He looked down at the scarf being draped around his neck and glanced up at Cal, tilting his head to one side a little. He instantly felt a little warmer, the top of his cheeks tinted a light shade of pink.
"I think boys in general go a little crazy over girls; dogs, cats and people too," David said quietly. He'd been out of school for over a year; deliberately yanked through the cracks of the system, but he remembered the schoolyard conversations and all the awkwardness around too-young boys who tripped over themselves and too-naive girls who giggled at them.
David was a bit different. He had a vague notion - he kind of knew why - but he didn't talk about it. Didn't want to think about it as anything more than the fact that there was something wrong with him, that he'd grow out of it when he got a bit older.
"Let's go. When the time comes we'll take care of Mrs. Mason if she becomes a problem," he said as he stepped out, led by the dog which was trying to run down the footpath, unaware of how much what he just said sounded like what Uncle James would have said.