Clay Maxwell.
Liz froze in her tracks just outside of the restaurant, her chest rising and falling rapidly, as she tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. She stuffed her glasses back on her face and swallowed hard. She absolutely could not be seen by anyone, especially not Clay. If Clay found out that she was here, she was sure he would start putting the pieces together. After all, why else would she always turn up everywhere Brady happened to be?
Liz was clearly too young to be a big donor, unless she had a trust, and she didn’t act as though she did. And people tended to jump to conclusions. Liz would have if she had been reporting, and then she would have dug until she found her evidence. Her gut instincts were normally right.
Like the one telling her to run, run far away at that moment.
The voices stopped, and Liz, thinking she was finally in the clear, turned the corner toward the shops. Her stomach dropped when she saw Clay standing directly in front of her.
A dimpled smirk crossed his face when he noticed her, and the only thing Liz could do in that moment was shake her head and smile.
“Clay Maxwell!” she cried. “I did not expect to find you here.”
Clay’s grin grew when she acknowledged him, and he pulled away from the woman he was standing with. He was in short khaki shorts, a blue Brooks Brothers polo, and boat shoes. His Ray-Bans hung from his neck by a pair of Croakies, making him look unbelievably preppy.
“Liz,” he said, obviously trying to hide his own surprise. “It’s great to see you.”
“You know, for a guy who begs a girl for her number, you really should have considered using it,” Liz scolded.
Shit! Where had that come from? she wondered. She just needed to play a part and then leave. She couldn’t have Clay telling Brady he had seen her. That would be the end of the world.
Clay chuckled. The girl he was with raised her eyebrows at the comment. She was pretty, by all means gorgeous, but she clearly had a stick up her ass. If she could look any more snobby in her designer sundress, Chanel earrings, and Tiffany necklace, Liz would have been very surprised.
“Good to see you, too, Liz. Let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Andrea,” he said, drawling out her name and pronouncing it Ahn-dreya.
Girlfriend. Liz came up short at that word. The man who had begged her to go home with him and practically shoved his phone down her throat to get her number…had a girlfriend. That was rich…
“So nice to meet you,” Liz said, wishing that she didn’t feel like such an idiot.
“Clay, who is this?” Andrea asked. She turned to him pointedly.
“This is my friend Liz. We met on the Fourth of July at Brady’s rally.”
“Borrring,” Andrea said, rolling her eyes.
“She’s a big supporter of Brady. I think I’ve convinced her to run against him,” Clay said.
“Ugh…whatever,” Andrea said. “I’m going to get a drink. God knows I need one. Don’t fuck her, okay?” She glared at him and stomped away.
Liz’s eyes bulged as she stared back and forth between the couple. What had just happened?
Clay shrugged as if his girlfriend hadn’t just told him not to sleep with someone else in public…right in front of Liz. “Sorry about that.”
“You have a girlfriend,” she observed lamely.
“Most of the time,” he said nonchalantly. “And you have a boyfriend, I assume.”
“I don’t actually,” Liz said.
“Oh, come on, no single girl refuses that vehemently unless they’re dating someone.”
“Why are we having this conversation?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Because now I’m confused. You don’t have a boyfriend and you didn’t go home with me even though you wanted to fuck me,” Clay said, as if this were the most confusing thing he’d had to deal with in a while.
Liz shook her head. Arrogant son of a bitch. She couldn’t stop thinking that when she was around him.
“I didn’t want to sleep with you.”
“Right,” he said, ignoring her statement. “Are you here for that thing Brady’s hosting tonight?”
“No, I wasn’t aware Senator Maxwell had an event on Hilton Head this weekend,” she lied fluidly. Liz knew that it sounded odd that she would be here and not know about the event, but she couldn’t tell him she had flown down to be here for it. That would be even more suspicious. “I’m staying with some friends at a resort for the weekend. Good timing, I guess.”
“Well, you should crash the party. Brady has a hot date. You could be mine,” Clay said with a shrug.
All of the wind rushed out of her lungs at once. Brady had a hot date. She knew he had dinner and drinks tonight, but he hadn’t mentioned a date. Had he flown her all this way just to go out with someone else again? She felt hypocritical getting worked up over this after Hayden had kissed her, but she hadn’t gone into that situation thinking anything would happen. Could Brady be thinking the same thing?
She tried to compose herself, but it was not without difficulty.
“You’re not bringing your girlfriend?” Liz asked, her voice tight with emotion.
“She’ll be there.”
“I think I’m going to have to pass,” she said, realizing how close she was to accepting the invitation just to see whom Brady would show up with.
His blond hair blew across his forehead in the breeze, and his blue eyes looked down into hers as if he were trying to persuade her with one look.
Liz shook her head, her heart beating fiercely in her chest. Brady had a date and his brother was trying to seduce her. Why wasn’t Brady the one after her? Where the hell was he anyway? And why had he stood her up last night?
“I appreciate the offer, but you have explicit instructions from your girlfriend not to sleep with me. I think that’s probably a good idea. Good-bye, Clay,” Liz said, moving to the right to walk around him.
His hand reached out and touched her wrist. “You know, I did listen to Brady’s speech after we talked.” He stared at her very intently, all of the humor and joking leaving his eyes. “And I still think you’re wrong. He only cares about the campaign and he only cares about winning. I know that he’ll do whatever it takes to get there, and I’m sorry he’s convinced you so thoroughly otherwise…”
Chapter 28
WHETHER OR NOT
Liz hurried back to the Sonesta Resort, eager to be away from her eventful afternoon. Brady had said the last thing he wanted was for her to be seen, and she’d ended up running into his brother. She didn’t know whether Clay would divulge that he had seen her after she had turned him down again, but she wouldn’t put it past him.
And now all she had left to do was sit and stew over the fact that Clay had told her that Brady had a date for the dinner tonight. He had a date, and he had invited Liz all the way out here. She knew that she couldn’t go to the event with him, not after the blowup with Heather, but still it hurt.
Would there always be someone else whom they could be more public with than each other? Would there always be another person putting a wedge between them because they couldn’t be together…and couldn’t even tell anyone that they were seeing each other?
Her hands were shaking when she slid the keycard into the lock. The door swung open and she stumbled forward into the room.
She wished that these emotions weren’t roiling through her body. She wished that she could turn it all off and forget how much he meant to her. But she couldn’t.