, Liz heard the doorbell ring. She hopped up out of her desk chair and strode into the living room. Victoria peeked her head out of her bedroom.
Liz just smiled. “I got it.”
“Cool.” Victoria nodded and then closed the door to her room again.
Liz yawned and covered her mouth as she reached for the door. When she swung it open, she wished that she hadn’t.
“Back so soon?” Liz asked in disbelief.
Calleigh Hollingsworth was standing on her doorstep. What the fuck?
“Yeah. Do you mind if I come in?” Calleigh asked. Her megawatt smile made Liz uncomfortable. No way was she coming inside.
“I’m kind of busy right now. Maybe you can come back later,” Liz said, looking at her as if she was a bit crazy. She started to close the door.
Calleigh put her hand out to stop it. “I can make this quick if you just have a minute.”
“I really don’t.”
“I think you have a minute for what I’m going to say.”
Liz rolled her eyes. What did Calleigh want to talk about?
“Not interested,” Liz said. She needed her to leave. Now. Anything that was about to come out of her mouth wasn’t going to be good. Fear seeped into every pore. Had she spoken to Hayden? Had he tipped her off? Could she have figured everything out in that amount of time?
Calleigh smiled and started speaking anyway. “When I left here, I got into my car and started driving away, thinking that I had wasted my time. Then I started thinking about exactly what had happened and what you had said. Particularly how defensive you got about everything I was saying. And I know that you don’t like me, Liz, but it all felt a little much for me coming to talk to you to find out a little piece of information. If you didn’t want to tell me, then you could have said a million things. You could have simply said that you didn’t know. You could have said Hayden swore you to secrecy. You could have said you just didn’t want to tell me. I would have expected those responses,” Calleigh said, staring directly into Liz’s eyes.
Liz swallowed. Oh, shit! She hadn’t thought that she had been defensive.
“But you didn’t do that, did you? You continually changed the subject and completely sidestepped every question I asked you. And I realized that you had totally played me. You’re kind of a pro at it, really. I’m impressed. I didn’t see it for what it was at all.”
“I’m not a pro at anything, Calleigh,” Liz said. She hoped that she sounded neutral. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Calleigh smiled at Liz as if she were looking at a caged animal, and then answered as if she hadn’t heard a word Liz had just said. “So once I realized what you had done, it got me wondering what exactly it was that would make you try to manipulate the situation. What exactly you’re hiding.”
Liz rolled her eyes. “Are you done? I’m not hiding anything, Calleigh.”
“When I came over here in the first place I had my suspicions, but I thought maybe you just knew who Sandy Carmichael was . . . now I’m thinking maybe you are Sandy Carmichael.”
“What?” Liz gasped.
Oh, fuck! She didn’t know what to do. What the hell was she supposed to say to that? She didn’t want to lie, but this was Calleigh. After everything Liz had just said to Brady, she couldn’t imagine confirming this. It would ruin everything. She would be giving over the reins to the media, and Liz didn’t even want to think about what her world would be like if that happened.
She could feel her face heating, and knew that she looked uncomfortable. Calleigh no doubt was reading her body language. It made Liz’s palms sweat just thinking about it, and she shifted her eyes away from Calleigh’s face. This couldn’t be happening.
Deny, deny, deny.
“You can try to change the subject all you want,” Calleigh said, “but I knew something was up with you at his primary on the campaign. It’s all but confirmed with me now. So how about you go on the record and confirm, Liz: Are you Sandy Carmichael?”
Chapter 31
BRADY
Brady took a deep breath as he circled around his parents’ neighborhood and then pulled into the long circular driveway. He knew after checking his phone and seeing all the missed calls, voice mails, and text messages that there were going to be a lot of questions he was going to have to answer. After the peaceful weekend he’d had with Liz, he couldn’t imagine going back into the fray. They would never really have that again. It was kind of a sad notion, knowing that even if they worked everything out, they would never truly be alone.
Nothing he could do about it right now. They had to get to that point before he could worry about anything else.
There were reporters camped out on the perimeter of the house, and as he parked and got out of the car, a few jogged up to him. He had expected it to be like this, but still it was irritating.
“Congressman Maxwell, will you comment on the allegations about your relations with Sandy Carmichael?” one called, thrusting a microphone into his face.
“Congressman Maxwell, who is Sandy Carmichael?” another asked.
“Why are you hiding her from us? What other secrets are you hiding from the people?” still another called out. Cameras flashed and people surrounded him on all sides.
Brady had always known that politicians had to live their lives under a microscope. He had seen that firsthand with a father in politics. But it was one thing to see it from afar; it was quite different to be living it.
Brady shook his head and put his hands out. “No comment. When I want to make a statement, I’ll call a press conference. Until then, clear out of my property,” he told them stiffly, walking up the front steps and slipping in through the front door.
He closed the door heavily and leaned against it. He couldn’t keep running from reporters. It had only been a couple days and he was already tired of it. He heard voices down the hall and walked lightly across the foyer to see what was going on. He didn’t get far before he heard Heather and his attorney, Elliott, speaking rather fiercely back and forth. His fathe
r’s voice rang out, silencing them.
“He will be back when he is. You two treat him as if he’s a child. He’s a fucking congressman. Do you blame him for taking a mental health day? I don’t. We’ll deal with it all in time. Until then, perhaps you should find somewhere else to bicker.”
Brady cracked a smile. His father sure knew how to cut back an argument. Not that he thought Heather and Elliott had any intention of not bombarding him as soon as they found that he was back. Which he was not going to let them do immediately upon his entering the house.
He only wanted to see one more person before he felt obligated to decide how he was going to bring up the whole subject of Liz to everyone. He was hoping that he would get to talk to Heather and Elliott about it first. He kind of wanted Liz to be there with him when he told his family, but he could understand after her mini panic attack why he should probably do it alone.
The last thing he wanted to do was move too fast. But in this kind of situation, he couldn’t figure out how to move any slower. He knew where Liz was coming from. They went from not seeing each other for more than a year to fucking in half a second. Now he wanted to bring her home to the family, tell the press they were dating, and live happily ever after in this mob-style media haze. It wasn’t fair to her. He wanted to give her more, but he couldn’t before and he couldn’t now. He just wanted to give her everything he could.
He loved her. Fuck, he had never stopped loving her.
She had said that she had tried to give him up, but he didn’t really think he had ever really tried that hard. She was ingrained in him somehow. She had been since day one, when she had stared up at him completely unfazed and asked him one question that changed everything. How could he walk away from someone like that?
Well, the answer had been simple: he couldn’t. If he was honest with himself, and he usually was, Erin had just been filler. A poor man’s Liz. And it was cruel to think it, but fuck, she was.
Erin would never be Liz. He had always known, but it had been a nice distraction. Then when he had just fucking dropped everything that night in October at a chance of seeing Liz, just so he didn’t have to think about her crying . . . yeah, that had been the tipping point.
