Everyday Lies by Louise Guy

Author:Louise Guy [Guy, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

LUCIE

Climbing on to a chair, Lucie hung the Year Twos’ stories from the decorative ropes that criss-crossed the ceiling in the classroom. She had to admit, Anna’s room looked good. The parents were always blown away when they came in, seeing the quality of the written work and the detail in the artwork. Lucie couldn’t remember producing any work like this when she was at school.

‘Looking forward to the holidays?’ Anna looked up from her desk where she was marking homework books. The kids were off at their music lesson, giving Anna and Lucie forty minutes to get some jobs done. ‘You and Noah going anywhere?’

‘No, not this time,’ Lucie said. ‘You?’

Anna rolled her eyes. ‘Apparently we’re spending four nights at the Gold Coast. Each day spent at a different theme park. I’m thinking I’ll let Tom and the boys go to the parks and I’ll laze about by the pool with a book.’

‘Sounds wonderful.’ What Lucie would give for four days to herself with a good book.

‘It does, but it’s probably not realistic.’ Anna laughed. ‘I bet I’ll get dragged to every park and will stand at the bottom of the rides, holding hats and drink bottles.’

Lucie’s phone beeped. She jumped off the chair and retrieved it from under the desk. It was Brad, suggesting he come over that night.

‘Everything okay?’

Lucie looked up to find Anna staring at her. She slipped the phone back into her bag. ‘Yes, fine.’ Her face was hot.

‘Mm, methinks you have a new man.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘The smile as you read the text message for a start, and then the guilty red face I’m now staring at. Tell me, who is he?’

Lucie cleared her throat. ‘No one, just my brother-in-law. He boarded up a broken window for me last week and wanted to check if the glass had been replaced yet.’ The lie rolled off Lucie’s tongue.

‘Oh. That’s not very exciting. Never a good idea to steal extended family – kind of ruins the family Christmas.’ Anna raised her eyebrows. ‘Could get yourself into a lot of trouble.’ She turned her attention to the books she was marking.

Lucie climbed back on to the chair and continued hanging the children’s stories. Anna was right: she was setting herself up for trouble. While she enjoyed Brad’s company and friendship, the lying and sneaking around was not who Lucie was. She needed to put an end to it before any further problems were caused with Kate or her in-laws. She felt a sense of relief. The decision was made. She would text Brad during her lunchbreak.

A kilometre from home, Lucie pulled the car over to the kerb and turned to face Noah. ‘Kick my chair one more time and I’ll put you out on the footpath and you can walk. Do you understand me?’

Noah stuck out his tongue and kicked Lucie’s seat as hard as he could. ‘You can’t do that, you’d get in trouble.’

Lucie undid her seatbelt and got out of the car. She went to open Noah’s door, but he’d locked it.

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