Page 21 of My Inherited House Might be Haunted

“I fucking love your plan. Yes, please.”

“Then let’s do it.”

I kind of reluctantly let go and turned my attention to the two animals patiently waiting on standby. “You two watch the house. Be back in a few hours. And the rest of you, behave. I don’t want to evict you either.”

Lucy flicked an ear, indicating she had heard me, but she didn’t turn her head. Her attention was on keeping the ghosts off her human. Myst gave a tail wag and nudged Rhett against the thigh with his nose to get more love. Then again, he was a puppy, so it made sense he didn’t really get the full gravity of the situation.

Rhett quickly locked up, then followed me down to the car. We hopped in, and all the while, I had two thoughts bouncing around in my head and getting tangled up. I was super glad that he’d taken the news of me as a witch with aplomb. I really, really wanted to give us a chance at building a relationship. Second thought was, how to deal with the ghosts? They did seem friendly at first glance, but I think boundaries needed to be established so Rhett didn’t keel over from a heart attack.

Feeding the man was definitely the first step.

The drive was short, so we didn’t get much into the conversation. I let that be for a minute and let him breathe out some of his nervous tension.

Rhett was noticeably calmer once we were seated in the restaurant. My sister had given good advice, as the food was excellent and the place had a calm, quiet sort of atmosphere, making it easy for conversation. With the pleasant evening temps, we requested seating outside. No one else was on the patio, so we had an excellent view of well-maintained flower beds and each other. Just how I liked it for a date.

Once we had our orders placed, I zeroed in on Rhett. “I have so, so many questions for you.”

“I bet.” He flashed me the smile that made butterflies flit about in my stomach. “Where to start?”

“The house?”

“Sure, might as well. So my Great-Aunt Ruth and I were really close. My mom and I were basically the only blood relatives she had. My mom married my stepdad about, uh, ten years ago? So I have stepsiblings she was also fond of, but blood relations, it was just the three of us. I spent summers traveling the world with her, and once I was finished with college, I moved out here with the intention of helping her. Her health had rapidly declined the last three years of her life, see. But the timing sucked. By the time I got out here, she was in hospice and I only got three weeks with her. I spent most of my free hours in the hospital visiting.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I could tell it grieved him that he hadn’t had more time with her. I wasn’t sure whether or not to mention I had known her. It might seem too weird? “She must have been an awesome lady.”

“She was cool as hell. The house, as you might have guessed, was hers. She left it to me upon her passing.”

That did explain how he managed to own a house likethat.

“It took a few months after she died to get all the estate things settled, and then I moved into the house this week.” Rhett made a face and sipped his water. “Which was when I discovered it was haunted as hell.”

“She didn’t say anything to you about it?”

“Oh, she said something. She left behind a book of instructions for me about the house, and she wrote exactly three paragraphs about the ghosts. Starting line was ‘don’t worry about the ghosts, they’re friendly.’”

I choked on a laugh. “Wow.”

“Wow indeed. She clearly had developed some kind of rapport with them, but I have no such rapport.” Rhett scratched a cheek. “I had a friend in high school who was a witch, and she could see ghosts, so I’m not too surprised that you can. Anything you can do about them?”

“Lots. Although honestly, my mother’s sense of them is much stronger. I think it’s best to have her over before we make any plans. I will go back with you tonight, though, and communicate with them. At least set some boundaries so you’re not coming out of your skin.”

“Much appreciated.” Open relief flooded his face.

So he’d known someone who was a witch as a teenager, eh. That explained why he was so easygoing with me. But I was really getting the sense that he didn’t know about himself, which was confusing. I’d have to work my way around the question and see if my assumption was right. At the moment, I was very thankful he was so open-minded. Not everyone was.

“My turn for a question.” Rhett sipped more water before speaking. “Why the store?”

“Hmm, really, I’ve always thought a store a good idea. Sourcing stuff for spells is an absolute pain sometimes. And we practitioners didn’t have a place to really gather in this city, which is also a pain if we’re trying to do any group workings. Your Aunt Ruth was someone I knew, actually, as she was the most famous witch of this area.”

Rhett’s eyes bugged right out of his head. “She was a witch?” he asked, voice raising.

That confirmed things for me right there. Rhett had no idea what he was. Why had Ruth hidden it? “A very good one. She was generous to the whole community, always willing to help. I didn’t know her as well personally, having only been around her maybe a dozen times? But she hosted a lot of events and stuff at her house until about four or so years ago. Health issuesprevented her, I guess. Part of the reason I opened the store was to give the community a communal event space again. I decided at eighteen I wanted to open a store and crowdsourced it so I could open one. My dad did force me to take some accounting and business classes so I didn’t do anything stupid, which in hindsight was wise of him, but what surprised me was therestof the city latching on to me. See, I do sell infused products—Moon drops, for example, that help with a woman’s cycle. Some of what I make is really popular and word spreads like wildfire. I make more money off those products than I do the stuff I thought I’d sell.”

“Now isn’t that how it always works? Nothing goes according to plan.”

“Preach.”

“Are you a kitchen witch, then?”

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