Текст книги "On the Record"

Автор книги: K. A. Linde

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

“Great. That sounds wonderful. I guess I’ll see you in Charlotte sometime,” Calleigh said, opening the door.

“Sure,” Liz said. No chance in hell.

Calleigh walked through the door without a backward glance and then she was gone. Liz shut the door heavily and then nearly collapsed back against it. Holy shit! That had been so fucking close.

Chapter 30

HIGH STRESS

Liz had her phone out of her pocket in a matter of seconds. She skipped responding to Brady’s text message and just called him. She couldn’t handle the amount of stress she was dealing with right now, and she needed his reassuring voice to calm her down. Brady would make everything all right.

Liz was just proud that she had been able to redirect Calleigh. If she had realized how close she was to learning who Sandy Carmichael was then Liz was sure that she wouldn’t have left so easily. Luckily, Liz had been able to use Hayden to her advantage. Sure, Calleigh might find out tomorrow that they had broken up, but Liz didn’t give a shit. That bought her a day to talk to Brady and figure out what they were going to do.

She just needed a day.

“Liz, I’ve been waiting for your call. What happened?” Brady asked after answering on the first ring.

“Sorry. So sorry. Stressful day. Hayden left a while ago, but I passed out and only woke up a couple minutes ago,” Liz told him. Her voice was shaking. She had lost the calmness that she had before her conversation with Calleigh. At least she was able to be herself with Brady.

Brady sighed heavily. “I’ve been in Chapel Hill for nearly two hours waiting to hear what happened. A text would have been nice.”

“I know. Gah, I’m sorry. Just emotionally exhausted, Brady. Hayden and I got into a huge argument . . . more like a screaming match.”

“Was he trying to salvage?” Brady asked coldly.

“Yeah, he was. He tried to tell me that Calleigh Hollingsworth—you know, the girl who he wrote the article with—brought the story to the editor without his say.” Brady scoffed. Yeah, Liz wasn’t sure she believed that either. “And then he said a bunch of bullshit about how he didn’t put my name in it and we could work it out. Yada, yada, yada.”

“But it’s over?”

“Yes. Very much over.”

“Well, I can’t say that I’m disappointed. I just wanted to make sure I was nearby in case you needed me. I’ve been working out of a coffee shop. It’s kind of peaceful.”

“Maybe you should ditch the suit more often,” she said with a giggle.

“Not happening.”

“Good. I like them,” she said softly. “But there is one more thing.”

Brady sighed. “What is it? I’d like to hear it all before having to go back and deal with everything I left behind when I kidnapped you on Friday.”

“You kidnapped me?” Liz asked. “I went willingly.”

“How could you not?”

“Arrogant ass,” she mumbled.

“What is it you were going to tell me?”

“Calleigh Hollingsworth stopped by when I woke up from my nap.”

“The reporter ex-girlfriend?” Brady asked. His voice was like ice. She was sure he already saw red flags.

“Yeah. I think she might know something. Hayden didn’t tell her it was me, but I think she’s really close to guessing.”

“Did she say that?” he demanded. “Do I need to get Heather on it?”

“She didn’t say anything exactly. It was what she was implying. I think she wanted to see if I knew who it was or if Hayden had told me, but she kept skirting around it. I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now, but I wanted you to be aware. We might have to, um . . . alter our plans if she starts sniffing around.”

“All right. I’ll mention her name to Heather and see what comes out of it. I’m sure she’s already had someone looking into both of them extensively.”

“That’s good. Yeah,” Liz whispered.

“Hey,” Brady said, his tone softening. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Totally. Um . . . just a little freaked out and overwhelmed and exhausted. I just feel like everything happened really, really fast. Like a year and a half ago I wanted this, then we were apart for so long, and now it’s only been a weekend and we’re suddenly just jumping into things,” Liz rambled on.

“Do you . . . not want to?” Brady asked. It was so strange to hear the hesitance in his voice.

“I do. I do. It’s just . . . well, can you understand how insane this might all feel to me? I never thought we would get back together, Brady. Certainly not publicly. When I left you, I really left. I tried to forget and move on. I wanted you to have the things that you wanted.”

“I wanted you.”

Liz nodded and wished that he could see. She wasn’t trying to push him away, but she didn’t want to hold in everything she was feeling either. “I know that now. I want you too. I mean, I wanted you the whole time. It’s just hard adjusting to fighting so hard to let you go to this, and then the whole public aspect. I’m just worried. Not about us,” she quickly corrected. “But about everyone else.”

