Page 44 of Falling Together
“That’s the ocean, sweetie,” Erin said with a laugh.
“Wait. Is this his first time at the beach?” Blair asked. For some reason, she just assumed they had been here before.
Erin’s face turned red again. “It is. I’ve wanted to bring him for a long time, but, well, things have been a little crazy.”
“That makes sense.” Blair walked over to Erin and squeezed her hand in reassurance. The last thing she needed was for Erin to feel like she wasn’t the world’s greatest mom, because she obviously was. “And, hey, he’s here now. That’s the important part, right?”
Erin squeezed Blair’s hand back and gave her a small, but sincere, smile before focusing her attention on Nolan. “Do you want to go out onto the balcony so you can see it better?”
Instead of answering, Nolan attempted to open the door by himself, a task he was luckily unable to accomplish.
“Let me get that, bud.” Blair undid the latch and slid the door open. As soon as she did, Nolan squeezed past her onto the balcony.
Nolan stood at the edge of the balcony, his eyes darting from one spot to another as though he couldn’t decide what to focus on. He pointed down at the large pool that was part of their hotel. “Whoa! ’Nother pool.”
Erin rested her hand on his head. “That’s our pool, buddy. Do you want to go in there first or do you want to go down to the beach and put your feet in the ocean?”
Nolan jumped up and down as he pointed to something that Blair couldn’t see from where she was standing. “Slide! Slide!”
Erin ruffled his hair then smiled up at Blair, the sun shining over her causing her body to have the most perfect glow. “It appears the pool has won since it has a slide. Are you okay with that?”
“Whatever you two want to do is perfect.” Honestly, they could stay in the hotel room watching movies all week and Blair would be happy as long as she was spending time with these two.
Nolan grabbed Blair’s hand and jumped up and down. “Pool! Pool! I want to go down that huge slide.”
Blair couldn’t help but laugh at his excitement. It was contagious, and now all she wanted to do was go down that huge slide as well. “Well, what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
“Let’s go!” Nolan repeated.
***
After spending hours at the pool (and going down the slide more times than she could count), Blair could barely keep her eyes open, and it wasn’t even dinner time yet. Luckily, if their yawns were anything to go by, it appeared Erin and Nolan were just as tired.
“I have an idea,” Blair said as the three of them walked toward the elevators. “What if we order room service and eat dinner in bed tonight?” When Blair saw the hesitation on Erin’s face, she added, “It’s on me, and we can eat inmybed.”
“Yay! Dinner in Bear’s bed.”
It took them way too long to decide what they each wanted so by the time the food arrived, Blair was starving. She set the food up on her bed and motioned for Nolan and Erin to sit next to her. Nolan pressed right up against her and Erin sat on the other side of him. As soon as Nolan started to eat, Blair was reminded why Erin had a rule that he wasn’t allowed to eat on furniture at home. At this rate, she would not be surprised to wake up in the middle of the night and find herself snuggling with a chicken finger.
A while later when Nolan announced he was too full to eat anything else, Blair wasn’t sure how that could be true since there was definitely more food in her bed than in his stomach.
Blair dramatically patted her own stomach. “I’m super full too.”
Nolan poked at Blair’s stomach and giggled. “Squishy belly.”
Blair laughed along with him. She couldn’t actually be offended by anything said by someone who believed Baby Shark was a good song.
Erin clearly didn’t feel the same way, because she used what Blair could only describe as hermom voicewhen she said, “Nolan Patrick! Blair doesnothave a squishy belly. You need to tell her you’re sorry.”
Nolan stuck his lower lip out at Blair. “I’m sorry, Bear.”
Blair poked him in the side. “It’s okay, little dude. I know you were just being silly.”
“All right, buddy,” Erin said while reaching for Nolan. “Let’s get you cleaned up and ready for bed and give Blair some space to finally relax.”
“No!” Instead of letting Erin lift him, Nolan snuggled closer to Blair. “I want to sleep in Bear’s bed.”
“Honey, you can’t-”
