Falling Together FINAL.docx

Falling

Together

Erica Lee

Copyright © 2025 By Erica Lee

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Design By: Kendle Hardbound (kendle.readraws on IG)

Dedication

To Mom.

You taught me patience, acceptance, and love so that I could grow into the mother that you were to me. Thanks for being the world’s greatest mom and an even better MomMom. I love you so much.

Chapter 1

Erin

Erin Corcoran sighed as she stared at the email once again with the price increase for the summer program at her son’s daycare. As if it wasn’t already expensive enough, they now expected her to pay an extra hundred dollars a week. And for what? A few days of water play ? What was water play anyway? Were they really expecting her to pay extra just because they were going to spray her son with a hose a few days a week?

When she sighed again, a small, but heavy, body plopped onto her lap. “Mommy, you okay?” her three-and-a-half-year-old son, Nolan, asked as he looked up at her with those big round, brown eyes that resembled her ex-wife’s a little too much.

She ran her hands through his dark brown hair, which was already getting a little lighter even though it was only the beginning of May. “I’m good, buddy.”

She tickled his sides to distract him from worrying about her. Even though he was young, he was still very intuitive, and she hated the thought of worrying him with her adult problems. He was too young and naive to realize the extent of her inner turmoil and she wanted to keep it that way.

He leaned his head back as he laughed. “Mommy, stop. I’m going to fell’ed off,” he said between giggles.

She stopped tickling him, gripped him tightly, and pulled him back up onto her lap. As soon as he had stopped giggling, he grabbed her face and licked her cheek. “I’m a cat now. Meow. Meow.”

Erin laughed in spite of the knot in her stomach. This little kitty cat might have way too much energy and oftentimes had her so tired that she wondered how she would get through another day, but she adored him more than anything in the world. Her life hadn’t been easy this past year, but she would let her heart get broken a million more times, because the person who had done the heart breaking had also given her the greatest gift in the world—the little boy sitting on her lap.