Like she has taken over my heart.
“There are a few articles online,” Liz announces the next morning, sipping from a glass of orange juice. “My assistant sent me a few links.”
“What do they say?”
She responds with a nonchalant shrug. “The usual.”
I burst out laughing. Most of the critics won’t publish their thoughts on the play till opening night, but a few hints and teasers have made their way to the pages of most of the widely read publications, and the effusive praise is far from the usual.
“I can’t believe how modest you are.” I scroll through my phone and read from one article.
Liz McKay left a vacuum when she left the stage, a vacuum it seemed only she could fill. Her return to Broadway meets our expectations and then some. Catch her sublime performance in The Break of Day at the Shermann Theater from September Seventeenth.
She smiles happily. “A vacuum.”
“The city has missed you, it seems.”
“And I missed it,” she sighs. “Being on that stage, Aidan, it felt like coming home.”
Not enough to make you stay.
“Landon and Rachel want us to spend the day with them on Saturday. At Windbreakers. Do you want to come?”
Suddenly, she looks vulnerable. “Do you want me to come?”
“Yes, I want you to come, and the children will erupt with joy, and Rachel and Landon will appreciate it very much as will Wilson and Betsy. So… Will you come?”
She nods. “I will.”
Landon sends a town car for us on Saturday morning. Since I’m too exhausted to drive anyway, I don’t mind. Liz is wearing loose pants and a flowery top that exposes her shoulders, with a thick cashmere sweater over one hand.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” I tell her in the car. “What am I supposed to do throughout this long drive?”
She giggles. “What were you planning to do?”
“Get in your pants.”
She turns a shocked glance at the driver, who can’t hear a word we’re saying because he has earplugs in.
“What? We’ll be quiet.”
“No way,” she laughs. “You’re crazy.”
I grin unrepentantly. “You’re irresistible.”
“I know.” She leans over and plants a long kiss on my lips. “I love you, Aidan Court.”
My eyes close and I expel a breath.
I love you more than life, Liz McKay.
She owns me.
She always will.
Don’t leave me, Liz.
I want to beg.