Chapter 1
San Francisco, California

"Okay, great," Piper said into the phone as she held it in the crook of her neck—she was lacking a free hand at the moment. Her son, Wyatt, was hanging on one arm while she was trying to sign for a package using the other. And at the same time she was trying to focus her attention on her slightly agitated assistant club manager over the phone.

"Put the shipment in the storeroom for now and I'll worry about it tomorrow," she said. "Yes, I am subscribing to the Scarlett O'Hara school of business management now…. Okay… thanks."

Piper had scaled back her responsibilities at her club, P3, since the birth of her son. The problem was that everyone who worked there seemed to think the place was going to crumble to the ground without her. It was nice to feel needed, but the current level of dependency exhibited by her staff made her infant child seem self-sufficient by comparison.

Piper pushed end on the cordless phone, finished scribbling her name on the delivery man's electronic pad, rested the phone on the package, and took it from him all while Wyatt continued to tug at her blouse.

"Thanks," she said to the delivery man without missing a step. Then she closed the front door, dropped the package on the side table, moved into the conservatory, and placed Wyatt in his playpen.

"Just another quiet morning in Halliwell Manor," Piper said to the handsome man in the blue jumpsuit standing in the conservatory.

Actually, she was speaking to the back of his head. The man was checking out the glass windows that made up the wall of the conservatory. She had left him a minute ago to answer the front door and was surprised to find that he was still working when she returned. She had thought the job was done. Apparently, he didn't like what he had seen because he pulled a small rag from his back pocket and started wiping the pane he was examining.

"Sorry if we're adding to the ruckus," the man said as he finished wiping down the window and took a sip from the glass of milk Piper had poured him before she answered the door. "Don't you just love that word? 'Ruckus'? Brings all kinds of images to mind, doesn't it?"

Piper's image of a "ruckus" wasn't all that pleasant. In fact, it was the reason the handsome gentleman was at her house this morning.

"No problem at all, Mr. Goode," Piper said. "Your crew has been amazing. I never imagined the place could get so clean in only a couple hours." Piper was still impressed that the crew had managed to come at 9 A.M. that morning, clean the entire first and second floors well enough to eliminate all remnants of what seemed like their thousandth demon attack, and leave the place looking totally spotless.

She wished that she had thought of calling a cleaning service before. It would have saved her and her sisters a lot of work over the years. Considering what a mess it was to stop the forces of evil, she'd probably be one of their best customers from now on.

"At Goode's Cleaning Service, we aim to please," Mr. Goode said as he pretended to tip his nonexistent hat to her. "Just to go over things, we've dusted, mopped, and vacuumed, cleaned the windows, polished the fixtures, and even managed to get that stubborn green sludge off the floor."

Piper noticed that the part about the green sludge was spoken with a bit of a question in his voice. She couldn't blame him. It was an unusual stain. The cleaning crew had made a similar remark when they first saw it.

"Cooking experiment gone horribly wrong," Piper said, trying to explain away the sludge. It had actually been all that was left of a Goo Demon. She had cleaned up the goo herself before calling in the crew. There had been no easy way to explain the thick coating of gunk that had covered everything in the front hall the night before.

Goode didn't seem to be buying her explanation for the sludge, though. "A cooking experiment that leaves a stain on the living room floor?"

"When I get going, no room is safe," Piper said, trying to laugh the question off.

There was a brief pause as Mr. Goode mulled over her answer. It seemed like he believed her. Either that or he had decided to leave the crazy lady alone and move on. "So then, everything is to your satisfaction?"

"Beyond," Piper said. "You don't even know how much time you've saved me. I may even be able to take a nap along with Wyatt this afternoon."

Goode leaned over the baby's playpen, tickling the boy under the chin. "I'm just glad to help a mom out," he said. "Especially a working mom such as yourself. What is it you do?"

Copyright © 2006 Spelling Television Inc.