Witching For Grace: Premonition Pointe, Book 1

by Chase, Deanna

  Normally Grace would never dream of not being present during the first walk-through. Someone needed to be there to ease their fears or validate their concerns. But this was a special circumstance, and she didn’t want to interject herself any more than she already had.

  Grace sat down on the top step of the porch and made herself comfortable.

  It didn’t take long for Matt to rejoin her on the porch. He sat down next to her and said, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. But I didn’t do much. All I did was get you here.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad it worked out.”

  “I want to know how you knew this was the house for us. When I was here the other day, I felt… Well, let’s just say I felt too much. Pain, sorrow, regret. It was very much what I felt in those last days before I lost my wife. It made me never want to come back here.”

  “Oh, wow,” Grace said softly. “I’m sorry, Matt. It sounds like your wife was here that day, too, only you couldn’t see her. But you could sense the lingering emotions that were present during her last days. How was it today? Better?” She sure hoped so, because no one would want to live anywhere that had such heavy vibes.

  “Much better,” he said, smiling. “You’re right, she was here, and she gave me shit for running away.” He chuckled. “That’s just like her. She filled us in on the connection she and the boys have to the place. After hearing about the curse and all about their cousins, Jenny and Emma, those two boys don’t want any other place. And that’s fine by me. The home is exactly what I asked for.” He placed a hand on Grace’s arm and squeezed lightly. “You really came through for us. But I’d love to know how you did it.”

  Grace told him about the ghost-whisperer, the neighbor, and the research Joy had done for her. “I know it sounds creepy and stalkerish, but in order to do my job, I had to find a way to reach out to the remaining family, no matter how distant, to figure out who might be interested. You just happened to be the one I knew already.”

  He laughed. “Lucky me.”

  Hayden and Hunter appeared from inside the house, both of them smiling and chattering animatedly about the house, the beach, and spending their summers there with their wives. When they spotted their dad and Grace on the porch, Hayden grinned down at Grace. “You’re an angel. Thank you for this. We know dad had already vetoed this place, so thank you again for your tenacity. Seeing Mom again…” He sucked in a steadying breath. “You have no idea what that means to me.”

  Grace had a vague idea, but her relationship with her own mother had been challenging. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel if her mother’s ghost just appeared. Overwhelmed? Sure. Grateful? It was hard to say. “I’m just glad I was able to play a small role in all of this. Congratulations on the house. Should we get going so we can start the paperwork?”

  A half hour later, Matt and Grace were in the Landers Realty office and she’d just sent the offer to Mr. Saint. Not even two minutes had gone by before her phone rang. “Excuse me,” she told Matt as she got up to take the call in one of the private conference rooms.

  “Mr. Saint. Hello. Congratulations on the full-price offer. Did you have questions?” she asked him.

  “Is this for real, Ms. Valentine? The guy is really offering cash at full price?”

  “It’s definitely real. The buyer isn’t interested in playing games. He wants the house. The house wants him and his family. It turns out they have family ties to the previous owners, so they’ll be keeping it in the family, so-to-speak. This one is a no-brainer, Mr. Saint. I can’t tell you what to do, but if it were me, I couldn’t sign fast enough.”

  “There’s not the potential for a bidding war, is there?” he asked, still suspicious.

  Grace barked out a laugh. “Absolutely no bidding war. Just a man who knows what he wants. You’re not having second thoughts about selling it are—”

  “No. No second thoughts. Tell Mr. Dahl it’s a deal. I’m sending the electronic contract as we speak.”

  “Perfect. And congratulations again.”

  “I’ll believe it after closing. But Grace?” he said, using her first name for the first time.

  “Yeah?”

  “If this is what I can expect from you as a Realtor, I think we might be able to build something special together. I look forward to working with you.”

  The line went dead, and Grace pumped her fist and let out a cry of victory. Mr. Saint spent an enormous amount of time buying properties and fixing them up. Some of them he rented out, others he flipped. But either way, he was the type of client Realtors salivated over. This was a huge win.

