Commencement began the next morning at nine thirty. Liz, Victoria, and their families were up bright and early doing last-minute touchups to hair and makeup, demanding an exorbitant amount of coffee, and looking bleary-eyed and excited.
Liz left her parents with Victoria’s parents in the living room to answer the door when Brady showed up around eight thirty to walk with them to the stadium. He was in a light gray suit and Carolina blue tie with a silver UNC tie clip.
“How are you this put together this early?” Liz asked.
“It’s my job,” he said. He placed a kiss on her cheek.
“You probably haven’t even had coffee,” she grumbled.
“Guilty.”
“So not fair.”
Brady laughed. “Can we have a minute alone before we leave?”
Liz’s eyes widened. “I don’t think . . .”
“Not for that!” he said, scandalized. “Your parents are here.”
“And I thought nothing stopped you,” she said, walking him into her vacant bedroom.
“Almost nothing,” he said, slapping her ass once he shut the door behind them. “I just wanted to give you a part of your graduation present alone.”
“Graduation present?” she asked, arching her eyebrows.
“Nothing too big . . . yet.”
“Oh, God. Please nothing bigger than the earrings,” she said, flashing him the diamond drop earrings he had given her in D.C.
“I make no promises about that.” He had a devilish smirk on his face when he reached into his suit pocket and pulled something out for her. “I know the necklace I got you wasn’t anything extravagant, but it had . . . has special meaning to me. I like to see that you still wear it, and I thought I could add to it.”
Liz bit her lip and pulled the necklace out from under her Carolina blue sundress.
“You’re wearing it,” he said, his eyes lighting up.
“I went over a year without it. I don’t want to do it again.”
“You won’t have to,” he assured her, then handed over a small pink box. “We have a whole hell of a lot more to look forward to than a necklace and a few charms.”
Liz’s smile widened and she took hold of the box. Inside was a small blue charm in the shape of a star. She looked up at him quizzically, wondering how this fit in with all of the other charms. An airplane for the very first time they had met and he associated her in a positive way to the feeling of flying he had always had as a child, the number 4 for the Fourth of July when he won her vote, a key for the time he gave her a key to his house at the gala, and a topaz gemstone to signify the end of November, when they were supposed to be together. Things hadn’t worked out quite the way they were supposed to, but the two of them were here now.
“You can’t guess?”
She shook her head. “What does it mean?”
He ran his hand down along her jawline and stared deeply into her eyes. “Your most romantic date is to lie in an open field and stare at the stars, but every day I’m with you is more romantic than the next. Romance had no meaning before you. So you must be my stars.”
Liz held the little star in her hand with a newfound appreciation. Brady always picked the most thoughtful charms. Each one held its own meaning for their relationship. Holding this star reminded her that she was his universe.
She dropped the tiny star into her locket and sniffed. Tears had started forming in her eyes and she hadn’t even realized it. “Oh, God.”
“No crying,” he said, wiping aside a tear that had escaped.
“I’m just so . . . happy. I never thought we would get here, and now we are. I love this so much, Brady,” she told him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He kissed her deeply on the mouth and she felt her body swooning into him.
Brady pulled back and just stared at her for a second. A smile touched his lips. “Liz,” he whispered. “I love you.”
A gasp caught in her throat.
She had known. But he had never said those words. Not like that. Not to her.
“I love you too.”
“I shouldn’t have held that back from you for so long. I’ve known how I felt, but before it was timing and now . . . well now I don’t have a reason. I love you, and I see nothing that could ever change that.”
Liz threw her arms around Brady and he held her against him for a long time. Probably longer than they should have stayed cooped up in her bedroom with guests over. When they walked back into the living room, Victoria had finally ventured out of her room. Daniel walked out of the living room to see her. He had graduated yesterday from Duke and was now joining Victoria for her commencement.
Victoria was in a skintight blue-and-white dress and mile-high blue heels. Her dark hair was piled high on her head with tendrils escaping. She looked gorgeous. If Liz had attempted the same updo, she probably would have looked ridiculous, but Victoria pulled it off.
“Hey, bitch,” Victoria said. “You look hot.”
Liz shook her head. “My parents are in the living room.”
“So are mine.” Victoria shrugged, nonplussed. “Let’s go graduate from this place. There is so much ahead of us.”
“Not even a little bit nostalgic?”
“I haven’t left yet. Where is the nostalgia?” she asked. “Don’t get all sentimental on me.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Victoria linked their arms together and paraded everyone to the front door. The walk wasn’t that long, and there was so little parking on campus that it didn’t make sense to drive. Their surrounding neighbors had the same idea and their group passed a ton of people in graduation caps and gowns.
Brady came up behind her and took her hand. Sometimes it was strange that she could still be out in public like this with him, but she wasn’t complaining. At least if there were pictures today, it would show them together and happy.
They located Savannah at the entrance, and to Liz’s surprise she was standing with Easton.
“Who’s the guy?” Brady asked Liz.
“My tennis instructor.”
“That’s who you’ve been taking tennis lessons from?”
“Kind of hot, right?” He shot her a glare. “Joking. Savannah is totally into him. I guess I kind of set them up by accident.”
“Well, he looks better than the last one. What was his name? It was something ridiculous.”
“Forrest,” Liz offered.