Page 20 of My Inherited House Might be Haunted

I got this.

Probably.

Nine

Calix

I’d offered to pick Rhett up at his house because I was old fashioned that way. I knew Rhett had moved into his inherited house this week, but I hadn’t gotten details.

I did not expect a glorious, Goth-style Victorian.

I absolutely, positively did not expect to pull intoRuth Fairchild’sdriveway. Or her former driveway.

Oh boy, did I not expect that.

Holy fuck. I hadn’t put the pieces together, not until this moment, but now it all made sense. Of course Rhett had an aura. He was Ruth Fairchild’s nephew! She was one of the more famous witches of this area. Of course he had two familiars. My question was, why did he own a tech shop? Why was he asking for help on clearing out some ghosts? He acted like he didn’t know magic at all, which was really, truly strange.

I was also really jealous he got this house. I’d love to live here. Victorians were my absolute favorite style of architecture. It was lovingly maintained, too. The flower beds were perfect, with their red roses and trimmed hedges. A black wrought ironfence surrounded the yard, but there was a section of driveway open to the road before the gate cut off access. Likely for delivery purposes.

I pulled in there, parked, and spotted part of a carriage house behind the main house. Wow, even that looked in perfect shape.

Faintly, I heard the sound of barking from inside. Ah, Myst must have heard me. Still couldn’t believe he was a puppy at that size and with that kind of deep bark.

I tugged my vest into place as I headed toward the front door. I’d opted for a midnight blue dress shirt, tan vest, and black jeans for tonight’s date. I looked good—I knew I did.I just hoped Rhett appreciated the view. Butterflies flitted about in my stomach as I walked up, and I paused at the door, composing myself before pushing the very ancient looking doorbell.

An impressive soundinggoooooooongrang out.

The door opened promptly and I about swallowed my tongue. Rhett looked good enough to eat, and here I was, a very, very hungry boy. I needed someone to say bon appetite so I could get my mouth on him.

“Hi, Calix. You’re right on time.”

“I do try.”

He smiled as he greeted me but there was something off. Something about his body language, which looked stiff, and the smile looked strained around the edges. Hmm? What was this?

Then I realized Lucy was standing in between his legs, facing backward, like a guard dog on alert with her master. Myst was also on guard, one eye behind Rhett, even though he was turned so he could greet me. What was this?

I gave Myst a scratch on the head, but I attuned to my surroundings better. Oh.

Figured a building of this age would be hella haunted.

Now, I wasn’t the strongest when it came to sensing ghosts, that was more my mother’s gift, but I could sense them. And ifI wasn’t mistaken, my date had not one, not two, but a whole house of ghosts all gathered in the foyer watching curiously. I could vaguely see the outlines of their spirits gathered in close—just the transparent silhouettes of them. To be honest, I sensed them better than I saw them.

Had Ruth Fairchild also been a medium? I’d never heard, but I couldn’t explain why there wereso manyghosts here otherwise. Seriously, you’d think this place was a waystation for Ghost Express with the amount of them in this foyer. Typically I didn’t advertise I was a practicing witch. Not everyone was welcoming of that sort of thing. Right this second, though, I felt like Rhett would be open to me telling him something. I was fairly certain Rhett was magical. Besides, if we were going to date, better to get this out in the open right now.

“Uh, Rhett? You realize you’ve got a lot of ghosts playing peanut gallery right now?”

It was like all of the tension in his body just whooshed out. “Oh, thank fucking Christ, you can see them?”

“Half see, half sense. As a witch, I’m very sensitive to the energies around me, see.”

“Oh.” He blinked, absorbed that, then nodded. “That makes perfect sense. Truth told, I can’t see them. But they’ve been picking things up, or moving shit, or making stomping noises so I know they’re there. Aunt Ruth said they’re all friendly. They haven’t done anything bad yet? Just kinda spooking me out of my skin.”

“Well, yeah, of course. You can’t see them, can barely sense them, so makes sense it’s unnerving. Tell you what, let’s go get dinner. You can tell me more about this whole situation, and I can help you come up with a game plan so you’re more comfortable living in the house.”

Rhett stepped forward abruptly and hugged me. Just full-on bear-hugged me.

I liked having a cute male hugging me very much, so I hugged back with a smile. “You like my plan, I take it.”

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