Love Makes the Difference (Sully Point Book 1) by Nicole Smith Page A

inch. "I'm
going to start selling them, maybe even in a gallery."
    Louis had bent to unwind the twine and brown wrapping paper
carefully. As he unveiled it, his mouth fell open.
    "Louis, is something wrong?"
    "Wrong? Wrong? Nothing could be wrong, it is
perfection! Glorious! I know the exact frame for it."
    "Now I had my own idea about--"
    "Let me do what I know, Anna. Just wait."
    With some trepidation, she watched him take it to the back
of his shop. While she waited she looked at the pieces in the window,
watercolors of the coast that to her mind were too washed out. Watercolor didn't
have to be the palest of the pale. Her watercolors had some intensity to them.
But then, these in the window were mainly for tourists to buy. Anna knew the
artist, a friend of Holly's, actually, from high school. She knew the woman was
perfectly content to churn out essentially the same three paintings for tourist
dollars. Anna imagined doing that would drive herself nuts.
    "Here it is," Louis said quietly.
    Anna turned and saw the painting. The frame was not quite
what she had pictured but was even better. It set off the light in the
painting. Now it almost looked like it should cost eight thousand dollars.
    "How much?"
    "I hate to charge you--"
    "How much, Lewis?"
    "For you, fifty. To cover materials."
    "Are you sure that's enough?"
    Lewis gave her a wry smile. "I have ulterior motives.
If you sell more, you'll bring them here to be framed? Yes?"
    She laughed. "Yes." She paid him and they wrapped
the painting up well.
    Now to deliver it. She opened up her cell phone to call Sam
and realized she didn't have his number. But she did know where his house was.
Everyone knew where Wally's place stood. Carefully propping the painting in the
back seat, Anna decided to go there. If he was gone, she'd try another time.
She wanted him to have the painting. He needed it in his living room and...and...she
also wanted to see him. That thought almost made her turn the car around, but
she continued on, following the beach road out to his house.
    When she got there, she gave a quick sigh of relief as she
saw his car in the driveway. So far so good. She removed the painting from the
car and walked up the sidewalk to the house. She knocked on the door and after
a few seconds heard someone moving inside.
    Sam opened the door and the look of surprise on his face
almost had Anna laughing. She managed only to smile, but it was funny-looking.
She held up the painting and pointed to him. "This belongs to you. I thought
I'd deliver it in person, to see what it looks like on the wall...that is, if
you don't mind."
    "Mind? No, not at all. Come in, come in." He
opened the door more widely and reached out for the painting.
    Anna handed it to him as she tried not to stare. He was
shirtless, wearing only some beat-up white shorts that really showed off his
tan. The abs she'd noticed before were definitely pronounced without the shirt.
She found herself wanting to reach out and run her fingertips across his chest.
She shook herself and heard him talking.
    "Hmm. It doesn't feel the same. It feels like it's been
framed."
    "I know you may have wanted to do that yourself,
choosing a frame, I mean. But I know the guy who owns the framing shop in town
who has wonderful taste. He chose the perfect frame."
    Sam closed the door and they moved straight ahead, past the
kitchen into the living room. He began to unwrap the painting.
    "Oh, the view here is spectacular," Anna said as
she stood by the window. He'd had the sliding doors partially open and a nice
breeze was coming off the water. There was no need for air conditioning in this
house.
    "Anna." Sam called to her. She turned swiftly. Sam
smiled at her. "The frame really is just right. Thanks for doing that."
    She waved a hand. "Sure, no problem. Where did you want
to hang it?"
    "I think on this wall here so I can see it from the
couch. What do you think about this height?"
    "You know what? Let me hold it up so you can sit on