“Well, we can’t really do anything about anyone else. I think as long as you’re not worried here. Right here. Then we’ll figure the rest out,” Brady told her.

“That’s true. I’m just . . . I don’t think I’m ready to go public, Brady.”

“We’ll figure out when the best time is, but, Liz, if you’re going to be with me, that’s kind of a side effect. I’m not hiding you anymore.”

“I do want that,” she said. “I wish this was coming out better. I know that we have to beat the reporters to figuring it out and I don’t know how much time we have for that, but I just wish however much time it is that we had more of it. Am I making any sense?”

“You want a normal relationship. I get that,” Brady said gruffly. “But you want me and I can’t give you that. I never could.”

Liz closed her eyes and hung her head back against the door. She knew that. If she wanted Brady there were going to have to be sacrifices, but how big would those sacrifices be? Her privacy? Her career? Her ambition? Deep down she knew whatever the sacrifice, it would all be worth it. But the what-ifs drove her insane.

“I don’t want normal. I’m . . . I don’t know. It’ll take some getting used to.”

“I think it does in every relationship. We simply have some additional hurdles.”

“You’re right. I’m just overly emotional right now. I wasn’t happy without you. I’d never be happy without you, Brady,” Liz said.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine continuing on this path without him, and all she saw was darkness. Blank, empty darkness. But being with him was like a shining light, a beacon of hope in the darkness. She wasn’t going to let that go for anything.

“Something we can agree on.”

“I don’t want to have to hide my apprehensions from you,” Liz told him. “But we’ll get through this, right? It’ll be worth it.”

“Every second with you is worth it.”

Liz sighed. “I should probably let you go so that you can get back to work. Sorry to kind of unload on you.”

“It’s all right, Liz. Just try to get some sleep. We’ll start to figure everything out this week.”

They hung up the phone and Liz slowly stood from her position against the door. She had a crick in her neck and really wanted to take a shower to ease some of the stress. She wanted to talk to Victoria about everything that had happened, but she didn’t have the energy. As Brady said, they would figure everything else out this week.

Liz took her time in the shower, scrubbing her body clean, and washing her long blond tresses. Once she was finished, she toweled off and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a UNC sweatshirt. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head, because she didn’t feel like taking the time to blow it out, then set to work on her neglected homework from the past week.

About fifteen minutes into her journalism assignment, Liz heard the doorbell ring. She hopped up out of her desk chair and strode into the living room. Victoria peeked her head out of her bedroom.

Liz just smiled. “I got it.”

“Cool.” Victoria nodded and then closed the door to her room again.

Liz yawned and covered her mouth as she reached for the door. When she swung it open, she wished that she hadn’t.

“Back so soon?” Liz asked in disbelief.

Calleigh Hollingsworth was standing on her doorstep. What the fuck?

“Yeah. Do you mind if I come in?” Calleigh asked. Her megawatt smile made Liz uncomfortable. No way was she coming inside.

“I’m kind of busy right now. Maybe you can come back later,” Liz said, looking at her as if she was a bit crazy. She started to close the door.

Calleigh put her hand out to stop it. “I can make this quick if you just have a minute.”

“I really don’t.”

“I think you have a minute for what I’m going to say.”

Liz rolled her eyes. What did Calleigh want to talk about?

“Not interested,” Liz said. She needed her to leave. Now. Anything that was about to come out of her mouth wasn’t going to be good. Fear seeped into every pore. Had she spoken to Hayden? Had he tipped her off? Could she have figured everything out in that amount of time?

Calleigh smiled and started speaking anyway. “When I left here, I got into my car and started driving away, thinking that I had wasted my time. Then I started thinking about exactly what had happened and what you had said. Particularly how defensive you got about everything I was saying. And I know that you don’t like me, Liz, but it all felt a little much for me coming to talk to you to find out a little piece of information. If you didn’t want to tell me, then you could have said a million things. You could have simply said that you didn’t know. You could have said Hayden swore you to secrecy. You could have said you just didn’t want to tell me. I would have expected those responses,” Calleigh said, staring directly into Liz’s eyes.

Liz swallowed. Oh, shit! She hadn’t thought that she had been defensive.

