Blair being so understanding didn’t make it any easier for Erin to stay where she was sitting on the couch and not lean forward to finally find out what those lips tasted like. Luckily, these thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. When Erin took the phone out of her pocket, she saw it was her sister calling.

She held the phone up to show Blair. “Sorry. I need to take this.”

“Of course. Take your time.”

Blair’s body relaxed deeper into the loveseat and Erin stood to take her sister’s call.

Erin walked upstairs before picking up. After her sister called her out at the Fourth of July party, she worried what she might say. “Hey, April! What’s up?” she asked once she was in her bedroom.

“I have some bad news.”

Even though nothing about her sister’s tone made it sound like this was an emergency, Erin’s heart rate still picked up from her words. “What’s wrong?”

April chuckled. “Chill out. It’s nothing that bad. We just can’t go to the beach anymore. Sydney’s travel softball team made it into some all-star tournament the weekend we were supposed to get back, but of course, now the coach wants to have practice every day that week. If she doesn’t go to practice, she can’t play, and you know how much this sport means to her.”

“Of course. I completely understand.” Erin’s niece loved softball. She saw the way her eyes lit up whenever Erin talked to her about it. Even though it wasn’t always easy, Erin made it a point to get to Sydney’s bigger games, because she knew how happy it made her. “Give me the details for the tournament once you have them. We’ll try our best to make it.”

“Oh my gosh. You don’t have to do that. I know how tough it would be after being away with Nolan for the week.”

“Honestly, I don’t even know if we’ll go anymore.” Erin still hadn’t told Nolan they were going, because the kid had no concept of time and would bother her about it every day until they finally left. With the trip still over a week away, she wasn’t ready for his pestering yet.

“Why not? You already took off of work, right? You should go. You never let yourself relax.”

Erin cackled. “There is nothing relaxing about taking a three-year-old on vacation by myself.”

“Hmm. It looks like you’ll have to take my original suggestion and ask the babysitter to go with you. That could be fun, right?”

Fun or absolute torture? “I can’t ask her to do that.”

“Can’t or won’t?” her sister asked with a teasing tone.

“Just send me the damn details of her all-star game, okay?”

“Fine, I will. But only if you consider my suggestion.”