“It’s not for sale,” Cam said simply.

“It . . . is it . . .” It couldn’t be, he thought, while his heart thumped with nerves and hope and shock. But hope was paramount. In the past year he’d learned to hope. “Is it mine?”

“You’re the only one with a birthday around here,” Cam reminded him. “Don’t you want a closer look?”

“It’s mine?” He whispered it first, with such staggered delight and shock that Sybill felt her eyes sting. “Mine?” He exploded with it as he whirled around. This time the sheer joy on his face closed her throat. “To keep?”

“You’re a good sailor,” Ethan told him quietly. “She’s a tight little boat. She’s steady, but she moves.”

“You built her for me.” His gaze shot from Ethan’s face to Phillip’s to Cam’s. “For me?”

“Nah, we built her for some other brat.” Cam gave him a light swat on the side of the head. “What do you think? Go take a look.”

“Yeah.” His voice quavered as he turned. “Yeah, can I get in her? Can I sit in her?”

“For Christ’s sake, she’s yours, isn’t she?” His voice rough with emotion, Cam grabbed Seth’s hand and hauled him onto the dock.

“I think this is a guy thing,” Anna murmured. “Let’s give them a few minutes to pull themselves together.”

“They love him so much.” Sybill watched another moment as the four males made noises over a little wooden boat. “I don’t think I realized it, really, until just now.”

“He loves them, too.” Grace pressed her cheek to Aubrey’s.

AND IT WAS more, Sybill thought later as she picked at the meal in the noisy kitchen. It had been that shock on Seth’s face. The utter disbelief that someone loved him, could love him enough to understand his heart’s desire. And understanding, make the effort to give it.

The pattern of his life, she thought wearily, had been broken, shifted, then reformed. And all before she’d really come into it. Now it was set, the way it was meant to be set.

She didn’t belong here. She couldn’t stay here. She couldn’t bear it.

“I really should go,” she said with a well-mannered smile. “I want to thank you for—”

“Seth hasn’t opened your gift yet,” Anna interrupted. “Why don’t we let him rip, then we’ll have some cake.”

“Cake!” Aubrey whacked her palms on her high chair. “Blow the candles out and make a wish.”

“Soon,” Grace told her. “Seth, take Sybill into the living room so you can open your gift.”

“Sure.” He waited for Sybill to stand, then with a jerk of his shoulder started out.

“I got it in Baltimore,” she began, miserably awkward, “so if it doesn’t suit, if you don’t like it, Phillip could exchange things for you.”

“Okay.” He pulled a box out of the first bag, sat Indian-style on the floor, and within seconds was tearing the paper it had taken her untold agonies to choose to shreds.