On the Record (Record #2)(103)

It all felt so fast. And she felt ridiculous thinking that. A year ago if he had told her that he didn’t want to hide their relationship, she would have been jumping up and down, but so much had happened since then. The thought of being out in the open when she hadn’t been with the person more than a weekend in over a year made her nervous inside.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she had tried for a long time to get Brady out of her system and it simply hadn’t been possible. That thought was what fueled her forward. She and Brady couldn’t get enough of each other. They were meant to be together. It was what reminded her that this was all worth it.

Because frankly, she was scared. She didn’t really care what people thought about her and Brady, but there were so many unknowns about their relationship and what was to come. When would they get to be alone? How would this all work with him in D.C.? Was she suddenly going to be swamped with reporters? She was already being portrayed as a scandal in the media. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like when her identity was revealed.

She still had to finish her senior year of college, and there was her new job at the New York Times. She hadn’t been anticipating this relationship or the complications that came with it. That didn’t mean she didn’t want to go through with it. It just meant that she and Brady had a lot to work out themselves before they went public and their relationship was blasted all over the world for everyone else to scrutinize. Didn’t seem fair for everyone to pick apart their relationship before they even had the chance to have one.

Not that she could let it sit forever. She didn’t want to become an even bigger story than Sandy Carmichael already was. She knew the benefit of beating reporters at their game. Then she got to tell the story, and not them.

If anything, that only added stress to the situation. She felt as if she were in a box and all of the sides were slowly sliding in toward her. Every second wasted deciding what to do only brought them that much closer to being discovered.

Jeez! She needed to cut the stress down a bit. She was back with Brady. She was back with Brady! Never in a million years had she thought that this moment would come. So now that it had, she just wanted to lie here and remember what it felt like waking up in his arms, the feel of his lips, the way his eyes met hers. Loving you takes so much less effort. He loved her. He had always loved her. That was where her focus should be. The rest would follow.

And rest did follow. With all of those thoughts swirling through her mind, Liz fell asleep. Too much stress had completely wiped her out, and slumber became inevitable.

Liz woke some time later to the sound of banging on her bedroom door. She yawned loudly and stretched out the kink in her neck.

“Yeah?” she grumbled.

How long had she been out? She hadn’t even remembered falling asleep. Shit! She had said that she was going to call Brady after Hayden left. He was probably freaking out. She didn’t want him to think that she had forgotten—or worse, that Hayden was still here. She had made it clear to Brady that it was over with Hayden, but he didn’t need a reason to doubt her.

“Are you awake in there?” Victoria called.

“Um . . . yeah. Sorry. I guess I passed out.” Liz stood and searched around for her phone. She needed to find out how long she had been asleep and then call Brady.

“Well, get your ass out here. You have a visitor.”

Liz scrunched her eyebrows together. Who the hell would be visiting her? She snatched her phone off of her desk and checked the time. Okay, she hadn’t been asleep that long. Forty-five minutes or so. Still too long not to respond to the text message flashing on her screen from Brady.

Liz clicked on the text and jogged quickly into the bathroom. As she read the message, she found a hair tie in a basket by the sink and threw her hair into a ponytail.

Haven’t heard from you. Everything all right? Do I need to swing back by?

Shit! That had been fifteen minutes ago. Her visitor was probably Brady checking to make sure that Hayden was gone and she was all right.

Liz checked out her face in the mirror and winced. Her nap hadn’t done her any good; she looked as if she hadn’t slept in weeks. After splashing some water on her face to try to wake herself up, she dabbed some foundation under her eyes to cover the dark circles and then slid her phone back into her pocket. Time to face the music.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Liz said as she walked out of her bedroom. “I wasn’t expecting . . .”

She trailed off when she caught a glimpse of red hair. Her stomach plummeted.

Not good.

What the hell was Calleigh Hollingsworth doing in her living room? Liz wanted to walk over there, snatch the woman’s box-maroon hair in her hand, and throw her out of her house. As much as Liz despised Hayden, he had supposedly only gone through with the article because of Calleigh’s interference; then her name had appeared next to his byline, and now she was standing here in front of Liz.

Liz couldn’t think of a single good reason for her to be here. Not one. Hayden had claimed that he hadn’t given Calleigh Liz’s name in the whole thing, but how much did Calleigh really know? She had been taunting Liz at Brady’s primary about this sort of thing. It made Liz anxious, and she didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to do.

“Liz,” Calleigh said, turning around to face her. “How are you, doll?”

Liz cringed slightly at the nickname. She hated that. Everything about Calleigh irritated her at this point.