Watermelon Wishes

Chapter 10

As much as Evey had wanted to crawl under the soft newly cultivated earth and stay there until harvest season when Brady had told her that he knew why she tripped and fell, the evening seemed to have taken a surprisingly pleasant turn.

Evey wasn't sure what to expect when she showed up. She was curious as to why he would go out of his way for such a thoughtful gesture, especially when she still confused about Brady's retention of a real estate agent for the sole intention of winning the auction after they poured their hearts out to each other. Mostly, she wanted to say thank you in person. She told herself it was the right thing to do. But secretly, she wondered if she was going just to see him again. And that worried her.

Yet that thought was able to melt away for the most part when Brady told her about his time in New York City.

"I thought that's what I was supposed to do," he was saying now as he kneeled beside the fence post that Evey was leaning on and wiped away an old spider web. "Go out there and make something of myself. My life was on the right track. Then, I don't know..." he picked up a handful of soil and let I drop through his spread fingers. "It all fell apart."

"Because of your ex?" Evey asked softly. What little he had mentioned of her earlier told Evey that it ended in a very bad way and that Brady had been on the receiving end of the relationship's completion. Although Evey had been the one to officially break things up with Shawn, she felt that their relationship had sort of organically run its course and she had just been the one to voice what was happening before he did. She didn't know the feeling of being "dumped" (not in an adult relationship anyway since she'd been with Shawn since her college days) but she could guess the pain that she would have felt if Shawn would have broken up with her in their relationship's better days, back when everything seemed so hopeful and bright for their future together.

The gold flecks in Brady's green eyes lit up and she could clearly see the grief in them as he stood, his six foot frame towering her five foot six self by some.

"In part," he said. "We had plans. I - had plans for that city. But, well, nothing's promised, is it?" He patted his hands free of dirt and Evey cold tell from his body language that he was ready to end the conversation. But she wasn't.

"You're still hurting over her?" Evey asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.

Brady faced her and looked straight into her eyes.

"No, not really," he said. "It hurt when Danica broke up with me, especially because of Thornton."

"Who's Thornton?" Evey asked.

"The guy that she left me for," he said.

"Oh, no," Evey said.

"Oh, yes," he said. "Thornton was toted to be the next up and comer for the morning show co-host and Danica apparently was helpless to resist his charms."

"Brady, I'm so sorry," Evey said. Although after the evening they spent telling each other about their personal lives, Evey had promised herself not to feel again for Brady, not to fall for it, that promise wen out the window with the sincere look in his eyes. There was something about the way he spoke so openly to her that her barriers instantly floated away.

Brady shrugged. "Better that it happened when it did rather than down the line. I think that somewhere deep inside of me, I knew that Danica and I wouldn't last, even when we first got together. Sometimes I really think what hurt the most was losing my job. And sure, my ego took a beating with being left for another man -"

"You lost your job at the exact same time as your girlfriend leaves you?" Evey interrupted. She couldn't believe Brady's bad luck.

Brady stretched a hand to rub the back of his head, his wavy dark hair that was just a little bit too long responded by swaying slightly.