CHAPTER 1
He’s a Little Off
WINONA
WANH! WANH! WANH! WANH!
“Ugh, this phone!” It had taken me a full minute to find the awkwardly positioned valve on this ancient boiler. I couldn’t answer a call now.
WANH! WANH! WANH!
I gritted my teeth. “Me nerves is shot!”
I hadn’t lived in Newfoundland in over sixteen years. But that ringtone, in a creepy hundred-and-fifty-year-old basement boiler room? The old me was coming out in force.
Cher, second in command at Heartbreaker Plumbing—my all-women plumbing outfit in Quince Valley, Vermont—popped up from behind some pipes. She was working on the other side of the dimly lit, earth-and-mold-smelling room, and her deep brown cheeks were as flushed and filthy as mine.
But it was clear she was holding back a laugh. She loved it when I got Newfoundlandism-levels of annoyed. “You gonna get that or what, Winona?”
Cher knew the siren ringtone was reserved for calls that had already been sent to voicemail.But she was wrestling with a bitch of a pipe as stubborn as this boiler, and I'd made a ruleabout not stopping what you were doing when it would be unsafe or detrimental to the work.
“Not”—I grunted, working the wrench—“yet.”
WANH! WANH! WANH!
“Could be a gorgeous man!” Cher waggled her grime-streaked brow at me.
“Ha!” I readjusted once more. “Well, he’ll have to call back. We’re almost done.”
The siren finally ceased.
“You’re no fun, Win.” Cher dropped back down. “How am I supposed to live vicariously through you when you’re the least vicarious person I know?”
Cher was married to a lovely man and had a toddler. A cozy family with a sweet baby? I wanted to live vicariously throughher.
“Some things just aren’t fair.” I wiped sweat from my eye with my bare shoulder.
Cher was right, though; I wasn’t a very exciting person. But I’d been a responsible adult since the day I left my island. Longer, really. I knew nothing else. Maybe I’d get around to finding my Prince Charming someday, but it wasn’t a top priority. Also, I had big, important things happening in my life. Things I’d engineered all by myself. Including this job. Heartbreaker was handling all the plumbing at a massive renovation of the Rolling Hills resort. It was the biggest contract we’d ever taken on. It would also be my last as owner-operator.Thiswas the priority.
I bit my lip as I worked, eyeing a cobweb strung from the side of the boiler all the way to the ancient cage light overhead. “You think the rumors are true?” I asked.
“About what?” Cher’s voice was muffled.
“The ghost!”
“Winona. Do you even need to ask?”
My neck prickled. “You’re supposed to say no.”
“Sorry,” my friend said, sounding a little clearer as I heard her shift positions. But she didn’t sound sorry at all. “This place is creepy as hell,” she admitted.
Normally, I had ovaries of steel. But the superstitious Newfoundlander part of me knew that if a ghost were going to hang out anywhere, it would be here.
I cranked the handle. The thing didn’t budge. But as I re-wrapped my hands around the wrench, a shadow passed across the boiler.
I let out a little yelp, nearly losing the tool.
“You okay, Win?” Cher grinned down at me. The shadow was her: she’d gotten up to get another tool.