“But you didn’t do that, did you? You continually changed the subject and completely sidestepped every question I asked you. And I realized that you had totally played me. You’re kind of a pro at it, really. I’m impressed. I didn’t see it for what it was at all.”

“I’m not a pro at anything, Calleigh,” Liz said. She hoped that she sounded neutral. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Calleigh smiled at Liz as if she were looking at a caged animal, and then answered as if she hadn’t heard a word Liz had just said. “So once I realized what you had done, it got me wondering what exactly it was that would make you try to manipulate the situation. What exactly you’re hiding.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Are you done? I’m not hiding anything, Calleigh.”

“When I came over here in the first place I had my suspicions, but I thought maybe you just knew who Sandy Carmichael was . . . now I’m thinking maybe you are Sandy Carmichael.”

“What?” Liz gasped.

Oh, fuck! She didn’t know what to do. What the hell was she supposed to say to that? She didn’t want to lie, but this was Calleigh. After everything Liz had just said to Brady, she couldn’t imagine confirming this. It would ruin everything. She would be giving over the reins to the media, and Liz didn’t even want to think about what her world would be like if that happened.

She could feel her face heating, and knew that she looked uncomfortable. Calleigh no doubt was reading her body language. It made Liz’s palms sweat just thinking about it, and she shifted her eyes away from Calleigh’s face. This couldn’t be happening.

Deny, deny, deny.

“You can try to change the subject all you want,” Calleigh said, “but I knew something was up with you at his primary on the campaign. It’s all but confirmed with me now. So how about you go on the record and confirm, Liz: Are you Sandy Carmichael?”

Chapter 31

BRADY

Brady took a deep breath as he circled around his parents’ neighborhood and then pulled into the long circular driveway. He knew after checking his phone and seeing all the missed calls, voice mails, and text messages that there were going to be a lot of questions he was going to have to answer. After the peaceful weekend he’d had with Liz, he couldn’t imagine going back into the fray. They would never really have that again. It was kind of a sad notion, knowing that even if they worked everything out, they would never truly be alone.

Nothing he could do about it right now. They had to get to that point before he could worry about anything else.

There were reporters camped out on the perimeter of the house, and as he parked and got out of the car, a few jogged up to him. He had expected it to be like this, but still it was irritating.

“Congressman Maxwell, will you comment on the allegations about your relations with Sandy Carmichael?” one called, thrusting a microphone into his face.

“Congressman Maxwell, who is Sandy Carmichael?” another asked.

“Why are you hiding her from us? What other secrets are you hiding from the people?” still another called out. Cameras flashed and people surrounded him on all sides.

Brady had always known that politicians had to live their lives under a microscope. He had seen that firsthand with a father in politics. But it was one thing to see it from afar; it was quite different to be living it.

Brady shook his head and put his hands out. “No comment. When I want to make a statement, I’ll call a press conference. Until then, clear out of my property,” he told them stiffly, walking up the front steps and slipping in through the front door.

He closed the door heavily and leaned against it. He couldn’t keep running from reporters. It had only been a couple days and he was already tired of it. He heard voices down the hall and walked lightly across the foyer to see what was going on. He didn’t get far before he heard Heather and his attorney, Elliott, speaking rather fiercely back and forth. His father’s voice rang out, silencing them.

“He will be back when he is. You two treat him as if he’s a child. He’s a fucking congressman. Do you blame him for taking a mental health day? I don’t. We’ll deal with it all in time. Until then, perhaps you should find somewhere else to bicker.”

Brady cracked a smile. His father sure knew how to cut back an argument. Not that he thought Heather and Elliott had any intention of not bombarding him as soon as they found that he was back. Which he was not going to let them do immediately upon his entering the house.

He only wanted to see one more person before he felt obligated to decide how he was going to bring up the whole subject of Liz to everyone. He was hoping that he would get to talk to Heather and Elliott about it first. He kind of wanted Liz to be there with him when he told his family, but he could understand after her mini panic attack why he should probably do it alone.

The last thing he wanted to do was move too fast. But in this kind of situation, he couldn’t figure out how to move any slower. He knew where Liz was coming from. They went from not seeing each other for more than a year to fucking in half a second. Now he wanted to bring her home to the family, tell the press they were dating, and live happily ever after in this mob-style media haze. It wasn’t fair to her. He wanted to give her more, but he couldn’t before and he couldn’t now. He just wanted to give her everything he could.

He loved her. Fuck, he had never stopped loving her.

