Page 177 of The Snowball Effect

Not the time to dive into that.

Clearing her throat, she refocused her attention on Sutton.

Who’d remained silent for nearly a minute, now, and Emma didn’t know if she’d ever seen someone look so baffled in her entire life.

Finally, Sutton spluttered out, “You don’t own anything that remotely looks like that shirt.”

Clearly in reference to Regan, as Emma… wasn’t wearing one.

Regan looked down at herself, before turning back to Sutton as she insisted, “Hey, I could have bought this!”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Sutton’s eyes narrowed to little slits, as she looked between the two of them, shaking her head. “I… what the hell is going on over there? I need you to just – explain.” She reached up and rubbed her fingers over her forehead, roughly. “Because what itlookslike isn’t – there’s no way…”

Emma could feel the way Regan inhaled, deeply, and held her breath, and she turned to look at her.

Regan was already watching Emma, her gaze questioning and thoughtful and sweet, and Emma’s chest filled with warmth at it.

Yeah. It was unbelievable to her, too, and she was living it. So, she couldn’t blame Sutton’s incredulity.

“Itiswhat it looks like,” she confirmed, quietly, turning her attention back to look at the phone.

Her stomach flip-flopped as the anticipation slid through her, because she honestly was clueless as to how Sutton would react to this. Sutton was protective over Regan, Emma knew that was true. She knew how staunchly Emma had pushed against Regan. And… well, she’d never even come out to Sutton on her own, before.

This moment really hit a lot of boxes for her.

That anxiety calmed, as she felt Regan’s hand land gently on top of Emma’s free hand where she’d had it clenched into a fist against her thigh. Instinctively, she flipped her palm upward to interlock their fingers.

“No,” Sutton slowly drew out, making the short word last several syllables. “Because what itlooks likeis that you two are… that you just…”

“Had sex,” Regan supplied, the words bursting from her lips, and Emma was truthfully shocked it had taken this long.

“And we did. Have sex,” Regan confirmed needlessly, as she squeezed Emma’s hand in hers, vibrating with that bountiful energy.

“Youwhat?!” Sutton gasped, her eyes widening in shock in spite of having stared at them in bed together for the last two minutes.

“We had sex,” Regan repeated, the pride in her voice was loud and clear. Like she wanted to puff out her chest and strut around, shouting it from the rooftops. Since this was Regan, it was quite possible she did.

Emma couldn’t help but smile at it – why did she find that so charming? – even as she closed her eyes in wait for Sutton’s response.

Sutton was silent for so long, though, that Emma opened her eyes in concern that she’d hung up on them.

But, no. Sutton was still there. Staring at her phone with her mouth hanging open, very clearly unable to form words.

The great news for all of them in this moment, was that Regan so rarely struggled with words.

“I know – you’re shocked,” Regan jumped in to fill the void. “And I totally get it; I was shocked, too! I mean, not tonight. This has kind of been building. But Iwasshocked when I realized I was attracted to Emma. You know, since we didn’t know I was into women.”

Sutton finally managed to speak. “And when wasthat?” She asked, still sounding so shell-shocked.

Emma couldn’t blame her.

Regan’s bright smile dimmed ever-so-slightly, as she winced. “Um… a while ago? Earlier this summer?”

Sutton shook her head, clearly trying to make sense of the information she was being given. “And Emma? You’re into women, too? Obviously?”

“Yeah.” She cleared her throat, pushing herself to be as open and honest as possible. “Though, I’ve known for a lot longer than this summer.”

Sutton blew out a breath. “Sure. Right.” Unsurprisingly, her attention turned back to Regan, a frown etched into her face. “Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve been working through this for weeks – months? – and you didn’ttellme?”

---