The Blonde Before Christmas: a Barb Jackson Mysteries holiday short story by Anna Snow Page A

darkest, better-off-forgotten recesses of my mind, came rushing back. It took everything I had in me to squash those damaging feelings before they roared back to life and consumed me all over again.
    Jason and I had ended more than five years ago, and I had no interest in reviving that little misstep of my life. That relationship was one of those times when I should've listened to my dear, sweet, nosy-as-all-get-out Aunt Mona and run in the opposite direction. She saw Jason for what he was. A liar and a cheater. I, on the other hand, only saw a hot, successful man who was interested in me.
    I'd been an idiot, and no matter what he was selling, I definitely wasn't buying.
    "You're Jason. You're Barb, and I'm Kelly." Kelly interrupted the moment. A grin spread across her face. "I thought you didn't know him."
    It took a minute for me to regain my bearings, but I finally found my words. "I don't. I do. I did," I stuttered. "We knew each other a long time ago," I reluctantly admitted.
    "And you just forgot his name?" Kelly looked at me like I'd sprouted a second head.
    "No." I frowned at her. "When I knew him, his name was Jason Charles. Not Jason King." Jason's mother had kept her maiden name when she married. I guess that's why his name change had seemed so familiar. I just hadn't picked up on the reason why before he walked through my door.
    He chose that moment to break out the gorgeous boyish smile that could melt a woman's panties in two seconds flat. The urge to slap him for even thinking about walking back into my life like nothing had ever happened, for that sensational smile that had always had the power to do me in, rolled through me. But instead of smacking him, I listened to what he had to say. I needed to know what he wanted from me because there was no doubt that he wanted something.
    "I started using my mother's maiden name when I opened my business."
    I cocked an eyebrow at him in question.
    "I'm sure you heard about my father's misstep a few years ago," he half explained.
    "Misstep? Do you mean the embezzlement accusations? I'd say that was more than a misstep."
    "Call it what you want. No one is going to want to do business with an accountant whose family has a history of embezzlement. So, I changed my last name," he said with a slight shrug.
    "Makes sense if you want clients," I said with a nod.
    "And we knew each other seems a bit mild, doesn't it, Barb? After all, we were engaged for more than a year," he said with a frown.
    "Engaged?" Kelly gaped and looked back and forth between the two of us. "You were engaged to him ?" She pointed at Jason where he stood, still leaning against the doorframe.
    "It's a long story." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "One I absolutely do not care to repeat," I hedged.
    I caught Kelly gaping at me out of the corner of my eye. I decided that if I was that transparent I needed to get my stuff together. There was no way on planet Earth I would allow this guy to get under my skin. Not again. I'd been burned by Jason once before, and I wasn't about to let it happen a second time.
    I tamped down the old feelings threatening to bubble up inside me at just the sight of him and regained my composure.
    "Well"—I released a pent up breath—"I have to assume that you're here for a reason. Have a seat, and we'll get started."
    I directed him toward one of the chocolate-brown leather chairs situated before my cluttered desk and took my seat. Kelly situated herself and her notepad in the matching chair next to Jason's.
    Yes, I said notepad. Kelly was what one would call technologically challenged. She was the complete opposite of my receptionist and dear friend Mandy. Kelly's last attempt at using an iPad to help me with research wound up with her neck-deep in the depths of a nudist site for the elderly. She'd sworn off electronics until further notice.
    Jason glanced over at her, then back at me. "I was kind of hoping we could speak in private."
    "Anything you have to say to me you can say