“I left you something on your pillow,” he said with a smile.

He nodded his head toward the bedroom and she couldn’t help herself; she rushed toward it. On the bed she found a small note. Her stomach did a somersault. Brady used to leave her messages like this. The first one she had ever found was at his lake house, which had instructed her on where to find the bathing suits in his closet.

Your present is in the closet.

Harder to remove than a bathing suit, but I’ll try not to destroy it.

No promises.

—B

Liz shook her head and then walked into Brady’s massive walk-in closet. A black floor-length garment bag hung facing the door with Versace written in big gold letters. Her eyes widened. Versace? He considered Versace a little overboard? She walked forward and unzipped the bag to reveal a red silk strapless gown. She checked the back and confirmed it was her size.

She might hyperventilate. It was so beautiful. She ran her fingers along the soft material and wondered how it would look hugging her body. As she moved to pull it off the hanger to inspect it further her foot nudged a box on the floor. She glanced down and saw the word Jimmy Choo written on the top. Who left a Jimmy Choo box on the floor? Blasphemy.

She opened the box to reveal black-and-silver peep-toe high heels with a delicate strap that buckled around her ankle. She tried to guess how much all of it cost. This was outright extravagant. Everything she had brought with her paled in comparison. Everything she owned paled in comparison.

With one more forlorn look at the expensive items, she walked back out to Brady.

His face fell. “You don’t like it? Or it doesn’t fit?”

“No, no, I love it. I haven’t tried it on . . . any of it. I just . . . too much all at once,” she admitted.

“Oh, is that all?” he asked good-naturedly. “No worries. It’s on loan for tonight unless you like it and then, well . . . it’s yours.”

“On loan.” She tried the word out for size. “Like what they do with celebrities.”

He looked at her as if she was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. “I am kind of a celebrity, baby.”

“Right. I forget. You’re just . . . Brady to me.”

He crossed the room and dropped a kiss on her mouth. “And that is why you’re perfect for me.”

Liz was relieved that the gown and shoes weren’t here to stay, even though secretly she wouldn’t mind having them in her closet. She and Brady had just started dating again. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to accept such an expensive gift.

Liz returned to his room to start doing her hair and makeup. She pulled all her long blond hair into an elaborate low side bun with tendrils falling loosely, framing her face. When she finished, she delicately pulled on the soft gown. It fit her like a glove to the middle of her thighs and then bustled out in a mermaid design with a short train. The shoes added the extra inches she needed to keep the hem from dragging on the ground. She felt like a princess in a fairy tale, which was all too fitting when she walked out and saw Brady in a crisp black tuxedo with a black bow tie.

“Stunning,” he murmured reverently.

She blushed and walked gingerly toward him. “Thank you. You look incredibly handsome.”

“You look like I want to take you back into my bedroom and find out how fast I can remove a five-thousand-dollar dress.”

Liz’s mouth dropped. “Five thousand dollars? This is what five thousand dollars feels like?”

“And you look incredible in it. Almost perfect.”

“Almost?” She arched an eyebrow.

“I think you just need one more thing,” he said, pulling out a powder-blue box from his pocket.

“You weren’t kidding about surprises this morning,” she whispered.

He handed her the box and she took it in trembling hands. Tiffany’s. What the hell was her life? She opened the box and found a pair of pear-shaped drop diamond earrings, each about a carat, set in platinum. They were simple, elegant, and positively exquisite.

“On loan?” she breathed.

His hand found her chin and brought her face up to meet his. “For you.”

Wow. Brady had really outdone himself. But she felt rude rejecting the earrings after he had gone to all the trouble of picking them out for her, and they were beautiful. “Thank you,” she finally said.

She removed the pearls she had been wearing and placed the diamonds into her ears. She took a look at them in the mirror and smiled. They did look amazing, and complemented the dress to perfection.

He kissed her on the mouth softly when he caught hold of her. “You’re going to make it difficult to keep my hands to myself.”

“I sure hope so,” she murmured.

And then she kissed him. If they hadn’t had somewhere to go, she wasn’t sure he would have let her leave the apartment again.

They exited the building through the front lobby again and she noticed a shiny black stretch limo parked in front of the building. “Seriously?” she murmured.

“It’s the only way to travel,” Brady insisted.

The driver opened the door and Brady got in first, since Liz couldn’t possibly slide over in that dress. They drove across town to pick up Victoria and Daniel, who were waiting for them outside their hotel.

Victoria screamed when she saw Liz’s dress. “I feel underdressed,” Victoria said. She was wearing a floor-length halter number that looked great on her curves, but it might have been the first time Victoria was right: she couldn’t keep up with Versace.

“You look beautiful,” Liz reassured her.

“Oh I know, but you look . . .” Victoria pondered the right word and then smiled. “You look like the fucking First Lady.”

Liz blushed. “Can the First Lady wear strapless dresses?”

“You could. Right, Brady?” Victoria asked.

He smiled, that same adoring look in his eyes. “You can wear whatever you want.”

They all piled into the limo and then drove back into the center of the city. The driver dropped them off in front of a convention center, where they were quickly escorted toward a banquet hall. Brady placed his hand on Liz’s shoulder and pulled her aside.

“Mind if I talk to you before we go inside?” he asked.

“Oh, sure,” Liz said hesitantly.

“Y’all can just head in and get drinks. We’ll only be a minute,” Brady told Victoria and Daniel.