Read Christmas Spirit (The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer Book 1): (Ghost Cozy Mystery series) for Free Online Page B

Iris’s favorite subjects included how we used to stay up all night and still be refreshed the next day, how we were now sagging and bagging, how we had aches and creaks and flabby underarms. I dare not point out that I did not have saggy underarms because I worked out. My triceps were better than most, if I did say so myself. Still, I kept those opinions to myself.
    Iris was still talking. “Isn’t it awful how we’re no longer attractive to men?” She shot me a pitying look. “It must be hard for you, Prudence. You would have been an attractive woman back in your day.”
    “Thanks, I think,” I said with barely veiled irritation.
    “Speak for yourself, Iris.” Barbara flung her hair over one shoulder and winked at me. Barbara fancied herself as attractive, and flirted with every man she met, although she drew the line at Uncle Tim.
    “You’re all very attractive ladies,” Uncle Tim said to Barbara.
    Barbara ignored him and turned to me. “Prudence, can you come out for coffee with me tomorrow?”
    I winced. Barbara was somewhat clingy and demanding. “I’m just so tired, Barbara. I’ve been away for weeks, and I can’t leave my guests. They’ve just arrived.”
    Barbara crossed one leg over the other. “You blew me off last time, and then you were gone for weeks!”
    “I don’t mind if you go for coffee with Barbara,” Uncle Tim said. “I can come, too.”
    Luke ran into the room and screamed. We all jumped. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked Clara, who had run into the room after him.
    “He wants to go for coffee, too,” she said. “Children shouldn’t be left out, just because they’re children.”
    “The kid drinks coffee?” Uncle Tim asked. “That’s a bit young, don’t you think, Clara? No wonder the kid’s so loud!”
    “It’s Rainbow!” she snapped. “And please do not call Luke ‘the kid’, and you must not say he’s loud! He’s merely expressing himself, and I believe in freedom of expression, especially with a child as bright as Luke. Luke is very sensitive because he’s so gifted, you know, and I think you’ve upset him.”
    Luke took his cue from her words and screamed even more loudly, before proceeding to run around the room in circles, his arms out like a plane’s wings. He ran up to the Christmas tree, seized a green glass hanging bauble, and smashed it on the floor.
    “The brat needs a good slap!” Uncle Tim said.
    Christina groaned and poured herself a glass of wine. “Here we go!”
    Clara’s hand flew to her mouth. She let out a shriek and ran from the room, followed by Luke.
    “Now we know where the kid gets it from,” Uncle Tim said with a chuckle.
    I left the room to get a dustpan and brush, and when I returned, Constance was speaking. “Back to our original subject—coffee is bad for you, Barbara.”
    Constance was very proud of being the most knowledgeable person in town. The trouble was that she was the only one in town who held that opinion. Constance was still talking. “I trained as a barista once, you know. I’m quite the expert on coffee.”
    And everything else , I added silently.
    Barbara’s face turned beet red. “Thank you very much, Miss Lush. That’s what? Your third glass of wine?”
    “Second. And wine has antioxidants,” Constance said in a superior tone. “It doesn’t have half the downsides of those lattes you guzzle. Don’t you know those big coffee companies enslave five year old children to roast those beans? If Luke was over there, they’d enslave him.”
    No one dignified the outlandish statement with a response, but I for one was wondering how to send Luke to a big coffee company post haste.
    Alum materialized in front of me. I jumped, but then covered it with a pretend sneeze. “She doesn’t really believe that, does she?” Alum asked me.
    I shrugged, and continued to sweep up the broken glass. There were bits of it all over the floor. Thank goodness my cats were hiding in my bedroom.
    “Your work seems