She had said that she had tried to give him up, but he didn’t really think he had ever really tried that hard. She was ingrained in him somehow. She had been since day one, when she had stared up at him completely unfazed and asked him one question that changed everything. How could he walk away from someone like that?

Well, the answer had been simple: he couldn’t. If he was honest with himself, and he usually was, Erin had just been filler. A poor man’s Liz. And it was cruel to think it, but fuck, she was.

Erin would never be Liz. He had always known, but it had been a nice distraction. Then when he had just fucking dropped everything that night in October at a chance of seeing Liz, just so he didn’t have to think about her crying . . . yeah, that had been the tipping point.

One desperate drive out there, one look, one kiss. It had been over.

He had broken up with Erin as soon as his plane touched down in D.C. Erin had cried, and he had felt bad, but nothing compared to how he had felt when Liz had called crying. He had felt like he was dying. That had only sealed the deal.

He remembered how angry Erin had gotten.

I thought you loved me. How do you suddenly stop loving someone? Is there someone else? Is that what this is?

Brady shook his head as he took the stairs to the second floor. There had always been someone else.

He didn’t know what he would have done if Liz hadn’t ended up calling him. At this point he didn’t even want to think about it. He had too much else to worry about.

The hall was clear when he made it to the landing. Brady took a left turn and then opened the door to the first bedroom on the right without waiting for a response. Clay turned around quickly from where he was standing with a phone pressed to his ear.

“Hey, hold on,” Clay said into the phone. “What’s up, man? Where the fuck were you?”

Brady shut the door. “You should probably end your phone call.”

Clay’s brow furrowed. “Andrea, I’m going to have to call you back.” Clay hung the phone up and tossed it onto the bed. “What’s this all about?”

“Clay, I know that we’ve had our differences in the past,” Brady said, taking a step toward his brother. “I know we haven’t always agreed. You’ve gone your way. I’ve gone mine. I accepted that we were never going to be close.”

“What the fuck is this, Brady? Are we bonding all of a sudden?” Clay asked.

“You could say that.” He took another step. “Now, as I was saying, I know we were never close. But I thought we had a certain understanding.”

“Is this about Liz?”

Brady was on him in two seconds, slamming Clay’s back roughly against the wall and shoving his forearm against Clay’s jugular. “Don’t say her name.”

“Fuck, Brady!” Clay managed to get out as he was held against the wall.

“You’re a fucking piece of work, you know that?” Clay just glared at him fiercely. “There are reasons I have the things that I have in my life. And there are reasons why you will never have what I have, Clay. Don’t think I’m stupid enough not to know why you went after her in the first place.”

Clay swung at him but Brady just increased the pressure on his throat and swatted his hand away.

“She might have been naïve enough to almost fall for your game, but just know that she never will be again. You’ll never get close to her. You’ll never touch her. You’ll certainly never kiss her again. She’s mine. And if I ever even get a hint that you’re trying to take what is mine, I don’t think I’ll just be using words.”

“Fuck you!” Clay spat.

“She did.”

After he made his point, Brady lessened the pressure on Clay’s throat and started to back off.

“You think I’m the piece of work?” Clay said. “If you care about her so much, then why was she fucking that asshole reporter this whole time? Yeah, probably because you weren’t there. You had no claim on her. Fair game.”

“You have a fucking girlfriend,” Brady roared. “Why don’t you fair-game her ass and leave everyone else’s alone!”

Clay scoffed. “It’s just Andrea.”

“This, this right here!” Brady said, gesturing to Clay. “How the fuck are we even related?”

“Is Liz your girlfriend?” Clay asked with a snide smirk.

Brady shook his head and then slammed Clay back into the wall again. “I said don’t say her name. And I don’t ever want to hear you talk about someone else fucking her. Imagine what we would be talking about right now if you had succeeded in your stupid mind game.”

“I’m imagining,” Clay said defiantly.

“You’re imagining yourself dead?”

Clay opened his mouth to respond when the bedroom door swung open again. “Clay, Mom just asked me to . . .” Savannah trailed off as she took in what she saw. “What is this? What’s going on?”

Brady growled under his breath and then dropped his arm. He wasn’t going to do this shit in front of Savannah. He had gotten his point across to Clay. That was going to have to do. Clay wasn’t stupid. He had been trying to do all of this shit behind Brady’s back. He wasn’t going to blatantly go against Brady once it went public. Clay didn’t like to be in the papers. He had to stay out of them if he wanted to be the attorney general one day.

