Page 132

“Mm,” Nate said into his coffee and kept scrolling.

@BHGrestore: 100 year old house settling, nothing spooky lol. subscribe for the wallpaper tho

“Settling.” Leo scoffed. “The house is not settling. The house settled before this person was born.”

“We wanted them to speculate,” Nate said.

“But he’s wrong.”

“He’s supposed to be.”

“But he could be wrong less confidently.”

Nate laughed. “You’ve never been on the internet before and it shows.”

Nate scrolled on, and Leo read, and the strangers kept being wrong in new and inventive ways. It was kind of terrible and kind of wonderful. Leo argued with every comment, though none of them could hear him. Nate could, but he just drank his coffee instead of saying anything.

@Jezzebelle: go to 6:12 and watch it frame by frame. that’s not wind. that door moved like someone put a hand on it and pushed.

“That Jezzebelle person is smart,” Leo said.

“Very smart of her to watch frame-by-frame videos of my hallway, yes. Time well spent.”

“She’s right, though.”

“I know.” But Nate said it in a way that indicated he found this to be a problem. He looked at the comment another moment, but didn’t reply to it.

He couldn’t, Leo supposed. What would he write? Correct?

“I don’t like this,” Nate said.

“But it’s going to help you with the money?”

“Yes,” Nate admitted grudgingly.

“That’s good then. I’m helping.”

“You are.” Nate drained his mug and closed the laptop. “Let’s go finish that painting.”

Nate had set the cabinet door on the sawhorses and laid out his brushes. The two greens were already mixed when Leo took his place by the window.

Eyes, then.

Fine.

Leo sat very straight and looked at the wall above Nate’s head, which was a perfectly natural place to look. The wall had a crack in it shaped like a river. He had never noticed that before. It was a very interesting crack.

“Leo.”

“What?”

“Eyes.”

“What about them?”

“I would like them to look at me.”

Leo looked at Nate’s ear.