Page 57 of The Lie That Stole Christmas

“I convinced myself that if I stayed away, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.”

“And did it?”

She laughed a sad, broken sound and shook her head.“No.”

“Pain has a funny way of following you.”

All this time, and he still understood her in a way that most others didn’t.“Maybe that’s why Grandpa kept everything exactly the same,” she said.“Maybe he wasn’t trying to freeze Winterridge in time.”

Carter’s blue eyes met hers.“Then what was he doing?”

She glanced around at the sea-foam green walls, at the furniture Grandma Lily had meticulously picked out and placed, all the Christmas decorations waiting to be unpacked.At all the pieces of her that Grandpa refused to let disappear.

“Maybe he was proving that loving someone doesn’t end just because they are gone.”She motioned toward the wall.“He hated that color, but she loved it, so he let her paint it.When she passed, he could have easily ordered all the walls to be repainted, but he didn’t.”

“Because even in death, he still loves her.”

“Exactly.”She went to a box and pulled it open.“Anyway, that got a lot darker than I expected.”

“What did you expect?”he asked.

“Light Christmas music playing in the background, boxes of garland, lights, and ornaments to go through.”

“Glen is delivering another tree for the corner where Santa will be sitting in about twenty minutes.Once it’s in place, we can decorate it, then set up the hot cocoa station.”He grabbed his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s rendition ofSanta Claus is Coming to Townfilled the guesthouse.

A warm smile spread across her face as she turned to Carter.“My favorite Christmas song.”

“I know.”He hauled a box up from the floor onto a table.“What do you say we start going through these decorations?”

“Let’s do it!”

They worked in tandem, unboxing memories Ashley hadn’t realized she had buried deep in her mind, while Christmas music continued to play in the background.Glen delivered the tree, helped Carter set it up in the far corner right next to where Santa’s chair would go before snagging a cookie Tiny had dropped off and disappeared with a promise to stop by the festival.

The scent of pine overwhelmed the space, and Ashley inhaled deeply, savoring it.

“I don’t know how people get fake trees.”

“You mean to tell me you have a real tree in the city?”

She bit her lip as her eyes drifted to his.“I don’t have a tree at all.”

“What?”Carter froze, the ornament he had taken out of the box, suspended in air.“Decorating the Christmas tree is one of your favorite traditions.”

“I haven’t exactly celebrated Christmas for the last eight years, so there was no need for a tree.”

“Like, at all?Not even dinner with Gabe, or your mom, or dad?”

“Mom’s usually somewhere tropical, Dad throws himself into work around the holidays—probably to not have to deal with any of his emotions—and Gabe… well, ever since that last Christmas, he despises the holiday.So when you have no family to celebrate with.”She shrugged.“I just order Chinese food and watchIt’s A Wonderful Life.It’s the only Christmas thing I do.I do it for Grandma Lily because it was her favorite movie, and I do it because I usually need to be reminded what’s important in life, even if the people I love aren’t in it anymore.”

The words settled heavy between them.Ashley focused on untangling a strand of lights, suddenly fascinated by the green wire.

Harry Connick Jr.’s voice faded and Michael Buble’sI’ll Be Home For Christmasstarted.Carter was silent, and Ashley was too afraid to look at him.The truth hung between them.The people she loved weren’t just her family.It was him, too.

With a deep inhale, she finally glanced up to catch him staring at her.There wasn’t pity in his gaze, but there was what looked and felt like regret.

“You spent every Christmas alone?”he asked so quiet it almost got lost to the music.

Ashley shrugged.“It wasn’t that bad.”