Malibu Rising

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Nina didn’t hate Carrie Soto for stealing her husband because husbands can’t be stolen. Carrie Soto wasn’t a thief; Brandon Randall was a traitor.

and for the first time in her quiet life, screamed into the wind.

Awkward but maybe beautiful.

Celia St. James was gay.

And so, in a way, you could say that this is when Mick fell in love with June, if falling in love is a choice. He chose her.

She let the water warm her iced skin,

“If you can’t live without me,” she said, regaining some control of herself, “then you know what to do.”

“It’s everything,” she told him.

“I can’t do it without you.”

“I think I was put here on this earth to say yes to you.”

Don Adler

If this was their beginning, my God, how high could they fly?

The Clash came on the radio and, despite feeling annoyed with each other, neither Jay nor Kit could resist singing along. As with most of their disagreements, they found the anger dissipated as soon as they forgot to hold on to it.

Hud turned his head and watched the world stand still as they whizzed past it.

June had no idea that in the ten seconds it took for her to make her way from the kitchen to the entryway, she was experiencing her very last moment of naïveté.

A boy without a mother.

And for the first time since they began this peculiar and unwelcome journey, Hudson Riva looked June right in the eye, as if realizing suddenly that he wasn’t alone.

She was a woman, after all. Living in a world created by men. And she had long known that assholes protect their own. They are faithful to no one but surprisingly protective of each other.

Alcoholism is a disease with many faces, and some of them look beautiful.

“Please be careful,” Lara said as she got up. “I’m worried about your heart.”

He needed his children now that he was alone.

But they didn’t need him.