After the drowning incident, Jacob started spending every night in my room. Sometimes, I was annoyed by his presence, but him assuming he could stay with me every night. But, most of the time, I felt happy to have him by my side. He never complained again about the dog sleeping in the bed. In fact, he always insisted that Buster laid between us. He was always the first to call the dog into bed with us.
I woke up one morning in mid-February to neither the dog nor Jacob in bed with me. I rolled over to check the clock and the calendar on the wall. It was nearly noon on the fourteenth. I had put a small birthday cake sticker on the day. Smiling, I sat up.
It was my birthday.
I got up and got dressed for the day. I had no idea what Jacob had planned f