  Grace walked out of the conference room with a happy grin on her face. “Congrats, Matt. You are now under contract.”

  “Excellent. That was easy,” he said.

  Sure it was, she thought. Full price on a property that had been vacant for so long that the cobwebs in the ceiling corners were multiplying by twelves.

  “How about I take you to dinner to celebrate?” Matt suggested. “You know, since my kids bailed on me. It would be nice to have the company of a smart and beautiful woman.”

  “You’re on,” Grace said, hooking her arm through his. “Lead the way, Matt Dahl. I’m starving.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Grace tapped away at her computer at Landers Realty. Mr. Saint had accepted Matt’s offer on the cottage, and now that she had everything set in motion for the appraisal, inspections, and coordinating with the title company, she’d moved on to thinking about the Victorian. She knew Gigi wanted that house. But she couldn’t just sit back and hope an offer came in. That wasn’t her style.

  Since the house needed to approve of the buyer, she decided online marketing wasn’t the way to go and was working on a series of open houses with the intent to invite as many witches as possible. Since the house was seeped in magic, that seemed to be the most logical course of action. And the sooner the better. The house had already been on the market for far too long.

  In an effort to think outside the box, Grace composed an email to a master mailing list of witches in the area, inviting them to tour the magical old home that weekend and asking them to bring anyone who might be interested in purchasing a piece of Premonition Pointe’s history. She’d just hit send when Nina appeared, hovering over her desk.

  “Mr. Landers wants to see you in his office,” the assistant said.

  Grace glanced up at her and was pleased to see the acne was fading. If she had hexed the younger woman, it was good to know her hex wasn’t permanent.

  “What are you staring at?” Nina demanded and then touched her fingers to the fading breakout on her chin. “I usually have really clear skin.”

  “I was just thinking that you looked nice today,” Grace said, trying to make peace with the woman. Petty office politics had never been her thing and accidental hexes aside, she really did value a positive work environment.

  “Um, thanks.” Nina dropped her hand and gestured to Landers’ office. “He’s waiting for you.”

  “Thanks.” Grace closed her laptop and went to meet with her boss.

  “Congratulations, Valentine,” Kevin Landers said, meeting her just outside his door. “It looks like you definitely have the chops to work at Landers Realty, and anyone who can sell one of the haunted properties at full asking price is on her way to being a star.”

  He moved to Nina’s desk and picked up one of the full champagne glasses that had been prepared. “Nina, pass these around, will you?”

  “Sure, boss.” Nina strode over on her impossibly high heels and made sure everyone in the office had a glass, including Owen, who had snuck in when Grace hadn’t been paying attention. Grace smiled at him, but then frowned when he averted his gaze. What was that about? Normally Owen was flirty at all times. But it seemed like he was irritated with her. Or maybe she was just reading too much into it. It was possible he just wanted to keep the office professional and if that was the case, she certainly didn’t blame him. In fact, she was one hundred percent o
n board.

  Nina shoved a glass of champagne into Grace’s hand and whispered, “He never does this, you know. Never. You must’ve really impressed him.”

  Grace blinked. Had Nina just complimented her? She had. Maybe Nina was ready to drop the office bullshit, too. “Thanks, Nina. I appreciate it.”

  She nodded and moved on until everyone had their own glass.

  Landers raised his glass in the air and said, “A toast to our newest and brightest agent. It’s not only impressive that Grace managed to get a house under contract within her first two weeks here, but it’s also one of the houses this agency has struggled with since the beginning. No one who has taken it on has even come close to finding a buyer, including myself. So cheers to Grace. I think we have a star on our hands.”

  Her fellow agents all cheered and then downed their champagne. Grace just stood there gaping at her boss.

  Landers chuckled. “What is it, Grace? Did you think I wasn’t capable of acknowledging good work?”

