Page 59 of Falling Together

Erin had no doubt that was exactly what would happen, but she didn’t want to argue with Nolan right now. This weekend was already going to be crazy enough since Erin invited the woman she had sex with and then told it couldn’t be more than a one-time thing. As much as she had meant what she said to Blair about not being ready, she also didn’t want to stop spending time with her. It was the complete opposite, actually. She wanted nothing more than to spendallof her time with Blair and frankly, that feeling scared the shit out of her.

With all of these thoughts keeping Erin’s mind occupied, the drive from the beach to the softball field went by in no time. As soon as she stepped out of her car, she heard her sister’s voice.

“There they are,” April said as she walked over to the car to greet them. “How are you guys? How was the beach? I’m so jealous we couldn’t go.”

“It was wonderful,” Erin said, pulling her sister in for a tight hug once she was close enough.

“When we can sneak away later, I want to hear all about what made it so wonderful,” her sister whispered, as if she could already tell Erin’s good mood was not only from the sun and sand.

Erin hoped April was mature enoughnotto act strange in front of Blair. She would find out shortly because April had already pulled away from her and was heading to the other side of the car.

“It’s great to see you again,” April said as she pulled Blair into her arms like they were old friends.

“It’s great to see you too,” Blair said cheerfully. “I’m excited for some softball today.”

April laughed. “That makes one of us. I’ve already watched enough softball games to be set for a lifetime, but it looks like we’re just getting started with Sydney.” She walked past Blair and opened the back door of Erin’s car. “There’s my favorite nephew in the whole wide world. How was the beach, buddy?”

“It was so much fun,” Nolan said as April unhooked him from his car seat and he hopped out. “We went on the sand and in the pool and played in an arcade. I don’t like the ocean. It’s scary. But I loved everything else. And Da-men and Mar-sol took me on all the rides while Mommy and Bear had special time.”

Erin squeezed her eyes shut.Shit.Nolan really had no idea how right he was about their special time, but April was going to have a field day with this. When she walked around the front of the car holding Nolan’s hand, she looked at Erin with a raised eyebrow. “Special time?”

As Erin had a brief internal panic attack over how to respond, Blair spoke up. “I thought Erin could use some time with an adult, and since I was the closest thing to one, I decided to surprise her by having my friend Marisol and her boyfriend, Damien, come down the shore to watch Nolan for a few hours.”

“Aw, isn’t that the sweetest thing ever?” April asked before mouthing the wordsI really like herat Erin.

Erin simply smiled back at her sister because she wasn’t going to have this conversation right in front of Blair. It turned out she couldn’t avoid the conversation forever, and as soon as Sydney’s first game ended, April asked if she could walk to the car with her to get an extra water bottle for Sydney.

“So, tell me more about thisspecial time,” April said, once they were far enough away that Blair couldn’t possibly hear them.Thank god.

Erin shrugged. “It was nice. We hung out and… relaxed.” She could feel her face warming from the thought of what they had actually done. God, Erin wished she could get out of her own head so she could allow that to happen again.

“So, are you going to tell me the truth about what happened or am I going to have to keep making assumptions?” April looked at Erin and wiggled her eyebrows. “My assumptions are pretty damn fun, so I’m fine making them.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be my older, more mature sister?” Erin asked, trying to skirt around April’s question.

“Older, yes. I never claimed to be more mature.”

“Hmm. I thought the eight extra years you had on me would make that happen naturally.”

“I have a teenager now. She’s caused me to revert back to her level of maturity.” April shrugged. “Now, stop avoiding my questions and tell me what the hell happened. You know I’m going to get it out of you eventually, so you might as well just tell me now.”

Erin knew that was true. April had a way ofalwaysgetting her to open up. It must have been included in the big sister handbook or something. “Fine. We had sex. You happy?”

April smiled in satisfaction. “Very. How was it?”

Erin groaned. Was April really going to make her go into excruciating detail about what happened? “It was seriously perfect.” Erin couldn’t help but get an extra skip to her step just from the thought of how gentle and caring Blair had been with her. In all the years she and Bianca were together, she had never felt that cared for. “Blair is… god, she’s seriously indescribable. But,” Erin felt like she was crashing back down to earth as she thought about the conversation that followed the most amazing sex of her life. “that’s exactly why it can’t happen again.”

“Okay. I’m confused. You look like you’re floating up into the clouds just from thinking about it, yet you’re saying it’s not going to happen again? Why not? Shit, Blair isn’t a fuck boy, is she? Did she have sex with you then blow it off as if it was nothing? Because, if that’s the case, I need to stop being so nice to her.”

Okay. Erin needed to just tell her sister the whole story, because this was getting out of control. “No, no. It’s not like that at all. Blair is perfect. She wasn’t trying to just have sex with me. If it was up to her, we would be dating.”

April stared at her, wide-eyed. “So, you’re the fuck boy?”

“No!” Erin practically shouted, gaining the attention of a few other people in the parking lot. “I’m just… I’m not ready to date yet. It’s barely over a year since Bianca left. I can’t do it.”

“Exactly,” her sister said as if she hadn’t listened to a word Erin just said. “Bianca left over a year ago after barely being present from the time Nolan was born. If you’re not ready now, when a young, sexy, cool woman is interested in you, when are you going to be ready?”

“That’s just the thing. I don’t think I ever will be.”

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