Free Savour the Moment: Now the Big Day Has Finally Arrived, It's Time To... by Nora Roberts Page A

incredibly stupid.”
    “Why? It’s just ...” Mac blinked, clued in. “Oh. Kissed Del. Well. Huh.”
    “I was mad, and out of sorts, and he came for the cake. He was just so Del,” she said with rancor she thought she’d walked off.
    “I’ve been mad at Del,” Emma commented. “It didn’t lead me to kissing him.”
    “It’s not a big deal. Not to him. He didn’t even bother to tell Jack. Which means it didn’t mean anything. Don’t tell Jack,” she ordered Emma. “Because he should have, and he didn’t, so it meant nothing. Less than.”
    “You didn’t tell us until now.”
    Laurel frowned at Mac. “Because I ... had to think about it.”
    “But it meant something to you,” Parker murmured.
    “I don’t know. It was an impulse, a moment of insanity. I was pissed off. It’s not like I have a thing for him, really. Oh shit,” she muttered and dropped her head in her hands.
    “Did he kiss you back? Well?” Mac demanded when Emma kicked her. “It’s a question.”
    “He didn’t not. But he wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting it. It was mostly temper.”
    “What did he say? Don’t kick me again,” Mac warned Emma.
    “Nothing. I didn’t give him a chance. I’m going to fix it,” she promised Parker. “It was my fault, even though he was being irritating and patronizing. Don’t be upset.”
    “I’m not upset, not about that. I’m wondering how I could be so oblivious. I know you as well as I know anyone, so how could I not sense or see or know that you have feelings for Del?”
    “I don’t. Okay, I do, but it’s not like I pine for him day and night. It comes and goes. Like an allergy. Only instead of making me sneeze, it makes me feel like an idiot.” Distress rolled up from her belly and into her voice. “I know how tight you are. It’s great how tight you are, but please don’t tell him I said any of this. I wasn’t going to say anything, but it just spilled out. Apparently I have an impulse-control problem.”
    “I won’t say anything to him.”
    “Good. Good. It was nothing, really. It was just lips.”
    “No tongues?” Mac scooted out of Emma’s reach, then hunched down as she got hit with scowls instead. “What? I’m interested. We’re all interested or we wouldn’t be here at one in the morning, with five thousand in cash on the table, talking about it.”
    “You’re right,” Laurel decided. “We shouldn’t be talking about it. I only brought it up in the interest of full disclosure. Now, we can all just put it aside, take our bonus money, and go to bed. In fact, now that I’ve disclosed, I don’t know why I was so twisted up about it. It was nothing.”
    She gestured broadly—too broadly, she realized, and dropped her hands again. “Obviously it was nothing, and Del’s certainly not losing any sleep over it. He didn’t say anything to Jack or you. Right?” she asked Parker.
    “I haven’t talked to him since early in the week, but no. No, he hasn’t said anything to me.”
    “Listen to me.” She managed a weak laugh. “I’m making it like high school. I didn’t make it like high school when it was high school. Stopping now. I’m taking my money and going to bed.”
    She scooped up one of the piles Parker had counted out. “So, let’s not think about this anymore, okay? Let’s just ... be normal. Everything’s ... normal. So, good night.”
    At her hasty retreat, her three friends looked at one another.
    “It’s so not normal,” Mac said.
    “It’s not abnormal. It’s just different.” Emma put down her glass, picked up her money. “And she’s embarrassed. We should leave it alone so she isn’t embarrassed. Can we leave it alone?”
    “It’s more a question of whether she can,” Parker said. “I guess we’ll find out.”

    P ARKER LET IT GO—FOR THE MOMENT. SHE LET IT RIDE THROUGH the Sunday event, and gave her friend space on Sunday evening. But Monday, she carved out an hour from her own schedule when she knew