by K. A. Linde
“I never thought I’d see the day,” Liz said.
“What?” Mollie asked.
“Brady lost an argument and actually backed down.”
“Oh very funny,” Brady said. He pulled her close to him and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I didn’t lose an argument.”
“You’re letting Chris pay. You never let anyone do anything you don’t want.”
“Then maybe I wanted to let Chris pay.”
“No, you didn’t,” Chris said, shaking his head. “Don’t let him fool you. He hates when people do things he can’t control.”
“Oh, no,” Liz teased. “You hate me?”
Chris started laughing. “She’s got you there, B.”
“I don’t want to control you,” Brady said. “Chris has it all wrong.”
“Now that sounds accurate,” Mollie said.
“Wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mols.”
“Just call ’em like I see ’em,” she crooned.
Their drinks appeared shortly and they all raised them to toast a night out with friends. Liz was so glad they had taken the time off to relax with Chris. She knew that it was the precursor to a very busy election season, and she was glad they at least got a bit of time alone before that happened.
“Brady’s a control freak and I’m a know-nothing. Sounds like college, huh, Brady?” Chris joked.
“College is a bit of a blur,” Brady confessed.
“Too much booze,” Mollie said.
“Basketball,” he corrected. “Takes over your life.”
“That it does,” Chris agreed. He raised his glass to Liz. “So, Graduate, now that you’re out in the big world writing articles and getting quoted in the Washington Post, what are your big plans? You two lovebirds moving in together?”
“Uh . . .” Liz mumbled. Yeah . . . that was one of those conversations they hadn’t had yet. They had only been officially together since February. Four whole months. Blissful months, but that was kind of fast.
Surprisingly the idea didn’t bother her at all. This was Brady. She had known for two years that she wanted him, and now that she had him everything felt as if it was moving at a perfect speed.
Brady tapped his fingers on the table and leveled Chris with an are you kidding me? look.
“What?” Chris asked innocently. “Have y’all not talked about it? I thought that was a done deal. You only moped around about this girl a million years. What’s the holdup now that you’re together?”
“Chris, you’re so tactful,” Mollie said. She rolled her eyes and nudged him.
“I don’t need tact with my buddy.”
“I’d tell you to learn some,” Brady said, “but after nearly thirty years of this, I should be the one to know better.”
“Probably.”
She wondered what exactly she was going to do about the living situation now that Victoria had moved out. It seemed sad to be in Chapel Hill by herself. Plus, after spending the week over spring break and the week after graduation with Brady, she found that she really liked being around him all the time. She liked being the person he came home to, spent his time with, got dinner with, talked about his job with. It made their relationship feel more complete. The phone could never do justice to that.
“I can’t believe you haven’t asked her,” Chris said, pushing.
“Well, I was planning to talk about this in private after we go back, but Chris jumped the gun,” Brady said, shaking his head. He turned to Liz and cupped her hand in his. “Will you move in with me?”
“I don’t want you to feel pressured,” she whispered, conscious of Chris and Mollie watching them.
“I’ve wanted you by my side since we got back together. Now that you’re out of school there’s no physical barrier between us and I don’t want there to be ever again.” His brown eyes were intense and sincere. “Please move in with me. I have the election ahead of me and I want my woman by my side.”
“Are you sure?” she breathed emotionally.
“I’ve never been more sure. I don’t want to control you or your decisions. If you don’t want to move in with me yet, please tell me, but know that I want nothing more than to have you with me all the time,” Brady said, his voice laced with power and seduction that came with a life built for politics.
“Okay,” she whispered without another moment of hesitation. “I’ll move in with you.”
Chapter 19
ROAD TRIP
When they returned from New York City, Brady hired someone to move Liz up to D.C. A box of clothes and some toiletries were sent to his house in Raleigh for when they were in North Carolina, but otherwise her life now officially belonged with Brady.
He had wanted to have her car shipped up to D.C. for her, but she thought that was ridiculous. It was only a five-hour drive and she had done it before by herself. She badgered Brady enough about how stupid it was to ship her car no matter the cost that he finally gave up. It was a mini victory.
When the time came and she had the backseat full of stuff that she didn’t trust the moving company with, she offered to drive Brady to the airport.
He gave her a reproachful look. “You think I’m letting you drive the five hours without me?”
Liz’s mouth dropped open. “Do you drive anywhere?”
“I remember driving you to my lake house and back.”
“That’s different. This isn’t necessary.”
“Will I get to spend the five hours in the car with you?” he asked.
“Well, yeah . . .”
“Then it’s necessary.”
“Brady, you don’t have time. Heather is going to flip. You have that rally to get ready for this weekend. It’s the kickoff for the campaign. Aren’t you supposed to be in meetings?” Liz asked.
She did not want to be blamed for this. Even if Liz hadn’t heard from Heather since Brady bitched the other woman out, Liz could still feel her disapproval across state lines.
