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“Times have changed.” Nate completed the setup and ended the recording before opening the app. The vacuum chimed.

Leo recoiled half a foot, then another foot when the machine rolled away from the dock and toward him. “What is it doing?”

“It’s mapping the room.”

Leo’s gaze snapped to him. “Why does it need a map?”

“So it knows where to clean.”

“It’s gathering information about the house. I didn’t give you my permission for that,” Leo protested.

Then the machine passed through his feet and Leo jerked backward as if it had insulted him personally.

Nate pressed his lips together.

“Make it stop! Make it stop immediately!”

The vacuum bumped the wall, rotated, and came back.

Leo pointed at it. “It’s clearly aggressive!”

“It only wants to clean.”

“It’s trespassing.”

“You’re arguing with an appliance.”

“I’m establishing rules in my house.”

Nate smiled without wanting to. There was the stubborn ghost he was used to. “Maybe the vacuum just likes you. We should give it a name, don’t you think?”

“Don’t you dare. That thing doesn’t deserve a name.”

“How do you feel about Marvin?”

“Absolutely not.”

“I think it fits.” Nate opened the vacuum’s app and changed its name.

“You really like naming things, don’t you?”

“I think I’m pretty good at it, yeah.” Nate grinned. “Wouldn’t you agree, Leo?”

“It’s Leonard to you,” Leo reminded him before flying off in a huff.

By two o’clock, Nate had salvaged four cabinet doors and stripped the paint off three of them.

That was more than he’d managed in the past three days combined.

The work went by quickly as he was listening to Leo waging war against an inanimate object. The two of them had moved to the dining room, from where Nate could hear Leo’s voice.

“That is original flooring. You had better not ruin it.”

Marvin hummed.

“The table legs are off limits. Do not touch the table legs.”

A soft bump.