She closed her eyes, and a few tears spilled out down her cheeks.

Hud sent him a fulminating look, and Jacob knew he deserved no less. “Mom—” he whispered hoarsely, letting out an oomph of air when she launched herself off the bed and flung herself at him. Since she was at least a foot shorter than he was, it wasn’t all that hard to catch her. Holding her tight, he pressed his face to her shoulder.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” she asked in a hurt voice. “Did you?”

“Uh…” Lifting his head, he eyeballed Hud, who was a granite statue and no help at all.

Carrie pulled away and shook a finger in his face. “How many times have I told you, cutting school is bad. Baby, you need your education. You’re so smart. You’re going to make something of yourself. I just know it. But Mrs. Stone called me and said you missed her math test…”

Mrs. Stone had been Jacob’s sixth-grade math teacher.

And he had absolutely ditched her class often, usually to get to a card game at a neighbor’s house, where he’d used his considerable math skills to count cards and make their rent money. “I’ll make it up.”

“Yeah, well, see that you do,” his mom said, looking very much the same as she always had, which was a little batshit crazy and a whole lot wonderful, the warmest, sweetest woman on the entire planet. And as she always had, she brought out conflicting emotions in Jacob. Rough memories of being a kid and yet having to be the adult, relief that she was exactly the same, the only person on the planet to unconditionally love him even if she didn’t know what year she was living in.

She hugged him again. “It’s just that you can do better,” she whispered, squeezing him, her small hands patting him gently. “You can do so much better, Jacob. Please try.”

He closed his eyes and held her. “I will,” he promised.

“Hud can help you. I know you’ve been doing all his English and history papers.” She gave Hud a long look before turning to Jacob. “Let him pay you back by helping you in math, okay?”

Jacob met Hud’s gaze, which was cool and assessing. Nope, there wouldn’t be much help coming from that direction, for anything.

“Now shoo,” Carrie said, pushing them both to the door. “I’ve got book club to get to.” She picked up a book from her bedside table.

Fifty Shades of Grey.

Hud choked and then turned it into a cough when Carrie looked at him.

“That’s the book you’re discussing at book club today?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, her cheeks a little pink. “And don’t ask me to tell you about it. There’s nothing in here for thirteen-year-old boys, trust me. I’m raising you right, so I’d best not ever hear in the future—way in the future, when you’re grown men—that you treat your women anything like Christian Grey treats his. You got me?”

Hud lifted his hands in a surrendering pose. “Jacob’s the one with authority issues,” he said. “Not me.”

And then the rat-fink bastard darted out of the room, leaving Carrie to stare at Jacob.

He stared back, finding himself starving for her sweet warmth and affection. He flashed a smile.

She let out a breath and shook her head. “You always were the charmer.”

No. He wasn’t a charmer. And in fact, he was the worst sort of deserter. Yes, he’d sent money every month to support her, not that he’d ever looked at her as a financial burden. He didn’t see her that way. Just as he knew she didn’t see him as a grown man. In her eyes, he was still a child. The dementia had taken a lot of time from her.

And he’d wasted even more.

That was his cross to bear. He bent and brushed a kiss over her jaw. “I’ll come tomorrow, okay?”

“You’d better. No more missing school, Jacob. I mean it.”

With a nod, he left her room.

He’d expected Hud to be waiting for him, but the hallway was empty. He reminded himself that he’d seen Hud’s face light up at the first sight of him. The rest would come.

Or so he hoped.

He felt eyes on him as he left the center but wasn’t in the mood to interact with Sophie, even if she was the only thing that had made him feel better since returning to Cedar Ridge.

The warm sun hit him as he went outside. He thought about the paddleboards at the cabin and could admit he’d hoped to get out on the lake with Hud. It’d been a damn long time since he’d been carefree, with time to do whatever he wanted.

A damn long time.