Malibu Rising: A Novel, Taylor Reid [best fantasy books to read TXT] 📗

And without delay, Brandon Randall drove off in Mick Riva’s car to go profess his love to Carrie Soto.

• • •

Tarine was sitting on Greg’s lap and nuzzling his neck while he continued to kick out the jams. But as she turned her head away, she saw the unmistakable sight of Vaughn Donovan taking the Lichtenstein off the wall and then … peeing on it.

She started to wonder if maybe this party was getting out of control.

Mick was taken aback by his daughter’s anger but he was not deterred.

“You’re right,” he said, looking at his firstborn. “I have not been a father to you all. I have not been here when I should have been.”

Nina looked away, toward the water. Mick turned to the rest of his kids and switched tactics. “How about this? I won’t ask for your forgiveness or ask you to make any promises. I’m just asking to get to know you all, a little bit.”

They all turned to one another and then to Nina. Did they owe him that much? Nina wasn’t sure. Maybe you owe your parents nothing, maybe you owe them everything. But she was overwhelmed by her certainty that if her mother were in her place, she would give him a chance.

“OK, fine,” Nina said. And then she turned to her shed, opened the lock, pulled out an array of towels, and threw down a couple of surfboards. They hit the ground with a muffled thud.

Nina sat down on a surfboard, her feet on the sand, her elbows perched over her knees. Everyone else followed suit.

The five of them sat like that, on Nina’s longboards, and let the fresh air surrounding them grow stale with their silence.

“Quite a beating you took there, son,” Mick said finally, unsure where to start. He figured he’d address the elephant in the room.

Hud nodded, felt his lip. The blood was dry; flecks crumpled off. “Yeah,” he said, not looking directly at his attacker. “I guess.”

“What happened here?” Mick said.

“It’s not really anyone’s business, is it?” Jay said.

“I don’t know,” Kit said. “I’m pretty interested.”

Mick looked to Kit and saw, for the first time, what his daughter looked like when she smiled. She looked just like him—that crinkle in her eye was so familiar. And yet, what an enigma she was. The youngest, the newest, the one he did not know. She was so boyish, in a way that Mick wasn’t sure was a good thing. But she looked like trouble, and that drew Mick in.

What has she inherited from me? he wondered. He suspected it was boldness, a sense of entitlement to say whatever she wanted. How had he given it to her so passively? And yet, there it was.

He hadn’t even needed to be there in order to help form his children.

“This does seem like something we should talk about,” Nina said, gesturing to Hud’s eyes and the way he was cradling his ribs. “Are you OK? Do you need a doctor?”

“I’m not sure,” Hud said. “I mean, no. Not yet at least.” He was trying not to cause any alarm. He knew that right now what he needed to do was play it cool. He was worried about Ashley, about where she was, about how she was feeling. He needed to take care of her, and he would, but for now, he knew she would be OK. She was the kind of woman who was always going to be OK. It was half of why he loved her.

“Seriously though,” Kit pushed. “What happened?”

Hud looked to Jay.

“He’s sleeping with Ashley,” Jay said, his voice flat.

Kit gasped.

“Who is Ashley?” Mick said.

“Jay’s ex-girlfriend,” Kit offered up. “Who dumped him.”

“She didn’t dump me, all right?”

“Look, I handled it all wrong,” Hud admitted.

“There was no right way to handle it,” Jay said as he turned to him. “You just shouldn’t have done it.”

“Seems like a fair point,” Mick said. “Women shouldn’t come between brothers.”

Hud rolled his eyes at his father passing judgment on anything. But it was Jay who spoke up, seething with rage. “Shut up, Dad. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I was agreeing with y—”

“I don’t care! Hud can fuck all my ex-girlfriends ten times in front of me and I’d still like him more than I like you.”

Mick felt a pinch in his chest.

“Hud and Ashley, huh?” Kit said. Sometimes, she just couldn’t stop herself from poking at things to see if they twitched. “I don’t quite see it. She seems a little … I don’t know … boring.”

“Would you quit it, Kit?” Hud snapped. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. She’s not boring, she’s shy. She’s sweet and thoughtful and funny. So shut up.” Hud wasn’t going to bring up the fact that she was also the mother of his child. He needed to wait until that would be received as a good thing. He needed that news to make people happy, not furious. “I love her. I am in love with her.”

Jay turned to his brother, finally listening to what Hud had been trying to tell him all night. He loved her? Jay had never loved Ashley. Not even close. “How long have you two been”—Jay wasn’t quite sure of the word he wanted to use—“going around behind my back?”

Hud looked at the sand, stared at how his toes got lost beneath it. “A long time,” he said.

Mick watched his sons. He himself had punched little shits that so much as looked at one of his dates. He’d also screwed almost all of his friends’ wives.

“The two of them seem pretty serious,” Nina chimed in. “Doesn’t seem like something Hud just did on a whim.”

“You knew?” Jay said, his blood starting to boil again.

Nina shook her head. “No, but I saw them in the yard a few hours ago.”

“You should have told me,” Jay said.

“Jay, it’s not her fault,” Hud said.

“Shut up, Hud,” Jay added.

“Seriously? You’re arguing over