  “I…” She shook her head, stunned. “Sure. But not mine. You did, after all, make my employment conditional on selling one of those houses, knowing full well they are some of the most difficult on the market. And you did it because I used to work with Bill. It’s not exactly the best look for you.”

  He pursed his lips thoughtfully and nodded. “You’re right. I did do that. Maybe it wasn’t my finest hour, but you did run the office of my biggest rival for two decades, Grace. I needed an easy way to let you go if you turned out to be like Bill.”

  “What do you mean ‘like Bill?’” she asked. “What does that even mean?”

  Landers eyed her for a moment before he shrugged and said, “Your ex poaches clients and isn’t above coloring the truth significantly if he thinks it will get him the sale. That’s not how we work here. I needed to make sure you didn’t have those same tendencies.”

  Grace wanted to deny his accusations about Bill but couldn’t. He was on the nose about her ex. Those were two things they’d argued over plenty of times, with Bill always insisting that she was making a big deal out of nothing. And he did his best to hide his actions from her, so she had no idea just how many times he’d crossed the ethical lines, only that she was in no way surprised that he did. “That’s fair,” Grace said. “I hope I’ve proven to you that I’m not him and that just because his ethics are lacking that doesn’t mean mine are, no matter how many years I worked there.”

  “So far, Grace,” Landers said, “you’ve exceeded my every expectation. Consider your conditions of employment lifted even if for some reason this sale doesn’t go through. You’re the type of agent a firm needs to keep on staff. I hope you like it here well enough to not go out on your own, because you’re one I’d rather have on my team instead of the other way around.”

  She couldn’t keep herself from beaming. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

  He gave her another small salute with his glass and said, “Now get back to work. We all have properties to move.”

  Grace and Nina both chuckled, but the rest of the staff had already gone back to doing their own work. It was just as well. Grace didn’t need them eavesdropping on her conversation with the boss. She nodded to Nina and then crossed the room to talk to Owen.

  “Hey,” she said. “Looks like you’re going to have to put up with me for good now.”

  “Looks like it,” he said, but he didn’t look up from his computer.

  What was happening here? This was more than just not flirting at the office. This was starting to feel an awful lot like the cold shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “Sure.” This time he did glance up at her. “Congratulations on the sale of the cottage. Looks like you’ll now have an opportunity to see more of Matt Dahl once the sale goes through.”

  Grace frowned. She was about to ask what he meant by that when Nina called, “Grace? Vince Hill is on the phone. He says Gigi Martin is ready to make an offer on the Victorian, but she wants to see the house one last time before Vince turns in the paperwork.”

  “What? You’re kidding!” Grace glanced at Owen. “Can I call you later? Maybe we can get dinner.”

  “Sure, Grace.” This time he sounded more like himself. “Good luck with the house.”

  She smiled at him and then hurried to get Vince’s call.

  * * *

  “Hi, Vince,” Grace said, striding up the steps onto the porch of the large Victorian. She was surprised he’d beat her there since he was from a neighboring town. “You made good time.”

  “Gigi was in a hurry,” he said, taking her hand in both of his. His crooked smile and brown eyes were warm as he smiled at her. “Hopefully we can get this done tonight.”

  “I’m all for that.” Grace glanced at the open front door. “Is Gigi inside?”

  “Yeah. I hope you don’t mind. We used the lockbox.”

  “Not at all. Should we go in or give her some more time?” Grace didn’t want to rush Gigi. But she wanted to be around to answer questions should any come up.

  “We can go in. I think this was more of a ritual thing.” He winked at her and added, “You know how witches are.”

  Grace chuckled. It was no secret that Grace was a witch, as were many of the permanent residents of Premonition Pointe. Her kind naturally flocked to the magical town.

  They found Gigi standing at the back door, staring out at the churning ocean. And to Grace’s surprise, there were also two transparent ghosts in the shape of women flanking her on both sides.

  She blinked. Yep. Still there.

