“You kidnapped me?” Liz asked. “I went willingly.”

“How could you not?”

“Arrogant ass,” she mumbled.

“What is it you were going to tell me?”

“Calleigh Hollingsworth stopped by when I woke up from my nap.”

“The reporter ex-girlfriend?” Brady asked. His voice was like ice. She was sure he already saw red flags.

“Yeah. I think she might know something. Hayden didn’t tell her it was me, but I think she’s really close to guessing.”

“Did she say that?” he demanded. “Do I need to get Heather on it?”

“She didn’t say anything exactly. It was what she was implying. I think she wanted to see if I knew who it was or if Hayden had told me, but she kept skirting around it. I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now, but I wanted you to be aware. We might have to, um . . . alter our plans if she starts sniffing around.”

“All right. I’ll mention her name to Heather and see what comes out of it. I’m sure she’s already had someone looking into both of them extensively.”

“That’s good. Yeah,” Liz whispered.

“Hey,” Brady said, his tone softening. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Totally. Um . . . just a little freaked out and overwhelmed and exhausted. I just feel like everything happened really, really fast. Like a year and a half ago I wanted this, then we were apart for so long, and now it’s only been a weekend and we’re suddenly just jumping into things,” Liz rambled on.

“Do you . . . not want to?” Brady asked. It was so strange to hear the hesitance in his voice.

“I do. I do. It’s just . . . well, can you understand how insane this might all feel to me? I never thought we would get back together, Brady. Certainly not publicly. When I left you, I really left. I tried to forget and move on. I wanted you to have the things that you wanted.”

“I wanted you.”

Liz nodded and wished that he could see. She wasn’t trying to push him away, but she didn’t want to hold in everything she was feeling either. “I know that now. I want you too. I mean, I wanted you the whole time. It’s just hard adjusting to fighting so hard to let you go to this, and then the whole public aspect. I’m just worried. Not about us,” she quickly corrected. “But about everyone else.”

“Well, we can’t really do anything about anyone else. I think as long as you’re not worried here. Right here. Then we’ll figure the rest out,” Brady told her.

“That’s true. I’m just . . . I don’t think I’m ready to go public, Brady.”

“We’ll figure out when the best time is, but, Liz, if you’re going to be with me, that’s kind of a side effect. I’m not hiding you anymore.”

“I do want that,” she said. “I wish this was coming out better. I know that we have to beat the reporters to figuring it out and I don’t know how much time we have for that, but I just wish however much time it is that we had more of it. Am I making any sense?”

“You want a normal relationship. I get that,” Brady said gruffly. “But you want me and I can’t give you that. I never could.”

Liz closed her eyes and hung her head back against the door. She knew that. If she wanted Brady there were going to have to be sacrifices, but how big would those sacrifices be? Her privacy? Her career? Her ambition? Deep down she knew whatever the sacrifice, it would all be worth it. But the what-ifs drove her insane.

“I don’t want normal. I’m . . . I don’t know. It’ll take some getting used to.”

“I think it does in every relationship. We simply have some additional hurdles.”

“You’re right. I’m just overly emotional right now. I wasn’t happy without you. I’d never be happy without you, Brady,” Liz said.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine continuing on this path without him, and all she saw was darkness. Blank, empty darkness. But being with him was like a shining light, a beacon of hope in the darkness. She wasn’t going to let that go for anything.

“Something we can agree on.”

“I don’t want to have to hide my apprehensions from you,” Liz told him. “But we’ll get through this, right? It’ll be worth it.”

“Every second with you is worth it.”

Liz sighed. “I should probably let you go so that you can get back to work. Sorry to kind of unload on you.”

“It’s all right, Liz. Just try to get some sleep. We’ll start to figure everything out this week.”

They hung up the phone and Liz slowly stood from her position against the door. She had a crick in her neck and really wanted to take a shower to ease some of the stress. She wanted to talk to Victoria about everything that had happened, but she didn’t have the energy. As Brady said, they would figure everything else out this week.

Liz took her time in the shower, scrubbing her body clean, and washing her long blond tresses. Once she was finished, she toweled off and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a UNC sweatshirt. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head, because she didn’t feel like taking the time to blow it out, then set to work on her neglected homework from the past week.

About fifteen minutes into her journalism assignment, Liz heard the doorbell ring. She hopped up out of her desk chair and strode into the living room. Victoria peeked her head out of her bedroom.

Liz just smiled. “I got it.”

“Cool.” Victoria nodded and then closed the door to her room again.

Liz yawned and covered her mouth as she reached for the door. When she swung it open, she wished that she hadn’t.

“Back so soon?” Liz asked in disbelief.

Calleigh Hollingsworth was standing on her doorstep. What the f**k?

“Yeah. Do you mind if I come in?” Calleigh asked. Her megawatt smile made Liz uncomfortable. No way was she coming inside.

“I’m kind of busy right now. Maybe you can come back later,” Liz said, looking at her as if she was a bit crazy. She started to close the door.

Calleigh put her hand out to stop it. “I can make this quick if you just have a minute.”

“I really don’t.”

“I think you have a minute for what I’m going to say.”