Free Dream of You by Lauren Gilley Page A

expanding the lines of it in long, novel-like brushstrokes. She was as thrilled as she was discouraged, because she was filling her pages with the scents of antique wood and old books, the tastes of overripe fruit and first kisses. Try as she might, she couldn’t bring herself to write the vampire porn that was flying off the shelves at Barnes & Noble, and she knew that the world of literary fiction was competitive and about as easy to break into as the Federal Reserve. But she loved her characters, and she loved breathing life into them; throwing a net of stars over their heads, adjusting their dials, and then stepping back to watch what happened.
                  The night was indigo velvet she wrote, and then reached for her coffee on the sill beside her. Her eyes lifted, out through the window and over the mossy soil beneath all the trees in the yard, to the drive where a red VW Bug sat and…
                  Oh, shit . She knew that car. Her younger sister Nikki had begged and pleaded and wallowed on the floor with a tear-streaked face until their parents had caved and brought her home a Volkswagen. “Just like the one in the brochure,” Mom had said with one of those adoring Nikki-only smiles. It had a yellow plastic lei dangling over the rearview mirror, a sticker on the back window that declared its driver Too Cute for You , and, Ellie noted as the passenger and driver doors opened simultaneously, it appeared to come complete with boyfriend. The only way Nikki’s presence could be made worse was if she had Kyle in tow, which she did.
                  Ellie closed her laptop and eyes, sucking in a deep, rattling breath that didn’t fortify her in the least. What in the hell could Nikki want from her? It didn’t matter, because in only a moment, she’d be coming up the front walk, the King of all Assholes at her heels.
                  Her bedroom was as tidy as always, but that was irrelevant, because they were not coming upstairs. Ellie got to her feet and went to the mirror above her dressing table, frowning at what she saw. Her eyes were bloodshot from staring at the computer and the bags beneath them were puffy. She dabbed concealer over the dark rings and hit them with a quick dusting of powder. A smear of lip gloss and a quick tousling of her hair, her fingers raking her chunky bangs into order, and she was as ready as she could be given the time frame. Her shorts were worn old terry cotton with holes forming at the corners of the pockets, and her slouchy white tank top showed too much of her pink bra, but there was nothing to be done about that. She was at the top of the stairs and heading down when the doorbell rang.
                  And thus my day turns to shit .
                  On the front stoop, Nikki twirled a strand of peroxide blonde hair around a manicured finger, little nose scrunched up as she examined the big orb weaver and web above the door. Paige and Ellie had affectionately dubbed the spider “Charlotte” and neither of them had the heart to take a broom to the thing. Nikki looked like she might gag.
                  Kyle looked just like she remembered, only more blonde, if that was possible, and even more like a surfer than he had in high school. He’d slicked his hair down over his ears and those big, dilated-looking brown eyes of his. His broad shoulders didn’t seem so broad, his biceps not so bulging. His Salty Dog Café shirt and cargo shorts were rumpled like he’d slept in them, and the overpowering smell of cigarette smoke came rolling across the threshold and smacked her in the face. Ellie could look at him now and say, honestly, she had no idea what she’d ever found so wildly attractive about him once upon a time.
                  It took Nikki a full five seconds before she realized the door had been answered. Then she pinned a wide smile to her face. “Hi, Ellie