Chapter 19 Rosie
“Will you please hand me one of those diapers?” Rhiannon asks, her voice patient as she tackles Piper’s latest poop explosion.
How do babies even manage to poop that much when they’re so tiny?
I reach over to the caddy in their living room and toss one in her direction.
“Thanks,” she says, expertly wrangling my adorable, nine-month-old baby niece.
Piper rolls her head to the side to look at me and smile. Her dark blonde curls are matted to her face the same way that mine were when I woke this morning, and her green eyes match her mom’s.
She babbles something that sounds a lot like “Rosie,” and I clap.
“Her first words,” I tease.
Rhiannon laughs. “Those are not her first words. I’m pretty sure ‘apple’ and ‘dada’ were. She’s obsessed with your brother. Aren’t you baby girl?” She stands freshly diapered Piper on her wobbly legs. “Do you want your daddy?” she coos.
Piper squeals and tries to clap while Rhiannon sighs and then winks at me. “I want your daddy too, Pipes.”
I choke on the tea I’m sipping. “Um, gross.”
She laughs easily before rocking Piper in her arms tenderly.
The warmth of their home seeps into my bones as I glance out the window that’s overlooking the opposite side of the lake from my house.
Across the grey and white landscape, covered in ice and a dusting of snow, I can barely make out the roofline where I slept last night with Boone.
Eden was right; the storm hadn’t been as bad as predicted, but it left just enough snow to blanket everything in a glistening coat of shiny crystals. We could’ve kept Boone with us for the weekend without any trouble, but now that he’s back in the city with Cain, it doesn’t matter anymore.
I fidget with the hem of my oversized t-shirt.
It’s Boone’s from last night. I hadn’t bothered to change when I finally woke up at ten, two hours after he’d already left.
And now, as I sit here, spiraling in a fog of nerves and confusion over everything that happened, this shirt feels like some kind of security blanket connecting me to a different version of myself.
The Rosie who was bold enough to go for something she wanted.
And the one who held Boone’s attention even if just for an hour.
Without sisters or close girlfriends to lean on, I found myself stumbling here this morning, spilling my guts to the one woman who’s always felt like a friend.
Meanwhile Eden’s in the kitchen pouring us mimosas I don’t think she’s old enough to drink and I don’t plan to touch.
“Yay!” Rhiannon cheers, clapping her hands as Piper attempts to bounce on her chubby legs while holding onto the coffee table. “Okay, it’s naptime baby,” she adds, zipping Piper into one of those cozy sleep sacks before lifting her up in the air.
She sways back and forth, rocking Piper in her arms with an ease that makes it look like she was born to be a mother. My ovaries practically do a backflip watching her. It’s all come so natural to Rosie. I wonder if it’d feel this natural for me.
I’m so happy for my brother and her. He found his match in a woman who’s chaotic enough to keep him on his toes but grounded to make him want to be home in Brookhaven more than the city.
I wonder if I’ll ever find someone like that. Someone who feels like home and makes me want to work less. And then Boone’s words come rushing back to me.
He wants a family.
Not someday, not down the line—he wants kids.
Plural. Now.
And he’d be willing to walk away from his successful career for the right person. For the sake of the family that he so clearly wants.
And despite everything he's currently doing to fight for his reputation, and potentially re-up his contract with the Mayhem, I know that he’s being honest. He’d leave it all behind for love.
I take another sip of my tea, lost in thought as Rhiannon hands Piper off to Eden, who takes her niece upstairs with a grin to put her down for her nap. Rhiannon exhales as she plops onto the couch beside me, swiping one of the untouched mimosas Eden poured.
“Nothing like the hair of the dog,” she says with a grin, kicking her socked feet up onto the coffee table and settling in like we’ve got all the time in the world to chat.
It's Saturday and Cain will be in the city until Monday night, working on whatever crisis has come up now with Boone and preparing for his Monday court appearance.
“Have you heard from Cain?”
“Just that he and Boone made it back to the city safely a few minutes ago.”
I nod, trying to look uninterested and failing miserably.
