Page 5 of Falling Together

Chapter 5

Erin

“Mommy! Let’s go to the pool!”

Before Erin could even respond, Nolan was clawing at her back as he tried to climb the chair she was sitting on. She tried to ignore him as she hunched over her computer, but it was no use.

“Mommy! Mommy! Pool!”

Erin closed her computer and turned to look at her son. “Sweetie, I told you we could go to the pool if Mommy got some work done, and so far, you haven’t let me do that.”

“I help you!” Nolan climbed onto Erin’s lap and reached for her laptop with his sticky, yogurt-covered hands (her latest failed attempt at distracting him so she could get work done).

Luckily, over the past three years, she had developed very quick reflexes and was able to grab his hands before they touched her computer. “You know what would help me? If you washed these hands of yours. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” Nolan jumped from her lap and ran over to the stool sitting close to the sink. He pulled it right in front and stepped onto it, singing a song he must have learned in school while he washed them.

Much too quickly, the song was over, and Nolan was running toward her again. “Pool! Pool!”

Erin rubbed her forehead as if that was somehow going to help her pounding headache. “Fine. I’ll go to the pool with you if you

promise

you’ll let me get work done once we get back home.

Please.

”

Nothing like trying to bargain with a toddler.

“I p-omise.”

Erin took a deep breath as Nolan ran up the stairs, most likely to get his bathing suit.

How the hell am I supposed to do this every Friday?

“Mommy! I need help!” Nolan yelled from upstairs.

Erin sighed as she stood from the table. “I’ll be right there, buddy.”

Approximately forty-five minutes and one-and-a-half tantrums later, they made it to the pool. After laying their stuff at their usual spot, Nolan immediately started running toward the pool.

“Slow down!” Erin yelled as she walked after him. She was way too tired to run at this point, so she was relieved when he actually listened.

As she followed Nolan into the shallow end of the pool, Erin’s mind drifted back to a few weeks earlier when they went there with Blair. Even though the water was frigid, Erin’s body was heating up, which absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that she was thinking about Blair in a bikini.

Definitely not.

She was just so… okay, she was hot. There was no point in denying it. Erin hated herself for the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about it, though. She shouldn’t be lusting after Nolan’s much younger babysitter.

“Mommy! Throw me!”

Erin’s eyes darted to Nolan as her mind snapped back to the current moment. “Throw you?”

He nodded excitedly, a wide grin on his face as his head bobbed up and down. “Bear throws me.”

“I’m not as strong as Blair, sweetie.” Erin’s mouth watered as she thought about Blair’s toned arms with muscles that became very apparent any time she picked up Nolan.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

“Please! Please! Please!” Nolan reached his arms up as he jumped up and down in front of her.

Even though she wasn’t sure

how

she was going to do it, she couldn’t say no to him, especially when he actually remembered to say please. “Fine. I’ll try my best.”

“Yay!”

She picked Nolan up and awkwardly tossed him into the water. He skimmed the water and landed barely beyond her grasp.

Nolan’s eyebrows were furrowed when he turned around to stare at Erin. “Bear throws better.”

Erin shrugged. “I told you I’m not as strong as her. You can do that when she brings you to the pool.”

“When she bring me next?”

“I don’t know. Probably the next time she watches you after you spend special time with Mommy this weekend.”

Honestly, Erin wished Blair was the one with him right now. Erin had mentioned watching him on Fridays in the initial text she sent to Blair, but since Blair never said anything about it, Erin felt uncomfortable bringing it up again. She clearly wasn’t interested, and Erin was just thankful she had her for four days a week. She could hopefully find a way to figure out how to make Fridays work. This was the first time trying to work from home with Nolan. It had to get easier, right?

It certainly didn’t feel easy when they left the pool three hours later, and Erin was completely exhausted. Luckily, if all of the yawning Nolan was doing on the walk home was any indication, he was also tired. Maybe she could convince him to take a nap and she could finally get some work done.

Unfortunately, as soon as they walked into the house, Nolan ran to the couch and jumped up and down on it, “What now, Mommy?”

“Well, first, you’re going to stop jumping on the couch. Remember what happened the last time you did that?”

Nolan squinted his eyes and dramatically rubbed his head. “I hurt myself.”

“You did. So, is it a good idea to do it again?”

“I’ll be careful,” Nolan said as he continued to jump. His eyes closed and he honestly looked like he might fall asleep mid-air.

Erin gently grabbed ahold of his arm to stop him. “I have a better idea. You’re clearly tired. Why don’t you take a nap?”

“No!” Nolan yelled so loud it made Erin jump. “I’m a big boy. I don’t nap.”

Erin was about to give up completely when an idea popped into her head.

Brilliant

. She smiled.

Absolutely brilliant.

“How ’bout we go to the store and get a treat?”

Nolan’s eyes lit up. “Cupcakes?”

Erin shrugged. “Sure. Why not?” She really hoped this plan worked, or else she still wouldn’t have any work done, but would have a kid hopped up on sugar.

