Page 52 of Falling Together

“What is he talking about?” Erin whispered to Blair as they walked after him. She still wasn’t followingat all.

Blair smiled proudly. “Marisol and Damien are going to watch Nolan for the next few hours.” She looked over at Erin and became more serious. “Don’t worry. They both worked at a camp for six weeks this summer and are great with kids. You can trust them way more than you probably should’ve trusted me at the beginning of the summer. I also asked Nolan if he was comfortable with spending some time with them.” Blair pointed to where Nolan was already chatting animatedly to their new guests. “As you can see, he is.”

“Okay. But why—” Erin halted to a stop when she realized why Blair had done all of this. It was forher.It was because of their conversation yesterday. “Y-you did this for me?”

Blair stopped beside her, put her hands in her pockets, and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, looking not quite as sure of herself anymore. “Of course. It sounded like you could use some adult time, and I figured since I’m the closest thing to an adult here, we could spend it together. It’s completely up to you what we do, but we do have dinner reservations at seven. I figured that would get us back in time to grab Nolan from Marisol and Damien to put him down for an only somewhat-delayed bedtime.”

“You really thought all of this through, didn’t you?” Erin felt tears threatening to fall. No one had ever done something this sweet for her. And Blair had put it all together so quickly without missing a single detail.

“Of course. You deserve all the best things in the world. It’s not much, but it’s the least I can do.”

Not much?Erin wanted to forget all about her worries and kiss Blair right there in the lobby. She wanted to drag Blair back to their hotel room and… well… do a lot more than kissing. Of course, she wasn’t going to do any of that, but god, this woman really might be perfect. “It’s everything, Blair. It’severything.” Her voice cracked when she said the words because she was still on the verge of tears.

Blair started walking again and motioned for Erin to follow and soon they were standing in front of Marisol and the guy who was, apparently, named Damien.

Nolan jumped up and down once they reached them. “Mommy! Guess what? I’m going on rides! So many rides.”

“Ah yes.” Blair reached into her pocket and pulled something out. “Three all-you-can ride wristbands. Go crazy.”

Marisol snatched the wristbands from Blair. “Don’t worry. We’re going to have so much fun.” Marisol looked from Blair to Erin. “And don’tyouworry either. We are much more responsible than Blair. He’s in good hands.”

Erin didn’t doubt he would be well taken care of, but before she did anything, she needed to make sure Nolan was actually okay with all of this. She knelt down in front of him. “Are you going to be okay without Mommy for a few hours?” she asked.

Nolan nodded an excessive amount of times. “I’m a big boy. I need big boy time withoutyou!”

Erin laughed as she stood back up.That answers that.“The man has spoken. I’m not needed.”

After saying goodbye to Nolan, Erin found she had a hard time walking away. She was excited about her time with Blair, but she had gotten so used to not having time to herself and she felt guilty for finally taking some.

“You know, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Blair whispered to her.

“I want to. I really do.” Erin took a deep breath and forced a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s just such a weird concept for me to actually have time to myself. I can’t help but feel guilty.”

Blair pointed to where Nolan was skipping away from them, not bothering to give them a second look as he held both Marisol’s and Damien’s hands. “Don’t worry. I don’t think you have anything to feel guilty about.”

“I think you’re right.” Erin focused her attention on Blair, who was already smiling at her. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Like I said, dinner reservations are at seven, so I figure we should start getting ready around 5 or 5:30.” Blair pulled her phone out of her pocket. “That gives us about two hours to do whatever you want.”

“WhateverIwant?” That was the problem. Erin had no idea what she wanted. Well, aside from the forbidden fruit standing beside her she absolutely couldnothave, no matter how freaking sweet she was.

“Yep. The sky’s the limit.”

Blair probably expected Erin to have some elaborate idea of what she wanted to do, but the wonderful idea that popped into her head was far from elaborate. “Can we go back to the beach and lay in silence?” Being at the beach without someone throwing sand and yelling at her to build more sandcastles sounded glorious.

Blair laughed. “That works for me. I’ll do my best to keep my mouth shut.”

Erin playfully elbowed Blair in the side. “I guess you can talk a little bit.”

Blair put a hand on her chest. “Wow. Thank you so much. I feel so special.”

Once they were laying out on the beach, Erin realized how tired she was. She tried her best to stifle her yawn, but failed miserably.

“You can take a nap if you want to. I won’t be offended.”

“No, I’m good.” Another yawn. “Seriously. You were nice enough to plan this all out for me. I’m not going to ignore you while I rest.”

“Tonight is all about you. If you need rest, then get some. You deserve it.”

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