  ““When you weren’t able to find out who the spirits were who lived here, I did a little digging of my own,” Gigi said absently. “They couldn’t let just anyone buy this place.” She turned to face Grace and Vince. “They needed a witch who was willing to share their space, not someone who wanted to displace them.”

  The two ghosts nodded their agreement and moved just a little closer to her.

  “After the smudgings, they got kind of upset,” Gigi explained. “That’s when the Hannigan sisters combined their powers to accelerate the decay out front.” The woman chuckled softly. “I can’t say I blame them. They lived here first after all.”

  Grace let out a small gasp of surprise. “The Hannigan sisters? That’s who’s here?”

  The forms of the two ghosts solidified briefly, showing Grace two lovely young women dressed in high-waisted dresses with untamed curls that would have been completely out of the norm for women of their social class. But witches never really did follow the rules. The one on the right smiled at Grace, while the one on the left smirked.

  “It’s nice to meet you both,” Grace said, meaning it. “I apologize for the smudgings. Dealing with occupied homes is new for me. But I’m beginning to understand that finding the right buyer is far superior to forcing friendly spirits out of their homes.” Bill had been afraid of ghosts and had actively turned down clients trying to sell haunted real estate, so it wasn’t something she’d run into before. “I know better now.”

  The two ghosts faded back into the ether, leaving Gigi looking angelic with the light glowing around her.

  “I’m ready to sign the paperwork, Vince,” Gigi said, moving toward the counter where there was a folder waiting. The glowing light moved with her, and it was then that Grace realized the light was actually coming from Gigi and not the sun outside.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a witch look so radiant,” Grace said.

  Gigi glanced up at Grace and said, “You know, I could say the same about you.”

  Grace glanced down to see a tiny sheen of golden magic clinging to her skin. She let out a small gasp. “Where is that coming from?”

  “It’s a gift from the Hannigan sisters. It means they like you.”

  Warmth blossomed in Grace’s chest, and she had the thought that maybe she’d found her calling. That dealing with haunted properties could be her specialty. Real estate had always come easy for her, but matching challenging properties wi
th the right buyers made her feel useful in a way she hadn’t before. For the first time since her divorce, she started to feel settled. No matter what happened in her personal life, she had a career she loved, wonderful friends, and a niece she adored. Life was only going to get better.

  Grace watched as Gigi pulled a fancy ballpoint pen out of her bag and opened the folder with the contract. After scanning it, she put her pen to the paper and signed.

  “Gigi!” James Martin stormed into the house and stalked toward his wife. “What are you doing here?” Before she could answer, he glanced down at the paperwork and let out a low growl as he grabbed it and tore it up.

  “James!” Gigi tore the paper out of his hands. “What do you think you’re doing? This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “I’m your husband,” he bellowed. “I told you no. We aren’t getting this house.”

  All of the good feelings that had filled Grace a moment earlier vanished. She’d thought James was going to be a problem. Real estate transactions never went smoothly when spouses weren’t on the same page. She cleared her throat, intending to offer a cooling off period, but before she could get the words out, James grabbed Gigi by the arm and started to drag her across the house.

  “Whoa, man,” Vince said, rushing over to them. “What are you—”

  James’s fist flew and landed on the side of Vince’s head, sending him crashing to the ground.

  Grace stared at Vince in horror as blood ran from a cut on his cheek. She rushed to his side, using the hem of his shirt to staunch the bleeding. “Vince?” she said softly. “You okay?”

  The other Realtor opened his eyes and winced. “Jesus. What the hell just happened?”

  “Gigi’s husband just clocked you.”

  He groaned and rolled to his side.

  “That’s what you’ll get too if you don’t mind your own business,” James warned Grace as he grabbed Gigi with both hands and hauled her off her feet.

  “Oh my god! Let go of me,” Gigi demanded at the same time that Grace cried, “Hey! Get your hands off her.” Grace didn’t give one flying pig if he was Gigi’s husband. No man had the right to lay hands on a woman.