Read Wellesley Wives (New England Trilogy) for Free Online Page B

to say that Lily’s attitude had swayed her, and she was back to being unsure about what to do.
    Of course, it would’ve been wonderful if she and Marcus could work things out alone, but he was adamant that everybody was “doing it,” and at least they were being open and honest. Marcus talked about all the guys he knew that were having affairs behind their wives’ backs.
    “And what about the women?” he’d asked. “My pals aren’t having affairs by themselves.”
    He was insistent that there were as many women out there being unfaithful as there were men. Rosie tried to argue that a lot of married men ended up with young, single girls, but he laughed and said those days were gone. Just as many married women were getting with younger single guys.
    It was much better for a couple of intelligent, mature people in a stable marriage to jump in together and have some fun in a crazy resort that facilitated this sort of thing. Then they come home and are contented. When he said it like that, it did seem to make sense, but the truth was that Rosie still wasn’t convinced.
    In fact, she knew she didn’t want to have sex with another guy. She would hate to be with a stranger. But it seemed Marcus wanted a little variety, so she may as well go into it with her eyes wide open as opposed to turning a blind eye as so many wives did.
    “One crisis at a time,” she said to herself, and Natasha looked up at her, so she smiled. “Isn’t that right, honey? One thing at a time.”
    Natasha nodded but didn’t look too interested.
    Under normal circumstances, she would’ve had to buzz the front door to get into Lily’s building, but there was a couple coming out as she arrived and they held the door open for Rosie and Natasha. As she walked through the lobby, she tried to come up with the right words to use on her sister.
    Being five, Natasha loved elevators. She liked to push the buttons, and the distraction made Rosie happy. She still didn’t have her little speech thought out. She’d only gotten as far as “I’m sorry,” but she decided that it was a good start.
    The elevator chimed all too soon.
    “Bing!” Little Natasha mimicked the sound as she skipped out.
    There were only two penthouses on the top floor, one to the left and another to the right, and the hall area was small. Natasha saw her Aunt Lily standing at the already-open door, and she lunged toward her. Rosie followed a pace behind.
    “I’m sorry,” Rosie blurted as she noticed her sister in a tiny bathrobe and quite obviously nothing else on underneath. Natasha was clinging to her auntie’s bare knee with great affection. The man who must have had his arms wrapped somewhere very different took a hasty step back. He, at least, was dressed. It was quite clear that he’d been leaving but was lingering with his good-byes.
    “Oh!” Lily gave a guilty gasp. In that same moment Rosie felt a surge of relief as she realized she wasn’t the only girl in the family with dirty little secrets.
    “Hello, Uncle Jack.” She took a step forward and kissed Jack Hoffman on his very flushed cheek.
    “Uh, sorry I came unannounced, Lily,” he muttered. “I should have called to see if it was a good time.” It was a pathetic attempt to cover his guilty tracks. Jack had sandy blond hair with just a scattering of silver through it. He was a fit and good looking man, but he was old!
    “Me, too, Lily,” Rosie said. “Sorry I didn’t buzz before I came up. You know, to give you some time. There was a couple at the door downstairs and they let us in.” She smiled wickedly, looking between her sister and Jack Hoffman.
    After her little sister’s nauseating high moral stance just a few days earlier, it was good to see her squirm. Everybody knew that Jack wasn’t their real uncle, but he did feel like family. Evidently more so to her than to Lily.
    They’d practically grown up with Jack in their lives. Rosie even remembered his first wife. She’d been in her teens