Page 32 of The Snowball Effect

“Oh, Emma’s totally settled in here! Aren’t you, sweetie?” Regan leaned toward Emma enough so she could rest her head against her shoulder.

Emma, in turn, dropped her hand on top of Regan’s and squeezed a little too hard to be considered nice.

Kimberly lit up like a Christmas tree. “That’s amazing! I’ll set something up real soon!” Her phone started buzzing again as she clutched it tightly in her hand. “I should answer this. I love you, Emma! And it wassogreat to finally meet you, Regan.”

“Yeah, it was so great tofinallymeet you, too!” Regan called out to her as she rushed out.

As soon as the apartment door shut behind her, Emma turned to Regan, eyes blazing. “Whywould you agree to making dinner plans with her?”

Regan held her hand up, defensively. “Uh, excuse me? I don’t recall hearing myself do that.”

… did she? She tilted her head to the side, running through the last few minutes of interaction and – yeah, no. She hadn’t mentioned anything about that.

Emma groaned, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Sure, technically, you didn’t do it in as many words. But toKimberly, that was an agreement of epic proportions.”

Regan stared incredulously. “I have a really good suggestion for you: next time you tell someone we’re in a relationship, giveme a cheat sheet or something so I can properly prepare myself! How should I know your mom’s double-talk? I didn’t even know she existed until thirty minutes ago.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

As she did, some of the fight also seemed to leave Emma’s body. It had been fascinating, really, how she could quite literallyseethe tension lessen in Emma’s shoulders as soon as Kimberly had left.

Hoping to continue with the lightening of the mood, she lifted Mr. Cuddles, holding him in front of her face as she called on the deepest voice she could summon. “Yeah, Emma, it’s not Regan’s fault. She was just trying to help reunite us. I missed you!”

Emma choked on a laugh, reaching up and taking Mr. Cuddles from Regan for the first time. “Oh my god, never do that again. That’s not even what his voice sounds like.”

Regan gaped, delighted. “You know you can’t say that to me and thennotdemonstrate what his voice is supposed to sound like. Right? You can’t.”

Emma met her stare, clearly unintimidated. “Yes. I can, actually. Very easily.”

“Emma! After I just did you such a huge favor!” Regan widened her eyes, fluttering her lashes, trying to appeal to Emma.

“Seriously, Regan…” Emma closed her eyes and nodded. “I really appreciate you doing that for me. Not enough to demonstrate Mr. Cuddles’ voice for you, but… a lot.”

That sincere tone came back into Emma’s voice, and Regan felt like she was glowing with it.

God, this was sogood. Right when she’d been lamenting about getting them to a good place, this had dropped in her lap!

Because she loved it when Emma was real-Emma with her. The same genuine tone that Emma used with Sutton and otherpeople who weren’t driving her crazy – Regan liked it. She could get used to this.

She was desperate for them to get to a place where they could get used to this.

“It was kinda fun,” she admitted. “I love being on the inside of a good secret. A little scheme.”

Emma rolled her eyes as she stood up. “Of course you do.”

Regan watched Emma strut down the hall toward her bedroom, sipping triumphantly on her coffee; she felt like that had gone rather well.

Maybe the next time she lamented to the universe, she’d ask for a million dollars.

five

“I refuseto believe that this article was written, word-for-word, by Henry Cryer. I refuse to believe it because I refuse to believe that I was responsible for hiring someone who wrotethis, and believed for a second it would have a chance of being published,” Allegra fumed, aggressively tapping her well-manicured nail down on the hard copy of the article she was referencing.

Emma exchanged a quick look with Brynn as they sat in Allegra’s office, and in the split-second of eye contact, she could tell they were both on the same page.

And that page read that it would beshockingif Henry was still gainfully employed in the near future.

A beat went by, and they both realized Allegra was staring at them expectantly. Emma’s eyebrows inched up in surprise; she’d believed this rant had been somewhat rhetorical.

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