“Can you lift that jacket up in the back?” she asked with a giggle, tilting her head to the side to check out his ass.

“I doubt I’m going to get judged on that.”

“You never know.”

He shook his head, then grabbed her around the middle and pulled her against him. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Victoria.”

“I’m going to tell her that you’re not calling her Vickie anymore.”

“Don’t you dare,” he murmured, before bringing his lips down to hers.

She laughed lightly as she moved her arms around his neck and intensified the kiss. He groaned into her mouth and it just made her smile more.

This. This was exactly what it was supposed to be like.

“You’re going to do great today,” she whispered, opening her eyes and staring up at him.

“I could conquer the world with you at my side.”

And in that moment, she believed him.

It was only a short drive to the Charlotte Times office from their hotel. The building itself was kind of stark, boxy and boring. It was a basic square warehouse-type building with the words Charlotte Times written in scrawling font that mirrored that of the New York Times. The parking lot was massive, and they managed to find an open spot at the back.

Liz didn’t have anywhere to be, so she figured that as long as they had somewhere for her to relax while Hayden was upstairs she could catch up on work or read a book. Otherwise, Hayden had given her the keys to his precious Audi and told her to be careful with his baby. She kind of wanted to take it out for a spin, because he got so flustered at the thought of her driving it.

The interior of the building was a thousand times better than the bland exterior. The lobby was a soft powder blue with white tile floors that clicked under her heels. A prominently featured staircase led all the way to the top. A large black desk took up space and three women sat behind it. Two of them were on the phones, answering, asking people to hold, and transferring them over to other lines. The other lady looked up when they entered.

She smiled brightly. “Welcome to the Charlotte Times. How can I help you?”

Liz held back as Hayden moved forward. “Hi. I’m Hayden Lane. I have an interview with Ted Moore at eleven.”

“Ah! Mr. Lane. Right on time. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll let Mr. Moore know that you are here.”

“Thank you,” Hayden said, before turning back to Liz and gesturing for her to follow.

They took seats in the waiting area across from the front desk. Liz tapped her feet anxiously. This wasn’t even her job interview, and she was so worried for him. She knew Hayden had an impeccable résumé, and that the Charlotte Times was a step down from where he wanted to work. But it was better to have a job and get some experience than to graduate without anything.

Hayden’s hand landed on her knee. “Hey. You’re going to start making me nervous.”

“Sorry,” she whispered, trying to keep from bouncing her leg.

A man appeared out of the back room. He was balding and it made his ears appear to stick out from his head. But he seemed jovial enough and even had a spring in his step. “Mr. Lane?”

Hayden smiled that heart-stopping smile and stood. “That’s me, sir.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ted Moore.” He walked over and extended his hand to Hayden.

“Great to meet you too, sir.”

“Please call me Ted,” he said casually. “If you’ll follow me back, we’ll get started with your interview. I do have to say it’s good to have you here. Your file has come highly recommended.”

Hayden beamed. His recommendations were beyond solid after working four years on the paper, with a year and a half as editor. All of his professors liked him. Who was she kidding? Everyone liked Hayden Lane.

Hayden turned back and picked up his messenger bag that he had dropped on the ground. He gave her a confident wink, and she smiled up at him through her nerves. “I’ll see you after, gorgeous. Wish me luck.”

“You don’t need it,” she murmured.

“You’re right. I’m already the luckiest guy in the world. I have you.”

Liz bit down on her bottom lip and held in her sigh as Hayden walked down the hallway. How was she supposed to respond to that? He was too perfect. There was no way that she could ever compare.

She pulled out her tablet from her purse and started messing around on the Internet, checking emails and responding to messages about the upcoming articles she and Massey were focusing on for the paper.

About forty minutes into Hayden’s interview, when Liz was finally wrapping up her G-chat conversation with Tristan about next week, she heard footsteps coming in her direction.

Liz glanced up at the interruption and then immediately wished that she hadn’t.

Calleigh Hollingsworth walked toward Liz. Her red hair hung loose in big waves, and she looked every bit the exotically beautiful queen bee she was, with dark makeup and a skirt suit with a plum top underneath that showed off her cle**age. Liz had a visceral reaction to her appearance: she kind of wanted to claw her eyes out.

Calleigh had briefly dated her boyfriend, and acted like a Class A bitch ever since Hayden had shown an ounce of interest in Liz. But Liz was pretty sure her aversion to the other woman went deeper than that. It was the innuendo that Calleigh made about Liz and Brady at the primary that really irked her.

Why hadn’t Liz put two and two together before? Calleigh had said from the beginning that she could get Hayden a job at her paper if he wanted. Now he was here.

“Liz! I didn’t know you were going to be here today,” Calleigh said in greeting.

“Oh, Calleigh, hey. I forgot that you work here.”

“Did Hayden not tell you that I helped him get the interview?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

No. In fact, he hadn’t. She didn’t even know that they were still talking. Of course, Hayden had made it blatantly clear that he had no interest in Calleigh, but Liz still didn’t like it.

“Oh, yeah, he did mention it. I guess we were just so lost in our own world that it slipped my mind,” Liz said with an equally pointed smile. She didn’t even care that it wasn’t true.

“I just know that he’ll be a valuable asset to the team.”

“Hayden would be a pretty valuable employee anywhere,” Liz agreed.