Chapter Two

"You want us to come to Charleston with you?!" Genevieve Ayers exclaimed the moment Rosalie called her and Astrid to tell her the idea.

Rosalie nodded as she leaned back in bed, her silk Versace pajamas bunching slightly as she placed her IPad on her lap, so she can clearly see her two best friends on the Zoom screen. "I'll be all alone on Christmas in the big house, and we can have fun trimming the tree, having our sleepovers, letting the guys do their thing."

Astrid Spencer thought about it, picking up her cup of water and tapping it on her chin. "Well I haven't taken my babymoon yet," she said with a chuckle, making both Genevieve and Rosalie get quiet. "What?"

"What the hell is a babymoon?" Genevieve asked, confused.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," Rosalie agreed.

"A babymoon is.. Well...it's a romantic vacation that me and Prescott would have before the baby is born. We go someplace fun and just enjoy one another. I've seen many mommy bloggers take them as soon as they hit their third trimester." Astrid explained, making the other two nod. "So I think Charleston would be perfect. It'll be my three best friends and my husband and our men, so it'll be fun."

"Well..about that," Genevieve started slowly. She took a deep breath before she spoke again. "I think Rae is cheating on me."

Olivier had to cover his ears when both Astrid and Rosalie screeched at the news. He knew he should tell them to quiet it down, that he was trying to sleep, but then, he didn't-Rosie need to talk to her friends about the idea, and on top of that she hadn't seen them in a long time. "Would you like for me to go somewhere else?" he asked, but she simply shook her head, as if his question didn't faze her at all.

"What makes you think that, honey?" Astrid asked, getting serious.

Brows furrowed, Genevieve reached out and took a sip of her wine. "I found some girl's number in his pocket while I was doing the laundry." she answered with a huff. "And what's worse, I also found some condoms too, and I know damn well we haven't used a condom since college."

Well, damn. Astrid and Rosalie thought all was well in the Ayers' house-they've been there for sleepovers, wine night and even margarita night. But hearing that there was a possibility that Raegan Ayers, star of the Boston Bruins hockey team, would be cheating on her..."How can we prove that he's cheating on you?" Rosalie asked slowly.

"I was halfway considering just confronting him about it, but then, it'll come out, Lily would be drooling over the news, and then I'm going to be single forever." Genevieve groaned. "But maybe we can just ask questions...the right ones, and he'll open up to one of you...or-"

"Nee, Genevieve," Olivier muttered from his side of the bed. He guessed what she was going to ask him. "I'm going to ask a man if he's cheating on his wife or not."

"Please, Olivier?" Genevieve begged. "Just ask him, he'll tell you! Like, get him in a really nice situation, like a bar, or your casino, and then he'll tell you!"

"Men don't tell each other about the women we've been with." Olivier turned on his side, forgoing sleep now that the girls woke him up. "We brag about it and give each other high fives."

"Oh really?" Rosalie asked, turning to him. "What do you say about me when you men folk talk about women?"

"I tell them that you're the most beautiful woman in the world and I'm happy that you're with me." he answered promptly, telling a lie than the truth, reaching up to place a kiss on her lips, but Rosalie turned her head and raised her nose up.

"The truth. Not that lie...though it's true." she murmured playfully, grinning slightly.

"I tell them that you're great in bed." he answered with a shrug. "Especially when you do that thing with your tongue when my-"

"Okay, okay!" Rosalie squealed, covering his mouth. She could hear her friends giggle as she turned to glare at the both of them. "I'mma go and call Irena to meet me in Charleston once we leave New York. See y'all in a couple days?"

Genevieve and Astrid nodded as they logged off, and Rosalie closed her IPad and set it on the nightstand next to her. She turned to her boyfriend, who just looked at her as she crawled on top of him, her thighs on either side of him. "Since you like to brag about me to your friends," she said, unbuttoning her pajama top. "Let me give you something to brag about."

Olivier just watched as she discarded the silky thing he was going to rip off and kissed her back when she leaned down and kissed him.

***

Charleston, SC

A couple days later

Rosalie took a deep breath once she got out of the car and stared at the huge brick villa that was her winter home, and also one of her dead husband's homes. She hadn't seen it in three years, and yet seeing it now takes her breath away. She was remembering the last time she was here with Elijah; they made the house feel homey and Christmassy, and then, with the fireplace lit, made love till the sun came up.

