Page 8 of Falling Together

Chapter 8

Blair

“Are you feeling okay?” Erin asked as soon as she opened the door for Blair.

“I’m fine,” Blair said. It was a complete lie. She was

technically

fine. She was just exhausted. After going to a concert on Friday night, out to a bar on Saturday night, and lying in the sun all day on Sunday, she needed a day just to nap. Unfortunately, that would not be possible with the three-and-a-half-year-old she was spending today with.

“Long weekend, I take it?”

Blair nodded, even though she wanted to lie. She didn’t want Erin to think she was completely immature, even if that was the case.

“Did you see multiple DJs, or did you dedicate all of your energy to Scratch and Sniff?”

Blair coughed through a laugh. She was always surprised by how witty Erin was. “Excuse me. It’s Skratch Sick.”

“Oh yes, because that’s so much better.”

The sarcasm in Erin’s voice made Blair laugh again. Instead of moving past her

lush

, it just kept getting worse, and this teasing certainly was

not

helping. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Erin waved her hand. “Nowhere important.” The way she was staring at Blair, rather than walking out the door, made it seem like work actually

wasn’t

important.

Why is this happening so often lately?

Why did Erin seem to be getting lost in Blair just as much as Blair kept getting lost in her? Was it simply because she liked Blair’s looks or was there something more there? If there was, Erin wasn’t giving anything away. Aside from these emotionally charged moments, there was a definite wall between them; one that existed because she was the babysitter, not a friend.

Erin sighed. “You’re right, though. I really do need to go.”

As soon as Erin was out the door, Blair missed her. She didn’t have time to harp on it, though, because Nolan immediately began clawing at her legs. “Bear! Bear! Let’s go to the pool.”

Blair shut her eyes. Just thinking about the pool made her tired. She knew she would be stuck tossing Nolan into the water more times than she could handle. “Don’t you want to do something different today? We go to the pool all the time.”

Nolan shook his head back and forth multiple times. “You didn’t go last time.”

“Yeah, but

you

did.” Blair playfully poked Nolan in the side.

Nolan giggled and wiggled away from her. “I love the pool.”

“I’ll make you a deal. Let’s hang out here until lunchtime and if you

still

want to go to the pool after we eat, we can.”

Hopefully I can make it fun enough to get him to forget about the pool.

“Pool time!” Nolan said as soon as he took the last bite of his peanut butter and jelly just three hours (that felt more like eight) later.

Blair closed her eyes and pushed air out through her nose.

Clearly I failed at making this morning extra fun.

“Okay. You win. Go grab your bathing suit.”

Nolan ran upstairs, and much too soon, came back down swinging his bathing suit over his head, already completely naked.

Shit. I’m way too tired for this.

Blair quickly put on his bathing suit then argued with him the whole time she got hers on, since she was

apparently

moving too slowly.

“Shoulders! Shoulders!” Nolan shouted as soon as they were outside.

Blair groaned internally. He was literally going to kill her today. That wasn’t going to stop her from giving her favorite little boy exactly what he wanted. She bent down and hoisted him onto her shoulders. Even though it wasn’t a long walk to the pool, Blair thought she might collapse by the time they got there. There was no time for that. As soon as she put him down, Nolan sprinted toward the water, yelling at Blair to grab his swimmies. She quickly ripped off her shirt, grabbed his swimmies, and chased after him. She caught up to him right before he hit the water and shoved the swimmies up his arms, then threw him in. He laughed hysterically as he hit the water which helped to bring the slightest bit of Blair’s energy back.

That slight bit of adrenaline was nothing compared to the energy the next few hours stole from her, though. Luckily, Nolan didn’t ask her to carry him on her shoulders on the way home, because even without him up there, she still felt like she could barely get her legs to move.

Note to self: no more busy weekends.

They had just gotten out of their bathing suits and back into their clothes when Erin’s car pulled into the driveway. Since Erin was never one to waste time, she walked through the door less than a minute later.

Blair was so tired, she didn’t even notice the drink Erin was holding until she shook it in front of her face. “Graham Cracker iced latte with whipped cream is your drink of choice, right?”

Blair was flabbergasted. “Yes, it is, but how do you know that?”

“You mentioned it a week or two ago,” Erin said nonchalantly as if she hadn’t done the sweetest thing in the whole wide world.

“From Celestial Cafe, yes!”

Be still my heart.

“Have you been there often? The peanut butter crepes are to die for.”

Erin shook her head. “I’ve never actually been there. I’m not a big coffee drinker. You just seemed like you could use this, and it’s not that far out of the way on my drive home, so I wanted to do it for you. You’ve done so much for us.”

This busy woman, who was already juggling so much, went out of her way to get something for Blair that she mentioned once in passing? Blair was pretty sure no one had ever done something so sweet for her. Maybe Marisol, but Marisol didn’t really count since they were pretty much family. She wanted to point that out, but she also didn’t want to make Erin feel like she was being too much, especially because, in Blair’s eyes, she was pretty close to perfect.

“You’re paying me to babysit. You don’t owe me anything else above that.”

