On the Record (Record #2)(4)
But Hayden was always there too. Slowly but surely trying to pick the pieces back up . . . pieces he didn’t know existed. Liz had just refused to let it go further than that. The last thing she wanted was to start something with Hayden and look back and see that it had been a rebound.
“Looks like the results are in on that Cunningham-Maxwell race down in North Carolina,” the anchor said, slashing through all Liz’s coherent thought.
She froze with her eyes glued to the television. It was finally time. The next moment felt like an eternity, as if Liz were watching the whole thing in slow motion. The crowd quieted all around her as heads turned to the screen to hear what had happened. Victoria collected shot glasses from Liz and Hayden and slammed them down on the counter, then turned to listen to the reporter. Even she was interested . . .
Hayden’s hand landed on the small of Liz’s back and he drew closer to her. She felt his breath hot on her ear as he whispered softly, “Go out with me.”
It wasn’t a request, but not quite a command. And he said it so faintly, so decidedly, and at just the right time that she didn’t even have time to process what was going on. In a split second she was going to find out if Brady had won. But now her mind was lost in Hayden’s comment.
“And it looks like State Senator Brady Maxwell has pulled it off by an even slimmer margin than his primary race, with just over seven hundred and fifty votes over that threshold. Truly amazing. Congratulations, Senator Maxwell. We’ll be analyzing this victory more thoroughly later on tonight . . .”
Liz couldn’t hear anything else as the bar erupted. People all around her were screaming and cheering for their hometown hero. And she just stood there gaping.
He had done it! He had pulled it off. Seven hundred and fifty votes had pushed him to victory. That was such a small margin. Any precinct could have tipped the balance.
Then Hayden had his arms around her middle and was spinning her in circles. Liz giggled, threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her thin frame against his chest. He slowed to a stop and then lowered his mouth down to her lips. Without even a second thought, Liz let herself get caught up in the moment—get caught up in Hayden.
Her eyes closed and electricity shot between them as they melded together. The more she had pushed him away, the more the heat built between them. And now it had all released into one celebratory kiss. She hadn’t even known that she wanted this until it happened, and her heart fluttered.
Hayden pulled away first, and she knew her breathing was uneven as his hazel eyes looked deep into hers. “Go out with me,” Hayden repeated with that same smile that had won her over from day one.
Liz bit her lip. Brady was going to D.C. to be a congressman in the House of Representatives. He had just won everything he wanted and was likely celebrating that victory. He wasn’t celebrating with her, and he wouldn’t be. November didn’t mean anything to her anymore, and she had to move on. She had to forget Brady Maxwell. She would never regret what had happened between them, but she couldn’t keep obsessing.
Maybe if she just let herself like Hayden again instead of putting all of her energy into pushing him away, that would make it all that much easier.
She wanted this. She was ready to start over, and Hayden was giving her that opportunity. A smile broke out onto her face to match Hayden’s.
This was good. This was the right direction.
“I’d love to,” she murmured before finding his lips again.
Chapter 2
CHRISTMAS BOMB
Liz had skipped the newspaper holiday party the past two years. Walking into the upstairs of a downtown bar that the paper had rented out for the night with Hayden, she realized she hadn’t missed much. Cheap Christmas decorations filled the room, and a tiny tree was set up in the corner. A table was filled with platters of holiday treats and punch. Most people, not surprisingly, weren’t dressed up for the occasion. Some had on tacky sweaters, but Liz had clearly outdone them all.
She had on an oversize sweater that looked like it had stepped out of the back of a grandma’s closet, complete with a Christmas tree with working lights and hand-painted ornaments and presents. She had paired that with tight black leggings and Rudolph tennis shoes she had snagged from the kids’ section. A strand of jingle bells was wrapped around her neck, and she even had a couple red and green plastic bows stuck in her hair. Victoria had jokingly told her that it looked like a bomb went off in the Walmart Christmas aisle.
People mingled around the food table and the bar on the adjacent wall, or danced awkwardly to the Christmas music playing through the speakers. Liz picked out Massey talking to the rest of the Washington division. She was gesturing profusely to her captivated audience. Tristan was tucked into a corner working on his laptop. That kid seriously needed to take a break or have a drink. Liz noted that Brady’s sister, Savannah, wasn’t in attendance yet, and breathed a slow sigh of relief. She didn’t mind that she and Savannah worked together on the paper, but the reminders of her brother Brady were bad enough when it wasn’t the first time Liz was out in public with Hayden.
“Hayden! Liz!” Meagan said, rushing up to greet them. She was wearing a tacky sweater that Liz couldn’t even begin to explain. It was like an explosion of red, green, and white glitter in random designs that was both terrifying and hard to look at without squinting.
“Hey, Meagan,” Hayden responded amiably. “Great job with the party this year. I think this is way better than last year.”