Erin groaned as she looked at the time on her computer. 12:30 . She had made the mistake of telling Nolan they would go to the pool after she finished all of her work. It was a Friday, so she was working from home while Blair watched him. When she made that promise, she didn’t realize a huge project would come up that suddenly had to be done as soon as possible. Even though her stomach was growling and yelling at her to eat, she knew if she wanted to keep her promise to Nolan, she needed to work through lunch.

Before she could get the words out to tell him that, Nolan burst into the room. He jumped up on her bed where she was sitting with her laptop open. “It’s time for lunch, Mommy.”

Erin pulled Nolan up against her and sighed. “I can’t today. I’m sorry. If I want to have time to take you to the pool, I need to work through lunch.”

Hearing that the pool was on the line was clearly all Nolan needed to know because he shrugged and jumped from the bed. “Okay, Mommy!”

Erin heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, and a moment later Blair was in her room. She put a hand on her hip and took a deep breath as if she had been running. “Dude. I thought we were playing hide-and-seek. Why are you up here?”

Nolan pointed his little thumb at Erin. “I was getting Mommy for lunch, but she can’t eat because she’s taking me to the pool.”

Blair looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. “You’re not eating lunch today?”

Erin looked at the computer sitting in front of her. Just in the time since Nolan walked in, she had received three more emails. There was no way she could take a break if she was ever going to finish. “Too much to do, sorry. Besides, I’m not even that hungry.” Her stomach betrayed her by letting out an obscenely loud growl at that very moment.

Blair chuckled. “Are you sure about that?”

Erin shook her head. “It really doesn’t matter. I promised Nolan the pool, so that’s more important than food.”

“Okay.”