“You look surprisingly good for someone who drank their weight in tequila last night,” she teases.
“Sleeping in until ten helped.”
She nods knowingly. “Yeah, that’ll do it. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sleep in that late.”
“I’ll watch Piper for you next weekend if you’d like?”
She smiles. “You’ll be back next weekend?”
“Yeah… Brookhaven is really growing on me.”
This has become my weekend routine, and maybe it doesn’t hurt that being here means my dad doesn’t have easy access to me to request weekend work and that I don’t have to feel like I’m Boone’s pretend wife when I’m out here.
Nights out partying in the city? Hard pass. Awkward dates with guys I’ll never text back? Nope. Spending my weekends at my brother and sister-in-law’s house, hanging out with my niece, or chipping away at projects on my new home has become my new, happy place.
Eden returns to the room, grabs a mimosa, and drops into the chair across from us. She’s a few years younger than we are, but I learned quickly that she’s more observant and slower to speak than Rhiannon. More like me.
She prefers quiet and solitude, which is probably why she spends so much of her time working alongside her older brother, restoring furniture for their family’s thrift store when she isn’t in school.
“So… Dex was nice,” I say. “How did you two meet?” I figure we can ease into the mess that is my life after hearing about hers first.
Eden’s face lights up. “Oh yeah, he’s great. Architecture major. Super smart. He’s quieter than what I’m used to—kind of a stay-in-and-play-video games guy—but we vibe. We met at school.”
“They’ve been dating for almost two years now, right?” Rhiannon adds.
Eden nods. “Yes, but it’s nothing serious.”
“Well shared interests definitely make a difference.”
“Did Rosie tell you that we’re working on her den together?” Eden asks her sister.
“She didn’t,” Rhiannon says, glancing at me. “How’s the house coming along?”
“It’s coming… I need to spend some more time redesigning the kitchen. It’s a bit out of date.”
She nods. “And did Boone sleep okay last night?”
I bite my lip, feeling my cheeks heat just thinking about what we did. “Um, I think so. He didn’t really say before he left.”
Rhiannon’s brows shoot up as she sets her glass down. “The guest bed you have is terrible. There’s no way that he slept fine.”
I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “You’re right. He, um… might’ve slept in my bed last night. The one that Cain just helped me install.”
Rhiannon snaps her fingers like she just won a bet. “I fucking knew it.”
“Nothing happened,” I say quickly, then mutter, “well, nothing happened in the bed.”
Eden’s eyes widen as she leans forward. “Something happened out of the bed?”
I take a long, stalling sip of my tea, then nod. “Yes.”
“What happened?” Rhiannon asks, her voice equal parts amused and curious.
I set my mug down, avoiding their gazes. “He asked for a lap dance.”
“What!?” Rhiannon shrieks.
“…And so, I gave him one… and, um, then he fingered me. To completion.”
Rhiannon leans back into the couch. “I fucking knew it. You can’t be married to each other and not do something eventually.”
“It’s a marriage of convenience,” I protest, though even I can hear how weak that sounds. “It’s not a real one.”
Rhiannon shakes her head. “Laws of tension, babe. You're a lawyer, you know all about the law."
I snort because I’ve never studied any law called tension.
"And have you seen the way he looks at you? Sheesh. Even I was turned on. It’s the same way Cain looks at me. One look and I’m practically pregnant again.”
“You’re pregnant?” I ask in surprise.
She shakes her head with a laugh. “No, but we just started trying. Cain is insatiable. Loves coming in me without any barrier, and I refuse to take birth control.”
Eden groans. “Oh my God, Rhia. That’s too much information!”
I laugh despite myself, shaking my head as Rhiannon raises her mimosa in a toast to oversharing. "To being open about sex so that women feel comfortable asking ‘hey! is this normal?’"
I clink my glass against hers. “Cheers. That's a lot more than I'd like to know about my brother, but I wish I was as open as you are about discussing... all this.”
She grins, her eyes alight with mischief. “You’ll get there. But enough about me—did he get off too?”
I nod, feeling my cheeks flush brighter. “In his pants.”
