Marisol laughed so hard a piece of chicken flew out of her mouth. “ Sure  you wouldn’t.”

Chapter 5

Erin

“Mommy! Let’s go to the pool!”

Before Erin could even respond, Nolan was clawing at her back as he tried to climb the chair she was sitting on. She tried to ignore him as she hunched over her computer, but it was no use.

“Mommy! Mommy! Pool!”

Erin closed her computer and turned to look at her son. “Sweetie, I told you we could go to the pool if Mommy got some work done, and so far, you haven’t let me do that.”

“I help you!” Nolan climbed onto Erin’s lap and reached for her laptop with his sticky, yogurt-covered hands (her latest failed attempt at distracting him so she could get work done).

Luckily, over the past three years, she had developed very quick reflexes and was able to grab his hands before they touched her computer. “You know what would help me? If you washed these hands of yours. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” Nolan jumped from her lap and ran over to the stool sitting close to the sink. He pulled it right in front and stepped onto it, singing a song he must have learned in school while he washed them.

Much too quickly, the song was over, and Nolan was running toward her again. “Pool! Pool!”

Erin rubbed her forehead as if that was somehow going to help her pounding headache. “Fine. I’ll go to the pool with you if you promise  you’ll let me get work done once we get back home. Please. ” Nothing like trying to bargain with a toddler.

“I p-omise.”

Erin took a deep breath as Nolan ran up the stairs, most likely to get his bathing suit. How the hell am I supposed to do this every Friday?

“Mommy! I need help!” Nolan yelled from upstairs.

Erin sighed as she stood from the table. “I’ll be right there, buddy.”

Approximately forty-five minutes and one-and-a-half tantrums later, they made it to the pool. After laying their stuff at their usual spot, Nolan immediately started running toward the pool.

“Slow down!” Erin yelled as she walked after him. She was way too tired to run at this point, so she was relieved when he actually listened.

As she followed Nolan into the shallow end of the pool, Erin’s mind drifted back to a few weeks earlier when they went there with Blair. Even though the water was frigid, Erin’s body was heating up, which absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that she was thinking about Blair in a bikini. Definitely not.

She was just so… okay, she was hot. There was no point in denying it. Erin hated herself for the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about it, though. She shouldn’t be lusting after Nolan’s much younger babysitter.

“Mommy! Throw me!”