Page 194 of The Snowball Effect

Droplets of rainrolled down Regan’s face, her hair was soaked, and she was wearing a rain jacket but even that clung uncomfortably to her body like a second skin, with how wild the weather was outside.

Even worse than how she felt on the outside, though, was how she felt on the inside.

Her stomach twisted so tightly with guilt and even heavier with disappointment. She was so, so fucking disappointed in herself.

“I’msosorry,” she apologized for at least the fifth time in as many minutes. And she would keep doing so, for as long as it took!

She rolled both her and Emma’s suitcases down the gleaming hardwood floors of the inn, leaving a small trail of water behind. She’d apologized to the man at the front desk, preemptively for the mess it would leave.

Luckily, the hard side material of their suitcases had protected the contents. The purchase had been made by Emma two years ago, before they’d gone on a trip to London. Notmatchingsuitcases, per-se, but the same brand, with complementing colors. “It’ll be easier to spot them, this way,”Emma had explained, as she’d given Regan’s old, worn, cloth suitcase a disdainful look.

Regan couldn’t disagree. Besides, much like everything Emma did, she’d researched the best, most durable and secure suitcases – this baby handled like a dream, compared to the one Regan had lugged around for the previous ten years.

She loved seeing her bright teal suitcase next to Emma’s dark blue one, next to each other. It was a visual representation of them, as a couple, in a way.

“It’s fine,” Emma said over her shoulder, as she stopped in front of the door to the room they’d been assigned to and put in their key. It was a real key, too, not a key card, and it was designed to look like one of those old-fashioned skeleton keys.

This inn they’d managed to find was super cute, and Regan counted her lucky stars for that.

But, still.

“It wasn’t what we’d planned, though. It wasn’t whatI’dplanned, and I don’t even know how everything got so messed up!” She lamented, resisting the urge to bang her palm into her forehead.

“Babe, it’s fine,” Emma stated, again, as she opened their door. But her tone wasn’t totallynormal; after being together for three years, Regan knew Emma’s tones very well!

“It’s not, and I understand if you’re upset. You don’t have to pretend.” Regan followed Emma into the room, tugging their suitcases behind her, before turning to shut and lock their door.

“The room looks nice,” Emma said, totally ignoring Regan’s self-flagellation, as she looked around the room.

Taking a pause in berating herself, Regan looked around. Itwasreally nice. Fairly large, with airy ceilings. An ornate dresser, a large television, and a cute old-fashioned working desk. The queen-sized sleigh bed had a solid wood frame, with a crisp white duvet laying over it. There were three large windowsthat Regan imagined might have a nice view… maybe when it wasn’t storming, and there was some daylight coming in.

“At least there’s that,” Regan muttered, releasing her hold on their suitcases, as she flexed her hands to get some feeling back into them.

It was the middle of May, sure, but their walk in from the parking area had been chilly.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom and get situated,” Emma informed her, shaking back her own wet hair. She grabbed the duffel bag she’d brought in and started toward the adjoining door on the other side of the room.

“Great! Good!” She encouraged, trying to inject as much enthusiasm as she could into her tone. “Okay, I’ll… try to figure out what the hell happened to get us so off-track,” Regan muttered, mostly to herself.

Before Emma closed the bathroom door behind her, she pointed to the desk she’d just walked by. “Hey, there’s a guestbook. Why don’t you look through it and see if there’s anything good to do around here if we’re stuck for the weekend?”

With that, she shut the door behind her with a sharpsnap, leaving Regan to herself.

Immediately, she took out her phone and pulled up the GPS. It just made no sense!

It was Emma’s birthday weekend, and Regan had planned a little getaway to a cute little town a couple hours upstate. Emma had mentioned it a few weeks ago, because a farm-to-table restaurant had opened there that she’d wanted to try.

And she’d doneeverythingright!

Regan knew herself; she knew that she was prone to potentially making small mistakes, to overlooking details that seemed insignificant but ended up with dire consequences. Since being with Emma, though, she’d changed.

True to what had just played out between them, Emma generally took it in stride when Regan messed up.

But being with someone that was so conscientious and well-prepared, in turn, had made Regan more conscientious and well-prepared. Now that she had her side business with her baked goods up and running, she’d needed to be a lot more organized. Keeping schedules and double-checking details was a game changer.

Sometimes things slipped through the cracks, but… Regan couldn’t think of a single time in the last few years that she’d messed upthisbadly.

Thirty minutes ago, when the rain had started pouring so hard she’d barely been able to clearly see out of the windshield, she’d gotten a very, very bad feeling in her stomach, and she’d pulled over so she could see what the hell was going on.

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