“Nothing, Savi,” Brady said, dusting off his hands on his pants and striding across the room. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t tell me not to worry about it. You had him against the wall. Why are you guys fighting? Why are you always fighting?” Savannah asked. “And where have you been?”

“I had to get away. I’ll tell you about it later,” Brady said. He walked toward the door and was almost out of the room before Clay spoke up.

“That’s it! You’re just going to leave it at that. Not even going to tell your precious little sister what a terrible guy you really are?” Clay spat.

Brady sighed and stopped in the doorway. Great. He had riled Clay up. He should have just beaten the shit out of him. Then his brother wouldn’t have had any comebacks.

“Clay, don’t be an ass,” Savannah said, rolling her eyes.

“Me? He’s the one who was banging a UNC student ten years younger than him, and thought he would get away with it. Everyone thinks he’s so innocent.”

“What?” Savannah breathed.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Clay.”

“Play innocent. Prodigal son and all that. You fucked up. Now own it!”

“Brady, what is he talking about? All of that stuff about the UNC student was made up. You’d never . . . You’re not that kind of guy.” She tried to laugh but cut it off. “Wrong brother. Right?”

“Oh Jesus Christ, you too?” Clay cried, throwing his hands up.

Brady sighed and faced Savannah. “It’s true. I was with a UNC student two summers ago before you were even there. She’s not ten years younger. She’s seven. It wasn’t an affair. We weren’t with other people. It’s not all the media is making it out to be.”

“Wow.” Savannah’s mouth hung open. “Is she still at UNC?”

“I was going to wait to talk about it with everyone,” Brady said simply.

Clay started laughing. “You believe he’s actually going to tell everyone everything, Savi?”

“Leave him alone. He’s had a rough week!” Savannah said.

“Defend him like normal. She’s a reporter,” Clay announced. “Got your attention now?”

“What?” Savannah reached out and smacked Brady’s arm. “Are you stupid? Don’t you know that’s rule one in bad politics? It’s like . . . fraternizing with the enemy!”

“Savi, you’re going to be a reporter,” Brady reminded her.

“I’m different. Who is it? What reporter could possibly interest you?” Savannah demanded.

God, this was not how he had wanted this conversation to go. He knew Liz and Savannah were friends. Good enough friends that she brought her along to dinner with their parents. He could only imagine how this was going to go down. He kind of felt obligated to be the one to tell Savannah, since she was his little sister, but Liz was her friend. He wished Liz were with him.

“Before you punch me, please remember this was before you knew her,” Brady warned.

Savannah planted her hands on her sides. “Brady Jefferson,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Do I even want to know?”

“It’s Liz,” he blurted out.

Savannah’s mouth dropped open and her hands dropped to her sides. “Liz? Like Liz Dougherty, the editor-in-chief at the UNC newspaper? Like the Liz I brought to dinner that one time? My Liz?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, what, you’re not going to beat her up because she claims your girlfriend?” Clay grumbled across the room.

“She didn’t try to sleep with her!” Brady shot back.

“Girlfriend? Liz is your girlfriend?” Savannah’s eyes were wide as if she couldn’t seem to process what he was saying.

“Well, yeah.” Brady shrugged. What else was he going to say? He was going to have to have this conversation one way or another. He just hoped Savannah would understand. No way around it. He wasn’t giving Liz up just because Savi was uncomfortable.

Savannah wrinkled her nose. “Gross. One of my best friends slept with my brother. I am so going to have words with her! She was the first person I talked to when I found out, and she didn’t even tell me that you were sleeping together. And,” Savannah gasped, “Hayden . . . were you together when . . . ?”

Brady’s eyes turned molten at that name. He couldn’t even think about Hayden without wanting to put his fist through Hayden’s face and tear him apart limb from limb.

“No. He is so far out of the picture. He didn’t find out any of it happened—no one did, until the week before the article released.”

“So . . . how is she your girlfriend? And wait . . . did you just say Clay tried to sleep with her too?” Savannah asked. “Can either of you keep it in your pants?”

Brady shifted his eyes from Savannah. This was not the conversation he wanted to be having. Getting reprimanded for falling for Liz was out of the question. He had heard it enough from Heather. He had beaten himself up about it. He wasn’t going to listen to it anymore.