“Yay!” Nolan hopped off of the couch and ran toward the door. When he saw Erin grab her computer, he tilted his head at her and scrunched up his nose. “Why do you need computer?”

“I just don’t want to leave it at the house by itself,” Erin lied. “It might get lonely.”

Nolan giggled as if she had just told him a poop joke. “Computers don’t get lonely.”

Erin raised her eyebrows at him. “How do you know?”

Instead of answering, Nolan simply shrugged and opened the front door.

Thank god this didn’t turn into a game of twenty questions.

Just as she’d hoped, five minutes into their car ride, Nolan passed out. Erin drove the rest of the way to the grocery store since she knew that once he woke up, he would expect his cupcakes. Instead of going inside, she opened her computer and set it on the center console. Erin connected it to the hotspot on her phone and opened up her email. She smiled at Nolan, who now looked like a complete angel, and prepared herself to respond to the emails that had been sitting stagnant all day.

As soon as she hit reply on the first email, a teenager pulled into the parking spot beside hers, with music playing so loud she could hear every word. The music continued to play as he opened his door, which caused the sounds to blast into her car.

She closed her eyes.

Please don’t wake u-

“Mommy!” Nolan wailed from the backseat.

Erin squeezed her eyes shut as all of the ways she wished she could

murder

that teenager ran through her mind.

Shoving the speakers right up his asshole might be nice.

“Mommy!” Nolan screamed once again. “Cupcakes. I want cupcakes.”

He continued to yell about cupcakes as Erin shut off the car and got out. When she noticed the teenage boy glaring at Nolan as if

he

was the one to blame, it took everything inside of Erin not to stick her middle finger up at him.

Instead, she plastered a smile onto her face and ignored the teenager as she opened Nolan’s car door. “Do you want cupcakes?” she joked. “I don’t think you do.”

“Cupcakes!” Nolan yelled even louder now, which caused the teenager to get back into his car and slam the door shut.

Sweet victory.

“We could get broccoli instead. What d’ya think? Should we do that?”

Dramatic as always, Nolan made a sound like he was gagging just from the mention of a vegetable. “Broccoli is disgusting. I don’t eat vegetables.”

He’s not lying about that.

“I guess we’ll just have to get cupcakes then, huh?”

“Yay!” Nolan did a little dance in his car seat that was so cute, it almost made Erin forget what a terror he had been the entire day.

Almost.

Erin got him out of his car seat and grabbed his hand, which resulted in her getting pulled across the parking lot as he attempted to get to the cupcakes as quickly as possible. After a few minutes, they were back in the car and Nolan was happily eating one of his cupcakes, something that Erin normally wouldn’t allow in the car, but she was way too tired to fight him.

Once the cupcake was gone, Nolan passed out again. Erin considered pulling into the closest parking lot to make another attempt at getting work done, but she knew if he woke up, she would get irrationally angry, and it really wasn’t his fault. It was her fault for somehow convincing herself she could actually get work done with him around.

Erin had to take a few deep breaths to keep from breaking into tears. Normally, she was okay at handling the whole single parenting thing. It wasn’t easy, but she could do it. Today was one of those days that felt like it could destroy her. She needed help. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t do this on her own, especially if she ever wanted to get any work done.

She was barely thinking when she picked up her phone and hit Blair’s name. If she had truly thought it through, she wouldn’t have attempted to make a call while Nolan was sleeping. She also would’ve overthought whether she should

call

Blair instead of texting her. Erin hated talking on the phone, and she could only assume that Blair hated it even more than her.

She was about to hang up and act like it was an accident when Blair picked up. “Hello?” she asked, sounding just as confused about the call as Erin felt.

Erin cleared her throat a few times while she thought about what to say. “Hey. I’m… um… really sorry to call you on your day off, but, well, I actually had a question to ask you about that. Would you have any interest in working Fridays? Not today, of course, but for the rest of the summer. Or, at least, some Fridays. It doesn’t have to be all of them if you don’t want it to be, or it doesn’t have to be any at all. I’m sure you have things you’d much rather do. Even if you could give me a few hours every now and then, I’d be so appreciative. I’ll pay you the same as I do for the other days, no matter how long you work.” Erin knew she was rambling, but she couldn’t help herself. It’s what she did when she was overwhelmed, and right now, she was extremely overwhelmed. “You can say no, though. Seriously, I’ll figure it out. I don’t want you to think that you need—”

“I’ll do it,” Blair said before Erin could even finish.

“You will?”

“Yeah. It’s not like I have anything else to do. If it’ll help make things easier on you, I’d be happy to do it.”

Erin could hear another voice in the background but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Clearly, whatever it was, Blair didn’t want to hear it, because she told the person to “Shut the fuck up.” She laughed as she said the words though, so Erin could tell it was obviously someone she was close to.

“Sorry about that. My friend, Marisol, thinks she’s funny. Hopefully I’m not on speaker.”

“Bluetooth, but don’t worry. Nolan is currently asleep.” Erin blew out a long breath. “Thank God.”

