Page 24 of My Inherited House Might be Haunted

“Damn, that’s a good argument. But Myst?”

“With the way he was guarding you at the house? And he’s only a puppy.”

Also a good argument.

“Plus, magic tends to run through families. With your Aunt Ruth such a strong witch, it would be stranger if youweren’t.”

Hard to counter that argument, too. Um. I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about this? I’d always been a tech and science kind of guy. Not that I didn’t believe in magic, I just didn’t believe it had much to do with me. Hearing otherwise was throwing me for a loop.

Calix’s tone gentled. “I’m not pushing an agenda here. You can pursue this or not, it’s up to you. I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. If you don’t want to open up to the world, that’s okay. Not everyone wants to. Just sleep on it.”

Man dropped a bombshell like that and then expected me to sleep tonight? Hell no, I’d be tossing and turning like a rotisserie chicken all night.

Calix leaned in and kissed my forehead, his lips soft and warm against my skin. “Eat your ice cream before it melts. Don’t stress. And I’m going back home with you tonight to set some boundaries for your ghosts so you don’t have a heart attack.”

I obediently licked my ice cream. He was right about it threatening to melt all over my hand. Still…priorities. “Will you stay with me tonight, then?”

A flash of heat in his eyes made my heart skip a beat.

“I’d be more than happy to.”

With that reaction, odds were good this wouldn’t be a chaste sleepover. And with him setting boundaries, I wouldn’t need to worry about the ghosts.

At leastsomepart of today would go according to plan.

And I was really, really looking forward to it.

Eleven

Calix

I took Rhett back to his house after we finished our ice cream. Before we got into fun things—and please let there be fun things on the table—we had ghosts to deal with and boundaries to set.

Not into voyeurism, sorry.

Rhett didn’t look nearly as nervous now, but that was likely because he had backup—namely me. His confidence in me was flattering, to say the least.

The second he had the front door open, we were greeted by both Myst and Lucy. Well, Lucy was lounging upon the stairs, tail idly flicking, acting as if she just happened to be here upon our return. She wasn’t waiting on us or anything.

Cats, am I right?

Myst begged for scratches, tail wagging, clearly happy people were home again. I leaned down to give him a good scratch behind the ears.

And then there were the ghosts. They were literally packed into the foyer like sardines in a can. Rhett had mentioned therewas a family here, but it had to be more than one family. Or several generations of a family.

I cleared my throat and addressed them squarely. “Look. I’m not a medium, I can’t hear you or see you clearly, but I can tell that you’re there. Let’s communicate as much as we can. Tap my right hand for yes, left for no.”

One of the ghosts immediately moved to square up with me, ready for the high fives. Coolio.

“First, you’re aware Rhett is Aunt Ruth’s nephew?”

Tap of the right hand, yes.

For Rhett’s sake, I translated. “Yes, they are.”

Rhett blew out a breath, hand over heart. “I’m glad. I wasn’t sure.”

“Are you curious about him? Is that why you’ve been following him around?”

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