laughing, one thumb bare and healing, nobody the wiser.
The spot faded over the following weeks, and the nail grew in smooth.
I think about that week more than I expected to. The spot itself was small and, in the end, easy to fix. What stays with me is how close I came to saying “it’s nothing” a second time. She had been trying to tell me something, and I had been too busy with the prom to hear it.
These days, when my kids hold something up and say “
