“I’m not ruining anything. You’re blowing this out of proportion,” Brady said.

Liz gave a sharp intake of breath. She hoped it wasn’t heard from the other room, because Brady had surprised her. She couldn’t tell whether he was defending their relationship or simply saying that this hadn’t leaked to the press yet, so the campaign was still safe. Either way it was surprising. She felt as if everything was ruined.

“I’m blowing this out of proportion,” Heather said, whirling back around. “Are you out of your goddamn mind? You are sleeping with a college reporter, for Christ’s sake. Have you even read her terrible articles? Do you even care what she thinks of you? I read everything out there. It’s in fucking print that she thinks you’re a joke. Don’t come at me with some I want some pussy remark and expect me to take this lightly.”

“Really, Heather? How long have we been working together? Have I ever been the guy to jump at some random pussy? Honestly?” Brady asked, his voice cold and hard.

“Both of you stop it,” Elliott said, standing between them. “As your lawyer, I strongly encourage you to reconsider your position and calm down.”

His lawyer. Well, that makes more sense. He is skeezy enough for the job, Liz thought.

Brady took a few steps away from them, placed his hands on a shelf, and took several deep breaths until his hands stopped shaking. “Fine,” he said finally. “What are you guys doing here anyway? It’s the middle of the night.”

“Yates dropped out,” Elliott told him.

Liz’s mouth popped open. One of the competitors in the primary had dropped out of the race. That meant Brady had only one other opponent, Charles Hardy. This significantly increased Brady’s chances of winning. Hardy was a seasoned politician, but he didn’t have the financial backing, the charisma, or the name that Brady had.

“He dropped?” Brady asked, stunned by the new development.

“Yes, we drove all the way over here, because you weren’t answering your phone. We thought you would be interested to know what your competition looks like,” Heather told him. “It’s a different ball field with only one other guy. That makes it a horse race. We can win a horse race, Brady. We can win.” She whispered the last phrase as if she wasn’t sure he understood what it meant. This clearly meant a lot to her too.

“What does Alex think?” Brady asked, his voice betraying how hopeful he was about the outcome.

Liz had heard Brady mention Alex, his campaign manager, before. He didn’t like to talk about him or really anything about the campaign much when they were together, but she had gathered that Alex was a strategy man. He preferred to work behind the scenes and let Brady and Heather take the front on anything in the spotlight.

Heather glanced at Elliott and he nodded. “He said it’s a go. You push hard the next couple weeks…and I mean hard, Brady, not what you’ve been doing all summer. If you do that, you have it in the bag, and Alex knows his shit,” Heather said.

“Then I’ll do it,” Brady said simply, like it was the easiest decision he had ever made. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win. You both know that.”

“Then you’re going to have to get rid of the girl,” Heather said plainly.

“Heather,” Brady growled.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with her. Even if she hadn’t written those articles about you, she wouldn’t be an ideal choice. She’s too young, and she’s still in school. Brady, you need someone who makes you look electable, not someone who makes you look like you’re robbing the cradle,” Elliott piped in.

Liz felt as if she had been punched in the gut. Well, there it was all laid out before her. She was too young and didn’t make him look electable, aside from her slamming articles.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Brady asked, shaking his head.

“Brady, you want to win. So stop fucking around,” Heather cried. “This election is important.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he yelled back at her. “Why does everyone think that I’ve forgotten? I’ve been giving everything I have to this campaign, and I’ve been doing it for a long time now. I know what’s at stake, all right?”

“Then you’ll get rid of her?” Elliott asked, lacking any compassion in his voice.

Liz felt as if she were sitting with her head resting under the guillotine, waiting for the blade to slice down. It was over. Both of them had told him it was done. That was that.

She couldn’t even breathe. She had to hear him say it. She had to listen to him agree even if it would break her.

“No,” he said softly, his anger tightly controlled.

Liz wasn’t even sure she heard him right, her heart was beating so loudly in her ears.

“What?” Heather and Elliott blurted out at the same time.

