“Her name wouldn’t happen to be Calleigh, would it?” Liz asked. She heard her heartbeat in her ears when she asked the question. It had to be Calleigh. Who else was a redhead that Hayden had been involved with? But Liz hadn’t thought it was serious. Certainly not enough to bring Calleigh to D.C. with him for New Year’s Eve.

“Calleigh! Yeah, that was it. Do you know her?” Jamie asked.

“She was editor of the paper last year.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember her going on and on and on about that. When Hayden made editor, I was hard-pressed to be happy for him, because she was so annoying about it.”

Liz shrugged, trying for nonchalance. “I didn’t know they were serious.”

Jamie paused as if realizing for the first time what she had just walked into. “Oh, I don’t know if they were. And anyway, that was a long time ago. They broke up when she moved.”

“To Charlotte?” Liz offered.

“Yep. That sounds right. It’s been long, long, long over,” Jamie said with a reassuring squeeze to Liz’s arm.

Liz wasn’t sure why she even let this bother her. She was certain it had something to do with the fact that she just did not like Calleigh anymore. She had once idolized her, but now she realized how misguided that had been. Why had she thought it was ever genius that made the other woman turn down her job offer in New York for the paper in Charlotte? Maybe she had simply wanted to stay closer to Hayden.

The thought struck Liz so clearly that she almost knew it for a fact.

Hayden and James reappeared just then, drinks in hand. Liz couldn’t keep her brain from working overtime, and Hayden gave her a quizzical look. It was as if he could see the wheels turning.

Liz snatched her drink up and grabbed Hayden’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go dance,” she said, drawing him away from the group.

Jamie bit her lip in concern, but Liz turned her back on her. She knew that she should probably talk to Hayden about Calleigh. She had been curious about it since May, when Calleigh had confronted the two of them outside of a club in Raleigh, and it had only intensified since they had started dating. Sure, it was old news. Calleigh and Hayden were over and done with, but the thought of them together made her sick. The thought of Calleigh staying close by because she wanted to be near Hayden made it even worse.

“This way,” Hayden said, moving ahead of her. She followed him and they walked into another room. A band was playing and people were dancing around, but it wasn’t as packed as the dance floor she had been heading for. Liz started to veer toward the center of the room, but Hayden tucked her arm into his and walked her to a far wall. He circled her and pushed her back against the wall softly.

“What did Jamie say?” he asked with a sigh.

“What?” Liz asked, playing dumb. She didn’t want to talk about this. She just wanted to go dance and forget.

“I seriously hate leaving her alone with people. Her big mouth always manages to say the exact wrong thing. And she said something to you, didn’t she?”

“Hayden, it doesn’t matter.” She tried to put a smile back on her face and push away from the wall, but he stopped her with a sharp kiss on the mouth.

“It matters,” he breathed when he pulled back. “I haven’t seen your gorgeous self in three weeks. I couldn’t care less about the party. I don’t like to see you unhappy. And I can’t make it better if you don’t talk to me.”

Liz swallowed. “You brought Calleigh here last year.”

Hayden’s brow furrowed. “So?”

“You told me it wasn’t serious. And yet she keeps coming back up.”

“It wasn’t serious,” he said calmly, brushing a hand back through his hair.

“Okay,” Liz said with a shrug.

“Is something else wrong?”

“I just . . . I must have been oblivious last year when she was at school. I didn’t even know you guys were involved. And now I feel like I’m blindsided by her memory at every corner,” she told him honestly. “And then you said it wasn’t serious, but you brought her here and it makes me think maybe . . . we’re not that serious.”

Since when had she pushed for it to become more serious?

“Hey,” he said, placing his hand under her chin and tilting her head up to look at him. “It wasn’t serious with Calleigh. She wanted more than I did. It is serious with you and that’s what matters. That’s all that matters.”

Liz stared up into those compelling hazel eyes in the darkness. They were almost brown with intensity. He meant every single word. She didn’t know why she had gotten so flustered about the whole thing. Calleigh got under her skin; that was for sure. But Hayden . . . the thought of this relationship with Hayden being a sham was even worse. It made her heart constrict to realize how much he really meant to her. They had been dating for nearly two months now, and while she had liked him for much longer, she hadn’t even realized that she had given away so much of her heart.

Calleigh was still in Hayden’s life as little as Brady was in hers. And it wouldn’t be fair to hold it against him when she was still trying to get her own feelings under control.

“I like that we can talk about these things, Liz,” he told her. “I don’t like to bottle up my feelings, and I don’t want you to feel like I’m ever hiding anything from you. I’ll always tell you everything.”

“I know,” she said, pushing his words away. There were too many things in her past that she couldn’t tell him about. She had been hiding from Brady and she wasn’t about to share that secret. Not now . . . maybe not ever.

Hayden’s hands found the curve of her waist and slid down to her hips. He gripped her through the thin material of her dress, and Liz leaned forward into him. His mouth came down on hers softly at first, gaining momentum as he rested her back against the wall again. Her hands dug into his black dress shirt, willing him to keep going.

Their tongues volleyed and she could feel her own breathing quicken. It had been so long since she had gotten completely wrapped up in a kiss. This new level of passion seemed to encase them like a cocoon.

Their bodies were pressed flush together, and she released a moan when he took a breath. She could feel the outline of him through his pants, and she pushed her pelvis up against him. His eyes shut and he groaned deep in his throat.

“Lizzie,” he said, fighting for words. “We’re in public.”

A thrill shot through her spine at the possibilities. The thought of people watching them should have made her stiff and uncomfortable, but it didn’t. It made her want to keep going. When her last relationship had been completely predicated on secrecy, it was exhilarating to have these moments.

“So?” she whispered.

She dropped her hands to the waistline of his pants and teased her fingertips along the material. His quick intake of breath told her more than his words ever could. She didn’t know how ready she was to push the limits, but the look of lust on his face sure made her want to continue.

“I’m not . . . inclined to . . .” He stopped speaking when her hand moved a little farther south. “Lizzie.”

The way he said it was an encouragement rather than a reprimand. But when her hand slipped farther down the front of his pants and skimmed the outline of his dick, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. His breathing was uneven.

“I want you,” he told her simply. “But not here . . . not like this.”

She sighed, disappointment hitting her. She quickly covered it up. He was right. They shouldn’t do this here anyway. “Okay,” she said. He released her hand and she dropped both of them to her sides.

He kissed her once more on her lips before moving out onto the dance floor to find their friends. Meredith was grinding on a guy hot enough to be a model, and it looked a bit like she might not be returning with them. Jamie squealed when she saw them, and tried to yell over the music, but Liz couldn’t hear anything. They all danced until sweat dotted their foreheads, alcohol coursed through their veins, and their legs and lungs burned.