The Turnaround Treasure Shop by Jennie Jones

perhaps she’d have lunch with him, if he asked.
    â€˜Good idea. Today and tomorrow are my days off.’
    Nick knew that. He practically knew her every move, especially now that he’d been in her company so much during the week. ‘Perfect timing then. It’ll keep you occupied too. In case you start missing the kids.’
    She laughed and Nick found himself saturated with the sound. Happy laughter.
    â€˜That’s very astute, Nick. I will miss them. Although I think I’ve got enough going on to keep myself busy — if not distracted.’ She turned and started sorting herself and the gear she was obviously going to use for the inventory. A notebook, a pen and stickers for indexing.
    Nick unwillingly took his eyes off her and lifted two boxes off a stack of five and put them onto the near-empty desk. ‘Shall we start with these?’
    â€˜We’ll have to get someone in to run the library soon,’ she said, ‘if we keep taking delivery of books like this.’
    â€˜Is there anyone who could do that?’ Lily wasn’t going to put herself forward, was she? She had enough on her hands.
    â€˜Well, it’d be too much to expect Mrs Tam to run it. The petrol station alone is taking up most of her daytime, let alone the library and the museum. The shopkeepers in town are all saying how much better their business is these days.’ She paused. ‘And then they complain about not having enough time to chill out.’ She pulled a wry expression. ‘I think they kind of got used to having slow trade.’
    â€˜What are you going to call your shop?’ he asked, pulling a pocket knife from his belt and slicing through the packing tape on one box, then the other.
    She pulled an open box towards her. ‘The Turnaround Treasure Shop. Second-Chance Love,’ she added, as though talking to herself. ‘Oh, these are good!’ She picked up two books, drawing her brow in concentration. ‘ Self-help for Anyone and Positive Thinking Works Wonders . We can start a new shelf if the box is full of books like this one.’
    Second-chance love . Was there such a thing for the likes of him? Undying attraction to Lily seemed to be giving him licence to think there might be.
    â€˜It’s a bit of an impossible dream,’ she said, a little self-mockery in her tone as she rifled through the box.
    â€˜Why?’ Nick asked.
    She shrugged. ‘Because it’s hard work chasing after all the dreams in life. But I’m chasing this one.’
    â€˜Good for you,’ Nick said, proud of her. He bowed his head to the stack of boxes on the floor. He didn’t really have the right to hold such a bucket load of pride for the Johnson family unit but he appeared to be becoming a little dismayed that they had so much love he wasn’t part of.
    â€˜But I’m a realist. I know that if I do get it it’ll be mostly determination with a little bit of luck.’ She glanced down at her notebook on the desk, then wrote something in it. ‘Nobody gets anywhere without a little bit of luck.’
    Nick couldn’t agree more. ‘Then I wish you luck, Lily.’ If he could give her his share of luck he’d hand it to her on a silver platter.
    â€˜Wait,’ she said suddenly. ‘How did you know about my shop?’
    â€˜Andy told me about it when he was out at my place then Janie-Louise told me a bit more about it this morning. She’s got something for you. Something old you’re apparently going to make shine.’
    Still bent over the desk, she raised her brow, looking for all the world like the most beautiful librarian he’d ever seen. ‘You and my daughter have any more secrets I’m not yet privy to?’
    Damn. Nick grimaced.
    â€˜You do ?’ She straightened.
    â€˜Sort of,’ he admitted. ‘Nothing too major.’ An outright lie, although no harm had been done and Nick had hopefully pressed