Page 80 of Falling Together

Erin threw her head back on her pillow and groaned before she broke into a fit of laughter. “Ugh, I’m sorry.”

Blair grabbed the hand that Erin had just put over her face and brought it to her lips to kiss her knuckles. “No need to apologize. This is what I signed up for, right?”Or at least, what I’m trying to sign up for.

Before Erin could answer, the bedroom door swung open. “Mommy, why you not answer me?” He glared at Erin before turning toward Blair and giving her the same look. “Bear, you not s’posed to be in Mommy’s bed. You s’posed to be in my bed.”

“Hey, don’t be mean to Blair,” Erin scolded. “Don’t you remember what today is?” When Nolan shook his head, Erin sighed. “Whose birthday is it?”

Nolan smiled and pointed to himself. “My birthday?”

Blair laughed. This kid was too much. She hopped out of bed, very thankful that he didn’t walk in to find her naked, and ran over to him. When she reached him, she brought her hands to his sides and tickled him.

“Stop,” he said between giggles.

“If you want me to stop, you have to tell me whose birthday it is.”

“Mine?” Nolan said again, laughing even harder this time since he clearly knew the right answer.

“You know it’s not your birthday. You just had your birthday.” Blair stopped tickling him for a second, but his laughter continued. “You know, I have a present I was saving to give you untilmybirthday, but I guess if it’s not my birthday, I can’t give it to you.”

Nolan’s eyes went wide, and he immediately stopped laughing. “It’s your birthday.” He wrapped his arms around Blair and kissed her cheek. “Happy birthday, Bear.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

Blair tried to hug him back, but he quickly wiggled out of her arms and held out his own. “Can I have my pwesent now?”

Blair walked over to Erin’s closet where she had been hiding it and took out the small bag with a dinosaur on the front.

“Is it a T-Rex toy?” Nolan asked when Blair handed it to him. When she told him it wasn’t, he studied the bag, but still didn’t open it. “A car?”

“For God’s sake, Nolan,” Erin said from bed. “Just open it.”

Nolan giggled again and tore into the bag, pulling out the shirt Blair had gotten him. “A giraffe shirt?” He looked at it for a few seconds then held it against his chest. “I love it. I love it. I love it.”

If Blair had realized he’d be so easy to please, maybe she could’ve saved some money by not getting his actual gift. She knew that wasn’t the case though. She might have been more excited about this giraffe experience than Nolan was going to be.

Blair pointed to the shirt. “That’s only part of the present. On Tuesday next week, your mommy is going to pick you up a little early from daycare and bring you to my house, so you and I can go meet giraffes.”

“Like before?”

“Kind of like that, but even better. We get to be the only two people there besides the zookeepers and we get to pet them and feed them and learn more about them.”

“Whoa.” Nolan’s eyes and his mouth were all perfect circles. “And it’s special, just me and you? No Mommy?”

Blair shook her head and laughed. “No Mommy.”

She turned around and winked at Erin, who quickly flipped her off before Nolan could see.

“Is today Tuesday?”

Blair shook her head. “No. Today is Friday.”

“Tomorrow?”

Shit.Maybe she should’ve waited longer to give him this gift. “No, not tomorrow.”

“Is it the next—”

Blair put her hand up to stop him and took a deep breath. “It’s many days away, but we have a lot of other fun things planned to do before that, so the time will fly by. Don’t worry.”

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