“Hey, man,” Brady said as he approached.

Elliott jumped. “When did you get back?”

“Not too long ago.”

“Where the f**k did you go?”

“Away, but now I’m back and we can deal with all of this.”

“Good.” Elliott shut down the iPad and tucked it under his arm. “Heather has been driving me mad.”

“Sounds accurate.”

“You with that girl again?” Elliott asked all nonchalant as if it didn’t make a difference one way or another.

Brady laughed and nodded. “Yeah. I am. You going to help me break it to Heather?”

“I think she’s been preparing to slaughter you all weekend. She’ll come around.” Elliott clapped Brady on the back. “I’m surprised it took you this long.”

“Stubborn, I guess.”

Brady never knew how to read Elliott. They had known each other a long time. Sometimes Brady thought the man was going to blow up on him, and other times Elliott was completely chill. Brady was glad to have him as a friend on the occasions when he just rolled with the punches. Made him a good lawyer.

“Stubborn,” Elliott said with raised eyebrows. “Now who would possibly describe you that way?”

“Everyone.”

“Right.”

“How’d you know I’d go back to her?” Brady asked him. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He hadn’t even known that he would go after her. She had his heart, but f**k, she had messed him up. He had struggled with the decision up until the minute she had gotten into his car.

“Do you remember what you said to me the day of your primary victory, when I asked you if you really loved her?”

“I said that it didn’t matter.”

“Exactly. Frankly it doesn’t matter,” Elliott told him. “You could have said yes and you could have said no, but you said it didn’t matter. Which to me meant it was the only thing that mattered.”

“She is,” Brady agreed. It had just taken him a while to realize that. Without her, all of his dreams and aspirations seemed flat.

“Let’s try to convince Heather of that. My advice, for what it’s worth, you might want to just let her get a few good punches in,” Elliott said with a laugh. “She’ll feel bad about it and forgive you quicker.”

“I like where your head’s at.” This was the reason he kept Elliott around.

They walked together to the living room, where Heather was hovering over the phone. She looked like a wreck. Her blond hair was still perfectly straight, but it was up into a high ponytail that he had rarely seen her do before. She was short on makeup, and her suit looked like it needed a trip to the dry cleaner’s. Brady had clearly really stressed her out.

“Heather,” Brady said softly.

Heather turned around so fast that she looked as if she gave herself whiplash. “Brady! Oh my God, you’re back!”

“Of course I’m back,” he said with an easy shrug. He wasn’t giving up his career for one scandal.

“Great. Let’s sit down. We have to figure out our remarks. I need to know what angle we should take. I think personally denying would just be best, but if you think of something different I could work with that. Then I think we should decide about a press conference. Do we want to call for one or should I just release a statement for you? Would that seem like you’re hiding behind the screen?”

“Whoa!” Brady said, holding his hands up. “Just like that? You want to talk strategy? You don’t want to chew my head off for leaving?”

Heather stared at him stonily. “What I want and what I think are important for your career are two different things.”

“Good to be back, Heather,” he said, taking a seat on a chair and grinning at her.

“Don’t get the two things confused again. I want to smack some sense into you for leaving me knee-deep in this shit, but I know that we need to address this as quickly as possible. I’ll hold back my desire to strangle you until we have some semblance of order again,” she grumbled.

“I think order is going to be scarce for a while.”

“I know, but still I think we should . . .” Heather trailed off. “Wait, why? You sound like there’s a reason beyond just the media.”

“It’s Liz, Heather,” Brady said softly.

“I know that Sandy Carmichael is Liz, Brady. I’ve already surmised that.”

“No. Heather,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m back with Liz.”

“What?” she shrieked. “Brady, are you out of your mind? Her boyfriend wrote the article. It’s libelous. What the f**k are we supposed to tell reporters? Where do I go from here?”

“We’ll figure it out. We just need a little time for us to decide what to do and then we’ll go public.”

“Brady, I kind of have to insist as your press secretary that you shouldn’t,” Heather said. She was pacing the room at this point. “Think about how this will look!”

Brady was going to respond when Heather’s phone started ringing noisily. She snatched it off the table it was resting on and frowned at the number. “Give me a second. It’s probably another reporter.

“Congressman Maxwell’s office,” she said evenly.

Brady sighed and rested back in the armchair. Heather was going to be difficult about all of this. He just knew it.

“No, the Congressman is out.”

It didn’t matter, though, because the wheels were already in motion. He wasn’t going back on what he had said to Liz.

“Congressman Maxwell has no comment on the matter of Sandy Carmichael.”

He wondered how many calls like this Heather had dealt with while he had been gone. Sure, it was her job, but he wished that it all hadn’t happened quite like this. Of course, if it had happened any other way he might not have gotten back with Liz.

As he watched Heather, her face turned red with frustration. “Yes, Miss Hollingsworth, I know that you want a comment from Congressman Maxwell about your article, but we have no comment. He’s currently unavailable. We’ll reach out to you if we have anything further to say.”

Fuck! That name. Hadn’t Liz just said that Calleigh Hollingsworth had come to see her in Chapel Hill?

“Heather,” Brady snapped. “Did you say Hollingsworth? Are you sure?”