Page 25 of Falling Together

“Last time I checked I wasn’t.”

Until seeing his reaction, Blair hadn’t thought too much about the size of her house. Sure, it was bigger than most of her friends' houses growing up, but it never mattered much to her. She liked having people come over, not because of the size, but because they could hang out in the pool. The only benefit to the size was her parents always slept through her and her friends sneaking alcohol into the basement.

Nolan pointed toward the house. “Who lives here?”

“Me, my mom, my dad, and my brother.”

“It’s huge.” Nolan spread his arms out dramatically as if to demonstrate just how big the house was.

“Just wait until you see the pool.”

“Let’s go!” Nolan tried, and failed, to get himself out of the car seat.

Blair hopped out of the car and helped Nolan, then tried to keep up as he sprinted to the front door and attempted to open it.

“Hold on, buddy.” Blair reached around him and typed in the code to unlock the door.

Nolan pushed past Blair and bounced inside the door. He continued to bounce up and down as he waited for Blair. “Can I see your room?”

“My room?”

“Yeah. You see my room.”

“But my room isn’t nearly as cool as yours.”Plus, I’m really trying my bestnotto blur lines right now.

“Please, Bear.” The big puppy dog eyes were too much for her to deny him.

“Okay. Fine.”

Blair walked toward the stairs and motioned for him to follow. After getting to the top of the stairs, she turned left and led him down the long hallway to her bedroom.

Nolan pointed to the sign hanging on her door that had been there since she was ten years old. “What’s that?”

“It says ‘Caution: Blair’s room. Enter at your own risk.’ It’s been there since I wasn’t much older than you.” She poked Nolan’s stomach, which made him giggle uncontrollably.

“I want a sign too!”

Blair laughed, but kept that idea in the back of her head in case she needed a future gift idea. Once again, Nolan squeezed past her as she pushed the door open.

“This room is huge!” he shouted as soon as he was inside. He looked around her room, then pointed to the posters on her wall, all of female celebrities. “Who are they?”

Blair shrugged. “Two of them are actresses, one is a singer, and one is a soccer player.”

Nolan scrunched up his nose and stared at Blair. “Why are they on your wall?”

Blair shrugged once again. “Because they’re hot.” When Nolan continued to stare at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about, she decided to elaborate. The kid had two moms at one point. He had to understand that some people were gay, even if he didn’t know exactly what that meant. “I like other women.”

Nolan’s eyes lit up as if he finally understood. “So does my mommy!” The light faded from his eyes just as quickly as it had come. “But sometimes she’s sad.”

Shit. What the hell was Blair supposed to say to that? Also, for someone who was trying to keep her two lives separate, the thought of Erin being sad ripped her apart inside.

She sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her. Nolan crawled onto the bed and pushed himself tight up against her.

Blair put her arm around him and held him close. “You know your mommy loves you more than anything in the world, right?”

Nolan nodded. “I know.”

“And if she ever seems sad, it’s not because of you. You make her really happy.”

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