Now that he was gone, it was left empty and hadn't been used until now. She turned to her maid, Irena, and took her hand. "It's still beautiful, even up in the sunlight." Rosalie said quietly. "I think Elijah would've loved it if we moved down here, instead of in Atlanta." Just thinking about him made her heart squeeze a bit, but as she looked up at the house again, she took a deep breath and walked towards the front door, into the beautiful courtyard that led to the door.

Flowers that were planted in the summertime were starting to bloom, making the courtyard more beautiful than ever as Rosalie pulled out the keys out of her Bulgari purse and unlocked the door. When she did, the memories came back powerfully, from the decorations to the way the fireplace was lit when they made love in front of the tree that Christmas night.

But that was then, when she and Elijah spent that last Christmas together.

This time, she didn't have the old memories to bring her down to her knees. It was the determination to make new ones with her friends and family, and dammit, that's what she would do this year.

Going to the formal living room, where a grand piano sat near the bay window, she looked around for a bit, her eyes falling on the unlit marble fireplace, that Christmas Eve night coming to her again. "We'll start in here," Rosalie said, clearing her throat as she turned to her Irena. "Move that chair so we can put a tree in here, and we can keep the piano there, for the Christmas party." she instructed, walking around the house. "We have a lot of beautiful decorations around the house, going through the formal dining room, the so called "morning" room her mother in law called each time she stayed over, to the family room and the family room balcony, where it overlooked the grounds.

Then another idea came to Rosalie's mind.

"We can host a Christmas party here-no, a garden party! For Genevieve, since her birthday does fall on 13th," Rosalie exclaimed, coming out of the balcony and down to the pantry, to check and see if they had enough room for the food they needed for the guests that were coming. "Oh yeah...and we also have a pool as well, so we might be able to have a little pool party..." she murmured as she went upstairs to the Master's Bedroom, well now her bedroom, since she now owned the house.

"This is so much better than going to Gloucestershire for the holidays," Rosalie murmured to herself, thinking of her husband's country seat, since he also held the title of Duke of Gloucester, which made her a duchess. She sighed as she walked in the beautiful bedroom, with another fireplace in front of the huge bed. She walked over to the huge oak dressing room, looking over to the empty closet space, where she came here and got rid of Elijah's clothes. Rosalie started to imagine Olivier's clothes hanging there, and it made her smile a bit as she turned to her closet, seeing all of her winter clothes she shipped over. She ran her hand through all of them, her fingers catching her favorite Valentino feather sweater, then her new Alice + Olivia navy fringe dress that would be perfect for parties.

"My lady?" Irena's voice called out from the dressing room, snapping her out of her thoughts. "It's Mr. Olivier, asking about what he should bring?"

"I'll be right there!" she called, walking out of the dressing room/closet and going to pick up the phone.

***

Buckhead, GA

Genevieve had been packing when she heard the alarm go off-it meant that Raegan had came back from his practice from Boston. All she could think about was this other woman he's possibly seeing on the side, and she couldn't even bare it. So she turned back to her walk in closet and went to find another outfit to wear at Rosalie's house, since she's going to the lowcountry-

"Baby?" Raegan's voice called from downstairs, making her freeze up.

"U-Upstairs!" she called, shaking her head at an Etro number and went to put it back up. She grabbed the black Michael Kors Collection Crisscross fit and flare dress and went to put it in her suitcase when he jogged upstairs, looking very sexy in just a white shirt, leather jacket, jeans, and boots. A water bottle was in his hand, his light brown hair  in an angular fringe, and a three day stubble beard over his mouth as he went over and kissed her on the forehead.

"Missed you," he purred, turning her around and kissing her deeply on the lips, making her moan as she kissed him back. Every thought about him cheating on her flew out of her head as Raegan Ayers picked her up and carried her to bed, making her squeak once her back hit the bed, and she felt her clothes under her.

"Not on the clothes!" she panicked, gently pushing him off of her. Then an idea formed in her mind as she got off the edge of the bed. "We haven't used the shower in a while..." she murmured against his lips, feeling it curl up into a smile as he picked her up.

"We can finish packing later." Raegan said, kissing his wife again and taking her to the bathroom, ignoring his buzzing cellphone that was in his back pocket. 

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