Christmas Ghosts Read online

  “WE’RE NOT taking ‘no’ for an answer, Steven,” June Baxter told him with a glare Steve hadn’t seen since she’d caught them smoking in the backyard when they were eleven. Their excuses of being curious and they didn’t like it anyway hadn’t been enough to keep her from telling his mom about it. The three of them were grounded for a week while Pete and Troy’s older siblings snickered at the extra chores they had to do.

  “Not-my-mom,” he called her, using the nickname they’d had for each other’s moms since high school. Both Eva and June had loved it, and they’d started calling the boys “not-my-boy” in return. “I… we… we were going to get Chinese and watch Netflix all day.” Steve bit his lower lip, focusing on the tops of her shoes until she tilted his face up. “We’ll probably start crying.”

  “That’s fine, sweetheart. Eva would’ve wanted you to spend the holidays with us, and you damn well know it. We love you, and I’ve missed you since you grew up. Besides, the way Troy’s looking at you, you know you’ll be with us next year.”

  “I missed you too. Pete and I’ll be at the house for dinner tomorrow. We’ll bring a cake.” He scratched the back of his head while he searched his memory that they had what they needed to make a cake when they got home, and then decided they should drop by a grocery store on the way home and buy one. They’d been so busy with the theater work, they barely had food for the dog at home. “Can we bring the dog? She hasn’t seen much of us this week, and she’s lonely too.”

  “Of course you can. She’s an angel.” He got a peck on the cheek, and she rushed off to congratulate Camille for the show.

  THERE WAS a heavy drizzle making the world look soft and fuzzy, and Steve pulled the zipper of his jacket all the way up. It was cold, and his breath was adding to the mist while he watched the Christmas lights twinkling up and down the block.

  “I miss the old lights,” Troy said as he came to sit on the porch rail and stuck his hands into the pockets of Steve’s jacket to warm them up, even though he hadn’t been outside long enough for them to get cold. “You could feel the warmth off them.”

  “I like the tiny ones. They’re like fairy lights. This street, though—” Steve nodded toward the grand displays on each house. “—it’s like an unmoving Disneyland parade. Next year, Pete and I’ll have to bring it in our neighborhood. Want to help us out?”

  “WAS PLANNING on it. Pete and I are already talking about study sessions since I’m going to be playing catch-up for a few years.” Using Steve’s pockets to guide him, Troy got him between his knees and hooked his ankles around Steve’s legs, holding him in place. “I feel like we were working through our own ghosts this week. You and me, what we were.”

  “Our Ghosts of Christmas Past, sharing the fun times and the not so fun with each other.” Steve pressed his forehead against Troy’s so they were breathing in the warmth of each other’s breath.

  “And this week was Christmas Present, learning how not to let the past haunt us, letting the bad stuff go and enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes I think it’d’ve been easier on us if we had a big raging breakup.”

  “Me too. How about the next time we have a fight, it’s a big one—not that we had one to begin with—but it’s bound to happen. I mean, we both were freaks of nature growing up—”

  “Being gay.”

  “No, having parents who were still married to each other,” Steve said with a chuckle. “That just doesn’t happen often anymore. But married forever or not, they fight. It’s good for a relationship to talk and occasionally get pissed.”

  “So we’ve already slipped beyond Christmas Present to Christmas Future, then?” Troy’s bright blue eyes locked with Steve’s before he kissed him on the end of the nose.

  “Past, present, and future if you’ll have me?” Steve asked as he wrapped his arms around Troy’s shoulders before sharing a very long kiss. “When you move in, you’ll have to share with Pete until he leaves the nest again.”

  “I’m good with that. He’s less of a pain in the ass than my sisters, and I always wanted a brother.”

  JENN MOFFATT is a proud nerd. Raised on Star Trek, Dark Shadows, The Wild Wild West, and James Bond, she learned not to be afraid of things that go bump in the night and to have hope for the future of humanity. She grew up wanting to be a member of the Addams Family or part of the crew of the USS Enterprise—and she still does.

  She’s been soaked to the skin for Chinese New Year and walked in the fog in Frisco. Went to high school in Sin City, and no, she didn’t live in a casino. Lived on the slope of an active volcano, and used to snorkel between classes in college on the Big Island. Now she lives in San Diego where she gets to see the ocean and wildflowers in the desert on the same day.

  Jenn was born disabled, which gives her a deep understanding of what it’s like to be different, but she’s never let it hold her back. It just means she gets pretty good parking.

  Find Jenn:

  Twitter: @thatvulcanbitch

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/thatvulcanb1tch

  Instagram: @thatvulcanbitch

  Website: jennmoffattwrites.com

  By Jenn Moffatt

  Christmas Ghosts

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Christmas Ghosts

  © 2019 Jenn Moffatt

  Cover Art

  © 2019 Jenn Moffatt

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-778-0

  Digital eBook published December 2019

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America