Page 46 of Falling Together
“Told you.” Blair playfully poked Nolan on his side and looked up at Erin. “Sorry. I woke up to this little dude’s finger up my nose.”
Erin couldn’t help but laugh, because the same had definitely happened to her when she was forced to share a bed with Nolan in the past. “Been there.”
“The worst.” Blair scrunched up her nose as if she was disgusted, but the wide grin never left her face. “So, how’d you sleep last night?”
Erin had to think about how to answer that, because it was a very loaded question. Last night had been both the best and worst sleep of her life. She had no clue how that was possible, but it was definitely the case. Every time she drifted off to sleep, she slept more soundly than she had in a very long time, but she found herself awake multiple times throughout the night just watching Blair. No matter how hard Erin tried, she couldn’t take her eyes off Blair snuggled close to Nolan. Each time, she stared at them until her eyes could not stay open any longer and she drifted back to sleep. At one point, she woke up to find her hand had somehow ended up on top of Blair’s. She told herself to move it, but she couldn’t. Touching Blair felt safe. It felt right. It made her feel like maybe all of the bad things that had happened during her life really weren’t so bad because they had brought her to this moment.
Erin squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t think that way. Thinking like that would result in her and Nolan getting hurt, and she refused to let that happen again.
“I slept pretty well, actually,” Erin answered when she finally remembered the question Blair had asked her.
Blair laughed. “Honestly? Aside from the whole finger in the nose incident, so did I.”
“You were snoring,” Nolan said with a shrug, as if that was a logical reason to shove his finger up someone’s nostril.
Blair crossed her arms and (very fakely with a big shit-eating grin on her face) glared at Nolan. “Ido notsnore.”
“Actually, you do.” It was something Erin had noticed when she was (totallynotcreepily) watching Blair sleep. She wasn’t a loud snorer. The little noises that left her nose were super adorable.
“Really? You’re going to gang up on me now, too?” Blair looked from Erin to Nolan. “Should we show Mommy what happens to people who do things I don’t like?”
Nolan nodded and laughed maniacally, then held up his hands and lunged his whole body at Erin. “Tickle attack.”
Before Erin could comprehend what was coming, both Nolan and Blair were tickling her. Blair definitely knew one of her weaknesses now. Erin was insanely ticklish and tried her best to escape while she laughed uncontrollably at their attack.
“Please. Stop. Can’t breathe,” she said while she swatted at them.
She was finally able to grab one of Blair’s hands and held it away from herself to stop her tickles. Unfortunately, the ticklish feeling was quickly replaced with tingles that darted through her whole body in response to this one touch. Erin wasn’t sure which was worse. Or was it better?Better in the worst way?
She let go of Blair’s hand and jumped out of the bed before Blair could get to her again. “Who wants to go to the beach today?” she asked, while raising her own hand.
Nolan jumped off of the bed and waved his hand in the air as well. “Me! Me! Me!”
After getting changed and fighting with Nolan to eat breakfast, they finally made their way down to the beach. As soon as Nolan’s feet hit the sand, he began to run toward the water. Erin had no idea how she was supposed to catch him with her hands full, but before she could start running after him, Blair dropped the few things she was holding and ran after him. It only took a few seconds for Blair to catch him and scoop him up in her arms.
Erin watched as Blair put him back down onto the sand and held his hand. The two of them slowly walked toward the ocean and stopped right on the edge of where the dry sand turned to wet sand. Blair pointed toward the ocean and spoke to Nolan who appeared to be hanging on to every word she said. Erin wanted to join them, but she was too distracted watching their interaction to get her feet to move. Aside from her family, which didn’t really count, Erin had never seen Nolan take to someone as quickly as he had with Blair. It really was like he had known her forever. That fact kind of made her want to throw caution to the wind, but it also made her want to bury Nolan in the sand to make sure he didn’t get hurt. Not that she actually believed Blair would ever hurt him. At least, not intentionally. But she worried Blair was oblivious to how special she was.
A big wave crashed in the ocean, causing water to reach where Blair and Nolan were standing. As soon as it touched his feet, Nolan jumped in the air and ran back toward Erin.
When he reached her, there were tears running down his cheeks. He pointed out toward the ocean. “I don’t like that water. It’s scary.”
Erin bent down and wrapped Nolan in a hug. Even when he was being dramatic, she still hated to see him cry. “Aw, buddy, there’s nothing to be scared of. I promise. Mommy would never let anything hurt you.”
“Yeah, neither would I, buddy.”
Erin looked up to find Blair crouched down behind Nolan rubbing circles across his back. “I’m really sorry,” she said when her eyes met Erin’s. “I wouldn’t have taken him so close if I knew it would scare him so badly.”
“It’s seriously no big deal. I would’ve done the exact same thing.” Erin pulled away from Nolan but kept her eyes on his. “What do you say we stay back here away from the water? We can play in the sand and make sandcastles.”
Nolan took a few deep breaths and nodded slowly. “Okay.”
They found an empty spot and put down their towels. Blair volunteered to walk back down to the ocean to put water in a bucket so they could have wet sand to build with. Once she was back, the three of them got to work and Nolan quickly forgot about his fight with the ocean waves. They had only been at the beach for a few hours when Erin noticed Nolan could barely keep his eyes open.
“Are you tired, buddy?” Erin asked him.
Nolan shook his head, but he wiped a sandy hand over his eyes, which made him have a complete meltdown because his eyes hurt. While Erin helped Nolan wipe the sand off of his face and out of his eyes, Blair gathered their towels and beach toys back into bags without even being asked.
When Nolan let them know he couldn’t possibly walk all the way back to the hotel, Blair offered to carry him, which made Erin have to fight to hold back tears because she was so thankful. She wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without Blair, and she wished she knew how to properly thank her. They weren’t even halfway back to the hotel before Nolan passed out in Blair’s arms. He was so tired he didn’t even wake up when she laid him down on the bed. Erin pointed out the door toward the other room of their suite and she and Blair tiptoed out, shutting the door behind them as quietly as possible.
