Page 27 of Falling Together

At least that’s how itshould’vegone if Blair’s mom hadn’t gotten to Erin first.

Chapter 10

Erin

Erin couldn’t believe she needed acodeto get into Blair’s gated community. Her mouth hung open as she passed the houses that were all at least four times bigger than hers.So, this is how the other half lives, huh? Very interesting.

Erin knew her life could more closely resemble this if she wasn’t a single mom paying for all of her child’s things on her own, but that thought wasn’t enough to make her regret her past. Without her ex-wife, she wouldn’t have Nolan, and without Nolan, well, honestly, she wouldn’t have much of anything. He was her whole world. Living in a modest townhouse was a more than fair trade-off for getting to be his mom.

Blair’s house was just as big as the others in the neighborhood, if not even bigger. She pulled into the driveway and parked on the right side of it as Blair had instructed her to do, then walked to the front door.

Immediately after hitting the doorbell, a high-pitched voice that definitely didn’t belong to Blair shouted, “Coming!”

A few seconds later, a woman with brown hair and blue eyes opened the door. Even though this woman was shorter than Blair and her eye color was different, it was still very obvious that she was Blair’s mom.

Erin held out her hand. “You must be Mrs. Breckenridge. It’s very nice to meet you. Thank you for letting my son crash your pool today.”

Mrs. Breckenridge accepted Erin’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Oh, it’s my pleasure. I’m just happy it’s getting used. With Blair and her brother, Blake, both having jobs this summer, the pool has been sitting vacant most days.” Mrs. Breckenridge stepped to the side so Erin could walk in. “Also, please call me Brandy. Being calledMissusmakes me feel old.”

“Of course,” Erin said with a laugh. “I completely understand.”

When Erin took the time to look around, she noticed the hallway she was in seemed to be half the size of her whole house. A few feet away was a staircase and to her left was a room with the door closed. To the right was what appeared to be a living room or family room (Erin had never quite understood the difference between those two and switched between both terms when referring to the TV room downstairs in her house).

Brandy led her past the stairs and down the hallway into what appeared to be the dining room. To the left of the dining room was the TV room and to the right, the kitchen. Everything was gorgeous and Erin loved the open layout of the house. It made the interior of the house appear even bigger than it already was, which would have been overwhelming if it didn’t have such a welcoming feel. Pictures were scattered all over the walls, along with quotes about love and family. The house wasn’t messy, per se, but you could definitely tell it was lived in, which Erin appreciated. She hated walking into a house that she felt like she could mess up just from breathing.

“You have a beautiful home,” she told Brandy, who was now opening the sliding door, which led to a pool that was almost as big as the public pool.

“Thank you so much. You’re so sweet.” Brandy’s eyes lit up as if an idea had just popped into her head. “What are you and Nolan doing for dinner tonight?”

“I’m not sure,” Erin answered honestly. “I didn’t have time to plan anything. I’ll probably just pick something up on the way home.”

“Nonsense.” Brandy waved a hand at her. “You two should stay here.”

“Oh my gosh, no. We couldn’t. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your family time.” Erin had to admit that a home-cooked meal she didn’t have to make sounded wonderful, but she also didn’t want to make Blair uncomfortable. Plus, she was sure Brandy was just being nice and didn’tactuallywant her to stay.

“You’d actually be doing me a favor. I made enough food for Blake and his girlfriend, and he just called to let me know they made other plans. I don’t want that food to go to waste.”

Erin looked toward the pool to see how Blair felt about her mother’s invite. If the deer-in-the-headlights look she was giving her mom was any indication, she definitely didnotwant Erin to accept her mom’s offer.

“We’d love to stay, but I don’t want to make Blair feel like she’s working overtime.” Even though she was addressing Brandy, Erin kept her eyes on Blair as if they were having a secret conversation.

“But I want to have dinner at Bear’s big house!” Nolan yelled.

Blair’s face softened as she reached out to grab ahold of Nolan. “Then I think you should stay.” Her eyes drifted back to Erin and a small smile parted her lips. “Hanging out with this dude never feels like work. I’d love it if you stayed.”

I’d love it if you stayed.The words echoed through Erin’s brain as if there was a deeper meaning to them. For just a moment, she let herself believe there was. She stared at Blair, who was still smiling at her, and was transported to a different time and place that didn’t actually exist. She pictured Blair standing at her front door and reaching out a hand when Erin turned to leave. She imagined Blair pulling her back into her arms and saying those exact words. As they both struggled to catch their breath, their lips were drawn together like magnets and…

“Mommy!” Nolan shouted. “I want to stay.”

Erin shook all of the inappropriate thoughts from her head. Why was she even thinking of Blair this way? She especially shouldn’t be having these thoughts when she was standing right by Blair’s mother, who might honestly be closer in age to her than Erin was to Blair. That thought made her stomach twist into knots. Shereallyneeded to let go of this strange infatuation she had with the babysitter.

“Mommy!” Nolan shouted once again.

“Yes.” Erin cleared her throat. “We can stay.”

“Yay!” Nolan ran out of the pool and wrapped her in a very wet hug. “Thanks, Mommy.”

Erin held Nolan up against her and stared down at the top of his head to keep herself from watching Blair get out of the pool.

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