Chapter 28

My heart sank, not because I didn’t want him to see me as a mother figure, but because it didn’t feel like my right to take that role. Not when things were so up and down with Bratt—not when I wasn’t even sure what I was to Bratt.

I reached over and wrote my name where he asked to have it. I would just have to text Bratt later and mention the situation, explain what had happened, and why I did it. I would just tell him that I wasn’t trying to insert myself in their lives, just that I didn’t want to make Noah feel even worse.

Noah seemed content with his tree and excited to color it in with all the colors of the rainbow. It was just as well, too, because recess was basically over. When the other children came into the room, he was once again the talkative, friendly boy I was used to.

I was the one who had become uneasy.

“Okay, that’s it—Marley, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

I jerked my head up from poking my lunch around in the teacher’s lounge. I’d brought some leftover pasta