The Turnaround Treasure Shop by Jennie Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

further into her seat.
    When they reached Main Street, Nick pulled over outside Kookaburra’s and Lily slid out of his ute. ‘Thank you for the lift.’
    â€˜I’ll get to work on the car today.’
    â€˜Honestly, Nick, I’d like to repay you in some way. If there’s anything you think of that I could do for you, I’d like to do it.’
    He looked at her for what felt like a month. ‘Maybe,’ he said in a quiet tone. ‘Maybe.’
    ***
    Lily entered Kookaburra’s and let the early morning atmosphere sink into her skin. The padded armchairs and wooden barstools around polished barrel tables in the bar to her right, the open fire and the still-warm embers from the night before. The pristine starched white tablecloths from the restaurant on her left, and the new-carpet smell of the small reception area and the wide staircase leading up to the top floor rooms in front of her.
    Another morning. Another dollar closer to Turnaround Treasures — maybe.
    She walked towards the kitchen doors and the day ahead.
    What had Nick meant by maybe she could do something to thank him? She’d been considering homemade meals or spring cleaning his house. She’d have walked his dog if he’d had one. She could polish up his furniture, or perhaps decorate a hall stand or some other masculine piece he might like. But the look in his eyes as he’d focussed in on her had suggested he wasn’t thinking about those types of thanks. The darkening of his eyes had been deliberate. ‘Maybe’ she could do something for him.
    Lily pushed through the door to the kitchen, thoughts of various maybes tumbling in her mind like the flickering pages of a picture book. A kissing picture book. A touching, feeling, limbs wrapped around limbs picture book. Pictures she had no right to be seeing in her head.
    So why was she enjoying every turn of a page?
    She dropped her handbag onto a table, shuffled her jacket off her shoulders, frowned and sighed deeply. ‘Too many kissing books.’
    â€˜Too many what?’ Dan asked from behind her.
    Lily spun around with a gasp. She hadn’t realised she’d spoken aloud.
    â€˜Interesting morning so far?’ Charlotte asked.
    Lily laughed. Not just interesting. Invigorating .
    ***
    Having Lily’s car in the workshop changed the atmosphere for Nick. It was like having a piece of Lily in his most private space. The space Nick used to configure and build. The place where his thoughts were usually exact and considering. Today, his thoughts were abstract and confusing. And a lot of them downright foolish.
    He’d nearly died of shock from pleasure when she’d opened the door to him dressed in next to nothing. The sight of her long, lithe, near-naked body had almost snapped him in two. Those sporty shorts clinging to the tops of her legs had him thinking all sorts of scenarios he had no right to think. That crazy connection they’d shared yesterday over the bonnet of her car was playing on repeat. A momentary eye contact had changed the dynamics in his brain.
    Scrambled them, more likely. A second filled with vitality. A moment where he’d thought it might be possible that Lily was attracted to him after all.
    But what would a soft mannered, kind-hearted and utterly beautiful lady like Lily see in him? His body was full of scars, his mind wracked with doubts about himself. He felt he knew the truth about life and how utterly useless the motto ‘United and Undaunted’ seemed to be in what was now his ‘real life’.
    He was an ex-naval officer with a bitter ex-wife and an uncommonly dangerous lifestyle he’d sought but chosen to leave. What did that mean? He wasn’t sure. He hadn’t quite come to terms with civvy life yet and with how hard it could be. He knew enough about himself though and had learned to control the disappointments he held tightly inside him about how life — military or