The Christmas Swap by Emma Lyon

Author:Emma Lyon [Lyon, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

6

Avery

“This is beautiful,” Mrs. Taylor declared as we all stood and admired the newly decorated Christmas tree in their living room. “You did a fabulous job picking it out.”

The tree did look pretty badass. Completely over the top, with the lights and the tinsel and the gold lamé garlands, because between Lucy and her mom, the tree had more glam than a seventies’ runway show.

I kind of loved it.

What I didn’t love was this continuing deception. I flushed, thinking about that fall. For the second time in two days I’d managed to run into Wes, this time literally running him over, and there’d been no hiding his interest.

Or mine.

Any other time, I’d be ecstatic that Wes was interested in me, because the more time I spent with him, the more I liked him. But this wasn’t any other time. This was me pretending to be someone else. Someone who was engaged to his sister. Ever since I’d fallen on him, Wes had been studiously avoiding me.

I sighed. Lucy had been right that her family’s warmth and welcome was helping to fill a holiday-shaped hole in my heart, but it was completely overshadowed by this continuing lie. If I had any sense I’d leave now, apologize to Lucy and explain to the Taylors the best I could, except then they’d know I was a liar. Wes would know I was a liar, and that felt even worse than going along with this farce.

I managed to corner her after the decorating and before the eggnog came out. “I think we should tell them,” I said in a low voice. Mr. Taylor was in the garage securing the presents in his truck, and Mrs. Taylor had roped Wes into helping her with the eggnog, so it was just Lucy and me in the living room.

“What? No!” Alarm was written all over her face.

“We’ll have to tell them eventually. What happens when there’s no wedding? No more Ambrose?”

Her face fell, and I immediately regretted my callousness. She was well aware that there was no more Ambrose. I didn’t need to rub it in.

More gently, I said, “Maybe it’s not fair since I agreed to go along with it, but I don’t know how much longer I can go on. My conscience can’t take this kind of deception.”

“I know.” She bit her lip. “Look, I agree they need to know that Ambrose and I aren’t engaged anymore. I’ll tell them myself, after a few weeks have passed. I’ll just tell them it’s over and that’s it. They don’t need to know about you. After tomorrow, you don’t even need to ever talk to or see me again.”

I realized that I would miss that. But she was right. With Ambrose out of the picture, there was nothing tying the two of us together.

I thought wistfully about Wes, but that had always been a pipe dream. Even if there could have been more between us, once he found out the truth, he’d hate me.

Still, I couldn’t live with this lie the rest of my life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.