“Hot,” Eden says, her voice light and teasing, while Rhiannon nods approvingly.
“Guy’s obsessed,” Rhiannon says matter-of-factly, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
I groan. “He’s not… I mean, I don’t know! We just got caught up in the moment. This is a mess. It can’t happen again. If anyone found out, it could jeopardize my career. It could jeopardize his career too. We only have two months left of pretending we just need to focus on the end goal.”
“I don’t see the harm as long as no one knows,” Rhiannon says with a shrug, ever the voice of mischief.
I give her a look. “Rhiannon, you’re married to my brother. Do you really mean that?”
She shrugs again, completely unfazed. “Yeah. Just don’t tell Cain what happened.”
I let out a breath, leaning back into the couch.
“So… what do I do? Like, what do I even do when I get back to the city? He has court on Monday with Cain. It’s just the first appearance, but then there’s the settlement in a month.” My voice lowers a bit as if Cain's about to burst in and arrest me for dry humping his client.
"I mean we live together now. We can’t avoid discussing what happened forever, can we?"
“What do you want to do?” Eden asks.
“I don’t know.” I drop my face into my hands. “Sex with him sounds amazing, but it’s also so complicated.”
“Just because of the divorce your law firm has orchestrated for you two in a few months or another reason?” Rhiannon presses.
“Yes! That, and my dad…”
“And aren’t you sick of letting your dad control everything in your life?
” Rhiannon cuts in again, her voice firm.
“This is the one relationship that he hasn’t sabotaged because it’s tied to his career too and he doesn’t believe it’s real.
He wants to break into sports, right? Why not lean into that for once?
Have some fun. Take advantage of the benefits you get from having a husband. ”
I bite my lip, her words sinking in. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I could have a little fun with Boone while we’re playing pretend.
“Okay,” I exhale slowly. “So… what do I do?”
“When you get home on Monday night,” Rhiannon says with a comically straight face, “sit on his face.”
“What!?” I choke out, sitting upright.
“Sit. On. His. Face.” She enunciates each word like she’s giving me a prescription for a new type of therapy, her tone deadly serious.
And even though she’s the only one here who’s a literal sex therapist, all I’m focused on now is how we went from a PG-13 dry humping session with some fingering to that in record time.
“No! I need… something easier. Like a warm-up. To ease into that.” I’ve never even sat on a guy’s face before. I wouldn’t know where to begin.
Rhiannon smiles wickedly. “Fine. Then offer him a blow job.”
I blink at her, trying to process the casual way she just tossed that out.
“Okay,” I say, exhaling through my nose like I’m about to go into battle.
“I can do that. I like giving blow jobs. I’m good at them.
It's just a... job. I can do jobs.” I’ve been doing jobs my whole life and this is just one more.
“Perfect,” she says, clapping her hands. “So, what did it for you? Biceps, abs, or hands? You know I love a strong pair of biceps.” She mimes the squeezing motion in the air.
“I’m all about the abs,” Eden chimes in.
I think about what it is about Boone that caught my attention in the first place. What made me feel safe enough to lower my guard. What’s been pulling me toward him from the very beginning.
Yes, he’s handsome. An athlete with a body shaped by years of discipline and devotion to being the best at what he does. But with Boone, it goes so much deeper than a pretty face and a nice body. I’ve dated attractive men before, and none of them ever felt like him.
“I think it was the way he looked at me like I was precious to him. The way he spoke to me with so much sincerity and interest. How it felt like he was yearning for me.”
Rhiannon smiles. “Well, you know what they say, ‘a man who yearns is a man who earns.’” She stands up. “If he keeps that up, I bet he’ll be earning soon.”
Eden snorts while I roll my eyes.
“Alright you two, I’m going to take a nap while Piper’s asleep.”
I pull her into a quick hug before she turns to leave, her socked feet sliding softly over the hardwood as she goes.
I stay where I am, heart thudding, caught somewhere between being completely overwhelmed by everything ahead of me and strangely, undeniably excited to see Boone when I get back to the city.