Jake and Jasper had cleaned up a lot nicer than I expected. Jasper had a suit on; Jake, a crisp black shirt with Western-style snaps and some dark jeans that really highlighted what a nice butt he had. But I wasn’t going to get caught checking that out.
I straightened up and readied a smile as I heard Hester letting in the first potential buyers—or nosy local witches. You could usually tell pretty quickly.
“Welcome, come in—welcome to Lockwood House.” I heard a large dog barking outside and I heard Hester gently informing them that maybe the dog should stay out there. I snickered, but I hoped this place didn’t sell to the type of people who expected to just waltz their dogs into my perfect house before showing me the money.
Several sets of footsteps came in, making lots of noise on the old wooden floors. Music to my ears.
“This is the living room, or front parlor as it would be considered, with one of four original fireplace mantles in the house.”
“Love the high ceilings,” an older woman said, while a younger woman said, “I don’t think I could fit my cauldron in there.”
When Jake and Jasper looked at me with twin raised eyebrows I had to clap my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
Meanwhile, the dog smelled wolf, apparently, because it had circled around the house to the kitchen windows and was standing out there barking at Jake and Jasper.
“Smart dog, I’ll say that much,” Jake said.
“And here is the dining room…,” Hester was saying. “This is something truly special. This wallpaper was painted and enchanted by the original owners and the paintings help with hunting and foraging.”
“A focusing spell,” the older man said, sounding approving.
“You can finally learn to hunt deer,” his wife said.
“That will help,” Hester said.
“Oh, so…the kitchen is cut off from the living space?” The younger witch peered through the door and saw us. “Oh, hi.”
“Welcome!” I said. “Feel free to have some cookies and lemonade! I can vouch for the range. It works like a dream.”
“Don’t I know you?” the girl said. She was a skinny but somewhat pregnant blonde girl dressed like a fashionable witch. The style was basically “British royal family”—an appealingly modest and stylish dress in blue and a little fascinator on her head. She could have been anyone from any of my school days. “Helena? Right?”
“Oh.” I laughed. That’s always fun. “Yep. Guilty as charged.” Oh, jeez, why did I say it like that?
“So you’re doing this now. Huh. That is not what I would have expected.” She took a cookie. “Nice house.”
“Thank you,” I said, slightly more pained now.
Her husband had made a beeline for the oven. “Wow—Sienna, check out this range! This is killer! Does it still use logs?”
“I mean, it’s wood fired, yes,” I said.
“Oh, gosh, I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Sienna said. Sienna? I still had no idea who she was. Which meant my family was definitely much wealthier and more prominent than hers, and also meant she was thinking what a huge loser I was right now.
“And what’s this?” Sienna kept nosing her way through the house ahead of everyone else while the older couple were still back there marveling over the wallpaper. “Oh, a tiny little bathroom. Mmkay.”
“Sorry about Dudley,” her husband said, looking out at the dog, who was still barking his head off out there.
Well, at least they weren’t going to buy it.
“THE PIERCES HAVE PUT IN AN OFFER,” Hester said several hours later after taking a call. “They’re the young couple.”
“What!?” I cried. “No!”
“It’s for two thirty-nine…”
“Thousand?” Jasper asked, making a face.
“Obviously,” Hester said. “And it’s a cash offer, no contingencies, we have a thirty day closing in the contract but they want to move faster if possible, and they’re not asking for any additional closing costs.”
“Ohhh whyyy?”
“Why are you wailing?” Jake said. “Shit, I’d take that. You listed it for two sixty and they came in at two forty basically? Come back at two-fifty and we’re making a sweet profit.”
Well, he would, thanks to our deal for me to pay him based on net profits. I would barely get more than what I put in.
“I’m wailing because they’re not going to appreciate this gorgeous historic house! She said she wanted a spot for a cauldron but then she didn’t even pause to admire the apothecary workroom after I spent two days re-painting all those cabinets. That is the worst kind of witch poser. And I bet she tears down that dining room wall, too.”
Jake shrugged. “It’s all about the money, honey.”
“Not for this one,” Hester said, pointing at me, although she definitely agreed with him. Frankly, if Hester had been a white lady and not black, I think she would have been hard to tell apart from that old real estate lady on Shark Tank. She had the same style and was friendly but verrry calculating.
“That older couple seemed to like the house. Or what about that family that came last?”
“The Pietrowskis weren’t sure about finances. But don’t worry, I have more showings lined up tomorrow.”
THE WORK WAS DONE and winter temperatures were starting to grip the house, but in the dream garden, it was sunny and warm. I dreamt myself onto a blanket in the grass, and Byron was with me, unpacking a picnic basket.
“Oh…this is a nice dream,” I said.
“Almost,” Byron said. “The ants are in the picnic basket.”
“Are the ants blonde and complaining about the layout of the picnic basket?”
Byron slid closer to me and leaned over my body, slipping an arm around my waist and trailing his fingers through my loose hair. “You have something against blondes?”
“It’s just…I know why there are invaders in my beautiful dreams. I’m just
