For the Record (Record #3)(47)

“Oh, yes, we’ve heard it nonstop,” Lewis said. He finally seemed to relax back into his chair.

“Convincing yourself or them?” Brady asked. He chuckled and squeezed her arm.

Liz threw her hands up and laughed. “Don’t gang up on me. I can’t take it.”

Everyone broke into laughter, and seemed to dissipate the lingering tension. The way that Brady managed to fall rather easily into their joking attitude was good news. It meant her parents were starting to accept him.

By the end of brunch, it was clear that she had worried for absolutely nothing.

The day passed easily with her parents and Brady. They went back to her place and she changed into graduation attire so that her parents could take pictures. They walked around campus and her father played photographer with a giant SLR. He had been taking lessons in his spare time and was eager to showcase his newfound talent. They ended at the Old Well, where people were lined up to take pictures in front of the iconic symbol of the university.

When it was her turn, they snapped a few shots of her posing before her mother pushed Brady into the picture. He jogged over and grabbed her around the middle as he had in the airport and swung her around. Liz laughed when he placed her back on her feet and stared up into his face. He dropped a quick peck onto her mouth and she sighed.

Whatever papers were reporting about Hayden had clearly never seen her with Brady. There was no one else in her life.

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.”