“I’m just visiting.”

“My Uncle John and Aunt Margie moved to South Carolina and we got to visit them. They have two dogs and a baby named Mike. Do you have dogs and babies?”

“No . . . no, I don’t.”

“You can get them,” he told her. “You can go right to the animal shelter and get a dog—that’s what we did. And you can get married and make a baby so it lives in your stomach. There’s nothing to it.”

“Jeez, Will.” Seth rolled his eyes, while Sybill only managed to blink.

“Well, I’m going to have dogs and babies when I grow up. As many as I want.” He flashed that hundred-watt smile again, then raced away. “ ’Bye.”

“He’s such a geek,” Danny said with the shuddering disdain of older brother for younger. “See you, Seth.” He bounded after Will, turned briefly to run backward and flipped a wave toward Sybill. “ ’Bye.”

“Will’s not really a geek,” Seth told Sybill. “He’s just a kid, and he’s got diarrhea of the mouth, but he’s pretty cool.”

“He’s certainly friendly.” She shifted her shoulder bag, smiled down at him. “Do you mind if I walk the rest of the way with you?”

“It’s okay.”

“I thought I heard you say something about a geography test.”

“Yeah, we took one today. It was nothing.”

“You like school?”

“It’s there.” He jerked his shoulder. “You gotta go.”

“I always enjoyed it. Learning new things.” She laughed lightly. “I suppose I was a geek.”

Seth angled his head, narrowing his eyes as he studied her face. A looker, Phillip had called her, he remembered. He guessed she was. She had nice eyes, the light color a sharp contrast to the dark lashes. Her hair wasn’t as dark as Anna’s, nor light like Grace’s. It was really shiny, he noted, and the way she pulled it back all smooth and stuff left her face right out there.

She might be cool to draw sometime.

“You don’t look like a geek,” Seth announced just as Sybill felt heat begin to rise into her cheeks under his long, intense study. “Anyway, that would be a nerd.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure if she’d just qualified for nerd status and decided not to ask. “What do you like studying best?”

“I don’t know. Mostly it’s just a bunch of—stuff,” he decided, quickly censoring his opinion. “I guess I like it better when we get to read about people instead of things.”

“I’ve always liked to study people.” She stopped and gestured toward a small two-story gray house with a trim front yard. “My theory would be that a young family lives there. Both husband and wife work outside the home and they have a preschooler, most likely a boy. Odds are that they’ve known each other a number of years and have been married less than seven.”

“How come?”

“Well, it’s the middle of the day and no one’s home. No cars in the drive, and the house looks empty. But there’s a tricycle there and several large toy trucks. The house isn’t new, but it’s well kept. Most young couples both work today in order to buy a home, have a family. They live in a small community. Younger people rarely settle in small towns unless one or both of them grew up there. So I’d theorize that this couple lived here, knew each other, eventually married. It’s likely they had their first child within the first three years of marriage and the toys indicate he’s three to five.”