Hayden’s mouth dropped open and he just shook his head. “So I can’t make this better?”

“No,” she said resolutely.

“There’s no reasoning with you?” he asked, pleading with his big hazel eyes for some way to make it up to her.

“I couldn’t think of a single thing that you could do to fix this. You broke me. You broke us. It’s over,” she said, her voice cracking. “And I think you should just go.”

Hayden nodded, accepting his fate. As he pulled the door open to exit, he turned back to face her. “I am sorry, and I will never stopping looking for a way to make this right.”

The door closed behind him and the energy left Liz in a huff. Emotionally she felt as if she had just run a marathon that she had never trained for. She stumbled to the couch and crashed back into the cushions. She didn’t think she would have been able to keep going even if she had wanted to. Her heart felt heavy, but at least she knew one thing: she still had Brady.

Victoria rushed into the room. “Is he gone?”

“Yeah, he just left,” Liz murmured. “I can’t believe I said all of that. I can’t believe it’s really over.”

“Me either, but the bastard deserved every word. So . . . what happened?”

“With Hayden? Didn’t you hear the whole thing?” Liz asked.

“No! With the guy you left with on Friday. I heard you come home, but then you went right back out with him. Was he good? Were you in a sex coma? Why didn’t you answer your f**king phone, bitch!” Victoria said, punching her lightly in the arm.

“Oh, Clay. No, I didn’t sleep with him. I knew him when I walked out with him.”

“No fair! That wasn’t the game.”

“He’s Brady’s brother,” Liz told her with a sigh.

“You left to have sex with Brady’s brother!” Victoria gasped.

“Well . . . originally.”

“Holy f**k! I underestimated you. Forget my threesomes . . .”

“Foursomes,” Liz muttered under her breath.

“You might be dirtier than me!”

Liz shook her head. “Not possible.”

“Are you going to sleep with both of them?” Victoria literally gasped. “At the same time?”

“Victoria, no. You’re living out your own fantasies, not mine. Clay is really good-looking, but I have no interest. I spent the weekend with Brady at his lake house.”

Victoria shrieked and bounced up and down in her chair. “Oh my God! I’m so excited. Did you guys f**k? Are you back together?”

Liz smiled coyly, her eyes drifting down to her hand. “Yes . . . on both counts.”

“Okay. Okay,” she said, trying to stay calm but not succeeding. “Tell me all about it. You had sex with a congressman. This is too good to go without details.”

“I’m not giving you details! We had sex . . . a couple times.”

“Like how many times?” Victoria asked, clapping her hands together.

“I don’t know.” Liz started counting in her head. “Um . . . like five times.”

“That’s like fifteen orgasms! Lucky girl!”

“You’re ridiculous!” Liz said. “Fifteen orgasms? Jesus, Vic.”

“Oh, maybe I’m just that lucky,” Victoria said with a wink. “But, girl, you’re with Brady. What does that feel like?”

Liz sighed and leaned back into the couch. “Perfection.”

Chapter 29

MISDIRECTION

Liz took some Tylenol and then collapsed into her bed. The emotional roller coaster she had been riding the past week exhausted her, and all she could think about was sleeping through the day. Luckily Massey was covering the paper this weekend, so she could be a bum another day longer.

She couldn’t believe everything that had happened. All she could concentrate on was Brady. She was with Brady. And not just that, but he wanted to go public with their relationship.

It all felt so fast. And she felt ridiculous thinking that. A year ago if he had told her that he didn’t want to hide their relationship, she would have been jumping up and down, but so much had happened since then. The thought of being out in the open when she hadn’t been with the person more than a weekend in over a year made her nervous inside.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she had tried for a long time to get Brady out of her system and it simply hadn’t been possible. That thought was what fueled her forward. She and Brady couldn’t get enough of each other. They were meant to be together. It was what reminded her that this was all worth it.

Because frankly, she was scared. She didn’t really care what people thought about her and Brady, but there were so many unknowns about their relationship and what was to come. When would they get to be alone? How would this all work with him in D.C.? Was she suddenly going to be swamped with reporters? She was already being portrayed as a scandal in the media. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like when her identity was revealed.

She still had to finish her senior year of college, and there was her new job at the New York Times. She hadn’t been anticipating this relationship or the complications that came with it. That didn’t mean she didn’t want to go through with it. It just meant that she and Brady had a lot to work out themselves before they went public and their relationship was blasted all over the world for everyone else to scrutinize. Didn’t seem fair for everyone to pick apart their relationship before they even had the chance to have one.

Not that she could let it sit forever. She didn’t want to become an even bigger story than Sandy Carmichael already was. She knew the benefit of beating reporters at their game. Then she got to tell the story, and not them.

If anything, that only added stress to the situation. She felt as if she were in a box and all of the sides were slowly sliding in toward her. Every second wasted deciding what to do only brought them that much closer to being discovered.

Jeez! She needed to cut the stress down a bit. She was back with Brady. She was back with Brady! Never in a million years had she thought that this moment would come. So now that it had, she just wanted to lie here and remember what it felt like waking up in his arms, the feel of his lips, the way his eyes met hers. Loving you takes so much less effort. He loved her. He had always loved her. That was where her focus should be. The rest would follow.