The Professor Woos The Witch

Apparently, Ulysses had become a hoarder.

“Yeah, it’s totally gross, right?” Kaley’s lip curled. “My dad is working on it. Oh, and I’m supposed to apologize for lying to you yesterday. Sorry about that.”

Pandora nodded. “Thank you.” Please don’t let the kitchen look like this too. “Do I smell coffee?”

“Totally. Come on, this way.” Kaley practically skipped through the foyer toward the back of the house.

Pandora followed, trying not to give in to the sudden phobias kicking in. Claustrophobia and germaphobia. Neither of which she’d suffered from before entering this house. She focused on her breathing, which is what her sister Charisma, life coach extraordinaire, would probably recommend.

Fortunately, the rest of the downstairs, including the kitchen, was in much better shape. Cole was at the big antique gas stove, looking very nice in blue jeans and an old T-shirt as he juggled pans of bacon and scrambled eggs. He was also wearing black-rimmed glasses that made his eyes even more piercing. What was it about hot guys in glasses? The combination of hot and vulnerable got her every time. Toast sailed out of a four-slice machine with a loud pop.

“Morning,” he offered.

“Morning.”

He turned and gave her a nod. “It’s a mess. I already know that’s what you’re thinking.”

She nodded back. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“But you were thinking it.” He pointed to the coffee maker. “Cups and sugar are in the cabinet above, creamer’s in the fridge.”

“Thanks.” She took the cue and helped herself.

He looked at Kaley, who was practically balancing on her tiptoes with excitement. “Are you ready to go? Just because we have a guest doesn’t mean you can be late.”

“Da-ad.” Somehow she turned the three letters into two syllables. She went flat on her feet. “My backpack is still upstairs, but I want to talk to Miss Williams.”

“Go get it. Then you can talk to her.”

Pandora watched Kaley leave with a bounce. Teenage energy. That was its own kind of magic. What sort of witchy wisdom Kaley thought Pandora could impart over breakfast, Pandora wasn’t sure, but they’d figure it out. Pandora went back to watching Cole. “How long have you guys been here?”

“About three weeks.” He used a fork to turn the slices of bacon. “But I estimate it’ll take me six to eight months to get this place in shape to sell.”

Pandora’s realtor side sat up. “You’re going to sell it?”

He nodded while stirring the eggs. “It’s too much house for two people. Six bedrooms? Way too big.”

She couldn’t argue with that. The place must be forty-five hundred square feet. “It’s going to be a lot of work.”

He shrugged and started plating food. “I can handle most of it. What I can’t, I’ll hire out.”

“You’re a contractor?”

“I’m a math professor, but like most of us in the teaching industry, I’ve had to work through the summer to pay the bills. Construction has been my job of choice since I was a teenager. So, yeah, I know what I’m doing. Not all of it, but most. Like I said, the rest I’ll contract out.”

A math professor who also worked construction? That explained the lean, tight body she’d seen yesterday. She had a sudden vision of him standing in front of a classroom. If her math professor had looked like Cole, she’d never have passed. Or she’d have done a lot of extra credit. “I’d be happy to help you with that. Recommending contractors, I mean. I know most of them. And which ones you should avoid.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that.” He handed her a plate. “I’m impressed you didn’t put the hard sell on me to list the house with you.”

She sat at the large round table in the seating nook. A hammer and tape measure lay beside a jar of strawberry jam and a stick of butter in a cut-glass covered dish. “I don’t believe in the hard sell.”

He laughed. “Are you sure you’re a realtor?”

“You say that like you think we’re in the same category as personal injury lawyers and used car salesmen.”

Kaley moaned as she bopped back into the room and took a seat at the table beside Pandora. “Dad.” Her eyes went skyward. “Enough with the boring house talk.”

He gave his daughter a look. “Did you apologize?”

“She did,” Pandora offered. “Thank you.”

Kaley sighed. “Now can we talk about witch stuff?”

Cole balanced his plate, Kaley’s plate and a third plate of toast on one arm, then dug a handful of silverware out of a drawer and came to the table. He dropped the silverware with a clatter. “Kaley, how many times do I have to tell you? Witches aren’t real.”

Pandora passed out the silverware. “I hate to eat your food and tell you you’re wrong, but you’re wrong. And Kaley really needs a mentor.”

“See, Dad?” Kaley said.

He handed Kaley her plate and sat before addressing Pandora. “I get that the town is invested in this whole Halloween shtick, but you can’t tell me you think witches are real.”

“I don’t think they’re real. I know they are.” Pandora helped herself to the jam. A big dollop fell off the knife and onto the table. “Bother.”

He looked at her. “Did you just say bother? What are you, a Disney princess?”