Page 8 of My Inherited House Might be Haunted

“In this small town? Where everyone notices everything and will ask me who fixed it? Yeah, no. I’ll skip that possible quagmire and hire a handyman.”

“You’re exasperating, Calix. You really are.”

“It’s my job as your little brother. I’m doing an amazing job at it.”

“I want you to take a vacation from it for once. Bye.”

Now where would the fun be in that? But I could tease her more later. Right now, I had a Brownie to settle.

I sat back on the stool and gave the napping Brownie a gentle tap on the arm. “Hey. Wakey wakey. I need to talk to you.”

With a slow blink, the Brownie came awake and stared at me with their head canted.

“Hey, so you can understand me fine, right?”

I got a nod.

“Cool. So here’s the thing. If you’re breaking in here, I assume you don’t have a good place to go?”

The Brownie made a sad noise and wilted in front of my eyes.

Ouch. I think I just poked a sore point. “Sorry, didn’t meant to make you sad. Just trying to understand. If you don’t have a place to go, would you like to stay here?”

Their head came up again, expression hopeful on its mobile features. They made another noise, this one lilting up.

“Yeah, I understand you’re a Brownie? I’m a witch. If you promise to help me keep the house and shop clean, I’ll give you a space to live in and three meals a day. Sound good to you?”

The Brownie chittered at me, more like a rapid clicking of the tongue—a happy sound—and reached up to grab my hand with their own, shaking to seal the deal. My dark mahogany skin was in high contrast to its translucent skin, and I had to wonder if that skin color was healthy for my new Brownie. Or was it a sign of malnourishment? Something to ask Phaedra later.

“All right, done deal. You tell me what you want to eat, okay? I don’t have the faintest clue. And let’s work on better clothes for you, yeah? You’ve got to be cold.” I scooped them up, blanket and all, and carried them back into the connecting apartment above the store. The chime would alert me to a customer ifsomeone came in, but I rarely had customers at this time of the day. Usually lunch was my next rush hour.

The door chime promptly went off.

Fucking hell. I raced the rest of the way upstairs, settled my Brownie on the couch with the order “Make yourself at home, be right back,” then raced back down.

To find not only the door open, but my crush standing in the doorway looking the worse for wear.

Rhett worked at the computer and phone repair shop next to my store. He’d helped me out a few times with my shop computer and was a really nice guy—and damn cute to boot. He’d only been here about four months, and I knew his aunt had died only a month after he’d gotten here. I hadn’t yet found the moxie to ask him out on a date. Mostly because I wasn’t sure if he was straight or not. Plus, the timing seemed really bad, as he’d just lost someone precious to him. I was trying to give him some time to settle in first and grieve.

Right now, the twenty-two-year-old looked like something the cat dragged in. His thick brunet hair normally was styled into a pompadour, but today it was just everywhere—like he’d not bothered to style it—and damp from a shower. Those all-American boy looks were ruined by dark circles under his brown eyes, and while he was in his usual Henley and jeans, for some reason he looked rumpled.

“Rhett, you okay?”

He passed a hand over his face. “That is the fucking question. I inherited my aunt’s house. I told you about that, right? Well, yesterday I moved in, and it’s gorgeous, but sleeping in a new space, y’know? With all the creaks and groans of an old house. I’m convinced it’s haunted. Things have been moving, I’m hearing weird noises, the works.”

The nonchalant way he told me he was in a haunted house was a bit alarming. I was used to the otherworldly, but I hadn’texpected him to be. Was that why he was here, for advice and maybe some help?

“Plus, I got adopted by a cat, and I’d forgotten how nocturnal cats are,” he said.

I nodded along sympathetically. Dude looked beyond sleep deprived. A cat settling into a new house and ghosts would absolutely kill any chance of real sleep. “Want an Energy-Tea?”

“I’ll give my left pinky toe for one.”

“A sacrifice I do not need. I’ll repay the favor of computer repairs.” Honestly, it was nice to return the favor, and it made me happy to help him for once. While I did that, maybe I could pump him about some things while giving him tea. There was something about him…something about his aura that was a little off. I just couldn’t immediately put my finger on it.

Four

Rhett

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