Free The Night Before Christmas by Scarlett Bailey

text from Jackson.
    ‘Darling, so sorry. Had to go home, family emergency. Will call as soon as I can. xxx’
    And that was it. He had never called. He had never texted again, and, hurt and humiliated by being so spectacularly dumped, Lydia had determined to forget him.
    It had by no means been the first time in her life that a man had finished with her, but it was the first time ever that he’d moved house and left the country to do it.
    After Lydia had cried for a solid week, she gradually started to get in touch with her friends again, explaining to them why she’d been so preoccupied over the six weeks and what exactly had happened with Jackson. Always there for each other when they’d needed to be,they had taken care of her with as much wine and chocolate as she could stomach, and no difficult questions. And Alex, who reinstated her as head bridesmaid, enrolled her in a charity fun run for breast cancer care, to boost her spirits or break them, one or the other.
    It had been beautiful and then it had been viciously, brutally over, and feeling utterly battered and totally foolish, Lydia had come to accept that Jackson Blake had seen the wide-eyed romantic in her and taken her for one hell of a ride. Still, Lydia counselled herself, determined not to give in to her aching heart, she’d had a wonderful time for as long as it lasted, and maybe it was just Lydia being Lydia to expect more than that in real life. Romantic heroes as perfect as she had thought Jackson was didn’t really exist and, after all, as Bette Davis would say, you can’t go expecting the moon when you’ve got the stars. So she’d locked those six extraordinary weeks away in her heart and got on with the business of living, knowing she was never going to see Jackson Blake again, and doing her very best to pretend she hadn’t fallen in love with the bastard.
    Which was why it came as something of a surprise to find him standing in Katy’s hallway.

Chapter Five
    ‘So, this is Alex.’ Lydia watched, frozen to the spot, as Joanna introduced Jackson, Jack, or whatever he was calling himself these days, to all of her friends. ‘Alex is pregnant,’ Joanna added in her honeyed, TV-friendly tones.
    ‘I’m sure the man’s got eyes,’ Alex said, smiling and shaking Jack’s hand.
    ‘I was just making sure he didn’t think you were simply fat,’ Joanna teased her, tucking her arm through his as she guided ‘Jack’ on.
    ‘This is David, Alex’s victim, I mean husband. And this is Katy and her husband, Jim, our lovely hosts. This young man is Jakey, and this little delight is Tilly. That smelly article is Vincent Van Dog, because he’s only got one ear, although as far as we know he doesn’t suffer from any sort of personality disorder. Oh, and this is Stephen and …’ Lydia felt all of the air sucked out of her lungs in the fraction of a second it took for Joanna to propel ‘Jack’ towards her. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed her when he first came in; after all, Joanna hadn’t allowed him to take a breath. This would be the moment, the moment of recognition … and then what?
    ‘Lydia, this is Jack, isn’t he hot?’ Joanna smiled. And Jack nodded at Lydia, extending his hand, the warm, strong hand that had once caressed her, in a formal greeting.
    ‘Very pleased to meet you, Linda,’ he said, without even a hint of what they had once been to each other showing on his face. Unable to dissemble so quickly, Lydia just stared at him, her hand lying limply in his, as her brain struggled to process what was happening. Had he forgotten her? Was she one among so many that faces simply became a blur to him? Or was he merely going to pretend not only that he’d never once kissed her naked body from head to toe as she lay sprawled on his staircase, but that they had never even met before?
    ‘Lydia, darling, her name’s Lydia.’ Joanna laughed. ‘Oh dear, I think you’ve offended her.’
    ‘I beg your pardon.’ Jackson held on to her