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“No. Because I was watching. Also, he needs a name, he did not like Fredric.” Leo knew that he was rambling, but he could not stop himself. And anyway, he shouldn’t need to stop. Nate deserved to hear his complaints.

To Nate’s credit, he did not seem to mind either. “How about Rusty?”

“That’s a ridiculous name for a fox.”

“I think it’s a fine name for a fox.”

Leo wanted to argue more, but there was another pressing question on his mind. He tried to look into Nate’s bag. “Did you get the right green?”

“I think so.” Nate reached into the bag, took out a small tube and held it up so that it sat in the air next to Leo’s face. “Let’s go inside and find out.”

Nate didn’t go to the sitting room.

“Light’s wrong in there now,” he said, and went to the kitchen instead. He cleared the table with one arm, set the drawing at the far end and dumped the paper bag in the middle. Then he pointed at the spot by the sink where the afternoon sun came in. “Stand there.”

Leo went and stood there.

“I’m not actually painting today. I just need to find the color.” Nate squeezed a worm of green onto a scrap of plywood. A smaller one of white next to it. “All you have to do is stand still and look at me.”

“I can do that.”

Leo watched as Nate mixed the paint with the flat of his brush, in small circles. He held it up, looked at the paint, looked at Leo’s eyes, and frowned.

“Too dark.”

He mixed in more white, drew more circles and held it up again.

“Closer.”

He stood, came around the table and stopped right in front of Leo.

Leo froze.

Nate lifted the plywood so the smear of green sat an inch from Leo’s temple. His eyes went from the paint to Leo’s eyes and back again. Paint. Eyes. Paint.

Leo squirmed.

“Hold still.”

“I’m trying.”

“Well, try harder.” The corner of Nate’s mouth twitched. He went back to the table and added something to the green and came back.

He stood close enough for Leo to notice that there was plaster dust in his eyelashes. He’d gone to town like that. He’d sat in the diner with dust in his eyelashes and nobody had told him.

Leo wanted to tell him.

He didn’t.

“Hm,” Nate said.

“Hm what?”

“It’s not one color.”

“What isn’t?”

“Your eyes. There’s a darker ring on the outside. And some yellow near the middle.” He went back to the table.