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“I’m ordering pizza.”

“We could start again,” Leo said.

“We could,” Miriam agreed. “But the children are hungry.”

“Are we having pizza?” Sally asked excitedly.

Nate looked at Leo.

Leo looked at the saucepan.

“Fine. But nobody is telling Walt.”

While Nate placed the order, Miriam put the sauce aside to soak. The macaroni went into a container for tomorrow. Nate cut the worst edges off the garlic bread, tried a piece, and quietly threw the rest away.

Leo wanted to say something about wasting food but didn’t.

His position was weak.

Nate’s phone chimed with a message.

“Work?” Miriam asked.

“Thursday’s appointment. They’re confirming.”

Nate took no more than two medium appointments a week, fitting them around the renovation work. He helped people talk to the dead they missed, sometimes even see them.

Leo went with him. He could keep a ghost company while Nate explained things to the living, and when Nate’s attention stretched too far, Leo had become rather good at bringing him back.

The work still tired Nate. Sometimes they spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch. But last week, an old woman had spent several minutes telling her husband he was watering her plants too much, and Nate had smiled about it all the way home.

“Will you be back in time for dinner?” Miriam asked.

“Probably.”

“Then come over. Both of you. You can help me in the kitchen and maybe learn a thing or two.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Leo said, recognizing there was nothing else to say.

When the pizza arrived, Jonah carried the boxes into the dining room, and Leo followed.

Caleb hadn’t been invited. He’d repaid Walt and been barred from taking cases. Miriam had made sure the other mediums she worked with knew why; any return would require retraining and supervision.

Richard had objected, but nobody had asked Leo to forgive Caleb or share a table with him.

Leo was grateful for that.

At his own place, he found a folded card beside his empty plate.

UNCLE LEO.

Underneath, Sally had drawn a person with red hair sticking straight up.

“Did I get it right?” she asked Nate.

Nate took Leo’s hand and offered Sally his other. “Come and check.”

She slipped her hand into his. Leo felt Nate’s attention settle around him, and a moment later, Sally’s gaze found his face.