Page 127 of The Snowball Effect

Everyone turned their attention to Sherry, who offered a heavy shrug. “Oh, no. I’m not taking responsibility for any baking competitions. Phoebe, the recipe is yours… especially if it’ll help you beat Marcia,” she muttered.

Delighted by the assisted living home gossip, Regan beamed. “I’ll allow anyone in our quad here to use the recipe, and I’ll be so freaking pumped if we win!”

“Regan, you have the right kind of spirit!” Phoebe nodded at her in approval.

Regan grinned back, before the clock on the wall behind Phoebe caught her attention, and her mouth fell open on a gasp. “Oh! It’s five!”

“Got a hot date?” Phoebe asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Bea nudged her, shaking her head… only to then turn her attention to Regan as well. “Bad manners aside – you got a date?”

“Um…” Regan dug her teeth into her bottom lip, unsure of exactly how to answer.

The reality was that she did not have a date, and she knew that.

But the reality was also that she hadn’t been able to actually talk to Emma since yesterday afternoon at Everly’s birthday party. Since her big confession.

After the cake cutting, Regan had wound up in conversation after conversation with a multitude of parents complimenting her baked goods and asking for her business card. These people believed Regan had business cards!

Even though she’d been flattered and awed that so many people had enjoyed her desserts, she’d desperately wanted to talk to Emma. But she’d made herself linger and chat with the PTA parents, because she was trying to give Emma some time to take in everything Regan had told her. She knew Emma really well, now, and she knew Emma needed to process.

By the time she had some actual breathing room, over an hour had passed and the party had been winding down.

Unfortunately, Sherry hadn’t been feeling too well after several hours out in the heat and humidity, and Emma had approached Regan to let her know she was going to bring her gram home.

Regan had stayed for a while longer – mostly because she had to collect some of the fancy food storage containers she’d brought the desserts in, and return them to Topped Off. Once she’d gotten home that evening, though, Emma had texted her to let her know that she was going to stay at her gram’s for a while to make sure she was doing okay.

Regan had fallen asleep by the time Emma had gotten home, and – unfortunately for Regan – she’d had to get to Topped Off by six this morning.

She was waiting on tenterhooks to actually see and speak to Emma again. It was making her so… anxious? Exhilarated? Energized? All of the above? That even though Regan had gotten off of her shift four hours ago, she hadn’t been able to sit around by herself at home, waiting for Emma.

So, would she say that she had ahot date?! Not exactly. She had to talk to a hot woman about the potential ramifications of her feelings declaration.

But, with Emma’s grandmother sitting right here, she couldn’t really say that.

“Something like that,” she settled on. “I want to get home for when Emma is out of work.”

There, that was the truth at least.

Bea nodded with excitement. “That could count.”

“Depending on what you’re doing at home,” Phoebe added with an exaggeratedly lascivious wink.

Reganwished. God, her body throbbed at how much she wished for that to be the case.

Regan had been through dry spells before, months without sex. Which was fine; she had a vibrator and all. What wasn’t fine was that she’d neverlivedwith a source of constant temptation, before!

She had to hold in her wistful sigh.

“Ah, I’m going to cut you two off right there. I don’t need any more details,” Sherry asserted, pushing herself up from the chair she’d been sitting in. “I’ll walk you out.”

Regan rushed forward, shaking her head. “No, seriously, you don’t need to go to any trouble. I know the way… and if I don’t, I’m sure I’ll run into someone, eventually, to help me.”

Sherry cut her a look. “When you’re my age, the heat might very well get to you, too. But I’m perfectly fine.”

Phoebe scoffed. “Preach.”

Regan held up her hands in surrender. “All right. It was really great to hang out with you two again.”

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