“What did I tell you about worrying about Heather? Leave her to me. You’ll see enough of her once the campaign starts. No use worrying what she thinks now,” Brady told her. “Now hand over the keys so we can get going.”
“Ex-excuse me?” Liz stuttered, clutching the keys to her chest.
“I’m driving.”
“Um . . . no.”
Brady put his hand out. “I always drive.”
“You always drive your cars. You’ll have to take shotgun and be happy with it.” She slid into the front seat without listening to another complaint from him.
She knew that she was pushing his buttons a little in the process, but when he sat in the passenger seat she felt immense satisfaction. He would comply if she were adamant enough. Not that she had any intention of getting rid of the dominant side of her boyfriend, but she didn’t mind ordering him around a bit.
The drive to D.C. was all sorts of awesome for Liz, who found out that Brady actually liked late-nineties boy bands and Disney music, which came up randomly on her iPod.
“What? I have a younger sister,” he argued.
Liz just giggled and sang along to the ★NSYNC song that came on next.
He wasn’t in the car long enough anymore to listen to audiobooks, he told her, but he used to listen to them all the time before he got into Congress. He said it was harder to concentrate on them when he was flying. She only had the last Harry Potter audiobook tucked away in her car, but she found no complaints from him when she switched over to that for the second half of the ride.
The only thing that interrupted their impromptu road trip was a call from Heather. Brady silenced the radio.
“Do you have to answer that?” Liz asked, glancing over at his cell phone in the car.
“She can’t be that mad that I’m going to be three hours late, can she?”
“Are we ta
lking about the same Heather?”
“It’ll be fine. Just don’t drive us off the road.”
“If she asks, you make sure to tell her that I told you to fly,” Liz told him.
Brady just laughed and answered the phone. “Hey.”
“Hey! Hey?” Heather shrieked through the phone loud enough for Liz to hear. Brady shrugged and put it on speaker. “Hey is all you have to say?”
“How can I help you?” Liz snickered into her hand and Brady pressed a finger to his mouth.
“You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago, Brady. We have the rally on Friday. Alex wants to talk strategy. There is a lot going on. More important things than moving your girlfriend when you’ve already hired a moving company. Where are you?” she demanded.
“I’m on my way to D.C.”
“You’re talking to me from the airplane?”
“Car actually.”
Heather breathed out heavily. Liz could almost picture her closing her eyes and pinching her brows. “You’re driving back to D.C.?”
“I’d consider myself more of a passenger. Liz is driving.”
“I’m just glad you don’t have to be in Congress today. You’re acting like a teenager. Are you forgetting all of your responsibilities for this girl?”
Liz blushed at the statement. She felt ashamed at stealing so much of his time. She didn’t want to take him away from everything that was important to him. But the venom in his eyes stilled her thoughts.
“That’s enough, Heather. I am not a teenager; nor am I forgetting anything. Certainly not my duties to my country or my constituents. I am taking a short road trip through Virginia with my girlfriend and will be back in just under an hour and a half. Now, is there a reason for this call?”
Liz chewed on her lip as she waited for Heather’s response. She hated being a constant source of conflict between Brady and Heather.
“Yes,” Heather snapped. “I finally got some information about those pictures from graduation.”
“What pictures?” Liz whispered.
“What did you find?” Brady prompted.
“I’m starting to see a trend here. Do you remember the lovely young woman Calleigh Hollingsworth?” Heather asked with her biting tone. “My sources tell me that she sold the picture of Liz and her ex to the tabloids. It reads like a setup to me. Ex happens to stroll into town. The girl he wrote the article with sells the photos.”
Liz opened her mouth to protest. She didn’t think Hayden would do that, but Brady shook his head. She really wanted to say something, but Heather didn’t know she was listening in.
“I’m going to have a team keep tabs on her and see if anything else suspicious comes up. I don’t want her to wreak any more havoc. I know we don’t have a real threat for the primary, but I don’t want to risk it. Any challenger is bad enough with what we’ve been through. I know Russell Kleeb has only done community activist work in Durham, but I think we should take it seriously. He’ll latch on to anything that he can, and Lord knows what we’re going to encounter come general election time.”
“We’ll make it through. Keep me posted of anything else. I’ll be in the office soon,” Brady told her.
“Loud and clear, Congressman,” she said crisply. The line died in his hand.
“Does she always do that?” Liz demanded.
“What?” he asked.
“Hang up. She always hangs up on me. It’s so annoying.”
“Oh. That’s just Heather. She is tight with her time,” Brady told her.
“Huh. I just thought she hated me.”
“She doesn’t understand you,” Brady admitted carefully. “Heather was interning for my father when I met her. I was about to graduate from college and had lofty plans to become president.”
“I believe you still have those plans,” Liz said. She was fascinated by the insight into his life and to find out more about Heather.
