The Turnaround Treasure Shop by Jennie Jones Page A

at the base of his thumb and curling into the palm of his hand. Lily wanted to ask how he’d got that one.
    â€˜There’s something else,’ he said. ‘Janie-Louise.’
    Lily lifted her eyebrows. ‘Are you giving her a job too?’
    He laughed, his smile wide enough to make Lily smile too.
    â€˜No,’ he said. ‘I doubt there’s anything in my workshop that interests her, but when I dropped her home the other day she was telling me about the ereader she’s saving up for.’
    â€˜She’s got a budgie cage to buy first.’
    Nick looked her way. ‘Did she get the baby budgie?’
    Lily nodded. How come this man, practically a stranger up until yesterday, knew so much about her children?
    She wriggled in her seat, settled the seatbelt more comfortably, holding onto it so it didn’t rub her neck.
    â€˜You okay?’
    â€˜Fine,’ Lily said, and stopped wriggling.
    He pulled the ute to the side of the dirt track and put the handbrake on. ‘Is the seatbelt rubbing?’ He reached across and before Lily had time to wonder at the tantalising aroma of Nick Barton’s shower-fresh skin beneath his thick woollen jumper, he was as close to her as he had been this time last year. When he’d almost kissed her…and the same sensory awareness surrounded her now. Tanned skin and iron strength.
    He adjusted the height of the seatbelt housing at the side of her head, lowering the housing until the belt sat more comfortably against her and didn’t touch her neck.
    â€˜I’m not used to having a lady in the truck,’ he said. ‘Mostly just guys. Is that better?’
    â€˜Yes. Thanks.’ Lily glanced at the moveable seatbelt housing. She’d never had a car that did that.
    She focussed on the view out of the windscreen as he pulled from the verge. Lady ? She’d never had a man under 60 call her a lady.
    â€˜As I was saying — about Janie-Louise and her ereader.’
    â€˜She hasn’t got one yet,’ Lily reminded him.
    â€˜But I have.’ He performed another gear shift with that strong, tanned and scarred hand before resting it on his thigh as he steered one-handed. ‘I won one.’
    â€˜That’s nice.’
    He looked her way again. ‘I don’t want it. I don’t use it.’ He took his focus to the track. ‘So would it be all right with you if I gave it to Janie-Louise? Since she wants one and I have one I don’t use.’
    Lily paused, catching her bottom lip with her teeth as she reflected. This five-minute journey had changed so much in her world. Two semi-strangers chatting about her two kids and their needs and wants. Was it producing a tentative friendship?
    She felt some of it was Nick not only easing their new association along, since he kept insisting on giving her a lift, but also Nick querying something. Trying out and testing the friendship maybe? Or looking for answers to something. What, Lily didn’t know.
    â€˜Well…’ She drew the word out.
    â€˜It’s nothing more than a gesture. But if you don’t want me giving your daughter a second-hand ereader, that’s fine. I won’t do it.’
    She’d already given Janie-Louise the money to pay Ethan for the second-hand bird cage, telling her daughter that she’d be doing additional chores, but delighted by the look of joy on Janie-Louise’s face.
    Second-hand . The words bounced in Lily’s head. Was she beginning to stigmatise the very concept she cherished simply because someone was suddenly offering so much?
    â€˜You don’t read?’ she asked.
    â€˜Not on an ereader. I use my laptop if I need to download ebooks.’
    So why would Lily not allow Nick to give her daughter his second-hand goods? ‘You won it?’ she asked, wondering if it was possible for him to have purchased one since he’d learned that Janie-Louise wanted one, and if he would have done