Brady cleared his throat and turned his attention to Liz. “How far do you live from here?” He already knew the answer.
Liz bit her lip. What the hell was he thinking? Why would he even act as if he was going to agree? The worst part was she couldn’t even object to him driving her without looking suspicious. “Ten minutes. But really, it’s not necessary. I don’t mind taking a cab.”
Brady shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s not a problem. I could take you home if you want and then swing back by the restaurant.”
“Yes!” Savannah rushed out. “That would be perfect. You’re the best older brother ever!”
Liz opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. Alone with Brady. This could be interesting.
“Um . . . thank you,” she said.
Brady kissed Erin on the top of her head, and then walked right out of the restaurant with Liz. In public. Together.
But not together.
Liz should have picked out his Lexus in the parking lot on the way in, but she hadn’t been paying attention. She walked over to it without his directing her. Her heart was thudding in her chest, and she wasn’t sure what the f**k she was supposed to do. Today was the first day in seven months that she had seen Brady and now she was going to be completely alone with him. Her hands shook as she reached for the door handle. She needed to get herself together if she wanted to get through this car ride.
After they piled into the car, Brady peeled out of the parking lot. He sat ramrod straight as he turned back toward campus. He didn’t glance in her direction once, but it was clear that there was something on his mind. He hadn’t agreed to drive her home for no reason. She was terrified to know where this was going.
Liz shifted her gaze to Brady’s face, trying to read him. He was completely stoic and blatantly ignoring her. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. She didn’t know what to say. Before today, they hadn’t spoken or seen each other since the day that she had walked out of his primary victory party. Her body was itching to be closer to him, to run her fingers through his hair and feel his lips against her skin. But she knew she couldn’t have any of those things and that she shouldn’t want them.
And even though they had only the ten minutes alone . . . the first ten minutes they’d had alone since August . . . neither of them spoke. Liz remembered the time he had come and picked her up to talk about finding her and Hayden on the cover of the newspaper. And if it’s not you, then it doesn’t matter. That was the last time they had been in a car together. Her heart ached just thinking about it. No matter what she did, thinking about Brady and their time together always hurt.
Brady pulled up in front of her house and put the car into park. The car idled quietly beneath them and still Liz didn’t get out. She knew she needed to say something. Anything. She took a deep breath and drummed up the courage to speak.
“Brady . . . ,” she whispered, finding her voice.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish by coming here tonight,” Brady said gruffly, not looking at her across the car.
“I wasn’t trying to accomplish anything. Savannah just invited me.”
“Look.” He finally turned and faced her. His eyes were hard, his campaign mask firmly in place. “I don’t know what you thought you could get out of seeing me today, but please don’t come back. You already walked out once. It shouldn’t be hard to do it again.”
Liz felt the knife twist in her chest as his words issued a death strike. She put her hand over her heart as she felt her body collapse in on itself. Walking out on Brady had been the absolute hardest thing she had ever done in her life. She still couldn’t believe that she had actually done it. But she had. It killed her to hear him say things like that to her.
It also pissed her off. Those words combined with everything that he had said at dinner tonight just made all of the pent-up anger burst out.
“I didn’t even f**king know that you were going to be here tonight. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come at all,” Liz snapped. “Okay? Does that make you feel better?”
“Much,” he growled.
“Good. Because the bullshit comments about being happy with having a public relationship and being over airplanes were really just unnecessary.”
“Oh, and kissing your boyfriend in front of me and bringing up airplanes in the first place wasn’t unnecessary, Liz?” he demanded.
“You called her baby!”
“You’re dating the guy you left me for!” he said, reaching out and grasping her shoulders roughly between his hands. Her mouth popped open. She stared up into his big brown eyes and felt her whole world narrow down to this one second. That face, those eyes, those lips. Only inches separating them. It would be so easy to just get swept away by their mounting anger.
And then the second passed.
“You should go,” he said, dropping his hands.
“You’re right.” Her breathing was uneven and her whole body was warm. The places where he had touched her were on fire.
Liz cracked the door open, stepped out, and turned to go. But then she thought better of it. She turned back around to face Brady.
“I didn’t leave you for him,” she said softly. “The moment Heather and Elliott told you that you had to ditch me, you left me for the campaign.”
Brady opened his mouth to contradict her, but she shook her head.
“Because while you might have told them that you loved me, you never actually told me.”
Chapter 11
INTERVIEW
The weeks following the conversation with Brady outside of her house almost made Liz feel as if it were August again. Her heartbreak was still prominent all these months later, and she had only spent a few hours with Brady. Only fifteen precious minutes alone. Seeing him, talking to him, having him touch her, she felt the rush of lingering emotions once more. And everything was just as fresh as if she had just walked out of that primary all over again.
Hayden didn’t say anything. But Victoria told her that she was acting weird frequently enough that Liz knew he would have to be an idiot not to notice. And Hayden was anything but an idiot. He had been the one to spot his girlfriend being looked at by Brady in a way that he didn’t particularly like in the first place.
At least he didn’t ask about her change in behavior. It was the only good thing coming out of the situation. Because if he had asked, she didn’t know what she would do. She didn’t want to have to lie to him. She didn’t like lying to him. It made her feel dirty . . . dirtier than she was already feeling about how easily she had allowed Brady to seep back in.