“I do.” He winked at her. “My father said that she was the hardest-working person he had ever met, but not the easiest person to work with. I kind of took that as a challenge, and hired her on full-time to help with my first State Senate race. She proved invaluable. Though I do have to say that she has only gotten harder to work with. She’s kind of rough around the edges, but she’s earned the right to be.”
“Rough around the edges is an understatement, but I guess I can get it. Politics is a hard world.”
“Heather sees the world in black and white. If you’re not good for the campaign, then you’re useless. The woman has no clutter in her house at all. It’s kind of terrifying.”
“You don’t have clutter,” Liz said.
“I live at the office. There’s clutter,” he said.
“Not anymore!”
“Well, you can clutter up our place.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Me too,” he admitted. “I know Heather is coarse, but she just doesn’t think you’ve proven to be useful. She doesn’t see that you don’t have to be of a certain mold to be an asset to the campaign. You’re an asset to me. I love you. That’s what matters in the end.”
The rest of the drive to D.C. was left to the Harry Potter audiobook narrator. Liz had a lot to think about, but she wasn’t sure how to bring it all up to Brady yet. She wanted to collect her thoughts first, and she was stuck on what Heather had said about the pictures of her and Hayden being a setup.
She didn’t know how someone would act if they were setting someone up to take their picture, but she didn’t think that had been Hayden. She would have assumed some nerves at the very least. Probably more likely would be excessive touchy-feely displays to try to make the pictures look worse than they actually were, but he hadn’t done that. He had seemed too sincere in his apology to set her up like that even after everything that had happened between them.
Liz pulled into the parking garage to Brady’s apartment sometime later. He had already procured the available spot next to his Range Rover for her car. Brady grabbed two boxes of clothes and Liz carried an antique jewelry box that had belonged to her mother.
They reached Brady’s penthouse and she followed him to the front door. A smile touched her lips as she realized that this was now their place. Her stomach did a somersault as she crossed the threshold. Brady deposited her boxes in his walk-in closet. Liz followed him and placed the jewelry box on his dresser. She opened it and pulled out Brady’s locket. She liked wearing it when he left so that she felt as if she had a piece of him close to her heart.
“What’s that?” he asked, standing behind her.
“Your necklace.”
“No. That.” He reached inside and pulled out a small packet of charms. “Did you get new charms?”
Liz’s cheeks turned rosy. “Uh, no.”
He gave her a questioning look. “Care to explain?”
“Hayden got them for me when we were dating.”
Brady’s face turned murderous. “He got you charms for my necklace?”
“He didn’t know it was your necklace, just that I used to wear it a lot. He thought I might want updated charms so I’d wear it again,” she said softly.
“And?”
“What?” she asked confused.
“Did you wear them? Were you walking around with me dangling between your breasts?” he asked, fingering the locket where it was hanging. “With another man’s charms inside them?”
“No,” she told him, trying to remain calm. She knew that he wouldn’t like that Hayden had given them to her. “I never wore them.”
“Then I guess you don’t need them, do you?” he asked, tossing them into the trash can and walking out of the bedroom.
Liz stood there in the wake of Brady’s temper. Her hands were trembling slightly as she stared at the charms sitting at the bottom of the otherwise empty bin. She had no emotional
attachment to the charms that Hayden had given her, but they were still hers to keep or throw away as she saw fit.
“Hey,” she called, jogging into the living room. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Did you want to keep them?” His arms were crossed over his chest and he looked as though his jealous streak had gotten the better of him.
“Not particularly, but it’s my choice. Not yours. And you don’t have to be angry with me about it.”
“I shouldn’t be angry that your ex-boyfriend gave you charms for my necklace?” he asked.
“They don’t mean anything to me and I never wore them. What does it even matter?”
Brady eyed her suspiciously. “I don’t like reminders that you were with him.”
“I definitely do not think about Hayden like that. I’ve only ever wanted you. Now that I have you, I’m certainly not letting you go for anyone else.”
“And yet you won’t believe that he set you up for those pictures,” he pointed out.
Liz’s mouth dropped. “What? How did you—”
“I know you.” He dropped his arms with a sigh. “I saw it on your face when Heather said it. Why won’t you believe that he would do that after everything else he has done to hurt you?”
“It just doesn’t seem like Hayden. He didn’t act like that when I saw him. He was there to apologize.”
Brady shook his head. “A hunch isn’t good enough, Liz. I can’t accept that from his past behavior.”
“Well, then let me contact him,” she blurted out. Brady gave her a sharp look. “I’ll ask him about the pictures and see if he knew about them. I know him. I’d know if he was lying.”
“No.”
“Brady, seriously.”
“I don’t want you talking to him. We’ve been through this,” he told her.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” she asked.
“You tip him and Calleigh off and so she’s more careful about who she sells information to,” he growled.
Liz sighed. “What if I don’t mention Calleigh?”