No Holding Back [antikvár]

Dare to be happy/ I tell myself. On my knee, baby Hollie gurgles happily, safe in my arms. To an outsider watching us building sandcastles on the beach, I know we must look like the perfect little family - Mama, Dada, Lexi and baby Hollie, enjoying the sunshine. Little do those people know what we had to endure to get here, but one thing the last year has taught me is that every family has its own quiet story that things aren't always as they seem. This is my 'happy place' - Shutters hotel in sunny Santa Monica. The rooms here are small and overpriced, but this beach, this vast expanse of sand, is literally what dreams are made of. The one where my miraculous litde family - Chris, my darling husband, and my two beautiful girls, Lexi, six, and Hollie, six months - are playing together now and where we are finally a complete family. In my head, it's never not sunny here and nothing changes - the dining room with its retro diner booths, the crisp white tablecloths and the hotel's happy hour frozen margaritas with salt around the