Page 22 of Falling Together

Blair nodded, even though she wanted to lie. She didn’t want Erin to think she was completely immature, even if that was the case.

“Did you see multiple DJs, or did you dedicate all of your energy to Scratch and Sniff?”

Blair coughed through a laugh. She was always surprised by how witty Erin was. “Excuse me. It’s Skratch Sick.”

“Oh yes, because that’s so much better.”

The sarcasm in Erin’s voice made Blair laugh again. Instead of moving past herlush, it just kept getting worse, and this teasing certainly wasnothelping. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Erin waved her hand. “Nowhere important.” The way she was staring at Blair, rather than walking out the door, made it seem like work actuallywasn’timportant.

Why is this happening so often lately?Why did Erin seem to be getting lost in Blair just as much as Blair kept getting lost in her? Was it simply because she liked Blair’s looks or was there something more there? If there was, Erin wasn’t giving anything away. Aside from these emotionally charged moments, there was a definite wall between them; one that existed because she was the babysitter, not a friend.

Erin sighed. “You’re right, though. I really do need to go.”

As soon as Erin was out the door, Blair missed her. She didn’t have time to harp on it, though, because Nolan immediately began clawing at her legs. “Bear! Bear! Let’s go to the pool.”

Blair shut her eyes. Just thinking about the pool made her tired. She knew she would be stuck tossing Nolan into the water more times than she could handle. “Don’t you want to do something different today? We go to the pool all the time.”

Nolan shook his head back and forth multiple times. “You didn’t go last time.”

“Yeah, butyoudid.” Blair playfully poked Nolan in the side.

Nolan giggled and wiggled away from her. “I love the pool.”

“I’ll make you a deal. Let’s hang out here until lunchtime and if youstillwant to go to the pool after we eat, we can.”Hopefully I can make it fun enough to get him to forget about the pool.

“Pool time!” Nolan said as soon as he took the last bite of his peanut butter and jelly just three hours (that felt more like eight) later.

Blair closed her eyes and pushed air out through her nose.Clearly I failed at making this morning extra fun.“Okay. You win. Go grab your bathing suit.”

Nolan ran upstairs, and much too soon, came back down swinging his bathing suit over his head, already completely naked.

Shit. I’m way too tired for this.

Blair quickly put on his bathing suit then argued with him the whole time she got hers on, since she wasapparentlymoving too slowly.

“Shoulders! Shoulders!” Nolan shouted as soon as they were outside.

Blair groaned internally. He was literally going to kill her today. That wasn’t going to stop her from giving her favorite little boy exactly what he wanted. She bent down and hoisted him onto her shoulders. Even though it wasn’t a long walk to the pool, Blair thought she might collapse by the time they got there. There was no time for that. As soon as she put him down, Nolan sprinted toward the water, yelling at Blair to grab his swimmies. She quickly ripped off her shirt, grabbed his swimmies, and chased after him. She caught up to him right before he hit the water and shoved the swimmies up his arms, then threw him in. He laughed hysterically as he hit the water which helped to bring the slightest bit of Blair’s energy back.

That slight bit of adrenaline was nothing compared to the energy the next few hours stole from her, though. Luckily, Nolan didn’t ask her to carry him on her shoulders on the way home, because even without him up there, she still felt like she could barely get her legs to move.Note to self: no more busy weekends.

They had just gotten out of their bathing suits and back into their clothes when Erin’s car pulled into the driveway. Since Erin was never one to waste time, she walked through the door less than a minute later.

Blair was so tired, she didn’t even notice the drink Erin was holding until she shook it in front of her face. “Graham Cracker iced latte with whipped cream is your drink of choice, right?”

Blair was flabbergasted. “Yes, it is, but how do you know that?”

“You mentioned it a week or two ago,” Erin said nonchalantly as if she hadn’t done the sweetest thing in the whole wide world.

“From Celestial Cafe, yes!”Be still my heart.“Have you been there often? The peanut butter crepes are to die for.”

Erin shook her head. “I’ve never actually been there. I’m not a big coffee drinker. You just seemed like you could use this, and it’s not that far out of the way on my drive home, so I wanted to do it for you. You’ve done so much for us.”

This busy woman, who was already juggling so much, went out of her way to get something for Blair that she mentioned once in passing? Blair was pretty sure no one had ever done something so sweet for her. Maybe Marisol, but Marisol didn’t really count since they were pretty much family. She wanted to point that out, but she also didn’t want to make Erin feel like she was being too much, especially because, in Blair’s eyes, she was pretty close to perfect.

“You’re paying me to babysit. You don’t owe me anything else above that.”

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