The Follower by Kate Doughty (ebook reader with built in dictionary TXT) 📕

makes me feel old, and I’m too much in denial for that.” Cecily smiles, genuine this time.

“What’s up, sweetheart?” Mr. Cole asks.

“Oh, I just wanted to move a desk upstairs,” she says. “But you’re busy, so I’ll just get Amber and Rudy to do it sometime later.”

“You kids were cleaning out the turret and the attic, right?”

Cecily nods. “Turret, actually. We couldn’t get in the attic—isn’t it sealed?”

Her dad sighs and gives Joseph a look; this is clearly only one of many problems on their to-do list. He offers Joseph a brief explanation of the house tour and what the realtor had said about the attic. Joseph instantly suggests a fix, and Mr. Cole loses himself in a list of potential solutions, and then yet another, longer list of other problems they would have to deal with first. Cecily coughs, trying to regain his attention.

“I’m sorry, what did you need?”

“A desk moved. But I can ask later . . .”

“Well, I think I’m on the clock,” Joseph says, giving her a friendly smile. “I can help you out, since we’re waiting on Mrs. Cole to begin the tour, anyway.”

“Is this for your makeup studio?” Mr. Cole asks.

“Yeah,” Cecily says. “If that’s okay.”

“Sure! One thing first, though.” Joseph walks over to Speckles’s cage and smiles through the bars. “Who’s your furry friend here?” he asks, clearly charmed. Cecily is instantly won over.

“His name is Speckles,” she starts, but she doesn’t have time to get any additional words in before Rudy and Amber appear in the hallway. They introduce themselves to Joseph, and the first thing out of Rudy’s mouth is, “Know anything about the dead girl?”

Cecily winces. Joseph shakes his head. “That was before I moved here. I’ve only been in town for the last ten years or so, but I’ve really liked my time in Norton. Lovely place.”

Cecily can’t tell if Rudy is oblivious or if he’s deliberately ignoring the attempt to change the topic as he continues. “Do you know where we can find out? Our followers are dying to learn more.”

“Followers?”

Cecily lets out a mental groan as her dad launches into an explanation of social media and the logistics of being paid for posting photos of their renovations online. Mr. LaRosa seems confused, but perhaps a little impressed. “You remind me of my own kids—got two in college always trying to get me to video-chat this and text that. I just can’t keep up.”

“Neither can I,” Mr. Cole jokes. “That’s why I leave it to them. And they leave the construction to us.”

Joseph laughs. “Now that, I can handle,” he says. “I’m glad that you’re fixing the place up. I think it’s always a shame when homes go unlived in. And I know the rest of the town will see that, when you’re done with the place.”

“The rest of the town?”

“Robert?” Rudy is cut off by the sound of their mom rounding the corner. “Robert, where’s the master key?” She sees Joseph and stops short.

“Er, please,” Mr. Cole says. “Allow me to introduce you to my lovely wife.”

Mrs. Cole wipes the scowl off her face and greets Joseph before turning to her husband. “I thought I told you to leave the key on the kitchen island.”

“I did, honey.”

“Well, it’s not there—”

“Er, there was a key on the bannister when I came in,” Joseph says, almost shyly.

Cecily’s mom vanishes back toward the entry and returns a few seconds later with the key. “Thank you,” she says to Joseph. Then to Mr. Cole, “You’re hiring him, right?”

“Absolutely,” Mr. Cole says.

Mrs. Cole gives Joseph’s hand a warm shake. “Thanks again. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Likewise,” Joseph says, before turning back to Cecily. “Now, what was it you needed moved?”

Between her dad, Rudy, and Joseph, it takes about twenty seconds to move Cecily’s desk into the prime position for turret makeup, lighting-wise. As they place the desk down, Cecily spots a stray cassette tumbling out of a drawer. Her dad grabs it.

“You know what these are?” he asks, incredulous. He turns it over in his hands. “See, kids, this is a cassette—”

Rudy rolls his eyes but smiles as he takes the cassette from his dad. “Weird. This one’s not labeled,” he says.

“Ah,” Mr. Cole continues. “That could be a mixtape, because, you see, back when kids didn’t have iPhones or iMusic or Apple everything, we actually had to record songs from the radio.”

Rudy snorts. “I know what a mixtape is, Dad,” he says. “And yeah, sure, teenage boomers were the OG music pirates. Got it.” He gingerly picks up the tape, trailing a tangled mess of ribbon behind it. “Looks like it needs a little love.”

“You’re really going to go through all the effort to untangle and rewind it?” Cecily asks.

“Of course,” Rudy says.

“Well, I’ll leave you kids to it,” Mr. Cole says. “Me and Mr. LaRosa—Joseph—have some planning to do. And then, if you kids want to help, we’ll start ripping up the floor.”

Cecily doesn’t respond enthusiastically, but Rudy mutters some vague promise as they leave.

As soon as they’re gone, Amber sits up on the desk and turns to Cecily. “Hey, Cece, some girl named Bella messaged the account while I was unpacking—she says she met you? Invited you to hang out?”

“Oh, yeah,” Cecily says. “She works at the pizza place. I thought it might be fun for us to hang with the townies. What do you think?”

Rudy raises an eyebrow. “We’ll only be here for, like, a month. And did you hear what Joseph was saying about the town? I hadn’t thought about it before, but—”

“—they might not be happy that we’re here,” Amber finishes.

Cecily flushes. She hadn’t thought that the town’s . . . lukewarm reception toward the Coles would extend to Bella and her friends. “Hey, you don’t know that,” she says. What she doesn’t say is how eager she is to get out of this house and have something besides social media to do. She watches her siblings hesitate and decides to pull out her trump card. “I’ll bet