“Really? What exactly would be fair in this situation?”
Kaley scrunched up her nose. “Let me stay here tonight.”
Cole and Pandora said “No” in unison. Huh. At least they had that much in common.
Pandora went to stand beside Kaley. “I know what you’re going through, I really do, but you need to go home with your dad and apologize for running away. That’s not cool. Bad things could happen to you, even in a town like this. Although, it’s highly unlikely. In this town, I mean. Anyway, maybe, if you do what your dad says, you can come over some day after school and we can talk some more.”
Kaley looked up at Cole, eyes bright and eager. “Can I, Dad?”
Pandora seemed saner than Lila, but that was based on five minutes of interaction. The jury was still out on her cat. “I don’t know. That’s quite an imposition, and we don’t know Mrs….” He looked at Pandora.
“Miss,” she corrected him.
Single. That was interesting.
“And the last name is Williams.” She walked back toward him and dug something out of the purse sitting on the small front table. A business card. She handed it to him. “I’m a regular upstanding citizen.”
Pandora Williams
The House Witch
Making Real Estate Magic in Nocturne Falls
He chuckled. The House Witch. No wonder she was all about Kaley believing she was a witch. This whole town was so into the Halloween thing. Crazy, but great marketing. He flicked the card against his hand. “Thanks.”
“Dad, we could have Miss Williams over for breakfast.” Kaley nodded eagerly, suddenly the sweet and obedient child. “That would help you get to know her.”
“I don’t think—”
“Please, Dad?” She batted her lashes at him.
Crap. He was a sucker for that face. “I’m sure Miss Williams has to work tomorrow.”
Pandora nodded. “I do. At ten. What time does school start?”
“Eight thirty,” Kaley offered. “Breakfast is at seven thirty, sharp. We live on Shadows Drive. That big old ratty thing.”
Pandora turned to him, odd sparks dancing in her eyes. “I know most of the folks that live over there. Which house?”
“Six-oh-nine.”
Pandora did a double take. “You mean the Pilcher Manor?”
“I guess. Is that what people call it?” A manor? Maybe he was underestimating how much the house would sell for.
She nodded, her gaze somewhere far away. He recognized the look from when his female students would talk about a boy they liked. Or lip gloss. Women.
“Does this mean you’re coming for breakfast?” he asked.
A slow smile turned up the corners of her mouth and gave her the most endearing dimples. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Shadows Drive wasn’t just any street in Nocturne Falls. It was the street in Nocturne Falls proper.
Outside of some of the gated communities that skirted the town, Shadows Drive and its companion streets of Boo Boulevard, Eerie Avenue and Phantom Lane had been designed to replicate the kind of small-town, all-American streets featured in trick-or-treating scenes in many Hollywood movies. Big, elaborate houses on spacious lots with mature landscaping and architecture that was just the right mix of creepy and welcoming.
But Shadows Drive was the jewel in that gem-encrusted fantasy. It had the Gothic Victorians, and of those, Pilcher Manor was the shining diamond.
But as Pandora stood outside the wrought-iron fencing complete with spider web design, she thought Pilcher Manor had become less of a shining diamond and more of cracked cubic zirconia.
In the bright light of early morning, all its flaws and defects were plainly visible. The old manor reminded Pandora of a once-great beauty queen who’d gotten really drunk, slept it off at a friend’s house (in her makeup) and then walked home barefoot in the rain.
Pilcher Manor looked both sad and embarrassing.
Of course, the house had sat empty since Ulysses Pilcher had passed more than two years ago. He’d become a recluse after his wife, Gertrude Pilcher, had died some ten years before him. Gerty had been a witch, not one Pandora had ever known well, but there were still stories told about the vivacious woman.
Apparently, she’d left Ulysses so distraught, the poor man had closed himself off from the rest of the world to grieve her loss.
Pandora couldn’t imagine what the inside of the house looked like now. Gerty had often held lavish parties—Pandora’s mother, Corette, had been to several of them. But after sitting vacant for two years and the time that Ulysses had been cooped up in there…who knew?
Cole couldn’t have bought the house. It had never been up for sale. Last Pandora had heard, the lawyers were still trying to find a relative. Which must mean handsome-but-stubborn Cole was that person.
How could a man who was related to a legendary witch like Gerty not believe in witches? This was going to be an interesting breakfast.
She locked her car, marched past the dumpster in the driveway and onto the porch. A board creaked beneath her kitten heel. She stepped over to one that seemed sturdier and lifted her hand to knock.
The door opened, and Kaley beamed at her. “You made it!”
“I’m a woman of my word.”
“Come in.” Kaley pulled the door wide.
Pandora stepped inside. And tried not to gape. On either side of the foyer were two rooms—a living room and a library maybe? Both were indistinguishable thanks to the stacks and stacks and stacks of papers, boxes and…stuff.