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He nods in understanding. "Why didn't you bring Brianna?"
Brady steps over a large rock and holds his hand out to me. As I slide my fingers into his, my heart throbs. I ignore the loudlub-dub lub-dubin my chest and climb over the rock.
"Steve is leaving on Saturday," I shrug. "He wanted to spend the time with her before he goes back home."
"I'm sorry things are hard on you, Iz," Brady squeezes my hand.
"It's my fault," I frown. "Steve wasn't perfect, but I wasn't either."
"I used to think when relationships ended, both parties should take their share of the blame for its demise," Brady clears his throat. "And while that's certainly true for some partnerships, more often than not, a relationship stumbles whenone person drops the ball. When one person fumbles. When one person stops putting in the same effort as the other person. That's when things slowly start falling apart."
"Are you taking sole responsibility for the demise of your relationship with Maya?" I raise my eyebrows at him.
Brady shakes his head. "No. I was talking about us."
I clear my throat. "You can't take all the blame. I should have walked away sooner than I did."
Brady's thumb rubs the back of my hand. "I should have done a lot of things differently. But I want you to know that I never let anyone talk shit about you. Not Maya, my parents, or anyone in this town. I told them the truth. I told them that it was me. That I strung you along and that I lied to both you and Maya."
The wind whistles through the pine trees as I glance up at the blue sky. "You never lied to me, Brady. But I appreciate that you tried protecting my reputation."
"Maya didn't," Brady chuckles. "She trashed all my things. Then, she sold the house without telling me."
"I'm sorry," I offer.
"No," Brady chews on his lower lip. "I deserved it."
"Do you know what she's doing now?"
"She married her co-worker six months after we broke up," he reveals. "They divorced a year later. Then, she moved to New York. I didn't find out she was cheating on me with the co-worker until I told her about you. I have no idea what she's doing now."
"Wait, she was cheating on you?" My mouth drops open.What?
"Yeah," he exhales heavily. "That's why she wanted us to take a break before we got engaged. I guess her co-worker was married, and he wasn't going to leave his wife. In the end, he did.But that's why she kept coming back to me. I was her backup plan."
I stop walking. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to wrap my mind around this. Maya wanted to take a break with you so she could see if it was going to work out with her co-worker. Then we met, started dating, Maya came back, and she was still cheating on you?"
Brady licks his lips. "That's the gist of it. I wanted to tell you when I came to see you in San Diego, but you wouldn't...you didn't let me."
I squeeze my eyes shut tight, trying to ignore the aching in my chest—the aching in my bones.
Maya was cheating on Brady. Brady was cheating on Maya with me. Maya and Brady broke up when I moved to California. He came to see me. He came to tell me that she was cheating on him.
"Izzy," Brady calls to me.
"I wish you hadn't told me that," I open my eyes.
"I'm sorry," he reaches for both my hands. "You asked and I..."
"No," I slip my hands in his. "I did ask. You're right. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I wanted to, but you seemed to be going through so much. I didn't want to dump it into your lap all at once."
Maya was cheating on Brady.That's why she wanted to take a break. That's why she moved out. But she came back. She came back and he took her back.
"Was it hard to hear that?" I inquire. "To find out that she'd been cheating on you the whole time?"
Brady hitches his shoulder. "No. It was hard losing you."
