Margaret Allison - A Ring For Christmas - A Bride by Christmas / Christmas Lullaby / Mistletoe Manoeuvres

“You didn’t believe that having goldfish in the house is bad luck?” Maggie said, her voice rising.

“Ah, Maggie, I had a whole aquarium full of goldfish in my bedroom when I was a kid.”

“You—you lied to me? About the superstitions? All this time you’ve been telling me lie after lie, reciting one superstition after another?”

“They weren’t lies, exactly. It was part of a master plan I had to win your love, your heart, to blow the Jenkins Jinx into oblivion so we could be together forever. My father helped me a bit. You know, that night in the pizza place with the acorn and—”

“I don’t believe this,” Maggie said, yanking her hands free. “What else, Luke? What else did you lie about?”

“I wish you wouldn’t use that word,” he said, grimacing. “It was a plan. The Plan—in capital letters.”

“What else, Luke St. John,” she said, her voice ringing with fury.

Luke took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, puffing his cheeks.

“The wedding,” he said quietly.

“What wedding?” she said, totally confused.

“Precious and Clyde’s.”

“What about it? What kind of lies could you possibly tell me about their wedding?”

Luke cringed. “There is no…no Precious and Clyde, Maggie. I made them up. I needed a way to stay close to you after you knocked me over, captured my heart, at Ginger and Robert’s wedding. The Plan—I bet you’re getting tired of hearing those words—The Plan was for you to coordinate your own dream wedding with me next to you every step of the way.

“Then hopefully you’d fall in love with me, just as I already loved you, and everything would be ready for us to get married just the way you’d always dreamed of.”

“That’s why you kept hedging about the invitations to Precious and Clyde’s wedding,” Maggie said, nearly shrieking. “You couldn’t ask them about the wording they wanted because they don’t exist. And…and…we weren’t picking out a honeymoon suite for them it was—”

“For us, don’t you see? I wanted our wedding to be perfect for you, exactly what you yearned for. And it will be because you’ve seen to every detail just the way you want it. I did it for you. Us. You.” Luke dragged a restless hand through his hair. “Ah, Maggie, please tell me that you understand that what I did was out of love for you.”

“What I understand,” she said, getting to her feet and wrapping her hands around her elbows, “is that you are a liar. You are despicable. You made a fool of me. Must have laughed yourself silly when you reported back to your father about the great progress you were making with your ever-famous plan.”

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