Page 9 of Falling Together

Chapter 9

Blair

By the following Monday, Blair had it all figured out. She knew how to squash this crush before it became anything worse. She needed to stop blurring the lines between babysitter and something more. She couldn’t show up in Erin’s room on Fridays to bring her food when she was too busy to stop working. She couldn’t stick around after Erin got home from work (even if Nolan asked her to). She needed to be Nolan’s babysitter and nothing else, because she knew the heart crushing reality—that was all she could ever be.

She decided to spend the weekend relaxing, so she didn’t look exhausted when she showed up at Erin’s house on Monday. That way, Erin wouldn’t feel tempted to stop and get her a drink again, something she had done one other day last week because she said Blair looked like she could use it. Today, that wasn’t the case. Erin had actually made a comment about how chipper Blair looked for a Monday morning, which somehow made Blair feel even more energized.

Blair was so energized, she decided to put her and Nolan’s lunches into a cooler and head to the pool early. They arrived only a few minutes after opening, which meant they would probably have the pool mostly to themselves for a little bit. As they got closer to the entrance, Blair’s thoughts were confirmed. It didn’t look like

anyone

was there.

When they made it to the gate, she figured out why.

Pool closed for cleaning. We will be open again tomorrow,

read the handwritten sign.

Blair threw her hands in the air. “For God’s sake.”

Nolan grabbed Blair’s leg and rested his whole body up against her. “What’s wrong, Bear?”

“The pool is closed.”

“B-but why?” Nolan’s eyes drifted to the ground and his lips turned down into a frown. Blair really thought he might start to cry.

“I don’t know, dude. Some little brat probably shit in the pool.” Okay, not her smoothest moment, but she was pissed off that Nolan was upset.

“B-but I thought we were going to spend all day swimming.” He sniffled, and Blair knew the tears were coming.

Shit. What the hell do I do? I don’t want him to be sad.

Her heart tugged in her chest as she watched Nolan struggle to keep his tears in. Then an idea popped into her head. It was a terrible idea for someone who was trying to keep her professional and personal life separate, but she didn’t have another choice. She had promised Nolan the pool, and she refused to let him down.

Blair knelt down in front of Nolan and took his hand. “You know what? We might not be able to go swimming

here,

but I know where there’s another pool where we can swim.”

Nolan looked up at her, a sparkle to his eyes that wasn’t there a second before. “Where?”

“My house.”

Nolan’s body began to wiggle. “You have a pool?”

“Well, technically, it’s my parents’ pool, but I live with them, so it’s my pool for now, too.”

Nolan tilted his head and wrinkled his eyebrows as if he was confused. “You live with your parents?” He stabbed his pointer finger into his own chest. “Like me? Adults don’t live with parents.”

Don’t I know it, kid.

“Can I tell you a little secret?” When Nolan nodded, Blair ruffled his hair the way she always did. “I’m not really an adult.”

“You’re a kid?” Nolan pointed to himself once again. “Like me?”

Blair laughed. “Yes. Like you. I’m just a little bit bigger.”

Nolan held his arms out from his body. “You’re

a lot

bigger.”

“Hey, now, be nice or I might not take you to the pool.”

“No! Pool!” Nolan brought his hands together in a praying motion and pushed his bottom lip out. “Please.”

“I was just messing with you. Of course we’re going to the pool.” Blair cringed when she remembered one very important detail. She couldn’t really take Nolan somewhere without letting Erin know.

Why didn’t I think of that before?

“Just as long as your mom says it’s okay.”

Once they started their walk back to the house, Blair hit Erin’s name to call her. She hated to bother her while she was working, but she knew if she texted it could take longer to get an answer. Because she had already promised Nolan they could go, she didn’t want to make him wait.

Erin picked up after only two rings. “Blair. Hi. Is everything okay?”

Blair cringed again. She hadn’t thought about the fact that calling Erin, something she had never done while babysitting, would scare her. “Oh yeah. Everything is fine. I’m sorry. We just walked to the pool, and it turns out it’s closed.”

