“She kind of pulled a fast one on me after I gave birth. Even though we always talked about giving Nolan her last name and then actually getting my name changed, when they brought us the paperwork for his birth certificate, she said his last name should be mine. I was having some complications, so I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, plus there were other people in the room, so I just went with it. Looking back, I wonder if she already knew she would eventually leave us; like maybe that was some twisted way of trying to make it easier on us when she walked away. No connection, aside from a little boy who has her eyes.” If Erin didn’t love that little boy so much, those eyes would probably haunt her, but she was slowly getting to the point where all she saw when she looked at him was him. Thank god.

Blair sat in silence, looking completely dumbstruck, and Erin worried she had said too much.

“Shit,” Blair said finally. She looked over at the couch where Nolan slept, then back at Erin. “That’s really fucked up. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. You’re not her.”

“You’ve got that fucking right.” She then pointed at Nolan and said, “Anyone who could walk away from that little boy  has serious issues.”

The intensity in Blair’s eyes made it clear how much she cared about Nolan, and it made the urge to kiss her come back all over again.

Instead of giving in to that desire, Erin pulled her hand away from Blair’s. “We should probably talk about what almost happened last night.” Erin didn’t want to, but if her past had taught her anything, it was that ignoring something that was right in front of your face only led to heartbreak.

“What almost happened last night?”

Erin was about to panic that she had made the whole thing up in her head until Blair smirked. “I’m just kidding. I know we almost kissed. I was there.”

Erin couldn’t help but laugh as she playfully hit Blair’s shoulder. “You’re such a jerk.”

Blair grabbed ahold of Erin’s arm and held it between them. “Maybe. But I’m the jerk that you  almost kissed.”

It was so playful and fun, and in a different world, Erin would have made some comment about how they should turn that almost  into the real thing. She would have leaned in and done what she refused to acknowledge she wanted to do since the first time she saw Blair. But this wasn’t a different world. This was the world where every decision she made had an impact on someone else’s life—a very important someone.