Free Up All Night Long: From Lust to Love (Romance Anthology) by Ali Parker Page A

walked toward the Honda, Kari stretching as Sicily groaned.
    "Really? When’s the U-Haul due back to the car place? Lisa?"
    Lisa walked toward them, her eyes heavy with sleep. She yawned, covering her mouth and shrugging. "I don't know. I just rented it. I didn't pay attention to the details."
    Kari chuckled. "Good grief. Let's go check out the house first and then we can look at the paperwork on the U-Haul."
    "Sounds good. You're going to love the back porch, the water is just a few feet away." Sicily reached for Kari's hand, pulling her toward the door on the small white wood house. It was a good size and yet not too big. The white picket fence that framed the structure was homey and the flowers and plants were struggling to gain color again from the long hard winter that had plagued the northeast.
    Kari walked to the front door, three small steps leading up to the ornate structure.
    "This is much nicer than I would have thought. How did you guys afford this?" Kari asked, looking back as Lisa and Marc brought up the rear.
    "I'm a real estate agent, you silly girl. I worked a deal with the previous owner of the house." She smiled and shrugged. "He's cute as hell, too."
    Marc growled softly as Lisa reached over and popped his butt. "He's got nothing on you, hotcakes."
    Kari pretended to gag and followed Sicily in once the door was unlocked and opened. She stepped into the open floor plan, the living room, dining room, and kitchen laid out before her. Everything was stark white and windows filled up most of the wall space.
    "Not sure what you guys were hoping to paint. There isn't much wall space." Kari laughed and moved in as Sicily spun around twice like a fairy princess.
    "I know. Don't you love it? On rainy nights when the thunderstorms light up the skies we can sit here and just enjoy the beauty of it." She smiled and reached for Kari again. "Come on. Let me show you the loft bedrooms upstairs and then we'll go see the porch and the water."
    Lisa murmured something about her and Marc going in the backyard, but Kari ignored them, her focus on the simplistic attraction of the floor plan, of the wide open welcome of their new place. She let go of Sicily as her friend raced up the stairs, Kari's fingers dragging past the walls as possibilities for colors and design swept across her vision.
    It had been forever since she'd let herself create, but perhaps now with the freedom to be a new person she would gain access to that part of her soul again. She quickened her pace at the urging of her friend already lost down the hall. Kari moved through the small hall, the floor wooden and quite out of place in the midst of all the white.
    "Come see your room first." Sicily popped out of the small door at the end of the hall and Kari giggled, walking quickly to see her new abode. She slipped in and felt the air leave her lungs. The windows stood from floor to ceiling, half the room a view of the ocean just behind them. She walked to the glass as her eyes filled with tears, overwhelmed by the beauty of it.
    "Unbelievable. This is just breathtaking." Kari stopped and let her fingers touch the glass, the sun setting just beyond the far edge of the water. She looked down to see the dock, her brother holding Lisa in his arms, his forehead pressed her hers just before she moved up and kissed him.
    Kari watched for a moment and turned away, Sicily continuing to stare. "Wow. That's hot."
    Kari laughed and grabbed her friend, pulling her back from the show. "And not for us to see."
    "Think something will become of them?" Sicily asked before walking from the room, taking time to show Kari the other two rooms which held a similar view.
    "I don't know. Relationships where you're in each other's face all the time are hard. I can't imagine having to keep up with something long distance."
    "Do you think if things work out with them that she'll move home or he'll move here?" Sicily asked, turning off the lights and walking with Kari back down the