Girlfriend. Liz came up short at that word. The man who had begged her to go home with him and practically shoved his phone down her throat to get her number…had a girlfriend. That was rich…
“So nice to meet you,” Liz said, wishing that she didn’t feel like such an idiot.
“Clay, who is this?” Andrea asked. She turned to him pointedly.
“This is my friend Liz. We met on the Fourth of July at Brady’s rally.”
“Borrring,” Andrea said, rolling her eyes.
“She’s a big supporter of Brady. I think I’ve convinced her to run against him,” Clay said.
“Ugh…whatever,” Andrea said. “I’m going to get a drink. God knows I need one. Don’t f**k her, okay?” She glared at him and stomped away.
Liz’s eyes bulged as she stared back and forth between the couple. What had just happened?
Clay shrugged as if his girlfriend hadn’t just told him not to sleep with someone else in public…right in front of Liz. “Sorry about that.”
“You have a girlfriend,” she observed lamely.
“Most of the time,” he said nonchalantly. “And you have a boyfriend, I assume.”
“I don’t actually,” Liz said.
“Oh, come on, no single girl refuses that vehemently unless they’re dating someone.”
“Why are we having this conversation?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Because now I’m confused. You don’t have a boyfriend and you didn’t go home with me even though you wanted to f**k me,” Clay said, as if this were the most confusing thing he’d had to deal with in a while.
Liz shook her head. Arrogant son of a bitch. She couldn’t stop thinking that when she was around him.
“I didn’t want to sleep with you.”
“Right,” he said, ignoring her statement. “Are you here for that thing Brady’s hosting tonight?”
“No, I wasn’t aware Senator Maxwell had an event on Hilton Head this weekend,” she lied fluidly. Liz knew that it sounded odd that she would be here and not know about the event, but she couldn’t tell him she had flown down to be here for it. That would be even more suspicious. “I’m staying with some friends at a resort for the weekend. Good timing, I guess.”
“Well, you should crash the party. Brady has a hot date. You could be mine,” Clay said with a shrug.
All of the wind rushed out of her lungs at once. Brady had a hot date. She knew he had dinner and drinks tonight, but he hadn’t mentioned a date. Had he flown her all this way just to go out with someone else again? She felt hypocritical getting worked up over this after Hayden had kissed her, but she hadn’t gone into that situation thinking anything would happen. Could Brady be thinking the same thing?
She tried to compose herself, but it was not without difficulty.
“You’re not bringing your girlfriend?” Liz asked, her voice tight with emotion.
“She’ll be there.”
“I think I’m going to have to pass,” she said, realizing how close she was to accepting the invitation just to see whom Brady would show up with.
His blond hair blew across his forehead in the breeze, and his blue eyes looked down into hers as if he were trying to persuade her with one look.
Liz shook her head, her heart beating fiercely in her chest. Brady had a date and his brother was trying to seduce her. Why wasn’t Brady the one after her? Where the hell was he anyway? And why had he stood her up last night?
“I appreciate the offer, but you have explicit instructions from your girlfriend not to sleep with me. I think that’s probably a good idea. Good-bye, Clay,” Liz said, moving to the right to walk around him.
His hand reached out and touched her wrist. “You know, I did listen to Brady’s speech after we talked.” He stared at her very intently, all of the humor and joking leaving his eyes. “And I still think you’re wrong. He only cares about the campaign and he only cares about winning. I know that he’ll do whatever it takes to get there, and I’m sorry he’s convinced you so thoroughly otherwise…”
Chapter 28
WHETHER OR NOT
Liz hurried back to the Sonesta Resort, eager to be away from her eventful afternoon. Brady had said the last thing he wanted was for her to be seen, and she’d ended up running into his brother. She didn’t know whether Clay would divulge that he had seen her after she had turned him down again, but she wouldn’t put it past him.
And now all she had left to do was sit and stew over the fact that Clay had told her that Brady had a date for the dinner tonight. He had a date, and he had invited Liz all the way out here. She knew that she couldn’t go to the event with him, not after the blowup with Heather, but still it hurt.
Would there always be someone else whom they could be more public with than each other? Would there always be another person putting a wedge between them because they couldn’t be together…and couldn’t even tell anyone that they were seeing each other?
Her hands were shaking when she slid the keycard into the lock. The door swung open and she stumbled forward into the room.
She wished that these emotions weren’t roiling through her body. She wished that she could turn it all off and forget how much he meant to her. But she couldn’t.
Her actions may have been reckless in D.C., but it was hardly different from him bringing woman after woman to these events. She wasn’t accusing him of doing anything with them, but she couldn’t keep having people stand in her place. It felt wrong.
They needed to figure this out. And having Clay’s words echoing in her ears wasn’t helping matters. I’m sorry he’s convinced you so thoroughly otherwise. Had Brady just convinced her to do what he wanted?
Clay sure seemed to think so. She had changed so much this summer. She hardly even remembered what she had written in her article that was so vile. She didn’t remember how it felt not to like Brady or understand his reasoning for running for office. Had he warped her viewpoint so much?
Liz reached for her laptop and pulled up the first article she had written about Brady. Her head pounded as she read her rather cruel recount of Brady’s announcement for Congress. She understood why Professor Mires had given Liz the grade she did. The paper had been popular for Brady’s picture. Her article was less than stellar, and actually rather mean. She couldn’t believe that she had written that Brady was power hungry, with money as his only interest.