Read The Winter Spirit ARE for Free Online

“I—can I ask you a question? I mean, if this isn’t a good time…”
    Gabriel laughed softly but he sounded sad. “Time is all I have, Nathaniel. Ask away.”
    I felt like an idiot, but I needed to know. “Is there anything I can do? Me or Elisa? To help you out of here, I mean. If that’s what you want. You’re welcome to stay, obviously. We were thinking maybe you were stuck here, and if you need help of any kind we can—” I snapped my mouth shut. Gabriel’s eyes were still on me, still sad, but his expression had softened a little. He had a nice, full mouth.
    “I appreciate that,” he said, then hesitated. “There’s not much you can do.”
    “Not much?” I tried. “So there’s something?”
    “Yeah.” He turned his face away, offering me his profile, and I again wondered what he was looking at, what he saw, in that world of his.
    “What? What can I do?”
    He smiled at whatever he was seeing. “You could fall in love,” he said, and then he was gone.
    I gaped at my own reflection for a solid minute before realizing I looked ridiculous doing that, and then hurried out of my bedroom. As I passed Owen’s door, I heard it rattle.
    “Owen? You okay?”
    “The door is stuck,” he called out. “I was just about to give you a call.”
    I tried the door handle and it gave like it had just been oiled. Owen gaped at me.
    “I don’t understand. I’ve been trying for a while. It’s like this place is haunted.”
    I gave a watery laugh. “Maybe it is, you never know!”
    With a scowl, Owen stopped me in the hallway. “Did you do that on purpose? Lock me in there? Because that’s not funny.”
    “What? No, Jesus. Why would I do that?” I shrugged him off, taken aback. I wanted to talk to Elisa to see what she’d make of Gabriel, but the others were already waiting in the reception area. I had no choice but to lead them to the garage and get in my car.
    “You okay?” Owen asked after a couple of silent miles. He’d grabbed the front seat, and by the looks of things, Mr. and Mrs. Unfaithful didn’t seem to mind. I glanced at their entwined hands. Yup, married. And not to each other.
    “I’m okay,” I said gruffly, probably startling Owen into silence because he didn’t say anything else, and I felt bad. “Hey, it looks like they towed your car,” I told him when we passed the gardens.
    “Yes, that’s why I’m going into town. I need a new rental.”
    “Oh, right.” I felt awkward, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. I glanced in my rearview mirror. “Do you have any idea where you’d like to do your Christmas shopping? I’m going to Jackson. There’s a nice Main Street I can drop you off at, but it’s pretty cold.”
    Mrs. Anderson lifted her head. She looked flushed and happy and it only soured my mood further. Why did I care so much? It was none of my business. “Actually, I found a little mall on the internet, right off the—”
    “Yeah, I know where it is,” I interrupted, and conversation in the car died out again.
    Shit. I was being a complete jerk. I wanted to make amends a little and tell them some quirky fact about our town but it was literally the most uneventful place on earth. Besides, when I looked in my mirror again, they were making out in my backseat like teenagers.
    Seriously?
    Owen made a face of disgust that almost had me sputter out a laugh. For the rest of the ride, I kept my eyes on the road and turned up the music to drown out any potential smacking noises.
    “Are you sure they didn’t know each other?” Owen asked when I’d dropped the tonsil lickers off. “They were…intense.”
    “Two completely separate bookings,” I told him. “Made in different months. They arrived on different days.” I thought for a second. “They’re leaving on the same day, but I’m sure that’s coincidence. If they did know each other they went out of their way to pretend they didn’t during their first breakfast together, and what would be the point of that?”