Erin gave her a pointed look. “Don’t act like you didn’t use your whole paycheck to buy Nolan gifts when he was sick.”

Blair was pretty sure she spent more than a week’s paycheck on those gifts, but she wasn’t going to admit that. It’s not like she actually needed the money, since just having a job was enough to convince her parents to keep giving her money from her trust fund every week.

“That was nothing. Also, it was kind of my fault he got sick, so it’s the least I could do.”

Erin held the drink out toward her. “Well, this is the least I can do when you spend every day entertaining my tiny demon.”

Since it would be rude to refuse such a kind gesture, Blair reached out to grab the drink. It should have been such a simple thing, but her fingers brushed Erin’s as she grabbed ahold of the cup. Their skin had barely grazed, but that didn’t stop Blair from becoming frozen in place.

Tingles started at the tips of her fingers and quickly spread throughout her body. She let out an almost inaudible gasp at the feeling. She couldn’t help herself. Blair hadn’t been shy throughout college. She came out her junior year of high school, and throughout college, she had many women in her bed. But no one had ever elicited the response she had when Erin’s fingers touched her. Her body often ached for relief when she was having sex and on the edge of an orgasm, but her body had never physically ached for a person the way she was aching for Erin right now, which was crazy because they had barely even touched. The contact was so slight, Erin probably didn’t even notice it. At least that’s what Blair assumed until her eyes met Erin’s, and they also looked like she had been shocked to life for the first time. Was it possible that Erin was feeling this too? Did the brush of Blair’s fingers make her want to forget the world and get lost in Blair’s body? Because, if Blair was being honest with herself, that’s exactly what

she

wanted. She wanted to lead Erin upstairs to the bedroom where she looked unfairly cute doing her work on Fridays, and she wanted to trace her body with her fingers and her tongue until Erin screamed out her name. When Erin was still trying to catch her breath, she wanted to…

“Airplane!”

Every fantasy flew from her brain as a small, but mighty, human slammed into her back. The unexpected impact caused Blair to lose her balance, which in turn caused her drink to fumble from her hands right onto the front of Erin’s blouse. Luckily, Erin had catlike reflexes which kept the whole drink from dousing her, but at least a third of the cold drink was now dripping down the front of her blouse.

“Oh shit.” Blair quickly turned around to grab paper towels and bring them to Erin. Except, instead of handing the paper towels to Erin, like she should have, she did just about the dumbest thing ever—began wiping the drink from her blouse, from spots that really

shouldn’t

be wiped by someone like, say,

the babysitter

.

She let the towels drop and slowly backed away, like someone about to be placed under arrest. “I’m so sorry.”

Much to her surprise, Erin just laughed. “It’s definitely

not

your fault.” She looked at Nolan. “Honey, you can’t just attack people without warning.”

Nolan shook his head. “I didn’t. I came to the airport. Bear is the airplane.”

Erin shared a secret smile with Blair, and while this moment wasn’t nearly as charged as the last, it was still nice. It was as if they had their own language that only the two of them understood. Logically, she knew this wasn’t actually the case. Adults always had looks they gave other adults that kids wouldn’t notice, but with just the two of them and Nolan in the room, it really felt like it was something special just for them.

“I don’t think Blair knew she was the airplane. Which is probably why she just lost half her drink on Mommy’s shirt.” She winked at Blair, then focused her attention on Nolan. “Could you please tell Blair that you’re sorry? Mommy got her this drink to help her feel better after what I'm sure was a long day, and now she only gets a little bit of it.”

Instead of looking at either of them, Nolan stared down at his feet. “I’m sorry, Bear.”

Erin put her hand on Nolan’s head and smiled at Blair once again. “I’m sorry too. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

Blair chuckled. This woman was way too nice. “Make what up to me? Half of a drink is still more than you had to give me. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Since I created the thing that caused half of your drink to end up on my shirt, I feel like I do. And I will. I promise.”

Erin wasn’t lying. A day later, when she came home from work, she not only had a new latte for Blair, but also a peanut butter crepe. When Blair insisted she didn’t have to do that, especially the crepe, Erin answered, “Consider it interest, accrued from yesterday’s mishap.”

After taking a big sip of her latte, Blair glanced at Erin. Since Erin was distracted by Nolan at that moment, Blair was able to take her in more without her noticing. Around Nolan, Erin always had a smile on her face, even when it was clear by her eyes that she was tired and maybe even a little bit sad. Obviously, Blair noticed that Erin was hot the first time she saw a picture of her, but it was so much more than just her looks. Erin was beautiful, but not just physically. She was one of those rare people who became better looking the more you got to know them, because she had such a beautiful soul. She had so much on her plate and still thought of Blair. Blair, who didn’t deserve anything from this woman. Blair, whose life had been so easy thus far. Erin had to work so hard for what she had, and Blair had everything handed to her. It wasn’t fair, but it also made Blair like her even more (which also wasn’t fair since she knew she

couldn’t

like Erin).

When Erin’s eyes met hers, crinkled at the corners from her smile, Blair knew the truth. This was no longer a lush. It was a full-on, heart-pounding, can’t-possibly-end-well crush.