“Yeah, Mommy. Someone shit in the pool!” Nolan shouted.

“Did he just say what I think he said?” Erin asked.

Shit, I am really messing this up.

“Yes, he did. I don’t actually know if that’s what happened, but he

might

have heard that from me. I’m so sorry. Anyway, I was calling to ask if it would be okay to take him to my… parents’ house to swim.”

“Bear is a giant kid and lives with her parents,” Nolan shouted once again.

Blair hoped Erin didn’t hear that, but the fact that she started laughing right after he said it made it pretty clear that she had. “I’m sorry my son is so savage. But yes, that would be fine. I’ll call before I leave work to see if you two are still there.”

“I’m sure we won’t be.”

I will make sure we aren’t. No crossing any more lines.

“But that sounds good.”

Blair said goodbye to Erin and continued the walk back to the house. After running inside to grab her car keys, they got into her car and headed in the direction of her house.

“Whoa,” Nolan said when they pulled up to the gate in front of her neighborhood. “Are you a princess?”

Blair laughed as she entered the code to open the gate. “No. I wish I was, though.”

After pulling into her parents’ driveway, she turned around to find Nolan staring at the house with wide eyes. “Are you sure you’re not a princess?”

“Last time I checked I wasn’t.”

Until seeing his reaction, Blair hadn’t thought too much about the size of her house. Sure, it was bigger than most of her friends' houses growing up, but it never mattered much to her. She liked having people come over, not because of the size, but because they could hang out in the pool. The only benefit to the size was her parents always slept through her and her friends sneaking alcohol into the basement.

Nolan pointed toward the house. “Who lives here?”

“Me, my mom, my dad, and my brother.”

“It’s huge.” Nolan spread his arms out dramatically as if to demonstrate just how big the house was.

“Just wait until you see the pool.”

“Let’s go!” Nolan tried, and failed, to get himself out of the car seat.

Blair hopped out of the car and helped Nolan, then tried to keep up as he sprinted to the front door and attempted to open it.

“Hold on, buddy.” Blair reached around him and typed in the code to unlock the door.

Nolan pushed past Blair and bounced inside the door. He continued to bounce up and down as he waited for Blair. “Can I see your room?”

“My room?”

“Yeah. You see my room.”

“But my room isn’t nearly as cool as yours.”

Plus, I’m really trying my best

not

to blur lines right now.

“Please, Bear.” The big puppy dog eyes were too much for her to deny him.

“Okay. Fine.”

Blair walked toward the stairs and motioned for him to follow. After getting to the top of the stairs, she turned left and led him down the long hallway to her bedroom.

Nolan pointed to the sign hanging on her door that had been there since she was ten years old. “What’s that?”

“It says ‘Caution: Blair’s room. Enter at your own risk.’ It’s been there since I wasn’t much older than you.” She poked Nolan’s stomach, which made him giggle uncontrollably.

“I want a sign too!”

Blair laughed, but kept that idea in the back of her head in case she needed a future gift idea. Once again, Nolan squeezed past her as she pushed the door open.

“This room is huge!” he shouted as soon as he was inside. He looked around her room, then pointed to the posters on her wall, all of female celebrities. “Who are they?”

Blair shrugged. “Two of them are actresses, one is a singer, and one is a soccer player.”

Nolan scrunched up his nose and stared at Blair. “Why are they on your wall?”

Blair shrugged once again. “Because they’re hot.” When Nolan continued to stare at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about, she decided to elaborate. The kid had two moms at one point. He had to understand that some people were gay, even if he didn’t know exactly what that meant. “I like other women.”

Nolan’s eyes lit up as if he finally understood. “So does my mommy!” The light faded from his eyes just as quickly as it had come. “But sometimes she’s sad.”

Shit. What the hell was Blair supposed to say to that? Also, for someone who was trying to keep her two lives separate, the thought of Erin being sad ripped her apart inside.

She sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her. Nolan crawled onto the bed and pushed himself tight up against her.

Blair put her arm around him and held him close. “You know your mommy loves you more than anything in the world, right?”

Nolan nodded. “I know.”

“And if she ever seems sad, it’s not because of you. You make her really happy.”

“I know.” Nolan nodded even faster this time. “She tells me that.”

“Good.” Blair kissed the top of Nolan’s head and tried to ignore all of the mixed emotions swirling through her body. “As long as you know that, that’s all that matters.” Enough of this sappy shit, though.

Keeping my lives separate

, Blair reminded herself once again. She hopped off of the bed and held her hand out toward Nolan. “Are you ready to go to the pool?”

She didn’t have to ask twice. Nolan was off of the bed and out the bedroom door before Blair could process what was happening. She caught up to him on the stairs and led him through the house and out of the sliding door in the dining room that led to the pool. Nolan’s reaction to the pool was about the same as it had been to the rest of the house, and Blair had to quickly take off her shirt and shorts to keep him from jumping in before she managed to put on his swimmies.

After swimming for a few hours, they took a break to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips she had packed for them. As soon as he took his last bite, Nolan jumped right back into the pool. They hadn’t been in there very long when Blair’s mom walked through the sliding door.

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

Her mom laughed. “This

is

my house.”

“I know, but shouldn’t you still be at work?”

“I get off early on Mondays. I have for years. You never realized that?”

Blair shrugged.

Talk about worlds colliding

. At least it was only Nolan with her and not a certain someone else.

“And who is this?” her mom asked as she knelt in front of the pool.

“I’m Nolan!” he answered with a giggle.

“Hi, Nolan. It’s very nice to meet you. Blair has told me so much about you.”

“Bear told you about me?”

Blair’s mom nodded. “She told me how much fun you two have together. But you know what? You’re even cuter than I thought you would be.”

“I know.” Nolan put his hand over his mouth and giggled again.

When her mom stood back up, she focused her attention on Blair. “What are you two doing here? I thought you normally went swimming at the public pool.”

“Bear said someone shit in it,” Nolan answered before she could.

“Blair Dallas Breckenridge, you do not use that sort of language around a young child, do you?”

Blair could feel her face turning red in response to her mom using her middle name. “It slipped…?”

Her mom shook her head, but a small smile parted her lips. “I’m going to go get changed and figure out what I’m making for dinner, but you two have fun.”

Blair was having so much fun hanging out with Nolan in her parents’ pool that she didn’t realize how much time had passed until her phone started to ring. She hopped out of the pool, quickly wiped her hands, and picked up on speakerphone so she didn’t get the phone too wet.

“Hey, Erin, what’s up?”

“I actually got done with my work a little bit early, so I’m about to hop in my car now. I was just wondering if you and Nolan were still at your house or if you're back at ours’.”

“We’re still at mine, sorry. But I can get him dried off and bring him home. That way you don’t have to go out of your way.”

“It’s really no big deal. I’m already driving anyway. No sense in you getting back in your car when you don’t need to.”

“No, really, I insist.”

Please. I’m begging you. Do not make this harder on me.

It turned out, Erin wasn’t the one she had to worry about. “No! I’m not ready to get out!” Nolan shouted from the pool.

Erin laughed on the other end of the phone. “It appears the boss has spoken. Text me your address and I’ll come get him. I’ll fight him so you don’t have to. I have no problem being the bad guy.”

If Blair kept fighting with her, it was going to come across as though she were hiding something, so she said “Okay” and hung up the phone. She quickly typed out her address and the code to the gate, then jumped back in the pool.

This was fine. She would get out all of Nolan’s energy now, and once Erin arrived, Blair would quickly usher them out of the house under the guise that she didn’t want Erin to waste any more of her night. In and out. No harm. No foul.

At least that’s how it

should’ve

gone if Blair’s mom hadn’t gotten to Erin first.