“No,” he lied. “I knew that wasn’t real in the first place. No big deal.”

“That bastard Carl. I wish I could put my fist through his face.”

“What’s happened with Carl?” Tobias asked, feeling a fresh fissure of alarm. “Don’t tell me he hurt Uriah while I was gone—”

“No. He’s the one who told Axel about your past.”

Tobias was relieved that Uriah was okay, but he wasn’t surprised about Carl. “He’s a little bastard. I’m going to have to move. I won’t continue to live on the same property with him.”

“You won’t have to.”

“What does that mean?”

“Carl is gone.”

“How’d that happen?”

“After Carl told Axel about you, he got pretty full of himself. Went back to Uriah and announced that he’d just set Axel straight, that everyone agreed with him you’re dangerous, and tried to insist that Uriah kick you out. Long story short, he forced Uriah to choose between you. And Uriah chose you.”

Tobias switched his phone to the other ear. “Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

Tobias tried to grasp the full impact of this change. “But it can’t last. Where will Carl go?”

“Uriah gave him a big chunk of his inheritance—enough for him to get an apartment in LA while he works through his legal problems. Then…who knows? Maybe he’ll move back to Maryland, where he’s been for a number of years. But Uriah told him he could never come back to the orchard.”

“And Carl didn’t get violent with him?”

“Hell, no. Carl was so glad to get his hands on the money, he took off immediately.”

“He’ll be back as soon as he blows through it.”

“Probably. But that’s down the road.”

“I can’t believe Carl’s gone,” Tobias said.

“I can,” Maddox responded. “It proves just how much Uriah cares about you.”

“I’m just his renter.”

“You’re a lot more than that. You’ve lost Harper. I know she meant a lot to you. But you’ve got the rest of us in your corner, including Uriah. We all know how special you are—prison record or no. Now, come home.”

Tobias tilted his head back to look up at the stars. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

Harper had told her sister that she was heading to Colorado on Friday, only two days after New Year’s, but she didn’t want to leave Silver Springs until she could return Tobias’s bracelet. After all, he’d probably spent as much on her gift as she had on his, so if he was going to return the watch, she needed to do the same with the bracelet.