Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Hey!” Isabelle waves me over as I enter Corner Cafe. “How’d it go with Braden’s mom?” she asks as I join her, Lauren and Mark.
“Um … not so great.”
“Ugh, sorry,” Isabelle says, taking my hand and squeezing it.
“But I said what I went there to say,” I add. “And I think it helped. I felt like crap when I left, but I’m already feeling lighter.”
“Well done,” Lauren says. “That took serious guts.”
“Oh, hey, your new tattoo,” Mark says, his eyes lighting up as he reaches across the table for my hand. “When did you get that done?”
“Last week,” I tell him as I look down at the new pattern. The single star has become a trail of stars shooting across the base of my thumb.
“It’s so pretty,” Isabelle says, probably for the tenth time.
“Yeah,” I say, a hint of a smile pull