“Are you okay?” Blair asked, her tone making it seem like she actually cared about the answer. “Do you want me to come over now for a little bit?”

Erin shook her head. “I can’t make you do that.”

“You’re not making me. I’m offering.”

The offer

was

tempting, but Erin couldn’t ask her to do that. She could make it through the rest of her day on her own. God knows she had a ton of practice at it. “No, seriously. You’re clearly with someone right now. I don’t want to interrupt.”

“You’re not.” There was laughter on the other end of the phone and Erin was pretty sure she heard Blair tell her friend to shut up again. “Marisol was just getting ready to leave. Give me a half hour and I’ll be over.”

Erin felt her throat constrict the way it did when she was about to cry. Between how tired she was and how sweet Blair was acting, Erin had to work very hard to not break down. “Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me. Seriously.”

It was an hour later when Blair arrived, but Erin wasn’t bothered by her lack of timeliness. She was just excited to have her there. It had actually worked out perfectly since Nolan slept for fifty more minutes once she hung up the phone. She could have used that time to get work done, but she took advantage of the peace and quiet and laid her seat back and shut her eyes. She probably looked crazy to her neighbors, sleeping in her driveway like that, but she didn’t care. She woke up feeling refreshed and finally ready to get some work done.

“Thanks again for doing this,” she said as she opened the door for Blair, who looked unfairly good in her tight jean shorts and black t-shirt with a very low V-neck.

She immediately shook these thoughts from her head. She needed to stop thinking like that.

Blair grinned so widely that Erin was practically blinded by her pearly white teeth. “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I have nothing going on until much later tonight. I’m good for as long as you need me.”

“Big plans later?” Erin knew it was none of her business, but Blair was most likely doing something fun and Erin needed to live vicariously through her.

Blair shrugged. “Just meeting up with some girl I met out at the bar last night.”

“That’s cool. What are you two doing?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Erin realized what a dumb question that was, and the way Blair looked from her to Nolan, confirmed that she was right. “Of course. Sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve

met up

with someone, I think I forgot what it meant.”

Now that she

was

thinking about it, her thoughts were betraying her, and she was picturing

Nolan’s babysitter

doing things she definitely should not be picturing her doing. She wondered if Blair took things fast or slow. If she led the girl to her bed or had her way with her right at the door. A fire burned inside of Erin as she pictured how each of these scenarios would look.

Holy shit, what the hell is wrong with me?

She closed her eyes to try to clear these thoughts from her head, but it only made it worse. It only made the pictures that much more vivid. Why did she have to be blessed with such a great imagination?

She opened her eyes and immediately brought them to Nolan, which was all she needed. All of her dirty fantasies flew from her mind when she focused on her sweet, innocent child.

Phew.

“I doubt that’s true.”

“Huh?” Erin couldn’t even remember the last thing Blair said, so she had no idea what apparently wasn’t true.

“I’m sure you don’t have any trouble… you know.”

Oh! That! Did Blair seriously believe what she was saying? She actually thought Erin had been with women since her ex?

What a cute idea.

Erin put her hands over Nolan’s ears. “Bit hard to find the time.”

“Well, if you ever need a babysitter…” Blair pointed to herself.

Erin shook her head. “I doubt I’ll be needing you for that. It’s been… very long. I don’t think anyone is interested.”

Blair smirked. “Now I know you’re lying to me.”

The wink she added made Erin

wish

she had someone to help take care of the need suddenly surging through her body. Was Blair actually hitting on her or was she just naturally flirty? It had to be the latter, because there was no way this hot twenty-two-year-old was hitting on

her. And even if she was, it wouldn’t matter,

Erin reminded herself.

“Mommy, don’t touch my ears.” Nolan swatted Erin’s hands away.

Blair squatted down in front of Nolan. “What do you want to do, buddy?”

Instead of returning Blair’s smile, Nolan crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. “Today is special day with Mommy. Not Bear.”

“Nolan.” Erin’s voice was stern. “Be nice. Blair came here last minute

just

so she could hang out with you. Now, tell her you’re sorry.”

“Sorry,

Bear

.” He at least said the words, but the tone of his voice didn’t make it believable that he actually meant them.

It clearly didn’t bother Blair, though. She laughed and ruffled his hair. “It’s okay, dude. Your mommy is much cooler than me. I get it.

But

what if I played with your dinosaurs with you? Then do you think it’d be okay if I stayed?”

Nolan furrowed his eyebrows as if he was actually considering his options, then slowly nodded. “Okay, but I get to be the T-Rex.”

Blair put both hands in the air. “Of course, he’s all yours.”

As soon as Blair stood back up, Nolan took her hand and dragged her up to his bedroom. With Nolan occupied for the next two hours, Erin had no trouble getting the work done she needed to do. She thought about getting ahead on next week’s work as well, but didn’t want to keep Blair longer than necessary. She did have plans after all.

Plans that Erin definitely was

not

going to spend any time thinking about.