“You still don’t believe me?” Brady asked.
“I want to. I really do,” she said earnestly.
“Do you want me to get down on my knees? Do you want me to beg forgiveness for not telling you about Chelsea sooner? Do you want me to plead with you to reconsider? I’ll do it. Whatever you want me to do. I’ll do it,” he insisted. “You mean everything to me. I don’t want this to ruin the best thing in my life.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me? If it meant nothing and it was no big deal, why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, searching his eyes for the explanation. “You should have told me.”
Brady hung his head for a second to collect his thoughts and then seemed to relent. “You’re right. I should have. You deserved to know, even if it meant nothing. And it means nothing.”
“Not good enough,” she said, backing away. “When Hayden came up to me at school because he wanted to see me again, I called you and told you as soon as I got home. I didn’t hide anything from you. Not even for a day.”
“I wasn’t purposely hiding it from you. When it happened, you were already dismantling your life and stressed about graduation, being in the paper, and then moving in with me. I didn’t want to lay more stress at your feet.”
She had been insanely stressed out at the start of the summer. Everything seemed to be piling on top of her head, but still she would have wanted to know what was going on. “What about after that, when I met her? No heads-up?” she asked.
“It was over by then. The only contact I had with her the rest of the summer was completely professional and you were there every time. These texts came out of nowhere, and I’m going to ask to work with someone else from EMi from this point forward,” he told her. “I assume they assigned her to work with me because I’ve known her a long time. But I’m cutting off contact. I don’t need this to interfere with the love of my life or my career.”
“Aren’t they the same thing?” she whispered harshly.
“Liz, please just think about this for a minute,” he said, closing the distance between them once more and backing her up against the wall. He placed his hands on her hips and then rested his forehead on hers. “I love you. You are the love of my life. Please . . . please,” he said hoarsely, “don’t let this ruin us.”
She sighed. Blind trust. That’s what he was asking for. Did she trust him? Did she trust him not to play her like that? That nagging feeling crept through her, but then she let his words wash over the anger. This was Brady, the man who wouldn’t even tell her he loved her when he knew he did because he couldn’t promise her a relationship. Now he was promising her everything that she’d ever wanted, and she couldn’t stop thinking that it was all too good to be true.
But Brady wouldn’t give her those things if he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t have gone public, had her move in, travel around the campaign, use her speeches, or tell her he loved her if he didn’t mean it. He had made all of that clear from the get-go. But he was doing those things, and it made her reevaluate her reaction to this.
Maybe it was one-sided. Maybe Chelsea just wanted what she couldn’t have anymore. Maybe he wasn’t playing her. Maybe.
“You love me?” she whispered.
“So much.”
His lips found hers again, soft and tender, with every ounce of that love pouring between them. It was as sweet as honey and intoxicating as the hardest liquor. She couldn’t let a few text messages ruin their relationship. It hurt to even think about letting this go. She wanted it . . . she wanted Brady more than anything else in her existence.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, lost in each other’s embrace, forgetting that an entire gala went on behind them. There was only Liz and Brady, the taste of his kiss, the feel of his lips, the ecstasy of being completely wrapped up in him.
After another minute passed, they broke apart simultaneously. “We should get back,” she whispered.
“Are we okay?”
Liz nibbled on her bottom lip and then nodded. “Yeah.”
She might be hurting emotionally, but who was she kidding? She was never walking away from Brady Maxwell again.
Chapter 26
THE PRIMARY
Two years ago today, Liz had walked out on Brady. She had given him the campaign and his career free of worry about a relationship that he couldn’t commit to. She had chosen his happiness over her own and inevitably had just made them both pretty miserable. Now they were back in the same spot and yet . . . not in the same place at all.
Standing backstage at the election results party where Brady would give his acceptance speech, Liz paced the small conference room. Brady kept shooting her a look that said calm down, but there were no reporters, so she was able to feel the jitters that she would have to hold back in a minute when they exited.
Heather grabbed her arm. “You’re making me anxious. Go out in the hallway if you’re going to pace.”
“Sorry,” she said, running her hands down the white-eyelet dress.
“If you’re like this now, how are you going to handle the general?” she probed.
“I’ll be fine.” Liz’s eyes drifted to Brady and a smile crept on her face. “I’m just excited to be here for him.”
“You’ll do more good if you appear composed and resolute,” Heather said, dropping her voice as she issued the advice. “He needs someone strong. Be strong for him.”
Liz opened her mouth to say that she was strong and composed, but knowing Heather she would have snapped at her that actions spoke louder than words. So she just closed her mouth, stilled her feet, and found an empty seat.
They had spent the last week working nonstop on the primary campaign. Brady met with constituents, spoke at even the smallest of events, and Liz watched as more and more Maxwell for Congress signs went up around the Triangle. Most nights she fell into bed exhausted from a long day working, then got up early the next morning to start it all over again.
She knew that if the information about her and Brady hadn’t come out earlier that year, this would have been an easy primary election for them. Brady’s opponent could hardly be considered competition, yet he was garnering support from people who were influenced by the negative reports they had gotten about Brady’s character.
It made Liz want to work twice as hard to help Brady before she started graduate school in a couple weeks. She was everywhere at once, and Brady continually told her how appreciative he was to have her there at his side. Part of that was the aftereffect of the Chelsea text messages.