Page 113 of The Snowball Effect

And, despiteeverything, Emma couldn’t help the exasperated laugh that escaped her lips. “Are you really surprised by me saying that?” Emma gestured to herself. “What about me suggests to you that I would really love for my world to be thrown into chaos?”

She realized her mistake too late, as Regan’s eyes followed Emma’s gesture, looking her up and down with that – thatglint. Emma’s throat ran dry.

Which, no. Not happening.

Coughing, Emma pointedly drew Regan’s gaze back to her own. Regan, unsurprisingly, smiled at her with zero concern at having been caught blatantly checking her out.

“Okay, being attracted to women is – it’s great. I’m happy for you.” Was she?!

“So far, it’s justwoman,” Regan corrected.

Emma felt that heat spark through her again, even as she took another step back. This time, that step put her back right against the brick wall of the living room. “Uh. Okay. That’s – be that as it may,” oh,god, she had to clear her throat a second time! “We really can’t kiss again. I’m sure you’ve been attracted to a ton of men before and not kissed them.”

Finally, Emma felt like she had her thoughts in order enough to make a salient point!

Regan hummed before nodding. “Yes. You’re right.”

“Great. So, that’s what this is. It’s not like you’re in love with me or anything, so–” Emma’s eyes widened as soon as she spoke the words, and her stomach didn’t flutter this time; it tightened into knots.

The very idea of romantic love hadn’t crossed Emma’s mind in any sort ofrealway since Felicity had broken up with her over two years ago, and the last thing she’d ever expected was for it to be Regan Gallagher that made that thought surface.

Relief pounded through her when Regan let out a hearty laugh. “No, I’m not in love with you,” she conceded, her voice falling to a softer, sweeter tone. “For a second, I considered joking about it. But the look on your face makes me think you’d pass out if I did.”

Emma slid her palm down her face. “Yeah, I might have.”

Still leaning back against the wall, Emma felt herself truly breathing for the first time in what felt like forever, even if it had only been the past hour.

“More than anything, Regan, I like what we are. I like what we’ve figured out here in the last month. I like that we’vefinallyreached this place in our relationship. Where we can trust each other and actually talk to each other. Where we like each other – er, spending time together,” she quickly corrected, feeling herself blush.

Still, she maintained eye contact with Regan, wanting her to see how much Emma meant this.

“We’re both roommates and friends, and doing anything to jeopardize that isn’t in the cards,” she stated firmly. And she felt good about it. “We kissed because you’re attracted to me, and I’m the first woman you’re experiencing attraction to. It doesn’t have to become this bigthing, and I don’t want it to. I want to watchThe Onewith you and have dinner together and text you throughout the day without it being weird.”

Emma honestly hadn’t realized how much she’d come to enjoy those things that had all become regular occurrences for them until this moment. Until the idea that they might go back to not being in a good enough place to do those things struck her and made her stomach twist.

She didn’t have many people in her life like Regan; she didn’t even know anyone like Regan. Yes, she had a friendship with Sutton and a sort of friendship with Brynn, but Regan – by virtue of both who she was as a person and the situation they’d found themselves in – was… different. Somehow, she was closer to Regan than anyone else who had come into her life in a long time.

Regan held onto Emma’s words for several beats before she finally nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to lose those things, either. If you recall, I was the one that pushed for them in the first place.”

An annoyingly attractive cheeky smile slid over Regan’s face, and with it, a calming feeling flooded through Emma.

The kiss and all of the big, bright, tumultuous feelings it had alit in Emma fell into the background, allowing her to take a real deep breath for the first time since the kiss had been placed on her lips.

“Great. So… things are fine, then. Between us,” she pushed to solidify. Needing to make sure she and Regan were both on the same page about this.

Regan rocked back and forth on her feet. “Yep. Absolutely fine.”

Even though things were clearlyfine, Emma remained where she stood. Her back against the wall, her knees still weak, and her lips tingling from Regan’s kiss.

Which had to go away soon, right?

“Well,” Regan clapped her hands in front of her, startlingly loud. “Since things are sofine, let’s do something normal. We only had a few episodes left in season three ofThe One, right? We probably have enough time to finish it before I have to go to work.”

Regan dipped her gaze down at her wrist, where she was not wearing a watch.

Emma’s lips pulled into a hesitant smile as she skeptically acquiesced, “Yeah, I guess we do.”

Turning on her heel, Regan walked back to the couch and dropped to the spot she’d been sitting in earlier. The sight gave Emma pause.

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