Page 156 of The Snowball Effect

Oh, god. That hoarse tone to her voice had nothing to do with sex or lust, now, and everything to do with a shy confession, Regan could tell. And it made her heart skip a beat.

“Me, too,” she reassured, needing Emma to know she was far from being alone in that.

She rested her head on Emma’s shoulder, settling down snugly against her, before she took a deep breath and filled her lungs withEmma. She melted into it, feeling that post-orgasm exhaustion start to filter back.

“What we just did, for the record, was super hot,” she whispered against the thin, soft fabric of Emma’s shirt. “I have no regrets, and I hope you don’t, either.”

She felt a shiver run up her spine as Emma pressed her hand to the small of her back, sliding ever-so-cautiously under Regan’s tank top. “I don’t, and I agree.”

Completely satisfied – physically and emotionally – Regan felt a smile tug at her lips as she closed her eyes. “For the record, I love your glasses. 10/10 think you should wear them more.”

She could hear Emma set the aforementioned glasses on her nightstand, and Regan loved that she felt more than heard thesoft, sleepy chuckle Emma breathed out. “I’ll take that under advisement.”

“Good, thank you.” She sighed, that sleepiness she’d been begging for earlier finally hitting her like a ton of bricks. “Sweet dreams, Emma.”

“Sweet dreams back.”

twenty-four

Emma was definitely not babysittingher sisters the night after her date with Regan because she was nervous to be alone with Regan in their apartment.

Only, maybe she was. A little bit.

Granted, she was also doing it to help out her gram, which made her feel a lot better and a whole lot less crazy about the whole thing.

When she’d been winding down at work earlier, her grandmother had reached out to her. She’d informed Emma that there was an emergency at the women’s shelter Kimberly ran, and that Kimberly was going to need to be on-site to manage it. Ted was out of town for work, and Kimberly had asked – apologetically, her gram was sure to tell her – if Gram could watch the girls this evening. Apparently, Kimberly had sounded very stressed, and she’d assured that she would manage to get Eva and Everly to Astoria “somehow” before getting to the shelter, so that Gram wouldn’t need to figure out transport to New Jersey.

Gram, being Gram, had agreed to watch her grandchildren – coming as no surprise.

But she’d tentatively asked Emma if Emma would mind “being on-call” tonight, because, “It makes me a little ashamed to admit it, Em, but you know it’s been a long time since I’ve been in charge of watching any kiddos on my own. But I remember how tiring it was, even before my… health issues.”

Emma had frowned, disliking the idea of her gram possibly being run-down – especially as it had been less than a week since her heat exhaustion at the birthday party.

Her discomfort at that had warred with her discomfort at the offer to babysit, herself. Because she barely knew Eva and Everly, and in the limited time she’d spent with them, Emma hadn’t figured out the magic trick to feeling some sort of sisterly bond.

Then, though, then… Emma thought about what her night might potentially look like, at home.

No, she didn’t have any plans tonight. But neither did Regan. In fact, according to the calendar on the fridge, Regan was off from work by two in the afternoon and had tomorrow off.

So, ostensibly, the evening would just be the two of them.

Alone.

In their apartment, together.

She’d had no intention of taking things so far last night – after literally onlyonedate! A date she was still trying to wrap her mind around – and they hadn’t even gotten back to their apartment until almost eleven PM! She was very, very uncertain about what situation they’d find themselves in if they spent the entire night in closed quarters together, especially now that this chemistry between them had burst to life in screaming color.

Emma had put herself in a real pickle by volunteering to go to New Jersey and watch her sisters, though, because she’d immediately known she’d need Regan to join her.

No way in hell could she do it alone, without her. She didn’t even want to try. That, alone, had been a jarring realization.

And, of course, Regan had gamely jumped on board.

Which was how Emma found herself sitting next to Regan on the couch in Kimberly’s house, as they neared the end of The Game of Life with Eva and Everly. Everly had been the one to announce – as soon as they’d walked in – that it was board game night, and Emma had learned in the last two hours that board game night literally meant a night full of board games.

“Aha! Got another kiddo to put in the back of my car.” Regan hummed in excitement, as she added a little pink “person” into her plastic van. “What do you want to name this one?” She asked Emma, fluttering her eyelashes, as she leaned into her.

Emma rolled her eyes, pushing back into Regan. It didn’t push her away and, instead, it left them leaning heavily into one another, and she felt the entire side of her body tingle pleasantly with the connection.