He gave her a reproachful look. “You think I’m letting you drive the five hours without me?”
Liz’s mouth dropped open. “Do you drive anywhere?”
“I remember driving you to my lake house and back.”
“That’s different. This isn’t necessary.”
“Will I get to spend the five hours in the car with you?” he asked.
“Well, yeah . . .”
“Then it’s necessary.”
“Brady, you don’t have time. Heather is going to flip. You have that rally to get ready for this weekend. It’s the kickoff for the campaign. Aren’t you supposed to be in meetings?” Liz asked.
She did not want to be blamed for this. Even if Liz hadn’t heard from Heather since Brady bitched the other woman out, Liz could still feel her disapproval across state lines.
“What did I tell you about worrying about Heather? Leave her to me. You’ll see enough of her once the campaign starts. No use worrying what she thinks now,” Brady told her. “Now hand over the keys so we can get going.”
“Ex-excuse me?” Liz stuttered, clutching the keys to her chest.
“I’m driving.”
“Um . . . no.”
Brady put his hand out. “I always drive.”
“You always drive your cars. You’ll have to take shotgun and be happy with it.” She slid into the front seat without listening to another complaint from him.
She knew that she was pushing his buttons a little in the process, but when he sat in the passenger seat she felt immense satisfaction. He would comply if she were adamant enough. Not that she had any intention of getting rid of the dominant side of her boyfriend, but she didn’t mind ordering him around a bit.
The drive to D.C. was all sorts of awesome for Liz, who found out that Brady actually liked late-nineties boy bands and Disney music, which came up randomly on her iPod.
“What? I have a younger sister,” he argued.
Liz just giggled and sang along to the ★NSYNC song that came on next.
He wasn’t in the car long enough anymore to listen to audiobooks, he told her, but he used to listen to them all the time before he got into Congress. He said it was harder to concentrate on them when he was flying. She only had the last Harry Potter audiobook tucked away in her car, but she found no complaints from him when she switched over to that for the second half of the ride.
The only thing that interrupted their impromptu road trip was a call from Heather. Brady silenced the radio.
“Do you have to answer that?” Liz asked, glancing over at his cell phone in the car.
“She can’t be that mad that I’m going to be three hours late, can she?”
“Are we talking about the same Heather?”
“It’ll be fine. Just don’t drive us off the road.”
“If she asks, you make sure to tell her that I told you to fly,” Liz told him.
Brady just laughed and answered the phone. “Hey.”
“Hey! Hey?” Heather shrieked through the phone loud enough for Liz to hear. Brady shrugged and put it on speaker. “Hey is all you have to say?”
“How can I help you?” Liz snickered into her hand and Brady pressed a finger to his mouth.
“You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago, Brady. We have the rally on Friday. Alex wants to talk strategy. There is a lot going on. More important things than moving your girlfriend when you’ve already hired a moving company. Where are you?” she demanded.
“I’m on my way to D.C.”
“You’re talking to me from the airplane?”
“Car actually.”
Heather breathed out heavily. Liz could almost picture her closing her eyes and pinching her brows. “You’re driving back to D.C.?”
“I’d consider myself more of a passenger. Liz is driving.”
“I’m just glad you don’t have to be in Congress today. You’re acting like a teenager. Are you forgetting all of your responsibilities for this girl?”
Liz blushed at the statement. She felt ashamed at stealing so much of his time. She didn’t want to take him away from everything that was important to him. But the venom in his eyes stilled her thoughts.
“That’s enough, Heather. I am not a teenager; nor am I forgetting anything. Certainly not my duties to my country or my constituents. I am taking a short road trip through Virginia with my girlfriend and will be back in just under an hour and a half. Now, is there a reason for this call?”
Liz chewed on her lip as she waited for Heather’s response. She hated being a constant source of conflict between Brady and Heather.
“Yes,” Heather snapped. “I finally got some information about those pictures from graduation.”
“What pictures?” Liz whispered.
“What did you find?” Brady prompted.
“I’m starting to see a trend here. Do you remember the lovely young woman Calleigh Hollingsworth?” Heather asked with her biting tone. “My sources tell me that she sold the picture of Liz and her ex to the tabloids. It reads like a setup to me. Ex happens to stroll into town. The girl he wrote the article with sells the photos.”
Liz opened her mouth to protest. She didn’t think Hayden would do that, but Brady shook his head. She really wanted to say something, but Heather didn’t know she was listening in.
“I’m going to have a team keep tabs on her and see if anything else suspicious comes up. I don’t want her to wreak any more havoc. I know we don’t have a real threat for the primary, but I don’t want to risk it. Any challenger is bad enough with what we’ve been through. I know Russell Kleeb has only done community activist work in Durham, but I think we should take it seriously. He’ll latch on to anything that he can, and Lord knows what we’re going to encounter come general election time.”
“We’ll make it through. Keep me posted of anything else. I’ll be in the office soon,” Brady told her.
“Loud and clear, Congressman,” she said crisply. The line died in his hand.
“Does she always do that?” Liz demanded.
“What?” he asked.
“Hang up. She always hangs up on me. It’s so annoying.”
“Oh. That’s just Heather. She is tight with her time,” Brady told her.
“Huh. I just thought she hated me.”
“She doesn’t understand you,” Brady admitted carefully. “Heather was interning for my father when I met her. I was about to graduate from college and had lofty plans to become president.”