“She’s my girlfriend since yesterday. Everyone is just going to have to get used to the idea. I have to deal with the rest of the world having an opinion, so I just can’t take any more shit right now,” Brady said sternly. He hadn’t meant to snap, but he was so over it already.

“I wasn’t trying to give you shit,” Savannah said softly. “I like Liz. I’m just shocked. Everyone is going to be shocked.”

“I know.” He tried to clear his head. “I know. I’m just about to break it to Heather.”

Savannah cringed. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Brady chuckled at Savannah. He loved his little sister. He hoped no one ever tried to ruin her goodness. “No. I think I’m old enough to tackle my own problems. But thank you.”

He walked back over to Clay, who stood taller as he approached. He probably thought Brady was going to hit him after all. It would be what the asshole deserved, but he wasn’t going to actually start a fight when he had won in the end anyway.

“What do you want?” Clay asked.

“Don’t leave your phone where reporters can take it next time,” Brady said, pulling Clay’s phone out of his pocket and tossing it into his brother’s hands.

“She took my phone? What a . . .”

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” Brady said. He glared at Clay before turning, nodding at Savannah, and walking out of the room. He did have to deal with his own problems. Clay and Savannah now knew. Two down, the rest of the world to go.

As he walked to the staircase, he wondered about what he should expect from Heather. She had been there since day one, and her opinion had always been important to him . . . until Liz. Heather just couldn’t see clearly about his relationship with her. He knew that it was because she saw Liz as a liability. It didn’t matter now, though, because there was nothing she could do but accept it for what it was.

As Brady descended the staircase, he saw Elliott standing at the base of the stairs typing away on his iPad. If Brady knew him at all, he was probably trying to get away from Heather.

“Hey, man,” Brady said as he approached.

Elliott jumped. “When did you get back?”

“Not too long ago.”

“Where the fuck did you go?”

“Away, but now I’m back and we can deal with all of this.”

“Good.” Elliott shut down the iPad and tucked it under his arm. “Heather has been driving me mad.”

“Sounds accurate.”

“You with that girl again?” Elliott asked all nonchalant as if it didn’t make a difference one way or another.

Brady laughed and nodded. “Yeah. I am. You going to help me break it to Heather?”

“I think she’s been preparing to slaughter you all weekend. She’ll come around.” Elliott clapped Brady on the back. “I’m surprised it took you this long.”

“Stubborn, I guess.”

Brady never knew how to read Elliott. They had known each other a long time. Sometimes Brady thought the man was going to blow up on him, and other times Elliott was completely chill. Brady was glad to have him as a friend on the occasions when he just rolled with the punches. Made him a good lawyer.

“Stubborn,” Elliott said with raised eyebrows. “Now who would possibly describe you that way?”

“Everyone.”

“Right.”

“How’d you know I’d go back to her?” Brady asked him. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He hadn’t even known that he would go after her. She had his heart, but fuck, she had messed him up. He had struggled with the decision up until the minute she had gotten into his car.

“Do you remember what you said to me the day of your primary victory, when I asked you if you really loved her?”

“I said that it didn’t matter.”

“Exactly. Frankly it doesn’t matter,” Elliott told him. “You could have said yes and you could have said no, but you said it didn’t matter. Which to me meant it was the only thing that mattered.”

“She is,” Brady agreed. It had just taken him a while to realize that. Without her, all of his dreams and aspirations seemed flat.

“Let’s try to convince Heather of that. My advice, for what it’s worth, you might want to just let her get a few good punches in,” Elliott said with a laugh. “She’ll feel bad about it and forgive you quicker.”

“I like where your head’s at.” This was the reason he kept Elliott around.

They walked together to the living room, where Heather was hovering over the phone. She looked like a wreck. Her blond hair was still perfectly straight, but it was up into a high ponytail that he had rarely seen her do before. She was short on makeup, and her suit looked like it needed a trip to the dry cleaner’s. Brady had clearly really stressed her out.

“Heather,” Brady said softly.

Heather turned around so fast that she looked as if she gave herself whiplash. “Brady! Oh my God, you’re back!”

“Of course I’m back,” he said with an easy shrug. He wasn’t giving up his career for one scandal.

“Great. Let’s sit down. We have to figure out our remarks. I need to know what angle we should take. I think personally denying would just be best, but if you think of something different I could work with that. Then I think we should decide about a press conference. Do we want to call for one or should I just release a statement for you? Would that seem like you’re hiding behind the screen?”