“Well, no one else does either.”

Professor Mires leaned forward on her desk, crossed her arms one over the other, and stared at Liz meaningfully over her glasses. “You are a very intelligent, charming, hardworking young woman. One of the very best that I have had the pleasure of working with. I cannot fathom that something like this would hold you back from achieving everything you set out to do. To be honest, I think it is an opportunity to see what more you can accomplish.”

“What do you mean?” Liz asked cautiously.

“You want to be a reporter for a large newspaper. Well, one chance is gone. What are you going to do now? Every door that closes leaves another one open,” Professor Mires said. “I’m not going to fail you just because you can’t go to New York over spring break, or keep you from graduating with a degree in journalism just because you don’t have a reporting job lined up. There is more to life than your job and your career. You never know. You might stumble into something else you like.”

Liz knew this all sounded logical, but her heart was too heavy to put much stock into it.

“You took the GRE, correct?” Professor Mires asked.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. She had taken the grad-school exam last semester at Professor Mires’s request. She’d had no intention of attending graduate school at this point in her life, but the scores were valid for several years down the road and it might not be a bad thing to keep in the back of her mind.

“If you’re interested, perhaps I could make a few calls and see if I could get you some late acceptances for graduate school programs. Would you be interested in using that as your plan B?”

Liz’s mood brightened marginally. A plan. Oh, God, she hadn’t realized until Professor Mires had said that how much she put into having a plan. Without one she had felt empty.

“Yes,” Liz said, making a split-second decision. “If you don’t mind making the calls, I would love the opportunity to apply to graduate school.”

“Then it’s settled,” Professor Mires said.

Liz stood to go and then stopped and turned back toward her mentor. “Ma’am?”

“Yes, Liz?”

“Why do you do all of this for me? The colloquium, the internship, the New York Times, and now graduate school. I appreciate it, but I just don’t get why you would help me so much.”

Professor Mires pulled off her glasses. “Because you do it all for yourself. You go out of your way to be better and you do it exceptionally well. I’d like to clone you just for your work ethic. In truth, you go above and beyond and it makes me want to go above and beyond for you. Because someone like you, Liz, deserves more than taking a necessary temporary leave of absence and a job offer withdrawal.”

Liz stared at her professor, slightly stunned. It was such a relief to hear someone truly believe in her and not judge her for her actions. It made the world feel like a better place, lighter, freer, worthwhile.

Before she made it out the door, she smiled back at her professor. “Thank you . . . Lynda.”

A ghost of a smile crept onto her professor’s face.

Chapter 10

LIKE A DREAM

Liz, Victoria, and Daniel flew to D.C. that Friday afternoon. They had received confirmation from Brady’s secretary that someone would pick them up from Security and were told to just look for a sign.

She was glad that Victoria and Daniel had gotten approval to visit the Johns Hopkins campus so they could come with her. Victoria calmed Liz’s jitters by cracking jokes the whole flight.

This was the first time she was going to be with Brady since he had agreed that they were going to be together. Sure, they’d had the few days after that, but he’d had a couple weeks to change his mind. Not that she thought he had. He would have been better off denying the allegations and letting their history fade into the wind than acknowledging her. It was just this nagging feeling. Maybe it was a result of Heather’s condescension. Maybe it was more innate.

Either way it left her on edge. It didn’t help that Brady wasn’t picking them up. She had known from day one the demands of his career, but she still didn’t want to take a backseat to it.

Their plane circled high above the Washington, D.C., metropolis. Lights shone bright from the city in the evening darkness. Brady was down there somewhere. She bounced lightly in her seat as they made their descent. She had been anticipating this trip all week, and she couldn’t get out of her seat quickly enough once they landed at Reagan National Airport.

“Would you chill out?” Victoria complained. “We’re not getting off of this thing any faster, and Brady isn’t even waiting.”

“Ouch, Vickie,” Liz said. “No need to rub salt in the wound.”

“Okay, Lizzie,” Victoria jeered.

Liz stilled at that. She didn’t like that Victoria used Hayden’s nickname. She really should be more careful about calling her Vickie, but habits were hard to break.

She needed to get Hayden out of her head before she landed.

“Enough,” Daniel said, wrapping an arm around Victoria’s waist. “No catfights on the plane, Vickie.”

“You always side with Liz. Why do I keep you around?”

He raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“I can get that anywhere,” she snapped, but a smile played on her features.

“That’s not what I remember you saying.”

“Okay,” Liz said, shaking her head. “My turn to say enough. I don’t want you two to start a play-by-play on the airplane.”

Victoria leaned into Daniel and giggled. Liz was sure they were whispering about what they were going to do to each other later, but she didn’t care as long as she couldn’t hear it.

Liz slung her bag over her head, hung her messenger bag on her shoulder, and exited the airplane. She waited impatiently for Victoria and Daniel to follow her through the airport, past Security, and out toward baggage claim.

She scanned the signs in front of her for the driver that was promised to collect them. No luck. She kept walking, hoping to catch a glimpse, but to no avail.

When her eyes reached the end of the line, she gasped and dropped her bags. Brady. He was here. He had come to pick her up. A million emotions hit her all at once. Her heart ached as it pounded fiercely in her chest. She had missed him so much. The weeks had stretched interminably long.