“I think Ted will like him.” Calleigh’s eyes flashed with mischief. “How are y’all going to do when he moves here?”

When. Not if. Liz tried not to cringe. “We’ll be fine.”

“I just . . .” Calleigh began, taking a seat next to Liz. “Well, I’m sure you already know that Hayden and I were involved.”

Liz narrowed her eyes. Where was she going with this?

“Well, the man isn’t good with distance. He just couldn’t handle me being far away. It’s why we broke up in the first place.”

Uh-huh. Not the story she had heard at all. But who was she to contradict Calleigh? It was clear what her game plan was. The fact that she was airing it like this was pretty dumb on her part. Liz wasn’t going to be scared off like the frightened sheep she had been a year ago. She had f**king brought a Senator to his knees . . . she could handle Calleigh Hollingsworth.

“Well, thanks for the advice. I guess. But we’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about us, Calleigh,” Liz said, reaching out and patting the woman’s hand. “We have a really strong relationship. No worries.”

Anger flashed in Calleigh’s green eyes for a brief moment before it disappeared. “Oh, I’m sure you do. Of course you do. I just wish someone had warned me is all.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t have made a difference,” Liz said offhandedly.

“What does that mean?” Calleigh snapped, rearing back.

“Things happen for a reason. You guys broke up so long ago and never got back together, so it must have been for the better. Hayden told me all about it actually,” Liz said, batting her eyelashes right back at her. “I’ll learn from your past mistakes.”

Calleigh stood abruptly. “We’ll see.”

Not until the woman stormed back down the hallway did Liz realize her mistake. While it had felt amazing to tell Calleigh off, she had just sent that loose cannon out into the world with something to prove. And if Hayden got the job here, then who would she be trying to prove it with . . . ?

Liz didn’t have much time to think about it before Hayden returned. He looked as if he was walking on cloud nine. The interview must have gone well. Not that Liz had expected anything else.

He shook Ted’s hand once more and they exchanged a few words before Hayden returned to her side. Liz stood hastily as he approached.

“Ready to go?” he asked, tossing an arm across her shoulders and directing her to the door.

“Yep. How did it go?”

“Amazing.” Hayden opened the door for her when they reached it and she walked through it. “I got a job offer!”

“That’s great,” she said softly.

“I just told you I had an amazing interview and was offered a job and you sound sad,” Hayden said, stopping her in the parking lot.

“I’m really excited for you!” she said, but the enthusiasm wasn’t there. She had been so excited and proud and nervous for him before Calleigh had gone and ruined everything.

“Yeah. Liz, you’re kind of an open book when you’re unhappy,” Hayden said. “I was only gone for an hour. What could happen in an hour?”

“Nothing. It really doesn’t matter,” she said, brushing her hand aside. “Tell me about the interview.”

Hayden took her hand and without a word walked her back to the car. Even when she probed him to talk about it he didn’t say anything. When they reached the car, she walked with him to the passenger side to let him open the door for her as usual. Instead, Hayden pushed her back against the car door and leaned forward into her.

“Wha . . .”

“I don’t know how I can make this clearer to you, Lizzie,” he said, brushing her hair off of her face. “What is going on with you matters to me. What you are feeling—happy, sad, exhausted, emotional, frustrated—it matters to me. I know you’ve been kind of out of it recently, and I know that you know that I’ve noticed. But I’ve let you have your space, because it seemed like that was what you wanted. The very last thing I want is for you to try to tell me that something you are feeling doesn’t matter, that it isn’t important. Because it’s important to me.”

“You’re too good to me, Hayden,” she said.

He smiled at that and kissed the tip of her nose. “Well, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You know that, right?”

She bit her lip and then nodded. She didn’t feel like the best thing that had ever happened to anyone, but she couldn’t argue with him.

“So, what happened?”

Liz shrugged and glanced away. She couldn’t meet his eyes. “Calleigh.”

Hayden blew out his breath quickly. “What did she say?”

“I’d just forgotten that she worked here.”

“Lizzie,” he said, turning her face toward him, “what did she say?”

“She still wants you, Hayden.”

His eyebrows rose. “She said that?”

“Not directly, but she didn’t have to. She started talking to me about your relationship and saying that you just broke up because of the distance.”

“That’s not true!”

“I know,” she said conciliatorily. “She just . . . I don’t know. I worry that she’s going to try something with you . . .”

Hayden laughed and shook his head. “She can try, but she’s not getting anywhere. Not with me. That’s for sure.”

“I know that. I do. She just gets under my skin. It’s like this weird girl competition challenge thing,” Liz said with a shrug.

“Well, I got the job and I’ll be working here. But it’s you I’ll be thinking about every day. It’s you I’m going to be traveling back to Chapel Hill to see. It’s you who makes working this hard worth it.” His lips found hers once more. “Just you.”

She smiled and leaned into the kiss. She wanted to believe him. She did believe him. If he wanted to be with Calleigh, he could. Calleigh was just trying to get to her.

“I was going to do this over dinner,” Hayden said softly, reaching into his coat pocket.

“Do what?” she asked, eyeing him cautiously.

He extracted a small black pouch from his pocket and handed it to her. “Happy birthday, gorgeous.”