“Um. I—I guess the soft ones,” Nat said, surprised by Duke’s question. “The ones that smell nice.”
Duke hummed. “How much do you need?”
“Enough for a... big circle. I think.” Nat wasn’t even sure where the answers were coming from. “I feel like I’m possessed, when I build that leaf wall.”
Duke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Do you mind waiting here? I’ll gather the leaves for you.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Nat nodded quickly, breathing a sigh of relief when Duke grabbed Teddy and hauled him away from his fourth tormented bush.
Duke, Teddy, and the shopping cart disappeared off to a corner of the property with several pine trees. There were probably more leaves there; Nat should’ve thought of that, except he hadn’t wanted to leave the children behind.
He settled back on the ground, cuddling with Wanda again. “This is a big place. It would take me forever to walk from one corner of Duke’s territory to the other.”
“You can go much faster if you run on all fours,” Mallie said.
“I don’t think raccoons run, period.” Nat laid back to stare at the sky. “I like being a lazy raccoon.”
Mallie giggled. “Have you hidden in Duke’s bed as a raccoon and tried to scare him?”
“How?” Nat asked, intrigued. “Won’t he find me first?”
“He doesn’t have super hearing,” Mallie whispered. “So if you’re really quiet and really small, you can tuck yourself between his pillows, and he won’t know!”
Nat perked up, even more intrigued. “That’s tempting. But I think he’ll fire me if I do that.”
“No, he won’t!” Mallie bounced on her heels. “C’mon, give it a try! Teddy and I do it once a year but I think he expects us to, at this point. But he won’t be expecting you!”
“If you can promise that he won’t kill me for surprising him,” Nat said dryly.
“I promise he won’t,” Hubrie said, popping up beside them.
Nat jumped and yelped. “Eavesdropper!”
“Always.” Hubrie smirked. “If I’mnoteavesdropping, then something is wrong.”
Nat watched him suspiciously, perking up when Duke and Teddy returned with armfuls of leaves. “Wait. That’s... a lot.”
Duke grinned. “I thought we should err on the side of having too much. Besides, I don’t think this is enough for a truly large ‘leaf wall’.”
He dropped his armful of leaves in front of Nat; Mallie squealed and burrowed into the pile.
Nat chuckled. “With these cubs around, I’m not sure how I’m going to keep my leaf wall intact.”
Duke scooped out the leaves from the shopping cart’s belly and added them to Nat’s pile. “We’ll help.”
He knelt in front of Nat and looked him in the eye, so serious that Nat’s stomach fluttered.
Duke didn’t have to go out of his way to gather so many leaves; Nat was being paid to watch his children. And yet here they were, Duke patting Nat’s knee with one large hand. “C’mon. Let’s get started. Show me how you were building your leaf wall.”
“I don’t know how,” Nat said. He began piling the leaves as high as he could, except past a certain point, the wall wouldn’t grow any taller.
“I think you need something thick in there,” Duke said.
Nat choked on his spit. “I—What?”
Duke grinned. “Some wood.”
“Oh, gods,” Nat said weakly, coughing so he could breathe right. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
