As Time Goes By (The Californians 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

make this day special! I don't even know why I said that, Jeff; no one should receive the treatment that you gave Bobbie!"
    Jeff didn't respond. He stood by the fireplace and let his mother's angry voice rain down on him.
    It hadn't taken very long for the story to circulate among the group at the lagoon, which didn't say much for the congregation's ability to refrain from gossip. Understandably, neither the Taylors nor the Bradfords stayed for the boating.
    Jeff had not waited long for his family to arrive back at the house. Gilbert and Nathan had discreetly disap peared and Jeff faced his parents alone. Bill said nothing as May berated her son.
    "Your actions of the past weeks make perfect sense nowmyour waiting until the last minute to ask. Bobbie and then doing so as though you were going to your own
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    hanging." May continued to point out Jef/'s faults, end ing with the fact that he had deceived everyone, not just Bobbie. A moment later a look of silent communication passed between husband and wife and May exited the room.
    "Sit down, Jeff," Bill said, once his wife was gone. Jeff sat on the sofa but could not get comfortable. He shifted several times even as his father pulled the rocker close in front of him.
    "I want you to tell me everything."
    Jeff did just that, beginning with the boys' conversa tion in the yard and the drawing of straws in the barn, to the moment he dropped Bobbie at her house and came directly home himself.
    "You mean to tell me that Richard and Sylvia came right up to you and Bobbie and called her the 'long straw'?" Bill's voice reflected his amazement.
    Jeff's eyes filled with tears and his shoulders began to shake. "You should have seen her face, Dad; she was crushed. And it's all my fault. I wanted to have Sylvia all to myself and I was willing to do anything---" Jeff's voice broke and he began to sob in earnest.
    Bill joined him on the couch, and with his arm around his errant son, he listened as Jeff shared everything he was feeling and cried himself into near-exhaustion.
    They talked for the better part of two hours and then prayed together. Jeff confessed his selfish, deceitful actions and then listened in surprise as Bill confessed his lack of attention to his oldest biological son. Bill went on to pray for wisdom for Jeff when he apologized to Bobbie and her family as well as wisdom for himself when he went to see Richard and then Sylvia. Father and son were more than a little drained at the end of the prayer.
    "Do you think I should go tonight?"
    "No, son, I think you need to get some rest. You can
    see Bobbie in the morning."
    "Thanks, Dad."
    "I love you, Jeff." The men embraced and then Jeff took himself off to bed. He was up early, but not being sure when the Bradfords would be up and about, he waited until 8:30 to go over. When he arrived, a sober Mr. Bradford informed him that Bobbie had left on the morning stage. She planned to visit her aunt and uncle for the remainder of the summer.
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    six
    Jenner, California January 2, 1872
    "Have you got everything?"
    "Yes, Aunt Joanne, I've got everything." Roberta Bradford uttered the words indulgently; it was the fifth time she had been asked.
    "Oh honey," the older woman cried softly, and hugged
    Bobbie to herself. "What are we going to do without you?" "You'll be fine."
    "Is it wrong for me to pray that Cleve convinces you?" Bobbie opened her mouth to say something but closed it again; she wasn't sure she wanted to touch that one. Thankful that Cleveland Ramsey had not come to see her off, Bobbie turned away from her aunt to face her Uncle Jasper. He was a replica of her father both in looks and personality, a quiet rock of support. But today he had tears in his eyes. Seeing them, Bobbie's own tears came very close to the surface.
    "What can I say?" Bobbie said softly. Her uncle shook his head and enfolded her in his arms.
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    The stage pulled in a few minutes later and Bobbie's bags were thrown into