Tobias hated to be that cynical, but if she’d missed him as much as she claimed, wouldn’t she have come to visit him more often? It was a five-hour drive from LA to where he’d been incarcerated, and her car wasn’t always reliable, but he knew of several instances when she could’ve come with Maddox but begged off.

He had a sneaking suspicion that at least some of those instances were about going out with friends to get high or drunk—she couldn’t miss an opportunity like that, especially thirteen years ago. And yet those were the years when he’d needed her most. “I’m glad those days are over, too.”

She pushed her cashew chicken around her plate. She never seemed to eat much, was always more interested in what filled her glass. “I’ll never forget the day I got the call that you’d been stabbed in that place,” she said, her smile disappearing.

“Mom!” He gave her a sharp look. “Can we forget prison, too? Please?”

She rolled her eyes. “You mentioned it first.”

“When I said it’s been seventeen years since—never mind,” he said. “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“I was going to go to Maddox and Jada’s. But I’m not sure I should spend the gas money, not when you’re here now. Is there any way I could just ride back with you tonight?”

Tobias’s fork dangled halfway between his plate and his mouth. “Where would you stay? At my place, you mean?”

“Why not? You have a couch, don’t you?”

He’d never put her on the couch, but he supposed he could sleep there. “How would you get home?”

“Your brother can drive me back tomorrow night.”

“Maddox has a family now, Mom.”

“So? They can ride with us, too.”

“It’ll take four hours, at least. That might not be how they want to spend their Christmas.”

“Then you can bring me back.”

When he hesitated, she said, “Seriously? You won’t do that for me?”

He shoved his food into his mouth. He didn’t want to drive her to Silver Springs and back—not after driving four hours to come see her today. But she was his mother. And it wasn’t as though she was asking for the moon. “Okay,” he said. “Sure.”

She smiled. “I’ve got my eye on something I’m going to get for you as soon as I get my paycheck.”

She’d had a Christmas card for him at her place when he’d given her a new coat. “You don’t have to get me anything.” He’d be happy if she could just get her life under control.

“I want to,” she insisted.

“Okay,” he relented. Chances were slim it would ever materialize, anyway. She was famous for empty promises.

“I’m going to get the same thing for Maddox.”