Read The Spirits of Christmas for Free Online

reported matter-of-factly. He picked up
one of the cars, a green passenger car, and tried to link it to the freight car
before shaking his head.
    “Seriously, Hannah?” Rose said, crossing her arms over her
chest. “You’re going to pick on a little boy?”
    “I want him out! I want all of you out!” Hannah said. “This
is my home and I don’t want people here.”
    “You okay, little man?” Zane asked, putting his hand on
Toby’s arm. “You look cold. You need a sweater?”
    “You gave us two weeks to find Nick, Hannah, and our time is
not up yet,” Akira said firmly. “You leave Toby alone.”
    Two weeks. She should have bargained for more time. Two
weeks would be the day after Christmas. Maybe Nora would be willing to move out
if she now believed that the house was haunted? But finding a new place to live
and packing for a move over Christmas while taking care of a newborn baby and a
toddler on her own would be miserable, even if she let Akira and Zane help. No,
Akira couldn’t count on that.
    She wasn’t even sure she wanted to. Rose was right. Hannah
should move on. This wasn’t life. Unlike Rose, who thoroughly enjoyed her
existence and was endlessly fascinated by the world around her, Hannah seemed
trapped, tied here by regrets and sorrow.
    “What’s she saying?” Zane asked, sounding distracted. Akira
glanced at him. He had a strange expression on his face, as if he was listening
to far-off music, his head tilted to one side, his eyes puzzled.
    “Can you hear her?” Akira asked, startled. That would be
different.
    “No, no.” He shook his head, attention back in the room, and
grinned at her, but the expression didn’t entirely make it to his still
narrowed eyes.
    “She wants us to go.”
    Zane stood in one smooth, fluid movement. “Let’s go, then.”
    “What?” Akira protested. “We can’t take Toby away.”
    “Sure we can,” Zane said easily. Whatever had been bothering
him seemed to be gone as if it never was. “Nora and the baby will be in the
hospital overnight. Toby can stay with us, and Hannah can have the house to
herself.”
    Stay with us? Akira wanted to protest. Their house wasn’t
childproof. They had no toys. Where would he sleep? What would he eat? How
would they take care of him? But her brows drew down and she stayed silent as
she glanced at Hannah.
    She tried not to let ghosts bully her, but it might not be a
bad idea to let the old woman feel an empty house again. Maybe the silence
would remind her that company wasn’t so bad. And Akira wanted a chance to talk
to Rose in private, away from the older woman, about that golden energy and
what it might mean.
    “Go and good riddance.” Hannah grumped, stomping away from
Toby and Zane toward the kitchen.
    “Come on, bud. Let’s go get your stuff together.” Zane held
his hand out to Toby and the little boy stood and slid his own into it
obligingly.
    “Can we bring da trains?” Toby asked.
    “Sure. We’ll pack up some of the track, too, and maybe even
that little barrel house so we can load ‘em up.”
    “Dat is de barra’ yoader,” Toby corrected him.
    Zane blinked. “Barrel loader. Got it. Not a house.” He
grinned at the little boy.
    Toby had taken to Zane like peanut butter to jelly, Akira
thought. All right, she could do this. They could do this. As long as Zane was
around, they’d be fine.
    An hour later, she was not so sanguine. “What do you mean
you need to run an errand and it might take a while?”
    Zane ran his hand though his hair, looking guilty. “Ah, well
. . .”
    “You can’t leave me alone with him,” she hissed, glancing
over her shoulder at Toby pushing his train along their coffee table. “I don’t
know anything about taking care of a child. I fed him ice cream for breakfast!”
    Zane looked startled for a second before laughing. He slid
his hand around her waist to the small of her back. “Did you have some, too?”
    “Of course not.” She put her arms up and around his