Nina smiled and pulled away from him ever so slightly. “You already thought of that?” she asked.

“Thought of it? I said to the realtor, ‘It has to be walking distance to a great break, great for parties, and at least five bedrooms. Those were my stipulations. I wanted you to have the chance to surf every day, have room for Jay, Hud, and Kit, and be able to throw the Riva party every year.”

Nina laughed. She looked at the home again. “It is great for a party.”

“Stick with me, kid,” he said, smiling at her. “I’m always going to make sure you have everything you ever wanted.”

There wasn’t much she wanted. But it enchanted her nonetheless. “I love you,” she told him, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the stairs.

“I love you, too,” he said, allowing himself to be pulled. “With all of my heart, forever.”

When they made their way to the empty master bedroom of the home that was not yet technically theirs, Nina pulled Brandon down onto the plush carpet and made love to him. Sweet, and slow, never rushed, never wild, only tender and wholehearted.

And it was that very spot where Nina fell to her knees a year later when Brandon walked out.

• • •

He’d just come home from winning Wimbledon. They had a vacation to Bora-Bora planned with Jay, Hud, and Kit next week. She was reading a travel guide.

She heard him walk in the front door and heard his footsteps coming up the stairs. But when Brandon walked into their bedroom, he wasn’t smiling.

“I’m sorry, Nina,” he said. “But I’m leaving.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, laughing. She put down the book and stood up, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of his old boxer shorts. “Leaving for where? You just got here.”

“I’ve met someone else,” he said as he went into the closet and stuffed some shirts into a duffel bag.

Nina stared at him, her jaw slack. He walked out the door, now rushing down the stairs. Nina followed him.

“I don’t understand,” she said quietly. “What do you mean you’ve met someone else?”

Brandon did not turn around to answer her, he just kept walking away.

“Brandon!” Nina said finally as they got to the driveway. “Look at me, please.”

“We’ll talk about this more at another time,” Brandon said as he got in his car. And then he drove off.

Nina stood there watching his car turn onto the road. She started gasping for air, stunned at what had just happened, what she’d just seen with her own eyes. “What?” she kept saying over and over, in between panicked breaths. “What?”

She sat down on the front stoop of her home to gather herself. Only then did it really sink in that her husband was leaving her for another woman.

She began to cry without even realizing it, wiping her cheeks but unable to keep up with the tears. Her eyes grew red and swollen. She could not move from her place on the stoop, heavy and dead, like an anchor tied to nothing.

She cried until the sun started to set, until the birds settled into their trees. She’d have to tell her siblings he was gone. She felt embarrassed, thinking of how excited she’d been to take them to Bora-Bora. She grew cold, sitting outside in Brandon’s underwear.

And then she stood up and dried her eyes. And she thought of June. She’d lived this all before, of course. Watching her mother go through it.

Family histories repeat, Nina thought. For a moment, she wondered if it was pointless to try to escape it.

Maybe our parents’ lives are imprinted within us, maybe the only fate there is is the temptation of reliving their mistakes. Maybe, try as we might, we will never be able to outrun the blood that runs through our veins.

Or.

Or maybe we are free the moment we’re born. Maybe everything we’ve ever done is by our own hands.

Nina wasn’t sure.

She just knew that, somehow, after everything that had happened in her life, she had ended up all alone on the front stoop, left behind by a man she had dared to trust.

Part Two

* * *

7:00 P.M. TO 7:00 A.M.

7:00 P.M.

The clock struck seven and Kit’s best friend, Vanessa de la Cruz, pulled up to Nina’s house, the first to arrive. She was immediately approached by one of the team of valets and stepped out of her car.

Vanessa was wearing a sky blue T-shirt, belted at the waist, with white shorts and white pumps. She had teased her hair at the crown and rimmed her eyes in black eyeliner. She had stolen her entire outfit idea from Heather Locklear, who’d been wearing the same thing on the cover of Los Angeles magazine last month.

This had seemed like a good idea, until right this very second, when it occurred to Vanessa that Heather Locklear might show up at the party. And then what was she going to do?

The valet put his hand out for Vanessa’s keys.

“I mean … I can park it myself,” she said. “If that’s easier?”

“It’s my job,” he said, gently taking the keys from her.

Vanessa watched her AMC Eagle drive away from her. It was still strange to her that the Rivas were rich kids now. She remembered hanging out with Kit at the Rivas’ house with all the lights turned off to save power. Now, Vanessa wasn’t even sure if her shoes were nice enough. Not that any of them, especially Kit, would have ever noticed or cared.

Vanessa stepped to the front door and put her hand up to knock. Anxiety was settling in. Every year at this party, she hung back and made jokes in the corner with Kit. But this year, she wanted to get Hud’s attention. Maybe this was the night he finally noticed her in that way.

She rapped her knuckles on the door and rang the doorbell.

The door opened and there he was. Vanessa was absolutely positive he was only getting better looking with every passing day and it crushed her.

“Oh, hey, Vanessa,” Hud said, opening the door wider, a smile on his face. “Kit!” he called out to the rest of the house. “Vanessa’s here!”

Kit came around the corner. “Hey!”

Vanessa’s eyes went wide at the sight of Kit’s outfit. She’d never seen her friend show so much skin outside of the beach. “Wow,” Vanessa said. “You look great.”

Hud patted Kit on the back and then walked toward the kitchen. Vanessa watched him go, her pulse slowing down with each step he took away from her.

“I do?” Kit said, looking down at her own torso. “Are you sure?”

Vanessa returned her gaze to Kit and laughed. “Yeah, you look hot.”

“OK, good,” Kit said. “You do, too.”

“Thanks,” Vanessa said, fluffing her hair as she peeked around for another moment, to see if maybe Hud was coming back.

The night was young.

The doorbell had started ringing every twenty seconds. Nina could hear Kit greeting people downstairs.

She could see the sky darkening through the windows, the stars beginning to brighten against the dusk.

“Please, Nina,” Brandon said. “I got caught up in something. I got lost in my own … need to be … I don’t know. I had shit I was going through and I handled it in the worst way possible. But … God, I’m so horrified by how I’ve acted the past few months. I don’t even recognize myself in the mirror anymore, honestly. I’ve never just colossally fucked up like this before. But I’ll do anything to make it right. Anything. I love you. Please, Nina,” he said as he stood in their bedroom. “Give me another chance. You know I’m not a bad guy. You know that. You know me. You know if I did something this stupid, it’s because I was going crazy, I wasn’t myself.”