“She’s not going anywhere,” he said, meeting their gazes head-on.

Liz stood very, very still. Was he…No, she couldn’t have heard him right…

Heather rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, please, you’re not going to risk everything for her.”

“You’re being irrational, Brady,” Elliott said.

“I fucking love her, okay?” he yelled back at them without any restraint. “So she’s not going anywhere…I love her.”

Liz stumbled backward away from the door she had been peering through. Her body tumbled forward through the entranceway to the living room, and she collapsed onto the couch, panting. Her mind was whirling all around her, and her hands were shaking.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God, she thought over and over again.

He loved her. Brady loved her. He had told them no. She couldn’t comprehend all of this right now. She just couldn’t.

He had never told her that he felt that way. She couldn’t have even guessed that he would feel that way. Her heart was fluttering all over the place, and she half felt as if she might throw up.

What would she say if he told her? What was he going to say when he came back out of that room? She couldn’t let him know that she had heard. She had to pretend she hadn’t. He hadn’t wanted her to eavesdrop. She had thought it was because he was going to give up on her, but it was actually because he loved her. She couldn’t even think the word without stumbling over it.

Liz heard the voice grow louder and the sound of the doors sliding open. She tried to calm down by breathing slowly and steadily, but she wasn’t sure if it was working. Would he know that she had heard him or would he assume she was freaked out? Because she was really freaked out.

The front door opened and closed a second later, and then Brady appeared again in the living room. The anger was gone from his face, but she wasn’t sure what it was replaced by. She usually could read him so well, but it was different now. He loved her.

“You’re still here,” he said softly, walking over and taking a seat next to Liz on the couch.

“I told you I wasn’t leaving,” she murmured, her voice shaking. She couldn’t keep it steady, and she knew it made her sound scared.

“Hey,” he said, reaching out and taking one of her trembling hands in his, “you’re not going anywhere.”

“What did they say?” she managed to get out.

“A lot of bullshit, but we got it worked out. Ted Yates dropped out of the race. I have a pretty busy month ahead of me leading up to the primary,” he told her.

“He dropped out?” she asked, hoping she sounded surprised.

“Yeah, you’ll hear about it tomorrow. I have a press conference at eight in the morning.”

Their conversation stalled and she waited for him to say something. She didn’t expect him to blurt out how he felt, but she was waiting for something…anything.

She asked the inevitable question. “What are we going to do now that they know, Brady?”

He paused before looking up into her eyes. She saw it then, what she hadn’t been able to figure out before. Holy shit! He loved her. He actually did. She swallowed hard and tried not to cry.

“Nothing is going to change, baby,” he said, reaching out and running his hand across her cheek. “They want me to win, so they’re going to make sure it doesn’t get out.”

“Oh,” she said softly, tears pooling in her eyes despite her best effort.

“Hey. Hey,” he said, brushing a tear off her cheek. “Don’t cry. We’ll be okay. We’ll make it through.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. So they were going to do the same thing? He loved her and they were going to continue to hide?

“I can’t believe they’re allowing that. I thought you always said that you would choose the campaign first.” She couldn’t help throwing his words back at him. She wanted him to tell her that he loved her. She wanted his confession to be to her, not to Heather and Elliott.

“I’m choosing both. They don’t get the choice,” he told her, bringing his lips down and kissing her tenderly.

They broke apart, and Liz looked up into his eyes, wondering what he was thinking. Did he think that they could hide forever? She couldn’t be the girl on the side the whole time. He loved her. She wanted to be out in the open with him so badly it pained her. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She couldn’t ruin their moment.

“I’m going to be so busy, and they’re worried about me having enough time for everything. I think we should lie low for a little while,” he told her.

“Lie low,” she said hollowly. What had they been doing?

“I want to keep you in my life, but I have responsibilities to the campaign.”

“The campaign,” she said. She felt like a broken record, repeating his words back to him.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to see you as much in the next month as I have. I still want to see you every chance I get, but I have a real shot of winning.”