#ReadWithMC (opens in new tab)-Welcome to Marie Claire's Virtual Book Club. It's a pleasure to meet you, and for the month of December we will be reading "Cobble Hill," the latest novel by Cecily von Ziegeser, bestselling author of "Gossip Girl." This juicy book follows the lives of four families living in an upscale neighborhood in Brooklyn. Read an excerpt from the novel below and learn how to join our virtual book club here (opens in a new tab). (You really don't have to get off the couch, just click on the link below to join the virtual book club.)

A message from Nurse PEACHES: Welcome back, PS 919!

Thank you for returning the pediatric screening forms. If your child has any special medical requirements, please reach out to me.

Moving on to something worse: 8 students have been infected with lice and sent to me. These are cases that occurred over the summer and are still lingering. Do not allow lice to remain on your child's head. Now is the time to comb the hair with a white conditioner such as Pantene. If there are lice, you should see them in the white stuff. A quick visual inspection of dry hair will not work, and the lice control kits sold in drugstores are poisoned and ineffective. The proper way to comb through can be found on YouTube. There are quality $10 lice combs available, please come by my office. Proceeds will be donated to the PTA. We also have professional "lice ladies" who will remove bugs and nits from your child's hair for a fee. There is a list of names and phone numbers. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call, email, or stop by the office. My main advice: check your head.

Here's to a totally unenviable school life.

My very best,

Peaches Park, school nurse

[email protected]

A warning letter from the new school nurse came home in Ted's backpack. Stuart was not surprised to learn that the letter had been sent directly to him. Stuart felt as if the letter spoke directly to him. And, of course, he had lice. Lice were everywhere. On car seats, on the packed F train coming home from work last night, in his companion's hair, in Ted's hair, on Ted's pillow, on Ted's towel, on the hood of Ted's hoodie, on the leaves fluttering down from the dried-out, summer-dried trees.

Stuart liked Nurse Peach's tone. Last week, on the third day of school, she left a message on his cell phone: "You don't know me, but I have your son. He seems fine now, but after lunch he puked. You should take him home before he throws up on our floor."

When he picked Ted up from his office and saw her for the first time, he couldn't stop smiling. Curvy, strawberry blonde, jovial but cool. Peachy. She was busy with a crying girl with badly scraped knees in the schoolyard, so he only glanced up and pointed to the sign-out sheet. Stuart barely heard a word Ted said as he signed Ted out and drove him home. Peaches...... It was practically an invitation. The black T-shirt with her sleeves cut off was also an invitation, or at least a suggestion.

"I can't believe you're still doing that," his wife Mandy said as she stood in front of the full-length mirror in their bedroom. She was sitting on the bed, wearing an old mustard yellow Blind Mouse T-shirt that she had been wearing for two weeks. It was his, a collector's item.

"What are you still doing," Stuart stopped scratching his head and put his hands in his back pockets. His black Levi's were looser than ever, and despite the fact that he'd been wearing them since his early twenties, they looked like they belonged to someone else, perhaps his muscles had lost some weight as he approached forty? The jeans were still in pretty good shape, no holes, and the zippers still worked. When did he know he needed new jeans?

Mandy folded her arms and covered her boobs. Her boobs were still big, even bigger than they had been in high school. She religiously used teeth-whitening strips. But there was something shy about her tits and smile. His songs might be deep, but he himself was shallow. In any case, who was Mandy anymore?

"Aren't you too old to check yourself?"

Stuart looked at himself in the mirror again, then at her mocking reflection. It was her in bed. Her incredibly shiny, silky black hair, which she did every Friday with a VO5 hot oil treatment. At least Stuart was up and dressed. Ted was also up and dressed, eating Cheerios and watching Cartoon Network. Mandy was just laying there. [I'm 36, you know. So what" I can't look at myself . [Mandy said.

She said things from her bed.

"I think you're even prettier than you were in the band," she added.

Stuart's band, Blind Mouth, was in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive years until it broke up a decade ago. Since then, Stuart has been virtually silent, quietly working for a company that provides music and sound editing for advertising.

Recently, after entertaining Ted, he somehow felt the urge to make some noise again. Stuart had once thought about getting the band back together and making a children's album, but he wasn't ready to be that father, that man, that band that sings bubble bath, marshmallow, cement truck, and poop, and the other two mice were definitely not ready either! There was no doubt about it. Robbie, an attractive and handsome guitarist, spent half his time on faraway beaches in Australia and the other half surfing and growing marijuana in Nicaragua. Jojo, an aloof genius beat player and techno wizard, was making music in LA and living in a hotel. Neither of them are married and have no children. Stuart Little, the affable organization frontman, chief lyricist, and rhymesmith, was no longer so small, but the only one who had settled down.

"What's on the agenda for today? Stuart asked, as he had for weeks.

"My plans are to do this," Mandy said from her bed. It was the same answer as always.

"Can you call Dr. Goldberg?"

Mandy had promised over a month ago that she would go back to the doctor and get a referral to a specialist. She came back both times smelling like toasted bagels and told Stuart that she had missed the appointment because of traffic, which was fine because she had done everything the doctor had told her to do in July and everything was fine. But she was not well. She was much, much worse. [Today," he urged. [Mandy yawned.

Stuart glanced at the time on the cable box under the large flat-screen TV they had installed over the summer. 'Ted's going to be late again. I gotta go."

Mandy snuggled under the covers. I love you." You're the best."

Excerpted from Cecily von Ziegeser's Cobble Hill. Excerpted with permission of Atria Books/S&S.Copyright © 2020 by Cecily von Ziegesar.

If you prefer audio, listen to the excerpt below and continue reading on Audible (opens in a new tab).