Home wrecker.

Liz had looked out into the crowd and realized that the person was talking about her. Then someone else chimed in.

Whore. Slut.

Her mouth dropped open at the familiar accusation and she bristled all over. How dare people say that about her! She and Brady had been dating since February. She knew that people wanted a story and could see them wanting to provoke her, but what the hell?

She didn’t have time to process it. She had to follow their escort, and with Brady’s soothing hand on her back she pushed forward, trying to ignore the insults.

Once they had been shepherded through the group and landed safely in their closed-off area, Liz turned to Brady with questions in her eyes. His family and staff appeared a second later. It seemed that the crowd had no interest in them . . . just her.

“What the hell was that?” Liz asked Brady.

But Heather was the one to speak up. “There are still rumors flying that you broke up Brady and Erin. It’s been circulating again in the tabloids.”

“It’ll blow over,” Brady said confidently.

“When? When will it blow over? It’s been five months. You and Erin broke up in October.”

“Yes, but I never announced that publicly.”

“So now it looks like I’m the home wrecker,” Liz said.

She hadn’t been looking in the papers after that first breakdown. She hadn’t wanted to know what people were saying about her. But now she knew that was her grave mistake. She wasn’t prepared for this.

“Are they still saying I’m pregnant?” She touched the stomach of her loose, flowing red-and-white dress. It wasn’t the best choice if she wanted people to think that she wasn’t carrying Brady Maxwell IV at the present moment.

“We know you’re not.”

“But they still think I am?”

“Yes,” Heather answered.

“Don’t you think that’s important for me to know?” Liz gestured down. “A skintight dress might deter some of that reasoning.”

“Then they’d just say that you’d had an abortion or faked it,” Heather said callously.

“Why don’t you just shut the fuck up!” Liz screeched at her.

Heather glared at her, but Brady shot her a warning look. He put his hand on Liz’s shoulder and she immediately sagged into him. God, she was wound up. “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.” He stroked his hand back through her hair soothingly. “We know the truth, baby.”

“It doesn’t matter if we know the truth,” Liz whispered. “People are going to think what they want to think, and that’s going to negatively affect the campaign, isn’t it?” She looked up at Brady expectantly.

His jaw was set and he just nodded.

“I did say this from the beginning,” Heather said.

“Oh, because ‘I told you so’ is really going to help anything right now,” Liz snapped.

Heather looked as if she was ready to yell at Liz when Clay stepped in. “You know, Heather, you have a lot of pent-up anger. I think I could help with that.” He winked at her and she turned her glare on him. “Just a helpful suggestion.”

“Aren’t you full of them,” Brady said, shaking his head.

“You were the ones raising your voice in public. Now, you know I prefer that we’re actually acting like humans rather than robots, but dare I say . . . you’re bit of an embarrassment, Big Brother.” Clay had his devil-may-care smirk on his face as the words tumbled out of his mouth. He looked as if he had been waiting to say that his entire life.

“He’s testing my patience, isn’t he?” Brady asked, directing the question at Liz.

And she couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Yes, he is. Don’t worry; you’re not really an embarrassment . . . I am.”

“She should have picked me,” Clay said with another wink.

“As if there were even a choice,” Liz said.

“Ouch.” He covered his heart as though he was wounded.

“Clay,” Andrea snapped, grabbing his arm. “Why are you being an asshole again?”

“It’s in my blood, babe,” he said, retreating to his girlfriend’s side.

“That’s the damn truth,” she muttered.

Heather took a deep breath as if she was trying to calm herself down. “Maybe you should make a statement, Brady.”

“I already did, when we first got together. Nothing else needs to be said,” he said.

“Maybe if they heard you refute the rumors then they would lie low for a while. We have to get through the primary still.”

“I’m making a statement every day just by being with her. I don’t need to say anything. The rumors will go away,” he said sharply. “Addressing them makes them seem like they matter, and they don’t.”

Heather looked as if she wanted to say more, but even she knew a losing battle when she saw one. “Well, just get ready for your speech then, and I’ll talk to the press, and to the police about clearing the area.”

She walked off and left Brady and Liz alone. Liz didn’t know what to say. A part of her agreed that they shouldn’t say anything about it and just let it blow over, but the other part of her wanted to scream at the media to stop following them around. She had only been with Brady for five months, and already the entire political process exhausted her.

“Try not to worry about the press, okay, baby? Things are going to blow over. We’ll always be in the spotlight, but there’s not a whole lot we can do about everyone else. As long as we’re good then that’s what matters. And we are good, right?”

“Of course,” she told him.

“Good.” He leaned down and kissed her. “I can’t wait to get you to Hilton Head and really be able to be with you.”

“Me either.” She wanted to replace the memories of when Brady had flown her out to Hilton Head. This time he wasn’t going to ignore her. There wouldn’t be another woman as his date—only be the two of them together with his family for a whole weekend on a much-needed vacation.

“Well, I should run through the speech before going up there. You know, I love that we work together and that part of the speech is part of you.”

Liz smiled at the compliment. He had started practicing his speeches in front of her and asking her to point out anything she would change. It had become a fun routine between them and always ensured that she heard his speech a million times before he walked up to that podium to deliver it.