Page 146 of The Snowball Effect

Emma shrugged, because at this point – it really didn’t matter. She liked Regan’s excitement and her energy and howwilling she was to go along with whatever was thrown at her, and Emma couldn’t pick-and-choose which facets of Regan to accept. Somewhere along the line, she’d bought in. “I know who you are. And I’m still here on the date.”

“You are,” Regan echoed, cautiously. “And youdoknow me.”

“I’d say better than most.”

“Me, too,” Regan breathed in agreement. Still, she kept her eyes on Emma’s, cautious. “So – you’re not disappointed?”

“Disappointed that you brought me to explore a new bookstore on a date?” Pursing her lips in faux-thought, Emma shook her head. “I’d say it’sprobablyone of the best date ideas anyone’s ever had.”

That mega-watt smile bloomed over Regan’s face again, settling warmly through Emma’s chest. Regan turned her head, placing a kiss to the center of Emma’s palm that had been cupping her jaw in a move so fast, Emma hadn’t seen it coming.

Her palm tingled from it, as her breath hitched, and she closed her fist tightly as she dropped her hand back to her side. “Uh.” She cleared her throat. “Why don’t we go in?”

There was a flush on Regan’s cheeks, an undeniable energy that buzzed between them, as Regan reached out and opened the door. “After you.”

As Emma walked in, her eyes widened as she took in the interior. The spiral staircase in the middle of the shop was entirely unexpected, leading up to a second and third floor. The shelves weren’t all a uniform shape or size, with a variety of clearly new and used books mixed together. There was an organized chaos to it all, something so… beautiful, and Emma gaped.

“How did I not know this was here?” She asked, awed, as she stared up and around.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Regan asked, bouncing onto her tiptoes next to her, squeezing the hold she still had on Emma’s hand.“And there’s a café in the back, too, that peopleravedabout in reviews. They have a chef that changes the menu every month. It functions as a coffee house during the day, and they serve book-themed mixed drinks at night. I figured we’d have dinner here.”

Emma’s heart skipped a beat as she focused her attention back to Regan, who was staring up at her with a hopeful smile.

It might technically only be the beginning of the date, but Emma got the distinct feeling that she was done for. She’d attempted to tell herself all day that she needed to be as grounded as possible tonight. That she needed to be mindful of any potential downfall, to be wary of jumping into this head-first.

“That sounds great,” she murmured, trying to stay as grounded as possible. “And, honestly, it’s totally fine that Alexis Levine’s Q&A was postponed. I can always keep an eye out and come back here to see her. But this way, you don’t have to sit through something you don’t really care about just for the sake of our date.”

Even though Emma would bethrilledto listen to one of her favorite authors – obviously – she found that was the truth. She wanted to do somethingwithRegan, not something Regan was doing for her, that she wasn’t getting anything from herself.

Regan’s eyebrows furrowed. “What? I care. I’m disappointed, too.”

“About… Alexis?” Emma asked, confused.

“Yes!” Regan insisted, staring up at Emma as if Emma was the crazy one, here. “I read herEscapetrilogy, and I really liked it.”

Surprise filtered through Emma, and she shook her head with it. “Uh-uh, wait. You told me – months ago – that you didn’t read very much.”

“Right, but that was before I followed your book reviews,” Regan informed her, as if the was stating something obvious.“When you gave me your account info, I read through everything, and you weresointo her books that it made me want to read them. So, I did. And I really like them.”

Blood rushed in Emma’s ears, making it so all she could hear was her own heartbeat, which thudded harder in her chest. “You read her books because Iliked them.”

“Yeah,” Regan confirmed, plainly. “Obviously.”

It was so clear that she had no idea what that information meant to Emma, what it was doing to her inside. How it made her stomach flutter with this feeling that Regan had increasingly inspired in her.

“And you did it beforewewere even a possibility,” Emma pushed, unable to stop herself.

Even if Regan had read Emma’s favorite books in the last two days, she would have been amazed and so, so pleased. But the fact that Regan had done it before, just when they werefriends, it – it hit home on a deeper level, and Emma couldn’t place why.

“Yes,” Regan stated again, staring curiously up at Emma. “I wanted to know why you liked them so much, because you wrote your reviews about them so passionately. I wanted to understand, and… I mean, it was over a month ago; I wanted to knowyou, better.”

No one had ever looked at her the way Regan did, the way she was right now. Like she wanted to climb inside of Emma’s mind and know every single one of her thoughts.

Emma stared back, her breath catching in her throat, and she had the strongest, neediest desire to push Regan back against the bookshelf behind them, and kiss her. Though they’d kissed twice, Emma had never been the one to initiate one, and right now – in this very public, very inappropriate moment – she wanted to so badly, she had to clench her free hand into a fist and dig her nails into her palm as a sharp reminder that this wasn’t the time or place.

Blowing out a deep breath, Emma got herself under control.Grounded, she reminded herself, even though she could already feel herself floating into Regan’s orbit.

She fell even deeper into that orbit over dinner.

---