Page 85 - The Last Gift

Jacob hadn’t come. When she called his home,
Jacob’s mother tearfully said he had left and that
even she didn’t know where he had gone. She
said that all he mentioned was something about
going off to college somewhere far away.

The searing memory of that night haunted
Rachel. Something would trigger a wonderful
memory of Jacob only to be dashed to pieces by
the flashback of that kiss, that horrible, horrible
kiss — a careless, foolish indiscretion that had
wiped out so many wonderful hopes and
memories, replacing them with nauseating pain.

Rachel tried to find Jacob. She talked to
every one of his friends, but learned nothing
more than the fact he had boarded a bus heading
west, and that was the last anyone had seen of
him. She did everything she could think of to

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